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Chester Thompson — Wake Up Call
(ProgRock Essentials PRE-0007, 2023, CD / LP / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2024-08-24

Wake Up Call Cover art

Among progressive rock fans, Chester Thompson is known for his work with Frank Zappa and Genesis, but his credits as a drummer are extensive, mostly in jazz. Wake Up Call is his third solo album, and aside from a couple of fusion-esque burners, is unlikely to be of much interest to prog listeners. His primary collaborators are bassist Pee-Wee Hill and keyboardist Michiko Hill, who co-wrote the tracks with him. Several guitarists are involved — Akil Thompson, Brendan Harkin, Caleb Quay, and Ronnie Vann — along with saxes from Jeff Coffin and Scheila Gonzalez and percussion by Walter Rodriquez. The music is mostly mid-tempo groovy electric jazz, half a step too energetic to be called “smooth” most of the time. None of the music is bad, just kind of ordinary, so if you’re in the mood for some easy-to-digest semi-funky jazz-rock, Wake Up Call should work for you.

Filed under: New releases, 2023 releases

Related artist(s): Chester Thompson

More info
http://chesterthompson.bandcamp.com/album/wake-up-call-24-bit

 

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