The Adventures of Astral Pirates

Lenny White, Lenny White Project | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 17, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Wounded Bird Records
• ASIN: B00006JNG3
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,947 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sci-fi progressive/jazz/funk/fusion? Works for me..., January 16, 2007

By 

Squire Jaco (Buffalo, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Adventures of Astral Pirates (Audio CD)

You can say that the theme of this album is corny and dated, or that the song "Universal Love" is out-of-place and cheesy here, or that funk and progressive don't mix. But this is a very enjoyable, well-played, well-composed album despite the hurdles it faced. Lenny White plays excellent drums (and some synthesizers) all over this album, along with Don Blackman (vocals, keyboards), Alex Blake (bass), and Nick Moroch and Jeff Sigman (guitars). This is mostly progressive rock/jazz fusion (a la "Romantic Warrior"), with some funk thrown in on the side. Despite the less-than-desirable production sound, I still find this to be a very exciting, interesting and unique cd from a talented drummer and songwriter. If you're a fan of Romantic Warrior-era Return To Forever, this cd is essential.

I value interesting music that is played and recorded well. This cd's rating was based on:

Music quality = 8.3/10; Performance = 9/10; Production = 7/10; CD length = 8/10.

Overall score weighted on my proprietary scale = 8.2 ("4 stars")

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Better than nothing, March 6, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Adventures of Astral Pirates (Audio CD)

This is a terrible reproduction. The sound quality is awful. The CD I made from the capture of my scratchy old vinyl is better than this. Sound is muddy. Mid-range is totally missing and the high end is not far behind. If all you want is drums (and I mean drums, because the cymbols don't show up for much) then this is it.

Too bad, because this is a great album. Deserves better treatment than this. A remaster would be good.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece, February 18, 2001

By 

Tall Paul (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adventures of the Astral Pirates (Audio CD)

One of Lenny's greatest albums especially for drumming. The chops were imitated by countless drummers. Assault is probably his greatest solo ever put on wax. Great contributions from Donald Blackmon, his Universal Love is unbelievable. Lenny carried the tradition of Tony Williams by doing fusion his way and not by imitating others. Lenny's next album Streamline is even better which was also released in 1978 which emphasized great songwriting and great drumming. Lenny will always be respected as one the greatest drummers ever.

**Update** This review was based upon the vinyl version. I recently got the CD version and it seems like the vinyl sounds a whole lot better. This is probably due to the aging of the masters. In the tune Universal Love the song fades in from the beginning on the vinyl for dynamic impact but on the CD its gone. Looks like they just compressed the whole album during digital transfer which makes the CD sound kinda muffled.
But on the CD version you can hear the background noises a little clearer than the vinyl (especially on Heavy Metal Monster). So if you never bought this album I would try and find the vinyl first for the dynamics and emotional impact.

~Paul M~