I’m on a fanatic run of Deodato. I exercised a lot of musical fanaticism last year when I had resolved to listen to album a day, falling even more in love with Herbie Hancock, George Duke and discovering then obsessing over Japanese artists Masayoshi Takanaka and Casiopea.

Eumir Deodato is blowing me away – composer, arranger and killer keyboardist. My only exposure to him before somehow coming across this album was through his famous funk rendition of Also Sprach Zarathustra, which I think I first heard in the Peter Sellers movie Being There. It seems to have been a habit of his to include at least one unusual cover on his albums. On this one, it’s a surprisingly tasty lounge funk version of Take the “A” Train.

This one and an Edwin Starr tune called “Chariot of the Gods” are sort of disruptive inclusions as it’s otherwise a concept album of island-themed music, almost more in the 60s lounge music/jet-setter/exotica trend but with 70s hallmarks like Rhodes keyboard, synthesizer, funk guitar, drums and farty bass (that’s a good thing). It’s lush with soft brass on two of my favorite tunes, “Tahiti Hut” and “Love Island”, and funks hard on the two intro tracks, and then “Pina Colada” later one – there’s some funky jazzy legends across the record, including Harvey Mason, Larry Carlton, George Benson and even Maurice White and Philip Bailey.

The writing is just so good across the record. All the songs are deftly written, with really engaging arrangements and expert solos. Deodato uses a crazy trombone sounding vocal effect (listed as ‘vocalanger’ on one set of credits) for a solo on “Love Island” and elsewhere takes super interesting Rhodes solos.

I’m super-inspired by this guy – stay tuned for more Deodato!