Lenny White - Venusian Summer (1975)

The debut solo album from White, who was the drummer for fusion group Return To Forever and had played with Miles on Bitches Brew. To be honest, I'm more familiar with later work with his R&B group Twennynine, so I bought this CD hoping for a taste of the jazzy-disco-funk subgenre of the mid-'70s. That's not what we've got here; this is more along the lines of the "new visions in sound" promised in the advertisement below. But once I geared my ear for sci-fi fusion instead of disco, I found a few cuts to enjoy here. After all, just look at this supporting cast:

So the musicianship is top-shelf, but not all the writing meets the musicians at their level, sadly. The best I can explain is that the music sounds much like the cover art looks (that cover art would also be a fantastic addition to the sides of a Chevy shaggin' wagon). There's also a few tracks that sound like Tangerine Dream recorded a soundtrack for the Star Trek TV series - track 3 here is The Venusian Summer Suite which is "dedicated to the crew of the Starship Enterprise" while the 12 minute album closer, Prince Of The Sea, bills itself as "the story of the young Prince becoming Neptune" and features a guitar duel between Coryell and DiMeola.Allmusic calls the album a "a must-have fusion recording" but reviews back in '75 were mixed.

Press of the time:

• Stereo Review: "everybody deliberately going cacophonous once in a while."
• Billboard: "jazz-rock and journeys into electronics"
• Record World: "alternately funky, impressionistic, and Mahavishnu-like jazz-rock"
• CashBox: "food for musical thought"

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200: #177
• Billboard Jazz: #25

Tracks: My top pick is the funky Chicken-Fried Steak, followed by Away Go Troubles Down The Drain and the rocker Mating Drive.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None