Drummer
Lenny White doesn't explore much new territory on
Renderers Of Spirit, which contains nothing that will make you forget that he played drums on the legendary
Bitches Brew sessions for
Miles Davis, or that, along with
Stanley Clarke,
Chick Corea and
Al DiMeola, he helped define 1970s jazz-fusion as
Return to Forever.
But even though the compositions here survey what amounts to the by-now familiar R&B meets jazz domain,
White and company make the journey enough of a comfortably swinging stroll to make it worth the trip.
White's sound and plump backbeat on drums in "Ho-Cake" sound straight outta hip-hop (that is, before they dissolve in a limpid pool of what's now called "smooth jazz"), and bassist
Victor Bailey bounces off the walls in his own title, "Pick Pocket."
Renderers includes contributions from fellow
Miles alumni
Foley and
Bennie Maupin,
Stanley Clarke,
George Duke, and
Michael Brecker (In fact, "Countdown 2000" would not sound out of place on
Davis' album Tutu). It closes with a challenging jazz-funk mind-meld of
Jackie McLean's "Dr. Jackyle" wih Sly Stone's "Africa Talks To You," and also includes covers (with vocals) of
Burt Bacharach's "Walk On By" (which nominally works) and of
Christopher Cross' "Sailing" (which absolutely does not). ~ Chris Slawecki