ALBUM REVIEWS : * VERNELL BROWN JR. “Total Eclipse” <i> A&M;</i>

The album title is all too appropriate. Last year, when he was 18, Brown made some demo tapes that indicated strong potential as a straight-ahead improvising jazz man. Since then he has been inexplicably transplanted from the art of jazz into the business of music, complete with funk charts and faceless arrangements that seem to have squeezed the creative juices out of him. The result is a slick product that could just as well have been assembled by any technically qualified pianist. It is sad to reflect that a talent so promising has been misguided so early in his career.