PLANET END

Again graced with a Jacques Wyrs artwork, this album is a bit of a pot-pourri mixing Eleventh House tracks with some other tracks that seemed to come out of the Spaces sessions (same line-up anyway) and a solo guitar piece.

Indeed the Mouzon-penned Cover Girl could easily come out of Eleventh House's debut album (it could've replaced advantageously Coryell's guitar track Gratitude) with its mid-MO mid-WR feel. The only thing missing is Brecker's trumpet, here replaced by M Lawrence's, but it's simply not the same. Ditto for the Brecker-written Rocks, which would've easily replaced the boring Dream theme on the debut album.

The Vitous-McL-Cobham-Corea tracks are indeed reminiscent of Spaces (the track, more than the album) back from 69. The 11-mins+ Tyrone is a pure scorcher, a torrid piece of electrified jazz (but not really jazz-rock) where everyone surpasses their own boundaries, but at the risk of bordering the cacophony at times, fortunately not often. At times the track is reminiscent of Tony Williams' Lifetime (this is a Larry Young track, after all) as well. The closing title track is also a fine electrified jazz, where unfortunately Cobham does a drum solo, thankfully not long,

The Eyes Of Love could also be coming from Spaces & here, LC plays all the instruments himself. A weird mix of two LC era in one album, Planet End is indeed good enough to get that fourth track, although I am not calling it essential as opposed to EH's debut. Up to your tastes, really!!!

An album with a most impressive list of collaborators!

1. "Cover Girl" (5:38) Larry and company with new and more electronic effects. (8.75/10)

2. "Tyrone" (11:38) impressive performances from a lineup of Jazz-Rock Fusion's All-Time Greats (John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Billy Cobham, Miroslav Vitous, and of course, the Godfather of Fusion himself) on a song that never really invites the listener in. Eleven-and-a-half minutes is a long time to be sitting on the outside looking in, listening and waiting, hoping to get the magic ticket into the inneren Sanktum. But, for me, at least, it never comes. (17.5/20)

3. "Rocks" (4:48) the most melodic and yet most traditionally-jazz start to any song on the album, but then it takes off and speeds down the autobahn at breakneck speeds with all the abandon of a top-notch jazz-rock band that is intent on impressing. Nice funk coming from Mike Mandel's Fender Rhodes and some awesome semi-muted trumpet from Mike Lawrence. I really like this Randy Brecker composition. (So, where was Randy when his song was being recorded?) (9/10)

4. "The Eyes of Love" (3:21) an acoustic guitar piece that includes multiple tracks all performed by Larry. Nice even if it is a little more on the Hendrix & Bayou bluesy side for my likes. (8.875/10)

5. "Planet End" (8:45) back to the same combo of all-stars from the album's second song, "Tyrone," including Billy Cobham, Miroslav Vitous, and John McLaughlin. Since Larry and Miroslav get the initial leads we get to hear the wonderfully-creative chord-play of the Mahavishnu in the role of accompanist. As always, I find myself far more intrigued by John's "rhythm" guitar work than anyone else trying to solo or drive the song from the rhythm section. As a matter fact, there is a frame in the fourth minute where it feels as if drummer Billy Cobham actually loses his connection with the rest of the players! (Maybe he dropped a stick, cuz right after he gets back up to speed and really shows some amazing chops!) (17.5/20)

Total Time 34:10

To my ears and brain, this album feels like the dumping ground for a lot of "extras"--songs that failed to make other albums and were here collected, dusted off, merged onto one tape, and published. Nice performances by some very skilled and proficient jazz-rock fusion all stars but, ultimately, lacking any music or melodic in-roads for the Whereas the previous Larry Coryell album that I reviewed was one of my favorite and most enjoyable listening experiences in a long time, this album has set me back once again in my journey to love and enjoy the music and guitar playing of Larry Coryell, this album experience was more akin to those I've had in response to listening to Bitches Brew, Emergency!, or even the first Mwandishi album--too founded in the (still) foreign language that was 1960s Hard Bob jazz.

B/four stars; a solid display of jazz-heavy Jazz-Rock Fusion that sounds as if it comes from the earlier days of the movement rather than a true 1975 album would/should be; an album that is as dense and inaccessible to the ignorant outsider as any Hard Bop 60s album.