Dreamer

by Alex Henderson Caldera's fans -- something it didn't have nearly enough of -- hoped that Dreamer would be the LP to make the band famous in the jazz-fusion world. But Caldera continued to be obscure, despite providing an adventurous, captivating mixture of jazz, funk, rock, and Latin music. True to form, the writing is excellent on this album: One cannot accuse Caldera's members of weak writing on the South American-influenced "Rain Forest," the samba-minded "Celebration," the flamenco-influenced "Brujerías," or the Carlos Santana-ish opener, "To Capture the Moon." For Caldera, the term "Latin music" meant a variety of things -- everything from Spanish flamenco and Afro-Cuban salsa to Brazilian samba and Andean music -- and on this LP, all of those things successfully interact with jazz, funk, and rock. Like Caldera's three previous Capitol albums, Dreamer went out of print after the band's breakup and has yet to be reissued on CD.