BELIEVE IT

This was truly the first time I had ever heard Tony Williams and in fact the first time I had really heard fusion that didn't bore me to death. I had been introduced to Allan Holdsoworth as a pretty young kid from my way older brother who had been studying music in college at the time. The first impression I got of this album was funky hard rockin jazz, but like any true fusion album there's more hidden treasures in the music the more you listen to it.

Though Believe It may not be in the realm of fusion/prog, anyone who enjoys good music and understands the idea of the importance fusion had on progressive rock ie., John Mclaughlin's heavy influence on Robert Fripp, will enjoy and respect the true musical value of this music. Track #1 starts of with Tony Newton's heavy envelope filtered bass in "Snake Oil" leading to the funky rocking of Alan Pasqua's clavinet and Mr. Holdsworth's highly compressed guitar leads.

"Fred" starts of the second track of this album with a few splashes of Tony William's cymbals starting of the atmospheric serenity of the melody, followed by a nice solo by Mr. Pasqua, then erupting into an monster legato fury by Holdsworth.

"Proto Cosmos" is pure fusion here. Genius fluid guitar playing by Holdsworth, and accompanied by Tony Williams polyrhythmic drumming. Mr Williams really shines here.

"Red Alert" has been stated over the years by other musicians that it was one of the most influential songs they had ever heard. This number is rhythymicaly hard and heavy, the whole band kicks butt. Check out you tube online and you can check out these guys jamming in 9/22/76 in Village Gate,NYC.

"Wildlife" starts off as a relaxing beautiful tune, and then the guitar comes in enhance the mood, halfway into the things kick up a bit with a electric piano solo and some nice bass work by Tony Newton.

And last but not least we have "Mr. Spock". The more I listen to this one, the better it gets. Everyone in the band has a chance to shine on this one. It's very unperdictable. Most importantly this album introduced me into the genius guitar playing of Allan Holdsworth. I became one of his number one fans because of this music. IMO it's not only some of his best playing but the tone he had back in the seventies with Lifetime, Bruford, Soft Machine just seemed to be quite edgier. A Masterpiece