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Moraz Alban Project MAP Review by Gary Hill Patrick Moraz is probably best known for his stints as the keyboard player for Yes and The Moody Blues. The thing is, he’s done a lot of other music over the years. The “Alban” in the name refers to drummer Greg Alban. Although the project is fundamentally theirs, there are some other musicians on hand here. The music is jazzy and fusion like. I think it’s close enough to prog to land it under that heading based on the sound, but given Moraz’ musical heritage, it would get put there either way. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2015 Volume 5 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

Jungle Aliens The rhythm section lays down a tribal, jazzy groove. Keyboards come over the top to bring melody and drama. This feels like an electronic Spyro Gyra in a lot of ways to me. It has some killer keyboard soloing.

Strictly Organic In the same vein, this cut is a lot of fun. The rhythm section gets pretty funky at times. It’s another entertaining jam.

Canyon Afternoon The saxophone brings a lot to the proceedings here. This is another great jazz number. It’s a bit more powerful in terms of the musical passages, but perhaps a bit lower in energy.

Jazz in the Night I love the tone of the keyboards as this starts, sort of a cross between jazz and classical. It moves out into one of the meaner, fusion sounding jams on the disc. This one definitely qualifies as progressive rock in a lot of ways.

The Drums Also Solo Here is another smoking hot fusion cut. This one is high energy and does include (appropriately) some drum soloing. It gets rather spacey at times during that drum soloing, too.

The Real Feel There is a bit of old school, soulful jazz vibe here. It’s another strong tune. I like the piano on the piece and the whole thing is just crazy cool. This is a bit mellower than some of the rest. It’s another that makes me think of Spyro Gyra a bit.

Alien Intelligence Here we get another red hot fusion jam. It’s another satisfying one.

Mumbai-Mantra There’s no huge change here. When the fusion is this strong, that’s fine with me. I really love some of the percussion work on this. It stands out nicely.

Alien Species A much mellower piece, the electronic sounds are more atmospheric. This is quite pretty. There are percussion emphasis marks all over this, though. It turns into some serious space sounds near the end.

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