Nucleus - Elastic Rock

Nucleus's first, another excellent offering.

"When Carr brought together keyboardist/oboist Karl Jenkins, saxophonist/flautist Brian Smith, guitarist Chris Spedding, bassist Jeff Clyne and drummer John Marshall, established musicians all, to record Nucleus' first record, Elastic Rock , one doubts that he could have envisioned the impact the album would have, not only on the British scene, but on the international stage as well. A few short months after recording their first record they won the top award at the Montreux Jazz Festival and found themselves playing at the Village Gate in New York, to an audience who was wondering exactly what it was they were hearing. And if it weren't for a manager's greediness, Elastic Rock would have seen Stateside release, and the broader history of fusion might have been coloured a different way. But sadly that didn't happen and Nucleus, after an initial flurry of activity on the North American scene, ultimately returned to England where they maintained a successful career there and on the European continent, for the next ten years or so.

From the opening burst of Jenkins' "1916," with its anthemic horn-line supported by Marshall's flurry of activity, it is clear that something new is happening. The album as a whole, while incorporating certain elements of rock rhythms, is a more relaxed affair than what was to come later. If a comparison must be made, then Miles' In a Silent Way is a precedent, although Carr claims not to have heard it at the time of recording, which just continues to reinforce the reality that advances in music come from many sources and usually at the same time. Like In a Silent Way , Carr chose to build side-long continuous suites of music, although there is less reliance on hypnotic groove and more on composed melodies, mostly from the pen of Jenkins, who would write the majority of Nucleus' first two records. And while there are some similarities between the trancelike groove of "Torrid Zone" and "Shhh/Peaceful," there are differences as well. While "Shhh/Peaceful" would rest on a certain ambience for nearly an entire side, "Torrid Zone" would lead into "Stonescape," a more conventional ballad, albeit played with a certain elasticity in time by Marshall. Segueing into "Earth Mother," Jenkins delivers an oboe solo over a group improvisation that, as rocky as it gets, is still relatively subdued compared with their next album, We'll Talk About It Later , which was recorded eight months later in September '70." - John Kelman

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Nucleus - Belladonna

For Sean-E Dawg. Nucleus was a cornerstone of British Jazz Rock, who are largely unsung nowadays, but in the early 70's they released a slew of beautiful, atmospheric Fusion, in the best tradition of Miles' "In A Silent Way" and Bitches Brew", and also Weather Report's first two albums, masterpieces of the genre. The group was led by Trumpet player and Miles biographer Ian Carr, and an impressive number of Brit Jazz luminaries played in it, including some that went to play in Soft Machine's later incarnations. Their post 70's work is forgettable, but at the peak of their powers this group was bringing the hot shit. In this one Allan Holdsworth plays guitar, never on wank mode, providing texture, colour, direction and fury when necessary, but never forgetting this is a groupmind thang.

Personnel:

Bass [Guitar] - Roy Babbington
Drums - Clive Thacker
Engineer - Roger Wake
Guitar - Allan Holdsworth
Percussion - Trevor Tomkins
Piano [Electric] - Dave MacRae, Gordon Beck
Saxophone [Tenor, Soprano], Flute [Alto, Bamboo] - Brian Smith
Trumpet, Flugelhorn - Ian Carr

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Tony Williams' Lifetime - Lifetime: A Collection

Raul asked for some Holdsworth features, and we start with this comp. Be warned: this is far from the Lifetime's best work (which will be uploaded later on) but still better than 90% of the tepid fuzak that was being released at the time, including Pastorius-era Weather Report (sorry Jaco nuthuggers). So here it is.

"This collection, a combination of the two releases Believe It and Million Dollar Legs, features what was known as The "New" Tony Williams Lifetime. Long gone were the original members of the trailblazing group: John McLaughlin, Larry Young, and eventually Jack Bruce. But it was six years later, and Tony was still pushing the concept. Many of his fusion contemporaries were already finding the commercial success that Williams was still searching for. For the most part, Tony was trying too hard to please, and it showed. The two "New" Lifetime records were uneven at best. Parts of Million Dollar Legs are simply unlistenable. But Williams's immense talent and the contributions of the young and exciting guitarist Allan Holdsworth provided a few outstanding performances, among them "Red Alert." Composed by bassist Newton, "Red Alert" is anxious and compelling. In unison, Newton and Holdsworth open with urgent low-register lines. The players step into a higher register and then back again. Williams's insistent pounding is like a rapid heartbeat. Pasqua's electric piano serves as a bit of a salve, as he is not asked to be as demonstrative as his band mates. Meanwhile, Holdsworth lets loose with synthesizer runs. Of course, he was not playing synthesizer! Holdsworth was still in the early stages of his illustrious career, but you could hear in his solos that he was going to be different. "Red Alert" is both a demanding tune for the player and a warning to the listener. Be prepared to be knocked over." - Walter Kolosky

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Miles Davis - Dark Magus

Part one of the "Satanic Miles" trilogy. Pure utter dementia. Two CDs on one file.

"Recorded in concert at Carnegie Hall, on March 30th 1974, Dark Magus is, therefore, both earlier and later than the Get Up With It sessions. But, whilst Get Up With It works hardest to define the new shamanic Miles sound, Dark Magus is probably the most musically concise because it was captured on tape in one single evening of fury. Indeed, of all four double-LPs, Dark Magus is the most tightly drawn and the most mysterious and difficult to fathom. Unyielding and as narrowly defined in its musical parameters as reggae or ska, the music of Dark Magus revealed that Miles was by now so dedicated to the on-the-one rhythm which James Brown had instigated and George Clinton had championed, that even his biggest admirers were having problems following him. Indeed, Dark Magus initially only saw its release in Japan. The wa-guitarists Cosey and Lucas were here joined by a third guitarist, Dominic Gaumont, and all three joined forces with the rhythm trio of Al Foster, Michael Henderson and James Mtume, to unleash a savagery which would not let up for the entire concert. Indeed, sax player Dave Liebman's sleevenotes admit that none of them knew where one piece ended and another began, and Liebman himself believes that Miles only much later gave the music individual titles in order to bring some hint of order to the primordial soupy-ness of the proceedings. I use the phrase "some hint of order" because a hint is really all we get. When I explain that disc one's tracks are "Moja (Part 1)", "Moja (Part 2)", "Wili (Part 1)", and "Wili (Part 2)", you could be forgiven for thinking that it was all a big wind-up intended to confuse us even further. But, when I explain that disc two's tracks are "Tatu (Part 1)", "Tatu (Part 2) (Calypso Frelimo"), "Nne (Part 1) (Ife)" and "Nne (Part 2)", then it becomes clear that Miles was surely intending to cloak the entire trip in some impenetrable mystery. And so it is best to listen to Dark Magus as a whole, preferably on repeat for hours on end. Its fury rarely subsides, and soon the whole of the listening space becomes a shamanic environment where time is meaningless and the world outside is forgotten."- Julian Cope

Tatu

Keith Tippett Group - Dedicated to You, But You Weren't Listening

"A phrase such as "the golden era of British jazz" may seem an oxymoron to some ears. But 1971 was certainly that. The influence of brilliant South Africans - Louis Moholo, Johnny Dyani et al, who had relocated to London to escape the horrors of apartheid - combined with ready hobnobbing between rock and jazz players made for a scene that was as distinctive as it was vibrant.

While Keith Tippett would go on to make a great deal of music with the South Africans, here he was flirting with the rock musicians. He was married to Julie Driscoll, after all, and a year earlier had appeared on the BBC's Top of the Pops playing piano with King Crimson, three of whose albums he appeared on.

Two other Crimson associates, the dazzling cornettist Marc Charig and rambunctious trombonist Nick Evans, are in this band. The saxophonist Elton Dean, then part of Soft Machine, is also here, as is the very soul of that band, the drummer Robert Wyatt. He was about to leave the Softs to form the inestimable Matching Mole, which would feature our own Dave MacRae on keyboards. Another under-acknowledged Antipodean, Neville Whitehead, is on bass, part of a sprawling rhythm section that includes a second bassist (Roy Babbington), two more drummers and a percussionist. The 11-piece band is completed by the rock guitarist Gary Boyle.

Dense, you might deduce, and you'd often be right. Given that Tippett was about to unleash his 56-piece (and sometimes larger) Centipede on the world, however, this is positively airy. Bright sounds are always hurtling forward to scythe through the dark forest of drumming. There's Dean's startling saxello, a variant of the soprano, on which he had a knack of creating impressions of some double-reed curiosity from Afghanistan. Charig's cornet, too, is such a fiery, nimble force that, when combined with the swoops and lewd asides of Evans's trombone, the horns can more than hold their own.

The compositions, typically, veer between being free, jazzy, atmospheric, riff-driven and bizarre. Were newcomers to the album told it was recorded yesterday, they wouldn't blink. Its re-release is a glory for those there the first time round and for fresh adventurers."- John Shand

Mr. Tippett in full on, monstrous kosmigroov mode. More from him (including the ridiculous but sandblasting 100 strong ensemble Centipede) to follow soon.

5 after dawn

Miles Davis - On the Corner

I'll let Dave Clarkson praise this piece of timeless music.

"Frantically kick-starting another period in the forever changing Davis musical psyche and blowing the webs away from several years of cosmic ambience, ‘On the Corner’ served up a heat hazed, down and dirty stew of funk and avant-garde in a glorious cacophonous soul sauce. Simply sizzling in the heat and humidity of the NYC studio it was recorded in, the album is a total masterpiece from beginning to end.

Featuring an all star line up of some of the best jazz musicians this side of Acker Bilk, the music featured on ‘On the Corner’ is executed with attitude, ferocity and with a feeling that this may be the last time they play. The diverse range of musicians gel more than a thick blancmange and the band is as taut and tight as a crabs’ arse. The music contained on this release is three dimensional, nasty and demonic…. Miles runs the voodoo down, down, downtown.

‘On the Corner’ features a wealth of instrumentation, both rich and varied. The percussion and drumming on this recording has obviously been influenced by european avant-garde music such as Stockhausen due to its uniformity and intensity and sounds very much like the rhythm track tape has been cut and looped throughout much of the session to give an almost organic drum machine feeling – no doubt Teo Macero had a field day here. In fact, the master tape sounds like it was cut and pasted in sections – especially with the feeling of being thrown in at the deep end on the first track. (Also, interesting in this direction is that percussionist and later member of Davis’s group, Mtume, is credited on the proceeding live gigs with drum machine). The bass groove from Michael Henderson often sounds looped throughout the record as well. Keyboards featured on the album are played layering upon each other textures of warmth with the music. The reeds section of the band is kept fairly taut and frantic throughout the sessions and the eastern instruments sprinkle the magic spice upon the whole – giving it a far out vibe but never cosmic. The overall sound is evocative of the hustle, bustle and humidity of NYC in unbearable heat.

The most practical way to review this album is to split the review into the three recording sessions which make up the final release – each session featuring slight musician line-up differences:

Session 1: ‘On The Corner’ / ‘New York Girl’ / ‘Thinkin' One Thing And Doin' Another’ / ‘Vote For Miles’. Recorded Columbia studios, New York City : June 1, 1972.. Line-up: Davis (tp) Dave Liebman (ss) Harold Williams (org, syn) Chick Corea (el-p) Herbie Hancock (el-p, syn) Collin Walcott (el-sitar) John McLaughlin (el-g) Michael Henderson (el-b) Jack DeJohnette, Al Foster, Billy Hart (d, per) Badal Roy (tabla).

Never before, or not since, has a musician mixed funk-rock and jazz like Miles does on the opening ‘On The Corner’, which is actually the first four tracks (‘On The Corner’ / ‘New York Girl’ / ‘Thinkin' One Thing And Doin' Another’ / ‘Vote For Miles’) welded together by the rhythmic genius of Jack DeJohnette. A little bit of Sly and a lot of James B are thrown in the melting pot together with echoes of Hendrix and a smattering of Stockhausen for good measure. John McLaughlin plays mean guitar licks and an even meaner guitar solo further on into the piece and Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock offer some great keyboard passages…Nice! Miles’ trumpet playing is incredible on this track, as he spits out piercing notes processed through wah wah as if his life depends on it. This four part epic finally ends in an Indian style with a sitar and a bongo menace fadeout.

Session 2: ‘One and One’ / ‘Helen Butte’ / ‘Mr. Freedom X’. Recorded Columbia Studios, NYC, June 6, 1972. Line-up: Davis (tp) Carlos Garnett (ts) Harold Williams (org, syn) Chick Corea (el-p) Herbie Hancock (el-p, syn) Collin Walcott (el-sitar) David Creamer (el-g) Michael Henderson (el-b) Jack DeJohnette, Al Foster, Billy Hart (d) Badal Roy (tabla).

'One and One' is similar to the previous piece but there is more interaction between the band members. There's a great clarinet solo by Bennie Maupin and some nice playing from the bandleader.

Lasting over 23 (count ‘em!) minutes, 'Helen Butte’/ Mr. Freedom X' is another welded together track and is the longest piece on the album. ‘Helen Butte’ is similar to 'Black Satin,' in rhythmical terms albeit more arresting but the rest of the music is more layered with keyboards and exotic instrumentation. Herbie Hancock is the more apparent instrumentalist on this track with his beautiful Fender Rhodes playing and the piece is nicely capped off with some sweet trumpet phrasing from Miles. ‘Mr Freedom X’ changes the mood somewhat to a darker space before the percussion section thrust themselves forward in the mix and the keyboardists (Hancock and Chick Corea) create the right atmosphere to end the piece.

Session 3: ‘Black Satin’. Recorded Columbia Studios, NYC, July 7, 1972. Additional musicians: Carlos Garnett (ss); Bennie Maupin (bcl) Khalil Balakrishna (el-sitar).

The Eastern sound of the band open ‘Black Satin’ featuring sitar and tabla. This doesn’t last long as DeJohnette quickly establishes a wicked funk before Miles enters the show soon after with his signature style. The track propels itself forward until it eventually closes with the same sitar licks that started the piece. ‘Black Satin’ also features some great overdubbed handclaps and an incredibly catchy trumpet riff. If this track was played on national radio, 24-7, it would probably have bricklayers and office workers the length and breadth of the country whistling the signature tune.

‘On the Corner’ is a motherfunking masterpiece. This unique and innovative recording put the cat amongst the pigeons as far as the jazz elite and critics of the day were concerned. Miles was accused of cheapening the genre and was called the jazz anti-christ in many quarters (and quartets no doubt). This is the album that the jazz purists hated and in doing so, encouraged a new avenue of exploration for Miles. A less focused live album featuring many of the same musicians was released soon after - ‘Miles In Concert’ - (Live at the Philharmonic, NYC, September 1972).

‘On the Corner’ is the sound of a multi dimensionally talented band stood at the crossroads of four musical genres and exploring the next road to venture down. It’s simply awesome in its scope and delivery."

Any questions?

Rated XXX

Electric Masada at John Zorn's 50th Birthday Celebration

For whatever reason, what Miles Davis accomplished with Bitches Brew - arguably the album that put fusion on the map - has never been matched and has rarely been emulated. Fusion and various forms of jazz-rock abound thanks to Miles and other pioneering artists, but the sounds and textures of Bitches Brew remain nearly unique - fusion artists took different directions and, for whatever reason, ended up sounding more directly derived from groups like Mahavishnu Orchestra than the free-form, spacious Bitches Brew-era Miles.

John Zorn's Electric Masada, here recorded at a gig in New York, is one of the few fusion groups that actually sounds a lot like Miles circa Bitches Brew. The group takes seven Masada compositions and turns them into raging, energetic beasts. "Idalah-abal", from Alef, here becomes a ferocious number with Marc Ribot's guitar jamming on an anchoring riff while Zorn flails away at his saxophone. "Hadasha" is the most Bitches Brew-like number, what with Ribot's wah-wah guitar, Zorn's more controlled blowing, and an open, spacious texture. The performances are inspired and inspiring; fitting for the occasion, part of Zorn's massive 50th birthday bash in New York.

Throughout it all, the percussion holds the group together and provides a consistently interesting and controlled backdrop to the sometimes chaotic improvisation (particularly by Zorn and electronics whiz Ikue Mori). With two drummers and a percussionist, the rhythms here are fascinating yet always groovy; for instance lending the last track, "Kisofim", a Latin shuffle kind of feel. With such a reliably interesting rhythm section, Zorn and his cohorts are free to jam into outer space. And jam they do.

If you enjoy fusion a la Bitches Brew - wide-open improvs anchored by a great groove and the occasionally rocking riff (and spiced up, once in a while, by an intensity that compares best to Naked City) - Electric Masada is one of the best things that's come along in the past decade. No exaggeration.

-Brandon Wu

The Lineup: John Zorn, Marc Ribot, Cyro Baptista, Ikue Mori, Joey Baron, Kenny Wollesen, Jamie Saft, Trevor Dunn. Not too shabby. Amazing shit.

Mazel Tov

Magma - 1.001 Degrees Centigrade

Another great fuckin' Magma album (their second), more in the jazz-rock vein of Nucleus or Soft Machine, but with the Magmaesque signature already in place.

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Magma - Live 1975 Paris

Perhaps their best live album (and they have plenty), this behemoth has a 31 minute version of "Kohntark" that leaves pretenders in the dust with its unyielding complexity and ferocity.

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Magma - Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh

They invented their own language. They created an impossibly complex opera across six or seven albums that entailed the destruction of Earth an its impending salvation by a race of benevolent, highly advanced extra terrestrials. They married the emotion and power of Love Supreme with the grandiosity of Stravinsky and Orff and the technique of Mahavishnu. They all dressed equally and wore a huge fucking necklace with their logo. They had a whole genre named after one of their songs. They were demented. They were Magma. Kobaia is de hundin!!

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