Evolution

AMAZON
When established jazz artists gravitate towards commercial pop-informed albums, as Stefon Harris has on Evolution, they hold it on faith that their fans (and critics) will follow at their heel. Still, even taking into account the need to reach a broader audience at a time when instrumental jazz has fallen out of favour, Evolution seems like a step backward. As contemporary jazz goes, this album is a cut above. Harris has a great ear for melody, a gift for intoxicating, offbeat arrangements, and a knack for sublimating influences ranging from funk to fusion. (He is abetted in the latter style by Marc Cary, who often sounds like Return to Forever-era Chick Corea on electric piano.) But even if some of the performances get under your skin with repeated listening--a cover of Sting's ballad "Until" casts a sneaky spell--too much of the album is bland and predictable. While it's nice to hear Harris return from the rarified heights of his Grand Unification Theory suite and play with a working band again, he's capable of more evolutionary sounds than these. --Lloyd Sachs

Number of Discs: 1

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