Album Review: Spheres from Scott Emmerman

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Album:  Spheres
Artist:  Scott Emmerman
Label: Self-Released
Website:  scottemmerman.bandcamp.com

Power guitar rock seems to be a theme of days gone by but guitarist, composer, and arranger Scott Emmerman revives the custom, infusing trimmings of funky dances grooves gilded in ambient jazz hues and ribbed in soft R&B-encrusted knolls crooning along his latest release Spheres.  A refined outgrowth of power rock, Emmerman's music has an adult contemporary sheen and world class luster.

Recorded in the spring of 2023, the recording features Emmerman's long-time friend, collaborator and drummer Marty Zevin.  Eight compositions out of the ten-track CD are originals written by Emmerman.   One of the other two tracks is a profusion of psychedelics, produced by lofty synth effects that create a prismatic glaze across "Judgement Day," a collaboration with Emmerman and Zevin.  The last track is a cover. as Emmerman navigates the hit song for the R&B/funk group The Gap Band, "Yearning for Your Love," a tune written by Oliver Scott and Ronnie Wilson, into an instrumental, attired in warm breezy sails blossoming into an euphoric, smooth jazz patina.

Emmerman's original material focuses on the various shades of the power rock guitar theme from the esoteric flange in his strings causing steamy ripples through the title track to the misty riffs cruising across "Roanoke," each telling a tale of the guitar theme's ingenuity and magnetic pull.  The whispery knolls of "KC Blues" and the funky R&B pulse of "Winning Time" demonstrate Emmerman's versatility as a composer, and the bopping beats shuffling across "California Roll" steer the arrangement towards a straight-ahead jazz trajectory.

Born and raised in Chicago, Emmerman claims to be absorbed by the blues milieu at an early age.  It was later when he began to explore jazz through the music of John McLaughlin and Miles Davis.  But where did he acquire a fondness for power guitar rock themes as shown in his material?  Or perhaps power guitar rock themes had been a part of the way Emmerman heard blues, jazz, R&B, and funk blends.  However it happened to be, Emmerman's music has an adult contemporary sheen with world class luster.

Musicians:
Scott Emmerman - guitar, keyboards, bass, drum programming
Marty Zevin - drums, percussion
Larry Nelson - piano on Roanoke



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