New Jazz Fusion Blood

almc2242 wrote: Dan Bobrowski wrote: Dick Heath wrote: Something of interest, (thanks goes to Helmut at Fusenet for the info):   Anyone here remember NOVA, the mid 1970s Italian fusion group? Their guitar player Corrado Rustici just released a new studio album entitled "deconstruction of a postmodern musician", feat ures a great performance by Allan Holdsworth on one track. http://sugarnet. webmediastrategy .net/artisti/ rustici/audio/ 30sec/06. wma http://www.sugarmus ic.com/corradoru stici/ Helmut    "Tantrum to Blind" is the name of the tune. Allan smokes on that track too! It can be downloaded from iTunes.   The Alan and Allan: Tribute to Tony Williams, Live at Yoshi's 2006 DVD will be out in March. I've already pre-ordered a copy.   This is the true leader of fusion, a true warrior. I have all of his CDs.

One of those lightning fast deliveries from N America has just happened and I'm happy to report I've now have a copy of the 1966 recording/originally 1967 release  by The Free Spirits Out of Sight & Sound (Sunbeam Records).

The copious liner notes should be read by anybody who still holds the delusion Bitches Brew was the first jazz rock album - this record was recorded ~3 years before. The band included some well known jazzers nowadays: Larry Coryell (this was his first recording), Jim Pepper, Bob Moses, Chip Baker & Chris Hills. Their intention was to make music in way they imagined "George Harrison would play John Coltrane" (although Roger McGuinn of the Byrds might be cited as somebody who was visiting that territory). However, they were constrained by pop single market sensibilities as their original label, ABC Records, insisted that The Free Spirits limit the songs recorded to about 3 minutes. In the meanwhile the band would be playing much of the set heard here,  as extended free jazz jams live. And perhaps another surprise is the use of vocals - the weakest element of the record - again in part to satisfy the pop singles market demands. Note: The Free Spirits  worked with Hendrix and Velvet Underground - but alas only in a small way from the CD, do you get  a sense of what they might have sounded live.

As was ABC Records want, this was another one of those albums that got limited promotion in 1967 and just about sinking without trace; (I think of the first Soft Machine Bitches brew album on ABC Probe being treated similarly). On listening to Bitches Brew anybody new to jazz rock might fairly ask why  the label "jazz rock", when  the rock elements are  not immediately obvious, with Out Of Sight & Sound  the use of this latterday tag is  much clearer as soon as you hear the first track. The most marked observation to be made comparing the music and the recording quality of these two albums, is how much more sophisticated the Miles Davis record is: this is what happened when the jazz establishment embraced jazz rock. Out Of Sight & Sound is an album of relevance in the history of jazz rock fusion, but because of the associated recording restrictions, it is a seminal recording made less memorable than it might have been.




Edited by Dick Heath - March 03 2007 at 06:11

Mascodagama wrote: ^^Will you be playing anything from this on the show?  Sounds interesting.

You bet  - earmarked two tracks already for next Thursday to illustrate some of the points I make here. As somebody who is interested in the evolution of certain forms of music, I think this album has some importance to jazz rock's early days and development