I read that you said “some artists only compose songs when it’s time to record the next album, but I’m open to inspiration and ideas 24 hours a day.” Expand on that notion.

Galaxy is about the spirit of exploration. We wanted to challenge that feeling of exploration. The spirit of a jazz musician is innovation. Actually, I’m kind of disappointed with some of my contemporaries in that some of the music is becoming too comfortable. We wanted to create music that was fun to play, but also a challenge to play. Jimmy Haslip (Yellowjackets) did more writing. So we took some old Jeff Lorber Fusion songs (“Wizard Island”, “The Samba”, “City”, and “The Underground”) and brought then up to date and created new material. Well, we knew what we were going after, which was part two of Now Is The Time. We’ve played a lot of the material while on tour in Europe so we are ready to play it here. The album is musically adventurous, more focused on live sound, more instrumental. I felt it was time to bring back some of the excitement. It’s a reconstituted Jeff Lorber Fusion with me and good friends who just happen to be world class musicians. Now Is The Time happened while touring in Europe. This record is like part two of Now Is The Time. Jeff and I spoke about new music, reforming Jeff Lorber Fusion, staying creative 24/7, playing in San Francisco, and why his new release is some of the best music he’s ever recorded. IRock Jazz recently caught up with acclaimed keyboardist, composer, producer, and jazz fusion trailblazer, Jeff Lorber, in between touring and his upcoming performance Januat Yoshi’s Jazz Club in San Francisco to promote his latest recording, Galaxy, the follow up recording to his Grammy nominated 2010 album Now Is The Time.

Jeff lorber fusion galaxy