Jeff Lorber – born November 4, 1952 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – is a jazz keyboardist, bandleader, producer, songwriter, and remixer. He began playing piano at the age of four. By the time he reached his teens, he was playing with a number of R&B bands before switching to jazz while he was attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. He formed his first band, The Jeff Lorber Fusion and they released their debut album, The Jeff Lorber Fusion, in 1977. The band’s early sound was a mixture of jazz and funk inspired by artists like Weather Report, Return to Forever, and Herbie Hancock. As the band – which was made up of a revolving cast of musicians – evolved, their sound became more unique. After their second album, Soft Space (1978), Lorber and the band signed to Arista Records and released three albums: Water Sign (1979), Wizard Island (1980), and Galaxian (1981). Lorber then pursued a solo career beginning with his 1982 album, It’s a Fact. He revived the Jeff Lorber Fusion band name in 2010 for the album Now Is the Time. The album entered the Top 10 on Billboard’s Traditional Jazz and Contemporary Jazz charts. Each subsequent Jeff Lorber Fusion album achieved similar chart success, including 2013’s Hacienda, Prototype (2017), and Eleven (2019).
