Snoop Dogg is featured on "Funk With Us" where he is joined by Clinton, Priest and Bayne. Bayne opens the album with "Mission Statement," which is presumably a manifesto describing the band's new direction. Summers joins Bayne's rap with a softer vocal on "Apple Tree." "Congo Place" begins with some throbbing percussion leading to a Donald Harrison vocal punctuated by a chanting chorus that seems to look back to African roots by way of New Orleans. "Head Hunting" is a tour de force for Clark and Summers with a haunting melody that gives the whole band a shot to shine.
Platinum is an album that melds elements of different musical traditions to create a whole that may well be greater than the sum of its parts. In an interview with Dominic Fragman of JazzTimes.com, Mike Clark calls the album " a cross-generational effort, we mixed up a lot of genres—jazz, funk, African, Latin, and even hip hop on several pieces—that was fun!" It may have been fun for him and the band, but for the listener, it's a blast.
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