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After his success album ‘Told Ya So’ and receiving ‘Album of the Year’ and ‘Instrumentalist of the Year’ honours, trumpeter Gabriel Mark Hasselbach is back with a new recording. Here, a lot of special guests lend him a hand, like Jeff Lorber, Chuck Loeb, Brian Bromberg, Rob Tardik, Rock Hendricks and Walle Larson. And Gabriel surely delivers! Together with Lorber, he wrote and produced every track on the CD. When you hear ‘King James’, you’ll think of the funk of James Brown. Rock Hendricks adds his saxophone to the tune. With ‘Lock It Up’ we arrive in a more funky jazzy surrounding. The sax is passed on to Walle Larsson. ‘Kindness’ is a softer track, nice smooth jazz. Chuck Loeb on guitar and Brian Bromberg on bass come together with Gabriel for the calm, smooth and traditional ‘Funk In Deep Freeze’. On ‘Unreal Blues’ I hear the keyboard of Jeff Lorber in duet with Gabriel’s trumpet, while the title track flows by nice and smoothly. Rob Tardik’s guitar gives ‘It’s Real’ a romantic mid-tempo atmosphere, followed by the first single ‘Starpixie’. This track breathes again Jeff Lorber’s touch on the keys, and Gabriel follows in those steps with his trumpet. If you are ‘Ready When You Are’, you’ll hear a wonderful romantic tune. And we close this CD with the funk drenched ‘No One Like You’, on the edge of Lorber’s contemporary jazz. On the whole, this is an outstanding album with fine collaborations! Gabriel has done it again! Patrick Van de Wiele
