Trumpet-player extrordinaire and all round funkster, Jeff Tyzik, is no unknown quantity to visitors to this website I should imagine. For me, this album is my star pick and all because of the vocal songs featuring the likes of Maurice Starr, Phil Ballou and Gavin Christopher. An impressive line up and this translates into an impressive set of songs. The instrumentals aren't bad either though a wee bit dated in places – the “Hip Hop” cut for starters but hey, that was the time. Bet he would bother writing about such things today! LOL. Anyway, I digress. I really love the following cuts and hope you do too. The set is more programmed that his earlier works, I know, but the flavour is still strong and the groove undiminished. Jeff is a quality artists and, to be honest, you are pretty much safe picking up anything he has recorded. “Sweet Surrender” has a great mid-80s Tom Browne feel – think “My Secret Fantasy” - and Maurice Starr not only sings on this cut but also produces it. The trumpet on here sounds great and is more than enough to enhance the soulful if synthetic groove. A more traditional – organic – cut if you will is the jazzy Al Jarreau-like “Prized Posession” which features the superb Phil Ballou; a much in-demand session singer to this day. The strings, flugel horn and sax really shoot this song into the stratosphere and I bet you will be won over from the very start. Again Phil Ballou meets the strings and sax on the AWESOME ballad “I'm In Love Again”. This is such a quality track and would not be out of place on a quality Hush productions set from 1987 or 1988. Sheer quality. Quality is something we can easily associate with Gavin Christopher. The Al Mckay type scratchy guitar and racing rhythm is an accommodating vehicle for both vocalist Christopher and Tyzik's horn arrangement.
Barry Towler
The Vibe Scribe
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