In these days of fixing all the mistakes later, it is refreshing to discover a musician that takes his metier seriously enough to make an album sound like he could have done it all in one take. Udi Levy clearly has the credentials to pull off such a task and his album “Sudden Transition” not only demonstrates that but also changes his style from smooth jazz to that of the wonderful world of instrumental rock.
It doesn’t take long for all that flair to float to the surface with “One For My Daddy'o” highlighting Mr Levy’s ability to generate fret board fury. Control is also a strongpoint of his playing with, for example, “Countryside” demonstrating both discipline and sensitivity. That said, it is the more up-tempo songs that stick in the memory and there is, fortunately, more than enough of them to encourage you to join in with your very own air guitar. “Amends”, in particular, would cause any rational man to wish he was an old school prog-rocker.
Whilst there were times when, no doubt due to Mr Levy’s previous excursions into smooth jazz, this album threatened to transform itself into background music, that was more the fault of the songs than Mr Levy’s dexterity. The fact remains, however, that I’d want him in my band.
The album is available from CD Baby.