Back in 1979, the great tenor sax-player Michael Brecker, who passed away in 2007, formed Steps Ahead, originally called Steps, with vibraphonist Mike Mainieri. A veteran Steely Dan fan such as the present writer will quickly calculate that the band formed two years after AJa, one of the great Steely Dan records, which saw the light of day on, er, September 23, 1977 (who called me an anorak?). For all of us who were not especially into jazz fusion in those days, well, such a pointer is needed, because the Dan were, one could say, the rock face of Fusion.
There is a clean - even ‘sanitised’ in the best sense - ambience to these carefully-executed works, everything ship-shape, smoothly caulked and waxed. Vibes shimmer without a wrinkle on the 11-minute opener, Pools, while trombone and seductive guitar (yes, a la Steely Dan’s regular guitarist, Jon Hetherington) run their gentle ripples through Steppish.
Steps up to the plate: Vibes player Mike Mainieri
On the latter track, percussion and noodly bass nestle under the layer of lush brass, and there is another little shelf or outcrop for the ubiquitous vibes. Blue Montreux saunters along insouciantly with an attractive trumpet run. It’s a busy record for sure.
The only thing about Steps is, given there is no vocal, the ensemble don’t have anything that might compare to the gnarled sardonic lip of Walter Fagen. They wouldn’t anyway, of course - you feel that if they did sing, the repertoire would be something like Manhattan Transfer or an East Coast Beach Boys (which latter is probably an impossibility and a disturbing phenomenon to even consider.) Smart, uplifting, and reaching into warm spaces, Steppin Out might very well lift your mood should it need lifting.
Paddy Kehoe
