Bob Malach - Some People (1980) {MPS}

Malach and French violin star Didier Lockwood were also well-acquainted – Malach would appear on Lockwood’s MPS album “Live in Montreux” later that year. Dutch guitarist Eef Albers had already toured the states with Lee and Brown. The title piece shows that Some People are romantic, some are more on the funky side, as the band slides back and forth between the two. Guitar great John Scofield’s Who’s Who is a funky fusion fest with van’t Hof and Malach showing why they’re at the top of the list. The alluring ballad Three on a Cloud features atmospheric solos by violinist Lockwood and Malach in trio with guitarist Albers. The rock-march feel of Night Walk works as the perfect vehicle for Albers’ strolling guitar solo. Zbiggytism was written in honor of violin great Zbigniew Siefert, and both Malach and Lockwood catch the spirit of the Polish maestro. Van’t Hof’s lyrical Pineu has a nostalgic air to it, as well as Malach’s appropriately poignant solo. By the Way rocks the album out with a Shaft-like rhythm line and a smoking-hot tenor. Nothing ‘out’ or experimental here – just straight-ahead jazz fusion at its best.

One of the great fusion saxophonists, Bob Malach made the move from his hometown of Philadelphia to NYC in 1976. He soon found work with the likes of Stanley Clarke and Alphonse Mouzon (he’s featured on Mouzon’s MPS release Baby Come Back), and was in the studio with Stevie Wonder, Spyro Gyra and the Brecker Brothers. For the first album under his own name, Malach assembled a group of well-known playmates: John Lee and drummer Gerry Brown were high school buddies, and he and keyboardist Jasper van’t Hof had worked together in Mouzon’s group.