I can't tell if it's supposed to be a strict instrumental take on Stevie Wonder's "Living for the City" or a clever mash-up of the bridge from Joe Zawinul's "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" and the former. Either way, I dig it.
It's "elevatorized" Stevie don't you think? I blame Seinfeld for making everyone so cracked out on the slap bass back then. I feel like people would re-record tunes just to throw slap bass in there. It felt like popular music had rubber bands in it all the time. Oh, and wall to wall alto sax solos (thanks 80s and George Michael!) Also: note the period-accurate very smooth jazz aiming for a glam jazz feel. This was everywhere back then too. But the cool thing was NYC was much more of a jazz city throughout- I'll never forget one of the first times I took the subway- a guitarist was playing and singing "Ribbon In The Sky" - he was incredible, and I thought... I guess I'm in the right place.
Hah! It's funny that you say that; I nearly mentioned Seinfeld in my original comment. I guess we were thinking along the same lines. It's true that it is a bit "elevatorized" but I guess I was enjoying it from my 2018 perspective as almost a knowing and satirical nod (i.e., half-parody, half-pastiche) to that era.