After being dismissed by some as a mere "chops meister," former Chick Corea Elektric Band drummer Dave Weckl purposely sought to reinvent himself as a groove player on his previous solo outing, Rhythm of the Soul, which also marked the debut of his own band. While the group toured, soundcheck jams evolved into tunes, and the resulting music on Synergy provides the most balanced document yet of weckl's drumming and his strongest musical statement.
Tracks such as "Panda's Dream," which features some of the fattest backbeats Weckl has ever played, and the New Orleans-inspired "Swamp Thing" are strong on pure groove. But tunes such as the African-influenced "High Life," the salsa/funk-informed "Synergy," and the solo drum/percussion tour de force "Cultural Concurrence" bear all the syncopated complexity of Weckl's original fame. He also displays a subdued, sensitive side with brushes and coloristic cymbals on the ballads "A Simple Prayer" and "Where's My Paradise?" A particularly definitive track is "Tower '99," a rewrite of "Tower of Inspiration" from Weckl's first solo album, Master Plan. It has all the technical mastery of the original but a deeper groove and a lot of soul.
On Weckl's four previous solo albums, he and Jay Oliver keyboardist composed just about everything. But on Synergy, the songwriting credits are shared among Weckl, Oliver, guitarist Buzz Feiten (a major asset to this band), saxophonist Brandon Fields, and bassist Tom Kennedy. The result is Weckl's broadest level of self-expression.--- Rick Mattingly, JAZZIZ Magazine Copyright © 2000, Milor Entertainment, Inc.
