Chuck Loeb – Unspoken
Guitarist Chuck Loeb earned merits as jazz guitarist in groups such as Metro, Steps Ahead or Stan Getz’s band. Really popular however became Chuck by his solo albums as prolific smooth jazz guitarist and as member of the supergroups Fourplay and Jazz Funk Soul.
His new album Unspoken (2016) is the reflection about his recent illness and the intensified and renewed enthusiasm for his first love, music. This passion is shared by bassists Ron Jenkins, Will Lee, Nathan East and Thomas Kennedy, drummers Gary Novak, Brian Dunne, and Joel Rosenblatt, keyboardists Jeff Lorber, Brian Culbertson, Pat Bianchi, and Mitchel Forman, guitarist Michael Thompson, saxophonists Eric Marienthal, Everette Harp, Andy Snitzer, David Mann who also did most of the horn arrangements, trumpet players Till Brönner and Tony Kadleck and Mike Davis on trombone. Carmen Cuesta sings a song written by Lizzy Loeb (Lizzy Cuesta) and Christina Loeb and Chuck co-wrote a song that she plays ukulele on.
The starting tune is dedicated to Chuck’s favorite jazz place to play, the Cotton Club in Tokyo. He composed the tune together with Jeff Lorber keeping it in the spirit of Weather Report’s Birdland. Don’t stay looking for something new, when the old is tried and tested offering a timeless radiant artistry.
Saxophonist Eric Marienthal and guitarist Chuck Loeb are both veteran musicians of the smooth jazz and contemporary jazz world. Who should do the extra work to count their albums, will have a Sisyphean task. Both have performed or written on more than 50 singles in the top ten smooth jazz charts.
It’s an all-star cast, although it falls under the heading of two leaders: Jeff Lorber and Chuck Loeb. Bop (2015) is the junction of vintage jazz, a popular festival and charity.
Guitarist Chuck Loeb is well known as jazz guitarist in groups such as Metro, Steps Ahead or Stan Getz’s band. But he became popular by his solo albums as smooth jazz guitarist. His participation in the group Fourplay is a fruit of this popularity.
After 20 years of Fourplay, maybe they felt we should move on…”, says Chuck Loeb in a jocular manner later that night, employing the pun on words in the band’s name when introducing one of the songs he contributed to Fourplay’s 12th album “Let’s Touch the Sky”. While the cover art suggests that very endeavor with the band member’s hands reaching up, nearly two hours of stellar live music performances left no doubt among avid music lovers who had flocked to Bayerischer Hof Night Club on this November, 8th 2011 night that Smooth Jazz’s famous supergroup are doing exactly that: They’re not only touching the sky, but weaving a musical skyscape with arrangements and solos that exude virtuosity, verve and vitality in equal parts.
Known largely for his contributions to the format known as smooth jazz, guitarist Chuck Loeb ventures outside the norm with Plain ‘n’ Simple (Tweety Records, 2011), a cool set of mostly original music, performed by the trio of Loeb, drummer Harvey Mason and organist Pat Bianchi.
Smooth Jazz Daily 