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``Harbor Lights'' (RCA) _ Bruce Hornsby
``Harbor Lights'' signifies the rebirth of Bruce Hornsby as an
improviser and team player. It suggests an interesting new
direction for his flagging career.
The pianist has risen from three years of touring with the
Grateful Dead with a looser, jazzier style and a bigger bag of
rhythms including funk and soul.
On this first album without the Range, the band that used to
provide the background for his grandiose midtempo ballads, Hornsby
challenges himself to keep up with guest artists Pat Metheny,
Branford Marsalis, Phil Collins, Bonnie Raitt and Jerry Garcia, and
he does.
The early cuts ``Harbor Lights'' and ``Talk of the Town'' are
the best, featuring lively interplay among the musicians.
``Fields of Gray,'' influenced by the hits of the Drifters and
Sam Cooke, is engaging and radio-ready, and Raitt's sassy vocals
brighten the lively shuffle, ``Rainbow's Cadillac.''
Hornsby's own limited vocal range and frequently trite lyrics
are a drag but the instrumental work is so good that the project
flies and occasionally soars.
_ By David Dishneau, Associated Press Writer.
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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ Bruce Hornsby, who gave himself 10 years to
make it in Los Angeles and hit paydirt in six, now preaches the
virtues of recording back home in Williamsburg, Va.
``I don't think I could ever go back,'' the 38-year-old pianist
said. ``I'm a walking endorsement for home recording.''
Hornsby's fourth album, ``Harbor Lights,'' was recorded in a
studio he built with profits from his first three successful
records.
But it is not the solitary musical experience that many
stay-at-home projects tend to be.
Despite a three-year break between albums, Hornsby has been one
of the music business' busiest networkers. The self-described ``gun
for hire'' played on about 40 other albums and filled in on
keyboards for the Grateful Dead.
Hornsby invited such friends as Jerry Garcia, Bonnie Raitt,
Branford Marsalis, Phil Collins and Pat Metheny to augment his
basic trio. Many of his fellow musicians made it a working vacation
by staying at Hornsby's house near the Virginia coast.
During the break from his own music, Hornsby played in sessions
with Bob Dylan and wrote a song with ex-Band member Robbie
Robertson, recording it in New Orleans with the Meters.
Another highlight was recording a version of his ``Valley Road''
song with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
``My horizons were broadened and I was able to get a glimpse
into other people's worlds,'' he said. ``It was inspiring to see
how other people worked.''
There was time, too, to move from California to Williamsburg and
to have twin boys with his wife. Hornsby named his new sons Russell
and Keith, after two of his piano-playing heroes, Leon Russell and
Keith Jarrett.
Hornsby, who played Grateful Dead songs as a member of his older
brother's rock band while growing up, got to experience the real
thing when the band needed a keyboardist after Brent Myland died in
1990.
``Where else can you get to play one song for an hour?'' he
quipped.
Actually, his tenure in the Grateful Dead is reflected in the
more improvisational feel of his new album.
``We've always been improvisational in concert, we had less of a
set list than the Dead,'' he said. ``That's always been part of the
process, it just never came out as much on the records. It sounds
looser and more spontaneous. It's sort of what I always wanted,
frankly, but I just didn't get it.''
``Harbor Lights'' marked other changes for Hornsby. His backing
band, the Range, is abandoned and Hornsby explores more fully the
jazz styles hinted at during his piano solo for his signature song,
``The Way It Is.''
``This record is obviously more influenced by the jazz idiom,
harmonically especially, and also rhythmically,'' he said. ``A lot
of it is very swing-oriented. My guys in the band, they don't know
that. That's not their strength at all.''
Hornsby worked with two old friends, bass player Jimmy Haslip of
the Yellowjackets and former Range drummer John Molo.
Beyond those two, Hornsby said he wanted to ``cast the record
the way a director would.''
The director's casting choices include Phil Collins on bongos on
the song, ``Talk of the Town.''
That song, with a video directed by Spike Lee, hearkens back to
the racial themes Hornsby first explored on ``The Way It Is.'' But
the new song's swing-oriented piano and dance-style percussion make
the song sound miles away musically.
It's a story about the first interracial couple in his hometown
more than 20 years ago.
He doesn't remember their names anymore. But Hornsby said others
will be checking; there's a certain segment of Williamsburg that
always combs his lyrics for references to people and places they
know.
``All of our records have been another version of `Our Town,'''
he said. ``I've always wanted the songs to have collectively a
sense of place, like it was all coming from one area _ sort of like
Southern fiction.''
The album's cover art, Edward Hopper's ``Rooms by the Sea,'' and
title reflect Hornsby's ancestry among the watermen of the Virginia
coast.
Through liner notes, Hornsby explains the genesis of his songs
in more detail than most musicians, even noting when he's been
inspired by other songs.
He said he's not worried about Top 40 success.
``I'm just trying to do good work and do it better,'' he said.
``I don't have control over this other thing. To live and die by
the charts is really a bad thing. It's unhealthy. Obviously, if you
listen to this new record, you know I'm not doing that.''
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11/10 - Host Resort - Lancaster, PA
11/11 - Symphony Hall - Allentown, PA
11/26 - Valley Forge Music - Devon, PA
11/27 - Palumbo Center - Pittsburgh, PA
11/28 - Shea Theatre - Buffalo, NY :-)
11/30 - Landmark Theatre - Syracuse, NY :-)
12/1 - Landmark Theatre - Vermont
12/3,4 - Orpheum Theatre - Boston, MA
12/5 - Mullins Center - Amherst, MA (U. Mass)
12/7,8 - Paramount Theatre - NYC
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