After
years of success behind the scenes as sidemen for other artists,
teaching at Musician's Institute and dabbling in everything from writing
jingles and hit songs to creating popular music libraries, Daniel Stein
and Stuart Ziff are unleashing their full creative coolness like 'R for
Romeo'. This album is colorfully named after a memorable line (“It decodes as Wing Attack R. R for Romeo”) in Stanley Kubrick's classic ‘Dr. Strangelove’, one of Stein and Ziff's favorite films. Likewise, the album title alludes to the film's contingency war plan, in which a lower-echelon commander can order nuclear retaliation after a sneak attack.
That was turned into 8 soulful tracks, displaying a synergy of jazz, blues, funk and soul, in which these two musicians from LA have been interested for decades. They were joined by bassists Rene Camacho (War) & Travis Carlton (Larry Carlton, Sara Bareilles), trumpeter Chris Tedesco (Christina Aguilera, Michael Bublé), drummers Kevin Stevens (Duane Eddy), Fred Dinkins (Al Green, Stevie Wonder), & Rick Latham (Edgar Winter, Juice Newton), and percussionist Marcos Reyes (War, Los Lobos). Stein plays keyboard and Ziff guitar.
They started working on this album back in 2019. The R&B, jazz rock and fusion track 'You Can't Be Serious' was the first in the style of Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck. The remaining tracks followed during the pandemic. Opener 'Checkmate' sounds like Steely Dan on reggae, after which 'Go Play in the Street' leans more towards jazz rock. 'Lockdown' obviously refers to the pandemic, with a hard guitar, followed by the bluesy 'Midtown'.
On the ballad 'Blue' you can hear an almost weeping guitar, after which 'Blabbermouth' reminds me of the music from the Blaxploitation era. 'You Can't Be Serious' is more jazz rock again, and closing track 'Barney's Groove' is grafted onto the police show 'Barney Miller'.
A mélange of their favorite music styles, which will especially interest fans of fusion.
Tracks:
Go Play in the Street
Lockdown
Midtown
Blue
Blabbermouth
You Can’t Be Serious
Barney’s Groove