THE LOST TRIDENT SESSIONS

Interesting album, terrible cover-artwork. Who made this? Most Mahavishnu-albums (especially from this period) were beautifully painted by Ashok Chris Poisson. This looks like something of a very cheap discount-cd with some best-of tracks on it. Pity, but probably it's the least essential part of the product itself.

Three of the six pieces on this cd were included on the live-lp 'Between Nothingness And Eternity' from 1972. This material was written in that period, but because the recordings were not finalized yet, the record-company released the live-versions as their 3rd record. Although the live-versions are longer, fuller, more powerful and exciting, those studio-versions do have an excellent sound-quality. The sound-quality that was missing on 'Eternity'. Unfortunately, you can hear clearly that not all the solos are played as they were supposed to be (on the song 'Trilogy' this can be heard clearly) and John McLaughlin intended to add more arrangements to the songs, which never happened because of the perils in the band.

But let me not be too negative about this album, the music on itself is great, as you can expect from an amazing band like this. By the way, years before those tapes were found in the vaults, this album was called 'The Holy Grail of Jazz' by many fans. Even though it's never finished, it's good enough to consider the cd as the lost third Mahavishnu-album. I'm happy to know that the live-album 'Eternity' is getting re-mastered and re-released on cd soon. Hopefully, the live-material is remixed as well.

Album score: (0 - 50 pts.) 1. Dream | 43 / 50 2. Trilogy | 46 / 50 3. Sister Andres | 46 / 50 4. I Wonder | 35 / 50 5. Steppings Tones | 35 / 50 6. John's Song #2 | 40 / 50

Total: 245 / 6 = 40,8 = 4 stars.