 While it’s doubtful that Lao Tizer—still considered an up and comer in smooth jazz circles, despite a busy gig schedule and six years since his debut album Golden Soul—will be headlining a cruise anytime soon, he’s a brilliant keyboardist and composer whose blend of heavy grooves, jazz improvisations and extreme sense of melody puts him in the same league with the more famous Brian Culbertson.
Championed since the late 90s by famed guitarist Chieli Minucci from the contemporary jazz supergroup Special EFX, Tizer made his breakthrough in the genre playing grand piano on Minucci’s hit “Awakening” from the album Masterpiece. Minucci’s been a great mentor and contributor to Tizer’s music since then, producing Golden Soul and adding his exciting guitar work to two key tracks on Diversify—the lighthearted, easygoing and slightly tropical “Flow” and the gentle, unabashedly romantic “A Hui Hou (Till We Meet Again). It’s interesting that Minucci is such a monster on electric guitar yet leaves the heavy electric work to album producer Jeff Kollman on the big money funk tunes like the explosive opener “A Night In The City” and the blues meets old school soul first single “Uptown,” both of which match Tizer perfectly with tenor saxman Andy Suzuki.
The gospel tinged, slow burning title track offers us Tizer’s deeper soul sensibilities for the first time; it’s enhanced by exotic vocalese of tenorman Steve Nieves and the wild violin soloing of Karen Briggs; as the title indicates, it’s just a little bit of everything. Tizer enjoys balancing his feisty jamming with eloquent reflections like the lyrical “Olivas Adobe,”“Improvisation” and “Autumn Sky,” but the minute we’re chilling out, he gets right back in our face and turns on the cool funk again with midtempo songs like “Summer Days” and the quick rolling jazz fusion styled “Up A Notch.” He breaks smooth jazz protocol by extending the anthemic, highly electric “Namaste” out to close to eight minutes, then plays it soft and sweet on the haunting piano solo “November.” Typical of his independent, multi-directional spirit, Tizer concludes the set with the hypnotic, easily rhythmic “Rapture” and the moody piano-guitar reflection “Ellas’ First Light.”
After way too many years in the shadows of more popular smooth jazz performers, Tizer makes a case for becoming one of the genre’s headliners with Diversify, a multi-faceted project that displays his talent for everything from in the pocket funk to exotic fusion and ballads that stay in the heart.
Website: www.laotizer.com
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