2 languages
Jeff Lorber
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Jeff Lorber is an American keyboard player, composer and producer, born in 1952 in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, the same suburb as Michael and Randy Brecker. He began on piano at four, played in R&B bands as a teenager and studied at the Berklee College of Music, where he met the guitarist John Scofield.
Music and breakthrough
His first group was the Jeff Lorber Fusion, which released the debut album The Jeff Lorber Fusion on Inner City Records in 1977. He recorded five studio albums under that name. They sounded funky and owed much to the jazz fusion of Herbie Hancock, Weather Report and Return to Forever. In 1984 the solo album In the Heat of the Night followed. Later that year, with the duo David Frank and Mic Murphy, known as The System, he produced the album Step by Step. The title song, written with Anita Pointer of the Pointer Sisters, reached number 31 on the American R&B chart.
Influence
Lorber became an established name in smooth jazz. His music was often used in the forecasts of The Weather Channel and his keyboard work can even be heard in the computer game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. He worked as a producer and session musician for, among others, Dave Koz, Herb Alpert and Laura Branigan. In 2018 he won his first Grammy, for the album Prototype by the Jeff Lorber Fusion. He is an example of how fusion developed from complex jazz rock into a more accessible, smoother sound.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 1982It’s a Fact
- 1984In the Heat of the Night
- 1985Step by Step
- 1986Private Passion
- 1993Worth Waiting For
- 1994West Side Stories
- 1996State of Grace
- 1998Midnight
- 2003Philly Style
- 2004Kickin’ It
- 2005Flipside
- 2007He Had a Hat
- 2008Heard That
- 2015BOP - to Help Fund the Cure for PKD
- 2024Elevate