01. Kid Logic 
02. Joyce's Favorite 
03. Miles Wows [Live] 
04. Round Midnight 
05. Bottom's Up 
06. Hear the Design 
07. In the Hat 
08. For Wendell and Brenda 

Personel:
Victor Bailey (bass guitar, synthesizers, background vocals, drum prigram (on 4,5,6)); 
Clyde Criner, Jim Beard (piano/keyboards); 
Richard Tee (Hammond Organ); 
Wayne Shorter, Branford Marsalis (soprano saxophone); 
Michael Brecker, Alex Foster, Najee, Bill Evans (tenor saxophone); 
Donald Harrison (alto saxophone); 
Terence Blanchard (trumpet ); 
Kevin Eubanks (acoustic guitar); 
Wayne Krantz, Mike "Dino" Campbell, Rodney Jones, Jon Herington (electric guitar); 
Marcus Miller (bass); 
Lonnie Plaxico (acoustic bass); 
Omar Hakim, Dennis Chambers, Richie Morales (drums); 
Mino Cinelu, Steve Thornton (percussion).

In the 1980s and 1990s, Victor Bailey realized that finding an opportunity to record fusion could be a real challenge. Many labels were looking for either young hard boppers in Armani suites or NAC/smooth jazz artists, and Bailey was neither. Bailey wasn't Kenny G any more than he was Wynton Marsalis -- he was a fusion-oriented electric bassist along the lines of Jaco Pastorius and Stanley Clarke. Despite the obstacles, Bailey did get a chance to record fusion in 1989, when he provided his first album as a leader, Bottom's Up. This CD boasts an impressive list of players; Bailey's guests include Michael Brecker on tenor sax, Wayne Shorter on soprano sax, Terence Blanchard on trumpet, Kevin Eubanks on acoustic guitar, and Omar Hakim on drums. With such a cast, Bottom's Up should have been superb. But the album is uneven and inconsistent; some of the tunes are memorable, and some are pedestrian. The CD's most interesting track is an unlikely version of Thelonious Monk's "Round Midnight," which literally hundreds of artists have recorded over the years -- the ballad has been recorded so often that producer Orrin Keepnews described it as "the national anthem of jazz." Bailey, to his credit, manages to bring something fresh to "'Round Midnight," providing a fusion interpretation and giving us a rare chance to hear the great, if overdone, standard played on the electric bass. Other noteworthy tracks include the mysterious "Joyce's Favorite" and the angular yet funky "In the Hat," which has a strong Weather Report/Joe Zawinul influence and features saxman Bill Evans (not to be confused with the famous pianist) on tenor. But overall, this CD isn't great. Nonetheless, Bottom's Up has its moments, and the stronger tracks indicated that Bailey was someone to keep a close eye on. ---Alex Henderson, Rovi

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01 - Low Blow 
02 - Sweet Tooth 
03 - City Living 
04 - Do You Know Who-Continuum 
05 - Knee-Jerk Reaction 
06 - She Left Me 
07 - Graham Cracker 
08 - Babytalk 
09 - Feels Like A Hug 
10 - Brain Teaser

Victor Bailey - Bass, Keyboards, Mu-Tron, Synthesizer, Synthesizer Bass, Vocals
Jim Beard - Fender Rhodes, Guitar, Keyboards, Piano (Grand), Wah Wah Guitar, Wurlitzer
Michael Bearden - Keyboards, Piano
Dennis Chambers - Drums
Bill Evans - Sax (Soprano)
Kenny Garrett - Sax (Soprano), Saxophone
Omar Hakim - Drums
Henry Hey - Keyboards
Wayne Krantz - Guitar 

On his second solo album (following his first by nine years), bass player Victor Bailey is quick to acknowledge his heroes: "Graham Cracker," with its funky, plucked bass notes, is a tribute to Larry Graham, while "Continuum," a tune by Jaco Pastorius, Bailey's predecessor in Weather Report, is given a vocalese lyric written and sung by Bailey and turned into "Do You Know Who," which contains lines like "Boy when I first heard Jaco play/I've got to admit I was blown away." Beyond these overt homages, however, Bailey doesn't really betray much of their influence in his playing or original tunes. More often, as a player he recalls a third hero, Stanley Clarke, while his compositions and their jazz fusion arrangements usually sound like they could fit in easily on one of the albums he made with Weather Report. (The presence on four tracks of drummer Omar Hakim, his partner in the Weather Report rhythm section, doesn't hurt.) In his press biography, Bailey complains that he wasn't able to record solo for almost a decade because record companies either wanted "straight-ahead" or "smooth" jazz, and it wasn't until he ran into Zebra Records that he was allowed to "just play my bass and record the music I wanted to record." That music turns out to sound like the fusion style popular in the 1970s and '80s. ---William Ruhlmann, Rovi

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01. Goose Bumps 
02. Knee Deep-One Nation Medley 
03. Where's Paco 
04. Joey 
05. Nothing But Net 
06. Rope-A-Dope 
07. Steamy 
08. Black on the Bach 
09. That's Right! 

Personnel:
Victor Bailey (vocals, bass, programming); 
Benny Maupin (tenor & bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, saxophone); 
Bill Evans (saxophone); 
Jim Beard (acoustic piano, keyboards); 
Dean Brown (guitar); 
Lenny White, Omar Hakim (drums).

Very few improvisers would be able to find the jazz potential in two Funkadelic classics, but, in fact, that is among the things that Victor Bailey does on his third album, That's Right! One of the nine tracks on this excellent CD is a medley of "(Not Just) Knee Deep" and "One Nation Under a Groove"; Bailey doesn't approach the late 1970s hits as vocal-oriented p-funk, but rather, as instrumental jazz fusion -- and it works. While those who don't comprehend jazz might prefer to stick to Funkadelic's original versions, fusion heads will understand exactly where the electric bassist is coming from. And they will also find a lot to admire about the album's original material, which ranges from the plaintive "Joey" (a tune that Bailey wrote in memory of a cousin who was killed in a robbery in Philadelphia) to the funky "Goose Bumps" and the clever "Black on the Bach." The latter manages to be influenced by funk and classical at the same time, and Bailey -- much to his credit -- manages to pull this off without sounding silly or pretentious. But then, anyone who is capable of taking two Funkadelic hits and changing them from vocal-oriented p-funk to instrumental fusion obviously knows how to come up with ambitious ideas and make them work. The Funkadelic medley tells you a lot about Bailey. It tells you that although he has a jazz improviser's mentality, he is far from a jazz snob. It tells you that he is someone who, like most fusionists, holds jazz, rock, and funk in equally high regard and realizes that improvisers can learn and benefit from a variety of music. Bailey does exactly that on this 2001 date, which is recommended to anyone who has a taste for meaty, intelligent fusion. ---Alex Henderson, Rovi

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