Let The Healing Begin: Santa Fe and The Fat City Horns, Live at The Palms, 2007

Funk, Soul, Salsa, and Jazz, performed with a passionate and sophisticated intensity, the likes of which you have never before witnessed. You leave the show shaking your head in stunned, euphoric disbelief. Santa Fe and The Fat City Horns, Las Vegas' premier musical artists. Fourteen gracious gentlemen who irrevocably change your musical frame of reference.

Recorded live in The Lounge at The Palms in Las Vegas in the summer of 2007, "Let The Healing Begin" ups the ante significantly. Blazing original material includes Jerry Lopez's salsa-funk "Love Somebody" and his slammin' "Ev'rybody Wants to Love You," Nathan Tanouye's utterly brilliant "Come With Me," and Dave Richardson's equally innovative and searing "Salvation." The new Fat City Horns charts (arranged by Nathan Tanouye and Dave Richardson), well, words fail. You just have to listen.

Returning to the lineup is Jerry Lopez's brother, original Santa Fe member "Dr. Lenny" Lopez, whose vocals on tunes such as "Brother to Brother," "Ain't That Peculiar," and "You Need a Hero" are simply, screamingly, soulfully delightful. You wonder, 'does this cat have any top end on his range?' Johnny Johnson's equally talented twin brother Tyriq has been added to front line vocal duty, and "Mamma Mia" show drummer Pepe Jose Jimenez, a native of Puerto Rico, now drives the rhythm section. His tight yet fluid interplay with bassist Rochon Westmoreland makes for unrelenting grooves from Heaven. The closing cut, Stevie Wonder's "Living For The City," is simply off-the-hook, replete with Jerry's one-of-a-kind lead vocal (Bill Champlin says Jerry is "one of the top ten singers in the world"), a breathtaking chart by Nathan Tanouye, and a dazzling alto ride by Phil Wigfall.

Let The Healing Begin, indeed. You'll feel like you were right there sitting at a front row table.