Search - John Tropea :: Short Trip to Space

Tropea's best by far

NM Native | Fort Collins, CO United States | 02/14/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of the best fusion albums of the '70s! I picked this up on LP right after it went out of print and then proceeded to grab about 15 copies of it whenever I could find it cheap. I never thought it would come out on CD, but there it was a few years ago. Thank you, Japan! The cover artwork by Larry Laslo is really cool (from a time when cover art meant something), and the music is great if you like jazz fusion with an emphasis on melody. Tropea is at his best here, with great melodies like Skip Scarborough's "Can't Hide Love," Don Grolnick's "You Can't Have It All," and Tropea's own "Blue Too" (one of my all-time favorites) and "Short Trip to Space," a fascinating and complex tune that actually sounds like its title. The production is excellent, with a double-drum setup featuring Steve Gadd and Rick Marotta on most of the tunes that adds a lot of depth to the sound. Boosting the treble on your system will help this set sound even better. One detraction: "The Funk You See Is the Funk You Do" is not the LP version but a hacked up single version with very noticeable edits. It's not a great loss, although the tune is rather amusing and it sounds better in its complete form."