July/August 2002

A.J. Love
Interplanetary Funk
Angel Magic Music

By Tony Green

In this cybergroove era, A.J. Love's funk can't really be termed spatial, despite the title of his latest, Interplanetary Funk (Angel Magic Music). In fact, this is a fairly lo-fi slice of guitar-centered rock-jazz blowing. While Love's metallic wah-wah mongering can start to grate after a while, the disc still succeeds, thanks to solid grooves from drummer Gerald Williams and bassist Jeff Eckels, and some cool sax and flute blowing by Hanah Jon Taylor. Giving the players only a few compositional outlines-the vamp on Hendrix's "Who Knows," covered here, is public domain in groove-jazz-funk circles-there's plenty of space for interaction, especially on "Spirituals From Neptune/A Love Supreme," which features an in-the-pocket take on the Coltrane standard.