Jazz Archives

Get Up With It was Miles' last studio album before he took a long break, and shows him at the absolute apex of his mid-70s creativity. All the elements he had been experimenting with are here, crazy psychedelic guitars, Stockhausen influenced attempts to stretch time and space, futuristic polyrhythmic African grooves and bizarre, almost satirical de-constructionist takes on common blues, funk and rock licks all combine to make an album that was way ahead of it's time in the mid-70s, and still sounds modern to this day.
Songs like Rated X and Mtume stand out with their polyrhythmic wall of wah-wah guitars, percussion, bass and distorted organ recreating a futuristic psychedelic yet somewhat traditional African music. On Honky Tonk the band stretches common funk riffs into pointillist abstraction by slowing down the time and leaving a lot of space between their interactions. Maiysha opens with a loungey latin groove that becomes strangely unsettling and menacing before the song eventually breaks into a harsh blues riff played at a numbingly slow tempo while psychedelic guitar wizard Pete Cosey's solo sounds like it was recorded on a tape that was underwater and slipping badly, this is absolute de-constructed blues from beyond hell.
Another stand-out track is Calypso Frelimo, this song takes up side three as it winds itself through different sections before it ends with a chaotic, almost punkish, double-time African jam that has gutarists Cosey and Reggie Lucas trading harsh distorted psych-funk licks with weird repeated spaghetti western type melodies. This totally bizarre song always has something new to hear in it's thick collage of almost incongruos sounds.
Probably the best song on the album, and the most prophetic and forward looking, is He Loved Him Madly, a lengthy improvisation which takes up all of side one. On this cut Miles presents two guitars, flute, bass, drums and percussion playing a patient and slow unfolding of musical events that is part Stockhausen and part raga before the percussion kicks in. Anywhere from ten to twenty years ahead of it's time, this song would pre-date much of the ambient, new-age and trip-hop music that would follow in it's wake. Brian Eno has often praised this song for what an effect it had on his own musical direction.
It is really hard to describe this album and do it justice, words like rock and funk etc could apply to millions of albums, but there is no album like this one, fueled with a malicious sense of mischief, a dark sarcastic sense of humor and tempered with a deep love for music, and a love for those that feel as strongly about music as he does, Miles produced an absolute masterpiece, an album that never could, nor never will be repeated.

1. He Loved Him Madly (32:20)

2. Maiysha (14:56)

3. Honky Tonk (5:57)

4. Rated X (6:53)

5. Calypso Frelimo (32:10)

6. Red China Blues (4:10)

7. Mtume (15:12)

8. Billy Preston (12:35)

- Miles Davis / trumpet

- Steve Grossman / soprano saxophone

- John McLaughlin / electric guitar

- Keith Jarrett / electric piano

- Herbie Hancock / clavinet

- Michael Henderson / bass guitar

- Billy Cobham / drums

- Airto Moreira / percussion

- Miles Davis / organ

- Cedric Lawson / electric piano

- Reggie Lucas / electric guitar

- Khalil Balakrishna / electric sitar

- Michael Henderson / bass guitar

- Al Foster / drums

- James Mtume Foreman / percussion

- Badal Roy / tabla

- Sonny Fortune / flute

- Carlos Garnett / soprano saxophone

- Miles Davis / trumpet, electric piano, organ

- Dave Liebman / flute

- John Stubblefield / soprano saxophone

- Pete Cosey / electric guitar

- Reggie Lucas / electric guitar

- Michael Henderson / bass guitar

- Al Foster / drums

- James Mtume Foreman / percussion

- Miles Davis / trumpet, organ

- Dave Liebman / soprano saxophone, flute

- Sonny Fortune / flute

- Pete Cosey / electric guitar

- Dominique Gaumont / electric guitar

- Michael Henderson / bass guitar

- Al Foster / drums

- James Mtume Foreman / percussion

Recorded in 1973 as a foray away from the Modern Jazz Quartet, Milt Jackson's second entry on the CTI label is also one of its highlights. This is one of Creed Taylor's finest productions both in terms of material and sidemen. Drummer Steve Gadd, flutist Hubert Laws, bassist Ron Carter, and pianist Cedar Walton accompany Jackson on the majority of the album. Indeed, Jackson's ability to swing funky is evidenced to delightful extremes on "Old Devil Moon," with a rolling cymbal shakeout from Gadd, whose rim shots and tempo-pushing musculature are a sharp contrast to those of the MJQ's Connie Kay. Likewise, Laws, whose playing is usually over the top, stays inside melodic nuances here and provides Jackson with an essential harmonic foil. And Ron Carter is playing throughout with a popping edge he never had before or since. On Jackson's own SKJ, recorded in December of 1972, Don Sebesky conducted a jazz orchestra for Taylor that included Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Billy Cobham, Carter, a string section, a reed and woodwind and brass section, and a harp. Sounds sticky, eh? Hardly, Jackson is pure Bags here, playing it blue-black and rolling out around the ends of the turnarounds into deep, funky, post-bop terrain.
The orchestra is mixed way down and is added for texture so the sextet is what one hears most -- along with a burning Freddie Hubbard solo. The other number of real note here is a ripping rendition of Horace Silver's "Opus de Funk," which sprawls the slim harmonic edge, rolls it out on a carpet, and turns it inside on itself, before rolling through the blues to move the intervals into a sequence Silver might not have considered when he wrote it, but which Jackson reveals was in there all the time.

:::Review by Thom Jurek:::

Milt Jackson - Goodbye (1973)

1. Detour Ahead
2. Goodbye
3. Old Devil Moon
4. SKJ
5. Opus De Funk

Credits
Drums - Billy Cobham, Steve Gadd
Flute - Hubert Laws
Piano - Cedar Walton, Herbie Hancock
Vibraphone - Milt Jackson

The Billy Cobham's FUNK-BRASS Album
Right from the start, Billy Cobham's jazz fusion take was mainly funk inflected, so it's no surprise that with time he would play even funkier stuff than before. Now Billy is accompanied with a whole set of brass players, among them there's the famous saxophonist Michael Brecker, so the keyboards and guitar that were in his debut an important part of the music, now they're simply another part of the big picture.
The music is rather accessible, but not yet mainstream jazz funk as you would have thought. The brass players support the main melodies and various solos throughout, and the tempo throughout is rather rapid, unlike the more tranquil and jazzier Crosswinds.
The first five tunes are all excellent straight-forward jazz funk tunes with all the aspects I mentioned before. The sixth track however, entitled wrongly 'A Funky Kind of Thing', is a 9 minute drum performance, ultra-boring if you're not fond of out-of-place drum soloing. The last track though, called 'Moody Modes', introducing itself with Milcho Leviev's elegant keyboards, is by all means the best composition in this album, lasting 12 minutes, the trumpet playing is simply gorgeous and how the composition develops, it's incredible, probably one of Cobham's greatest arrangements.
Despite the last grandiose composition, the album overall is simply good brass-led jazz funk that is fun and all, but not the most rewarding of Cobham releases neither of fusion in general, actually, any of Cobham's previous efforts are better than this and so is the following one, Life & Times.
3 stars: solid album, still not repeating ol' formulas, but yet not quite there as some of Billy's other works. Get this after you've listened to the four previous albums, including the live Shabazz. If you're fond of jazz funk though, I highly recommend you this.

:::Review by The Quiet One:::

Billy Cobham - A Funky Thide Of Sings (1975)

1.1. Solo 0:16
1.2. Panhandler 3:50
Written-By - Billy Cobham
2. Sorcery 2:26
Written-By - Keith Jarrett
3.1. Solo 0:17
3.2. A Funky Thide Of Sings 3:23
Written-By - Billy Cobham
4.1. Solo 0:11
4.2. Thinking Of You 4:12
Written-By - Alex Blake
5. Some Skunk Funk 5:07
Written-By - Randy Brecker
6. Light At The End Of The Tunnel 3:37
Written-By - Billy Cobham
7. A Funky Kind Of Thing 9:24
Written-By - Billy Cobham
8. Moody Modes 12:16
Written-By - Milcho Leviev

Credits
Arranged By - Alex Blake (tracks: 4.2) , Billy Cobham (tracks: 1.2, 3.2, 5 to 7) , Milcho Leviev (tracks: 2, 8) , Randy Brecker (tracks: 5)
Bass - Alex Blake
Congas - "Rebop" Kwaku Baah (tracks: 1.2, 3.2)
Guitar - John Scofield
Keyboards - Milcho Leviev
Percussion, Synthesizer - Billy Cobham
Saxophone - Larry Schneider (tracks: 3.2) , Michael Brecker (tracks: 1.2, 2, 4.2 to 8)
Trombone - Glenn Ferris (tracks: 3.2)
Trombone [Piccolo] - Glenn Ferris (tracks: 1.2, 2, 4.2 to 8)
Trumpet - Randy Brecker (tracks: 1.2, 2, 4.2 to 8) , Walt Fowler (tracks: 3.2)

After years on the road with the Modern Jazz Quartet and a series of sterling solo and all-star jazz performances, vibist Milt Jackson decided it was time to see some green. Watching kids half his age, possessing half his talent, earn millions playing rock, he insisted he could earn more without the restraints of the MJQ. He sought out Creed Taylor in 1972 and Sunflower became his first (and best) of three CTI albums. The album is significant in many ways, not the least of which is Pete Turner's lovely ostriches-in-the-morning cover photo and a peerless version of Freddie Hubbard's classic ode, "Little Sunflower."

Jackson is joined here by an outstanding aggregate of younger all-star musicians including Hubbard on trumpet and flugelhorn, Herbie Hancock, swapping chores on piano and Fender Rhodes, Ron Carter (of course) on bass and Billy Cobham on drums. Don Sebesky provides the subtle, and quite complimentary, string and horn arrangements. Acoustic guitarist Jay Berliner is also heard to enchanting effect on Jackson's "For Someone I Love." In addition to the alluring beauty of Hubbard's title track, Sunflower also includes one of the best instrumental versions of the popular "People Make The World Go Round." Hubbard carries the tune (as he did on the 1972 Hollywood Bowl record issued by CTI in 1977). Jackson scores one clever lick after another off the changes. Hancock comps seductively on Rhodes but gives one of his baddest-ever all-piano funk solos (his piano solo on "Sunflower" is a jazz beauty to behold too). Carter, as you'd expect, churns the groove like it boils in his blood. This quintet sounds so good together that it's a shame "SKJ" (which stuck out originally on the vibist's 1973 CTI follow-up, Goodbye ) is the only bonus track available. I don't know if Milt Jackson made any money from Sunflower. But despite all the great music he's made over the years, Sunflower is certainly one of his most memorable.

:::Review by Douglas Payne:::

Milt Jackson – Sunflower (1972)

1. For Someone I Love 10:20
2. What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life? 7:06
3. People Make the World Go Round 8:28
4. Sunflower 10:01
5. SKJ 6:47

Credits
Alto Flute, English Horn, Oboe - Romeo Penque
Bass - Ron Carter
Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Alto Flute, English Horn - George Marge
Drums - Billy Cobham
Flute, Alto Flute, Piccolo, English Horn - Phil Bodner
Guitar - Jay Berliner
Harp - Margaret Ross
Percussion - Ralph MacDonald
Piano - Herbie Hancock
Trumpet, Flugelhorn - Freddie Hubbard
Vibes - Milt Jackson

Freddie Hubbard's fourth CTI recording (and the second one with Don Sebesky arrangements) certainly has a diverse repertoire. In addition to his originals "Povo" and "Sky Dive" (both of which are superior jam tunes), the trumpeter stretches out on the theme from The Godfather and Bix Beiderbecke's "In a Mist." The charts for the brass and woodwinds are colorful; there is a fine supporting cast that includes guitarist George Benson, Keith Jarrett on keyboards, and flutist Hubert Laws; and Hubbard takes several outstanding trumpet solos.

:::Review by Scott Yanow:::

Freddie Hubbard - Sky Dive (1972)

1. Povo (12:33)
2. In A Mist (7:04)
3. The Godfather (7:21)
4. Sky Dive (7:40)

Credits
Arranged By - Don Sebesky
Bass - Ron Carter
Clarinet - George Marge , Romeo Penque
Clarinet [Bass] - Phil Bodner
Conductor - Don Sebesky
Drums - Billy Cobham
Engineer - Rudy Van Gelder
Flugelhorn - Marvin Stamm
Flute - Hubert Laws
Flute [Alto] - Hubert Laws , Romeo Penque
Flute [Bass] - Hubert Laws
Guitar - George Benson
Oboe - Romeo Penque
Percussion - Airto , Ray Barretto
Piano - Keith Jarrett
Piano [Electric] - Keith Jarrett
Producer - Creed Taylor
Trombone - Garnett Brown , Wayne Andre
Trombone [Bass] - Paul Faulise
Trumpet - Alan Rubin , Freddie Hubbard
Tuba - Tony Price

Coryell had no problems attracting interest for this new project and recruited four exceptional musicians who all, at on time or another, had played with maestro Miles. Guitarist John McLaughlin was a perfect sparring partner. McLaughlin, who had just arrived from Europe, was playing with the newly formed jazz-rock outfit Tony Williams`Lifetime and had also played on the " Bitches Brew " sessions and, like Coryell, he had jammed with Hendrix and shared Coryell`s interest in certain aspects of rock music. Drummer Billy Cobham had already made his mark and in addition to playing briefly with Miles he had apprenticed in US Army bands and played on recordings by Horace Silver and George Benson. Bassist Miroslav Vitious had played with Miles while keyboardist Chick Corea had just joined Miles`band.
While "Spaces" has been frequently referred to as the purveyer of `70 fusion ( and this may be true to a point ) it is more of a jazz record than anything. It didn`t sound like any jazz record up to that point but has probably been referred to as the forerunner of fusion because the individual musicians went on to form or become part of the heavyweight fusion groups of the `70s, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report, Return To Forever and Coryell`s own fusion group The Eleventh House. Nonetheless, unquestionably " Spaces " was certainly the embryo from which fusion blossomed.
The album, in it`s short 36 minutes and 42 seconds covers many points on the jazz spectrum. An ominous bowed bass passage from Vitous introduces the title track, " Spaces ( infinite ) " which develops into an atonal guitar exchange between Coryell and McLaughlin and certainly the high point of the work. Subtle psychedelic undertones can be heard but there`s no overkill and it is by far the " rockiest " piece on the album with some use of distortion. " Rene`s Theme" while exluding the rythmn section is more than adequately compensated for with the frenzied bop-like rythmn patterns on behalf of both guitarists on this acoustic track which blends elements of Coltrane and Django who were big influences on both guitarists. To those unfamiliar with the guitarists` playing at the time ( and both had found their distinctive voices by 1969 ) it might be hard to discern who is playing what but not to worry the liner notes solve this problem. In General, Coryell does most of the soloing ( hey he`s allowed, it`s his record OK ) while McLaughlin provides well timed rythmn inserts. An example of Coryell`s insane soloing can be found on " Wrong Is Right" where he let`s loose with a lightning speed silent barrage which would defy any guitar player`s immagination. Two of the more pensive pieces on the album also feature some interesting experimentations. " Gloria`s Step " is introduced by another bowed bass passage from vitous and at first on might think it`s a cello playing. " Chris ", which is obviously a Bill Evans inspired piece, features Chick Corea on electric piano. His playing here is both poetic and enticing and imerses the listener into an almost surealistic pleasurable dream which complement Coryell`s rising and falling guitar ideas. A mention also should be made of Cobham who pulses his way along with the group and fits in so perfectly sometimes you forget he`s there because of some of the grooves he gets into.
Nothing really peaks on " Spaces " and while lacking the razzle dazzle of the fusion bands it inspired, it relies on raw in-your-face sincere playing on behalf of all the musicians with only minimilistic use of volume & distortion. No studio tricks or wah wah pedals here folks. If you`re expecting an amps turned to eleven last man standing guitar battle royale then you`l have to look to other avenues. What you get here is two young virtuoso guitarists interacting beautifully who obviously have respect for each other`s respective talents. By a long shot one of the more challenging jazz albums ever recorded and even if it runs a mere 36 minutes+ it seems like an eternity. Perhaps not the best starting point for one wishing to explore the musical mind of Larry Coryell but if you`re looking for something adventurous you`ve come to the right place with " Spaces". Fusion before fusion. Precious. 5 stars what else.

:::Review by Ian Gledhill:::

Larry Coryell – Spaces (1969)

1. Spaces ( Infinite ) ( 9:16 )
2. Rene`s Theme ( 4:06 )
3. Gloria`s Step ( 4:29 )
4. Wrong Is Right ( 9:00 )
5. Chris ( 9:31 )
6. New Year`s Day In LA, 1968 ( 0:20 )

Credits
Larry Coryell / guitars
John McLaughlin / guitars
Chick Corea / electric piano
Miroslav Vitous / double bass
Billy Cobham / drums

The first Mahavishnu Orchestra's original very slim catalog was padded out somewhat by this live album (recorded in New York's Central Park) on which the five jazz/rock virtuosos can be heard stretching out at greater length than in the studio. There are only three selections on the disc, all of which were to have been on the group's then-unissued third album -- two of them, guitarist John McLaughlin's "Trilogy: Sunlit Path/La Merede la Mer" and keyboardist Jan Hammer's "Sister Andrea," are proportioned roughly as they were in their studio renditions, while the third, McLaughlin's "Dream," is stretched to nearly double its 11-minute studio length. Each develops organically through a number of sections, and there are fewer lockstep unison passages than on the earlier recordings. McLaughlin is as flashy and noisy as ever on double-necked electric guitar, and Hammer and violinist Jerry Goodman are a match for him in the speed department, with drummer Billy Cobham displaying a compelling, raw power and dexterity to his work as well, especially on the CD edition, which also gives bassist Rich Laird a showcase for his slightly subtler work. Yet for all of the superb playing, one really doesn't hear much music on this album; electricity and competitive empathy are clearly not enough, particularly on the 21-minute "Dream," which left a lot of fans feeling let down at the end of its side-two-filling run on the LP. In the decades since this album was released, the studio versions of these three pieces, along with other tracks being worked up for their third album, have appeared as The Lost Trident Sessions -- dating from May and June of 1973 -- thus giving fans a means of comparing this repertory to what the band had worked out (or not worked out) in the studio; and Between Nothingness and Eternity has come up a bit in estimation as a result, benefiting as it does from the spontaneity and energy of a live performance, though even that can only carry this work so far -- beyond the personality conflicts that broke up the band, they seem to have been approaching, though not quite reaching, a musical dead end as well.

1. Trilogy (The Sunlit Path / La Mere De La Mer / Tomorrow's Story Not The Same) (12:01)

2. Sister Andrea (8:22)

3. Dream (21:24)

Bass - Rick Laird

Drums - Billy Cobham

Guitar - John McLaughlin

Piano & Moog - Jan Hammer

Producer - Murray Krugman

Violin - Jerry Goodman

Recorded in august of 1973, in Central Park by location. Sound by Dawson. Engineered by Tim Geelan.

Produced by Murray Krugman and Mahavishnu John McLaughlin.

All compositions by John McLaughlin, except "Sister Andrea" by Jan Hammer.

This is Billy Cobham's third solo recording under his own name and is a fine follow-up to Crosswinds. The mini-suite "Solarization" not only showcases the band's technical abilities, but also Cobham's strong compositional skills. It also features a schizophrenic piano solo ("Second Phase") from the underrated pianist Milcho Leviev, who sounds like a mutation of Cecil Taylor and Bill Evans. The funky "Moon Germs," on which John Abercrombie is pushed to inspiring new heights, became a Cobham classic. "The Moon Ain't Made of Green Cheese" is a beautiful flugelhorn solo by Randy Brecker backed by Cobham's debut on piano. The band stretches out on the lengthy "Sea of Tranquility," while "Last Frontier" is a gratuitous drum solo. This recording is highly recommended as Cobham still sounds inspired.