Jeff Lorber

Jazz fusion keyboard player Jeff Lorber achieved great acclaim experimenting with electric instruments, mixing jazz with funk and R&B that saw him labelled as a pioneer of contemporary jazz, with his music heavily featured on the Weather Channel.

Raised in a Jewish family in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, he was playing piano by the age of four and in his teens was appearing with various local R&B bands. It was at Berklee College of Music, however, that he fell in love with jazz and formed the Jeff Lorber Fusion, who released their self-titled debut album in 1977. They had a radio hit with 'Pacific Coast Highway', which received a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Instrumental and made Lorber one of jazz's most influential figures. The Fusion went on to release five albums with a variety of different members, while Lorber reached a commercial peak in 1986 with 'Private Passion', a strongly urban flavoured album on which R&B singers Michael Jeffries and Karyn White were heavily featured.

Lorber subsequently concentrated on session and production work with the likes of Kenny G and Eric Marienthal, even mixing recordings for U2 and Paula Abdul. But returned to the studio in 1991 to record the solo album 'Worth Waiting For', full of romantic melodies and Latin flavours. Through the rest of the 1990s he developed a smoother jazz style which gave him great crossover appeal before contracting a disease which resulted in a kidney transplant from his wife Mink. Back in action he revived the Jeff Lorber Fusion with the Grammy nominated 'Now Is the Time' in 2010. He continued to explore fusion styles on 'Hacienda' in 2013 and his enduring popularity was confirmed by his 2017 album 'Prototype'.