David Matthews & The Electric Birds - Cosmic City (1980) [2014]

David Matthews made plenty of great funky jazz records in the American mainstream of the 70s – and after his big years on Kudu Records, he went slightly underground – and did some great work for Japanese labels like this! The album's got Matthews on electric piano, working with an all-star lineup that includes David Sanborn on alto and Mike Mainieri on vibes – in a style that's kind of an 80s update of his earlier grooves – jazz fusion influenced with plenty of soul, and a leaner approach to the groove that comes across in the percussion and keyboards. There's a bit of vocals on the record – kind of a vocal chorus along with the jazz – and the titles include "First Blood", "Cosmic City", "American Road", "I Didn't Mean To Hurt You", "Special Delivery", and "Good Time".

Tracks:

01. Cosmic City (Matthews) - 5:45
02. Show Me How You Make It Sexy (Sarasino-Matthews) - 3:54
03. Lonely Promises (Matthews) - 2:39
04. Good Time (Sarasino-Matthews) - 5:00
05. First Blood (Colucci-Matthews) - 3:00
06. American Road (Matthews) - 7:17
07. I Didn't Mean to Hurt You (Colucci-Matthews) - 3:38
08. Special Delivery (Ueda) - 4:22

Personnel:

David Matthews - electric piano, arranger, conductor
David Sanborn - alto saxophone
Mike Mainieri - vibraphone
Jeff Mironov - electric guitar, acoustic guitar
Cliff Carter - electric piano, acoustic piano, oberheim, mini moog, vocals
Mark Egan - electric bass
Allan Schwartzberg - drums
Sammy Figueroa - percussion
Frank Floyd, Zak Sanders, Babi Floyd - background vocals