Nils Landgren Funk Unit with Ray Parker Jr: Unbreakable

Rating: ★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Ray Parker Jr. (g, v)
Petter Bergander (ky)
Tim Hagans (t)
Nils Landgren (tr, voc)
Randy Brecker (t, flug)
Magnum Coltrane Price (ky, b, v)
Andy Pfeiler (g, v)
Jonas Wall (s)
Robert Ikiz (d)

Label:

ACT

August/2017

Catalogue Number:

9039-2

RecordDate:

14-17 November 2016

If it ain't broke, don't fix it: Landgren's been mining the funk lode for, what, 25 years, so no surprise he and Siggi Loch's ACT label see the format as Unbreakable. Along the way, Landgren's built a number of key relationships on the American scene, not least with Ray Parker Jr. who turns up here with some tight and tasty guitar lines. Chuck in another old mucker in Randy Brecker and Unbreakable cooks up all the ingredients of a well-tried formula. Which makes it either consistently good fun or tiresomely predictable. But Unbreakable is never less than danceable, and always done in the best possible taste, especially as Landgren has a keen ear for a cover, such as Allen Toussaint's groover ‘Just A Kiss Away’, featuring crunchy Rhodes and swelling brass. Unbreakable perhaps, but equally unremarkable.

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