By: John W. Patterson
art definitely plays his heart out on this release. He has obviously talented musicians to jam with.
His fretwork technique is solid, fun, fuzzed and/or pristine to suit the mood. He's fast, melodic,
peppy and mellow if need be. There's plenty to groove to but . . . this isn't the hard-edged
Hendersonic fusion I was awaiting. This is smooth jazz, (with some fuzzed overdrive and sporadic
speed riffs), but, "Oops!", there's ample evidence of "fuzak" here too. This is great music for those
Kenny G/ D. Sanborn/ Metheny/ Scofield/ Richard Smith Unit/ Mitch Watkins jazz adherents but if
you want rippin' fusion do look elsewhere.
In places I heard flashes of Gambale, "Ernie's Over", and lots of Richard Smith voicings. Hart's
soloing reminded me of Tommy Bolin's fusion modes on "First Impressions" but that jazz standards
breakdown, groove lost my interest here as well as in other cuts. I guess I've heard way too much
"cruise boat", Caribbean-slick jazz in my day. You see, it's this -- Hart plays excellent guitar,
polished jazz but the soulfire seems low-key, buried in doing everything acceptably jazz-correct and
"safe". Inner Voice is mostly bereft of that intangible quality called soul energetics, soul-
fire, and laying-all-the-cards abandon. Catch my drift? Cool yet cold. In spite of my clear
subjectiveness here, I recommend folks try Hart out anyway! Especially sample "Running Out of
Words", the outro on "The Green Pedal" w/Hart and Dennis Chambers rippin' it up in good olde
'70s fusion, (Larry Coryellian/11th House), style and lastly, check out "Instrumentality".
I hate to slam Hart's effort here in any way because he is one great person doing incredibly fine
things with his talent after many, many struggles through grief and pain to finally release this CD.
Still, I believe artists want true reviews versus "fluff jobs". So do it again, Stuart! You can play the
heck outta that PRS dude. Kick out the jams next time and lose all that lounge-jazz restraint.
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