Peter Erskine is the sideman par excellence, an infinitely versatile drummer who has contributed his impeccable grooves to some 600 albums, including releases by Weather Report, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan and the Brecker Brothers.
Lately, his own projects have been more like exercises in Zen drumming, but fans of his fusion playing will be relieved to hear that he has decided to revisit the shallow end.
He calls Dr Um "the kind of album Weather Report might have made were the band still around (and I was in it)", and certainly keyboardist John Beasley and bassist Janek Gwizdala aren't shy about acknowledging their debt to Zawinul and Pastorius.
Tunes by Zawinul, Vince Mendoza and Erskine himself all waft with that breezy, west-coast cool of classic Weather Report, without ever sounding old.
