Jeff Berlin
Crossroads
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Fusion
Award winning bass player Jeff Berlin writes in the liner notes about Crossroads, "Back in the '70s, fusion was hot. I had the good fortune to be in the middle of this era when it was at its peak, and I also had the great honor of playing with its most famous alumni. By recording and touring with these highly respected players, my reputation as a bass player spread and ultimately led to his being signed as a solo artist. "Champion" and "Pump It!" were the first two results of that signing; this CD includes most of the tunes from those records. Scott Henderson, Neal Schon, Frank Gambale and Paul Gilbert each contributed stunning guitar work, "Champion" being Henderson's first recording session, and "Pump It!" being Gambale's first session as well. All in all, these tunes capture the attitude and feeling I had about music over ten years ago. There's some really exciting historical and musical elements going on here." Instrumental Guitar, total running time, 73:46
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In Review |
'Inertia'
Review Featured In Inside Out Music America
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| Progressive/Rock | |
onstantly striving for the ultimate in frontier music magic, Derek Sherinian just seems to explode and unfold rapidly and efficiently with new collaborations, innovations, and daredevil feats of keyboard artistry. But all his past efforts have been band situations, whether that be providing a technological edge to acts like Alice Cooper or Kiss, or his work with Dream Theater at the height of their fame, or slamming along with equally formidable players in platforms like Platypus and Planet X.
That all changes with Inertia, a sonically sensual solo album supported by the cream of the progressive rock crop, a record which which Derek calls "a landmark album in my career, given the material and the players I`ve surrounded myself with, definitely my best recorded work."
The cast of characters is indeed eye-popping, Simon Phillips (veteran of dozens of sessions including The Who, Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger and Judas Priest), Zakk Wylde (Ozzy, Black Label Society), Jerry Goodman (Mahavishnu Orchestra, Dixie Dregs), Jimmy Johnson (Allan Holdsworth), Tom Kennedy (Al Dimeola), Tony Franklin (The Firm, Blue Murder), and Steve Lukather ("Toto, but in terms of his sessions, he`s probably the most recorded guitarist alive"), all entering and exiting the spotlight under the adept and confident stage management of this consummate, forward-thinking keyboard giant.
One could look at Inertia, however, as a shootout between Sherinian and drum legend Simon Phillips, both featured prominently, both bringing a level of technological acumen to the proceedings that is rare amongst players that are typecast as masters of their instruments. "Simon is very important on this album," notes Derek. "Not only did he co-produce it with me but he co-wrote five songs and he was engineer as well. So he was very immersed in Inertia, and his drumming is just incredible. Simon made a comment that this performance is one of the better ones he`s ever recorded. He stretched out a little bit. A lot of the progressive tunes on here are a lot different than what he`s played in the past, and it`s forced him to do new things, and I think that`s really cool. And I think a lot of his fans - a lot of the fans of all of the players involved - will find this album very refreshing because they`re going to hear these people in a little bit of a different format."
And that format is rock, no mistaking that, extremely electric at all times, often (mostly with the unleashing of Zakk), verging on heavy metal. " Zakk is just amazing. He`s just one of those guys, you hear him and you immediately know who it is; it`s just ferocious playing." At the hard extreme, Derek and Zakk bring us `Evel Knievel`, a thrilling rock ride that, like the man it`s named for, is sure to end in a pile of broken bones. "That was a song I wrote totally with Zakk in mind," explains Derek. "A major Ozzy Osbourne influence there. That`s the only song I wrote all by myself. It`s just pure aggression, pure balls. Evel Knievel was a hero when I was a kid. He was huge, just bitchin`, and that song, for some reason reminds me of him."
Possessing the same gut-churning grind is Sherinian`s cover of Edgar Winter`s `Frankenstein`, Derek matching Zakk note for visceral, abrasive note with his coterie of keyboard tones. "The key is a lot lower than the original. We down-tuned it to a low D, as opposed to a G. It`s just a lot heavier, this version. I just play it in my style; I didn`t stray too far on it, but the solo section, we kind of did our own way."
But before all that happens, one is confronted with `Inertia`, the title track to the album, a resplendent display of angular, melodically complex chops from all corners of the room (The Leopard Room that is, Derek`s high-end home studio up in the Hollywood Hills). "That`s the first song Simon and I wrote together and it`s changed pretty dramatically from the original. A lot of different sections have been imported in. To me that song has a very Jeff Beck-ish melody on the verses, but the groove is a lot more hardcore jazz fusion. And when it goes to the chorus, it has a very UK influence in terms of keyboards. The keyboard solo, when I listen to that I get a strong Holdsworth-ian vibe, which is something I`ve always dabbled with, although for some reason on this album it`s a lot more apparent."
"`La Pera Loca`, I wanted that to have a heavy be-bop influence on the intro and then have it get really heavy. That song really covers a lot of ground, from very light and floaty to extremely heavy." `La Pera Loca` incidentally means The Mad Dog and indeed, the track stomps and stares alternately, piling on the jaw-dropping wizardry at ever twist and turn, Steve Lukather prominent and astonishingly jazzcore on the track. Derek on Steve Lukather: "Luke works incredibly fast. He`ll come in and cut two songs a day. He pretty much attacks the work."
Elsewhere, there`s a gorgeous and reverent reading of a classic Mingus composition. "`Goodbye Porkpie Hat` was on a Jeff Beck album, Wired, which I loved as a kid. That`s a song I always wanted to cover, so I finally did it. If anything it`s most similar to the Beck version, although the solo section is different, where you`ve got me and Lukather switching off." Conversely, `Mata Hari` sports a sinewy Tony Franklin bass line on a track Derek likens to Seal, and `Astroglide` becomes a sublime Jerry Goodman vehicle, Derek again dovetailing his innovative tone with the slashing and slicing electric violin work of Goodman, the two dueting on the lone track without guitar, over a signature Phillips percussion vibe, reminiscent but way beyond Pete Townshend`s `Give Blood`.
Ultimately, Inertia`s sustaining lifeblood is in its versatility, although quiet and uproarious moments alike are attacked with a joie de vivre which one senses is embedded in the L.A. mentality of the album`s collaborators and indeed, the setting of its assemblage, a pair of formidably wired home studios in sunny California. "Producing, I mean, basically it`s my record so I`m going to have the final say over everything," notes Derek on the recording process. "But I have such high respect for Simon because he`s made so many records that I deferred to him on a lot of things and wanted to get his input. So the process went like this. Once everything was recorded, Simon would mix as close as he thought it should be, and then I would come in and listen to the mix and make all the alterations and changes and he would whack it out again and we would burn the CD. The beautiful thing about this record is that everything was done in my studio, The Leopard Room, and Simon`s studio. And because we both have the same Pro-Tools system, we`re able to just take our hard drives back and forth to each other`s house. So we had the luxury of really fine-tuning this record to our satisfaction."
Later up the record, Zakk Wylde returns for `What A Shame`, a masterful display of critical mass, the track growing from a delicate whisper to epic, planet-destroying proportions. "That`s a song that my friend Al Pitrelli, who is now in Megadeth, and I wrote together about seven or eight years ago. I always thought it was a very beautiful song but I never did anything with it. It`s the one track on the album that has Zakk and Lukather together. Luke opens it up with the verse melody, the main melody, but Zakk is playing acoustic guitar and when it goes into the chorus it turns into the Zakk show. It gets really heavy,"
The album closes with `Rhapsody In Black` (Or does it? Check out the hidden bit of psyche-core paranoia at the end of the show). "`Rhapsody In Black` is a piece that Virgil (Donati, Planet X drummer extraordinaire) brought in to me, and I loved it immediately and added some melodies. It`s a perfect album closer. It`s probably the most progressive song on the record and the track most reminiscent of Planet X, obviously because of the Virgil component. But I felt it was important to have that song on the record, because bookended with the first song, `Inertia`, it ties things up really well."
Derek offers this closing comment, a final word from a man, who as is expected, possessed a very clear plan when approaching this exclamation point to what has been and continues to be, a distinguished career and catalogue. "Overall, there are some similarities to Planet X in the progressive nature of the album, but it`s a departure from the stuff I`ve been doing over the last few years. There`s a lot more tapping into my rock roots. I think working with Simon, Luke and Zakk, they have such strong personalities on their instruments, they forced me to project in a larger way than I`ve ever had to do before. The reason that I chose all the different players that I did is that each of them has a very distinct sound. You can identify them immediately when you hear them and that`s exactly what I`m striving for in my own playing, to have that same kind of command of my instrument."
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Blood Of The Snake
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Sphere Of Influence
A Union Of Opposites
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Gino Foti
Orbis Terrarum
Fusing Diverse Musical Elements
World/Fusion
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Gino Foti
Bhavachakra
Packed With Rich Symbolism
World/Fusion
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