Proving he doesn't always need Niacin partners Dennis Chambers and Billy Sheehan to make smokin' music, multifaceted keyboard maestro John Novello goes nuts on Threshold, a classy and heavily fusionized affair, recorded and mixed live at The Baked Potato in North Hollywood, Calif., back in 2002. Along with his Hammond B3, Novello plays a Kurzweil 2600 and a Yamaha C7-F acoustic piano, and he's exquisitely backed by five snazzy and snappy players.
Throughout most of these nine songs, Novello and his band squawk and squeal and blare and blast their way through seven original numbers. They also cover Lennon and McCartney on a barely recognizable rendition of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" and then simmer through Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Child." Novello displays his emotional side on "Lament," an uncompromisingly beautiful and melodic piece with a groovy Eric Marienthal-induced sax solo that also shows off Novello's piano playing.
As if to put an exclamation point on all of this, Novello states in the liner notes that, "I did not have sex until after the recording!" Good to know.
Track Listing:
1) Threshold (7:52)
2) Discovery (8:06)
3) Lucy in the Sky (7:03)
4) Voodoo Child (10:06)
5) Cee Blues (7:31)
6) Lament (7:39)
7) Bitchin' Blues (10:50)
8) Because of You (6:41)
9) Journey to Nowhere (7:12)
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