John Larkin

99.9% of you who stumbled upon this album were probably as confused as I was when I realized that this was composed by the same person who composed hits like "Scatman" or "Scatman's World" (That 0.1% are either lying or is his close family). A pretty good avant-garde jazz album. Larkin found the perfect track to open the album, which is "The Misfit", a six-minute cocaine-induced brain melter filled with screams, mindless scat singing, and dare I say, edgy punkish lyrics, that evoke the images of fast, dark New York streets filled with all kinds of faces ready to do deeds you only see on TV. The rest of the album is pretty standard for an avant-garde foray. It's not bad, but how do you top a composition like "The Misfit"? Simply, you don't. Larkin's voice color is good and fits very nicely with the saxophone, keyboard, and backing bass, especially in the Sinatra-esque "Last Night I Dreamed". "Coltrane" is a wonderful composition that mixes the spiritual vibe created and perfected by John Coltrane with John's signature scat-singing and occasional humming. The instrumental compositions are good, mostly fast-paced benders, but are far from awe-inducing. I love that they are highlighting the talents of the rest of the group that worked on this album, though.

All in all, come for "The Misfit" and stay for the whole album.