For those unaware, Musician, composer, and producer Jeff Richman has many significant achievements to his name and is regarded as one of the world’s preeminent fusion guitarists.

Jeff Beck is atop the list of those who captured Richman’s imagination, and profoundly impacted his technical and improvisational growth. The iconic guitarist’s recent passing gives us pause to consider the indelible mark he made on rock, fusion, and a host of impressionable young guitarists.

Richman is among a select few gifted and inspired pioneers who have continued to raise the bar and expand what has become the limitless boundaries of fusion. Richman’s vital and essential contributions to the genre are as well-documented as his glorious and masterful recordings and live performances.

After graduating from the prestigious Berklee School of Music in 1975, it soon became evident that Richman was to be a vast contributor to the advancement and evolution of fusion. He has held that prominent position at the table for nearly fifty years.

Now, as an elder statesman, Richman continues to grow and pave the way with rich and dynamic new music. As a composer and certainly as a guitarist, a notable observation of Richman’s unique skill set is the depth of his articulation and his innate natural abilities to convey and communicate his stories.

1. XYZ
2. Be Cool
3. Optimystical
4. Ray Barretto
5. Left Right Here
6. Lost Daze
7. Likewise
8. Bar 55
9. She’s Got To Be Somewhere

His brand new album, XYZ (released March 30th, 2023) is a rather magically-transportive new recording, one which opens on the free-wheelin’ musical majesties within the titular XYZ and the smooth, quietly-funky Be Cool, and then backs those up with the grandiosely-sculptured Optimystical, the lavish Ray Barretto, and then the funk is back, front and guitar center on the brilliant Left Right Here.

The languishing beauty within Lost Daze is serenely up next and that is itself followed seamlessly by the ornately-hued Likewise, and then we get one of my own personal favorites here, the furtively magnetic Bar 55, the album closing out on the sleek, rhythmically layered She’s Got To Be Somewhere.

Featuring:
Jeff Richman: guitar
Vinnie Colaiuta: drums
Gergö Borlai: drums
Jimmy Haslip: bass
Dean Taba: bass
Scott Kinsey: keyboards
Mitchell Forman: keyboards
George Whitty: keyboards
Jeff Beal: trumpet
Otmaro Ruiz: keyboards

Official Purchase Link