Customer Reviews

It's a Fact

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Recorded at the beginning of the 80s, this is the perfect example of what fusion (jazz-soul-funk) music was, before being relabeled and remarketed under "smooth jazz". Jeff Lorber is to me one of the finest musicians and composers in this type of music, and this is one of his finest albums.

Incentives to get this cd ?
Well the line-up is impressive : Jeff on keys, of course, but also Nathan East (bass), John Robinson (drums), Paulinho DaCosta (percussion), Tom Browne (Trumpet), Pat Kelly (guitar on one track), and yes, Kenny Gorelick, before he became that pasty sticky jelly thing. And, the voice of Greg Walker (Santana's voice on albums such as "Inner secrets").
Also, the sound is impeccable; some remasters only have the name in it. This is really sharp sounding ! Granted, it's only 9 tracks and 37 minutes short, but that is just how vinyl records were. And at no time do we have that overproduced result that is unfortunately common in today's smooth jazz. The players play on target, the tracks have enough subtleties but are catchy at the same time, and it sounds dynamic enough for a studio session. You can repeat the cd several times without getting tired.

My personal choices are tracks 2, 4 (with the voice of Greg Walker) and 7. Also, don't miss the cover version of "Always there", originally from Ronnie Laws. Very Funky !

This is a must have in your collection if you are a fan of the quality music done up to the mid eighties or if you want to have an idea of what this genre was before everyone rushed into it and it became a "middle of the road" decaffeinated thing. You'll probably like it if you liked the sound of Benson, Jarreau, Deniece Williams from that same period. Enjoy it !

I was lucky enough to get to see the 'It's a Fact' tour at a small club in San Diego in 1982. The material, coupled with selections from earlier Lorber albums let me know just how special this group of musicians were. A world of talent came together on It's a Fact and Lorber's arranging abilities busted out, especially on the rockin' cover of Ronnie Laws' Always There. I still get occasional chills when I hear the duet solo on 'Tierra Verde' with a young Kenny (G)orelic on sax and Lorber's sax-tuned synth. First rate stuff, cover to cover.

Sadly Jeff Lorber is a quirky rare groove keyboardist and synth-wiz who is largly dismissed and/or disliked for two
reasons;because he unwittingly wrought the havock of both
smooth jazz AND Kenny G on the world.Luckily "It's A Fact" came
before both of those happened.Synthesized rare groove's such as
the funky "Full Moon","Always There" and even the lighter title
song and "Above The Clouds".Even "The Magician" and "Delvans"
find him in a comfy Spyro Gyro fusion mode.He's also the only guy I know who uses the Prophet 10 AND OB-X synthesizers at the
samw time (note:to those who don't know those keyboards sound
pretty much the same) but the percussion is how and I rate this
squarly in Patrice Rushen/Rod Temperton territroy!

Suddenly emmerging as a solo performer after his final album as The Jeff Lorber Fusion called Galaxian this 1982 release found Lorber in simiarly furtile musical territory. The more you listen to the music Jeff Lorber made in the late 70's/early 80's the more it becomes clear how close early 80'surban pop/funk and urban jazz-pop. True those genres basically emanated from the same musical source but they share a lot of things in common. In the case of Jeff Lorber himself it all worked in his favor as he was able to create music that was gentle,commerical,hard grooving and even creatively improvisational all at the same time. The only other emmediate musician who seems to have the same abilities consistantly would be someone such as Joe Sample.

This particular album has more vocals on it than the Jeff Lorber related albums,not to mention that presense of the worlds then most popular and utilized session musicians such as Nathan East,John Robinson,Paulinho DaCosta-all of whom had done work with everyone from Michael Jackson to Toto around the same time and,despite Lorber at that time being actually somewhat lower on the pecking order in terms of popularity among the fusion/rare groove players at the time these people knew exactly how to deal with Jeff Lorber's unique way with twisting melodies with his sweetly funky playing on a variety of different keyboards-everything from plain jane fender rhodes piano to more unique sounding synthesizers such as the OBX and Prophet.

That mixture of organic sound and electronic futurism shows itself most often when the tempo on the music goes up.On vocal numbers such as "Full Moon",one of the stronger tunes here honestly along with instrumental material such as "Warm Springs","The Magician" and a modernized cover of Ronnie Laws almost over covered "Always There" you'll hear a basic genuine band sound ("real instruments" as some people might say) with electric guitars,live drums and electric bass and out of nowhere Lorber will fly out of the clean sophistifunk/jazz arrangement into a wild and spacy synthesizer solos and this became part of his trademark. This also came to fruitation on the rather bluesy oriented,but still in keeping with it's basic urban jazz ethic "Delvans" as well as the midtempo grooves "Above The Clouds" and "Tierra Verde". There are also two urban contempory ballads in the title song and "Your Love Has Got Me"-pretty strong tunes actually when you really listen to them.

Overall your not going to find too much that qualifies as unexpected on this album outside Lorber's soloing. The rhythm section is so well oiled the music on there behalf flows sometimes all too easily to be genuinely funky outside of the sound of it. It is in fact Jeff Lorber himself who steals the show with his distinctive and often flamboyant keyboard style and even within that his way of blending standard electric pianos and newer electronic synthesizers. It's an excellent early 80's urban pop/funk album that is both grooving,relaxing and musically valuable all at the same time. Interestingly enough Lorber would only record three more albums before retiring from music for nearly a decade and than reemmerging with a different and (to a degree) more generic and less distinctive sound. All the same this album represents what is likely the concluding part of his early musical styling as his next few albums would continue on in a far more electronic direction.

Loved this LP when it came out in 1981....'Full Moon Rising' with former Santana vocalist Greg Walker will get you moving! Funky stuff!

For better or for worse, "It's A Fact" began the Smooth Jazz era. It also jump started the carreer of Kenny G. ...(for better or worse)..but the Jeff Lorber Fusion group is far and away better than Kenny-G alone. I wouldnt say this is a great album but it is very very good with ground breaking compositions for its time. All the material is highly listenable by a very wide audience, unlike straight ahead jazz which is mainly followed by afficianados. It's unfortunate that much of today's "Smooth Jazz" has deteriorated to watered-down instrumental R&B junk. "It's A Fact" and Jeff Lorber Fusion is much better than that. This is a hard album to find and I highly recommend it.

I have been a fan of Jeff Lorber for many years. He has done so much throughout his career to shape the sound of contemporary jazz yet he is virtually unknown to most. It's about time this CD came out!!! It's expensive, but does feature some great tracks by Jeff. The title track and Delevans are my personal favorites. Buy it if you can afford it!

I bought this in vinyl and have been searching for it for over a decade in CD format, I almost fell out when I saw it was being offered in CD format. It has the cuts Full Moon Rising and It's a Fact, two incredibly awesome cuts. Lorber out did himself w/ this one, it's about time that it was available on CD!!