Jazz Fusion
190 articles
Ramsey Lewis Trio: Basin Street West, San Francisco CA
Live Review by Philip Elwood, San Francisco Chronicle, 21 October 1965
'In-Crowd' Leader Arrives ...
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, August 1966
IN OUR FEATURE on the Byrds (in the July issue) they credited several sources of unconventional music as influences. They were quite specific about Indian ...
Yusef Lateef: Ronnie Scott's, London
Live Review by Mick Farren, International Times, 28 July 1967
YUSEF LATEEF is at present playing a season at Ronnie Scotts backed by the Stan Tracey Trio. I have always thought of Lateef as one ...
Gary Burton, Larry Coryell: Larry Coryell: Breaking Through The Barriers
Interview by Nick Jones, Melody Maker, 4 November 1967
MM pop writer Nick Jones on the Gary Burton quartet in general — and guitarist Larry Coryell in particular — finds new hope for jazz ...
Live Review by Ian Dove, Billboard, 5 October 1968
Mann Unwraps Big Solid Surprise Pkg. ...
Larry Coryell: Rock Guitarist Moves Along, Shunning the Blues
Profile and Interview by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 25 October 1968
IT SEEMS hard, almost impossible, to become a top rock guitarist without embracing the blues. But Larry Coryell, who is currently appearing at the Scene, ...
George Duke, The Third Wave: The Third Wave, George Duke: Trident, Sausalito CA
Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 12 December 1968
5 Little Girls And Mr. Duke ...
Blood Sweat & Tears: Blood, Sweat and Tears: Blood, Sweat and Tears (CBS)
Review by Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 4 March 1969
BOUND WITH BLOOD AND SWEAT ...
Brian Auger, Julie Driscoll: Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and the Trinity: Fillmore East, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 31 March 1969
BRITISH VISITORS PLAY JAZZY ROCK ...
The Flock: The Flock (Columbia)
Review by Lenny Kaye, Fusion, 17 October 1969
THE FLOCK is a fairly decent horned and guitared conglomerate from Chicago whose blues-based and otherwise eclectic first album is nice in an unobtrusive sort ...
Soft Machine: Fairfield Hall, Croydon
Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 10 January 1970
IT SEEMS to me that this just might be Soft Machine's year. Having done things the unconventional way by finding first fame on the Continent, ...
John McLaughlin, Tony Williams: After Miles comes Tony's Lifetime
Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 17 January 1970
THE IMPORTANCE of the use of rock rhythms by the Miles Davis Quintet is only now beginning to be realised. Like everything Miles does, it ...
Chicago ...Moving From Jazz-Rock To Classical-Rock
Interview by Royston Eldridge, Melody Maker, 31 January 1970
STEVIE WINWOOD'S 'I'm A Man', the 1967 hit for the old Spencer Davis group, has brought the jazz-rock combination of Chicago to the puzzling British ...
Miles Davis, Grateful Dead: Grateful Dead, Miles Davis: Fillmore West, San Francisco CA
Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 10 April 1970
Miles' Marvelous Montage ...
Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 25 April 1970
Miles Davis Stirs Up New Sounds ...
Soft Machine: Ronnie Scott's, London
Live Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 25 April 1970
THOSE WHO imagine that Ronnie Scott is selling out by inviting the Soft Machine to play for a week at his club are in for ...
Miles Davis: What Made Miles Davis Go Pop?
Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 13 June 1970
Richard Williams talks to bassist Dave Holland in New York. ...
Miles Davis: Bitches Brew (CBS 66236)
Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 27 June 1970
Bitches Brew an aural acid trip from Miles ...
Soft Machine: Third (CBS 66246)
Review by Rob Partridge, Record Mirror, 4 July 1970
'Facelift'; 'Slightly All the Time'; 'Noisette'; 'Slightly All the Time'; 'The Moon in June'; 'Out-Bloody-Rageous'. ...
Soft Machine, Robert Wyatt: The Softs, the Proms and drummer Wyatt
Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 5 September 1970
IT'S NOT long since Robert Wyatt announced that he was vacating the drum stool with Soft Machine in order to pursue a career with Kevin ...
Soft Machine, Robert Wyatt: Soft Machine: Inside the Mind of a Machine
Interview by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 2 January 1971
Michael Watts talks to Soft Machine drummer Robert Wyatt ...
Interview by Robert Greenfield, Rolling Stone, 7 January 1971
LONDON – It's the universal riff. When some kid in Laguna Beach finally stops driving all the neighbors crazy with it, a kid sitting by ...
Soft Machine: Gaslight, New York NY
Live Review by Ian Dove, Billboard, 17 July 1971
ORNETTE COLEMAN'S presence in the audience was no coincidence — there's mutual admiration between the CBS group and the avant jazzman. It's also apparent in ...
Larry Coryell: Long Distance Larry
Interview by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 21 August 1971
SINCE HE left Gary Burton and after that four-month stint with Herbie Mann — no one has been in much doubt that Larry Coryell has ...
Miles Davis: A Tribute to Jack Johnson (CBS 70089; £2.19)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 11 September 1971
FOR WELL over two decades of music, trumpeter Miles Davis has remained as one of the few unchallenged innovators and to this day he still ...
John McLaughlin: My Goal's Beyond (Douglas 9)
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, November 1971
THIS RECORD isn't as good as John McLaughlin's first record Devotion. It's pretty damn depressing. ...
John McLaughlin, Mahavishnu Orchestra: John McLaughlin: Man For All Seasons
Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc and Music Echo, 15 January 1972
Meet John McLaughlin the jazz giant, man of God, New York hermit and cult leader ...
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 24 March 1972
EMERSON, LAKE and Palmer, at their Wednesday night Long Beach Auditorium concert, made the tactical error of presenting Tarkus as their first long selection. ...
Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 13 May 1972
"IT'S RIDICULOUS really," said Chicago's composer and keyboard man, Bob Lamm, "Here I am in Hollywood, living in grand style and my parents are still ...
Return to Forever: Chick Corea: Forever Changes
Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 7 October 1972
...
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 13 November 1972
Mahavishnu Headlines Rock Concert ...
Chick Corea, Return to Forever: Chick Corea & Return to Forever: Carnegie Recital Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Dan Nooger, The Village Voice, 14 December 1972
AS THE FIRST in a four-concert series, the Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies presented Chick Corea and Return to Forever last Friday at the Carnegie ...
John Simon, Weather Report: John Simon: Max's Kansas City; Weather Report: Bitter End, New York NY
Live Review by Dan Nooger, The Village Voice, 28 December 1972
AIN'T BLUE NO MORE ...
Comment by Vernon Gibbs, Crawdaddy!, February 1973
CARLOS SANTANA laid his gleamingly new Gibson double electric white lead carefully on the stage of The Academy of Music and the M.C. reverently requested ...
Mahavishnu Orchestra: Birds of Fire (America Columbia — import)
Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 10 February 1973
McLaughlin: the inner flame leaps higher ...
Mahavishnu Orchestra: Birds Of Fire (CBS)
Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 17 February 1973
THE INNER Mounting Flame was a very extreme record: extremely fast, extremely dazzling, extremely lyrical, extremely passionate. If you go along with Robert Fripp's "Head ...
Back Door: Just Who Do Back Door Think They Are?
Profile and Interview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 24 February 1973
ONE OF the peripheral pleasures of a thriving music scene is being able to tell your friends about this great unknown group you've just discovered. ...
Miles Davis: On the Corner (Columbia)
Review by Colman Andrews, Creem, March 1973
IT'S SHORT, punchy, beefy music, taut, untattered (tight) and tautological. Tautological? Yes, because it's internally consistent. It's true to its school. Quel school? Well... ...
Mahavishnu Orchestra, John McLaughlin: John McLaughlin: The Best of All Possible Worlds
Profile and Interview by Martin Hayman, Sounds, 10 March 1973
IT WAS IN the very first-ever issue of this paper that a long article on John McLaughlin appeared, praising him to the skies and honouring ...
Mahavishnu Orchestra: Birds Of Fire (CBS 65321, £2.29)
Review by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 17 March 1973
Mahavishnu more than one degree under ...
Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 5 May 1973
JON HISEMAN is sitting in a Viennese coffeehouse on a bright Sunday morning, and talking about the four-piece rock band he formed earlier this year. ...
Mahavishnu Orchestra: Music Of The Gods
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 23 June 1973
Mahavishnu Orchestra: Free Trade Hall, Manchester ...
Mahavishnu Orchestra: John McLaughlin: Natural High…
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 30 June 1973
WITH A BAND playing music as tense and demanding as the Mahavishnu Orchestra's, one might be forgiven for expecting them to be (a) nerve wracked ...
Mahavishnu Orchestra: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 7 July 1973
A GLIMPSE INTO THE FUTURE ...
Mahavishnu Orchestra, John McLaughlin: The Captain Kirk in John McLaughlin
Overview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 7 July 1973
PART 1: IAN MacDONALD CHARTS THE RISE AND RISE OF THE COLOSSUS OF ELECTRIC GUITAR ...
Mahavishnu Orchestra, John McLaughlin: John McLaughlin: Gimme Dat 11/8 Time Religion
Overview by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 14 July 1973
PART 2: IAN MacDONALD ON THE SPIRITUAL McLAUGHLIN ...
Blood Sweat & Tears: New Sweat
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 18 August 1973
THE WIND of change that spread through Blood Sweat and Tears a year ago is beginning to make itself felt at last. Their forthcoming album ...
Weather Report: Fair Weather Jazz Fans Leave Them Alone
Interview by David Rensin, Rolling Stone, 27 September 1973
PASADENA, CALIF. — "Our music demands everything from the listener," says Josef Zawinul seriously. "Either you love it or you don't — there's no middle ...
Miles Davis: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 24 November 1973
WATCHING MILES Davis and his band perform is a fascinating exercise that provides much food for thought. One goes willing to cast out old ideas ...
John McLaughlin, Mahavishnu Orchestra: John McLaughlin: It Was Natural Evolution
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 2 February 1974
NEW YORK: Although John McLaughlin's decision to disband the Mahavishnu Orchestra came as a surprise in the closing weeks of 1973, further reflections point to ...
Billy Cobham, Mahavishnu Orchestra: Mahavishnu Orchestra: Cobham — it ended in total fiasco
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 2 February 1974
LONDON: Love, peace and perfection are difficult enough to attain in society, let alone in music. ...
Mahavishnu Orchestra: Rick Laird: Why Mahavishnu Is Breaking Up
Interview by Loraine Alterman, Rolling Stone, 28 February 1974
NEW YORK — Rick Laird, former bassist with the now-scattered Mahavishnu Orchestra, said it was a case of too much ego and pride that finally ...
Larry Coryell: Eleventh House: Larry Coryell's Supergroup
Interview by John Swenson, Zoo World, 14 March 1974
ROSLYN, NEW York, 1974. Larry Coryell's Eleventh House returned to My Father's Place, the Long Island club where the band was born six months earlier, convinced that they ...
Live Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 23 March 1974
STRANGE THING about the Return To Forever gig at the Rainbow, and that was that the place seemed fuller than I've ever seen it before. ...
Chick Corea, Return to Forever: Chick Corea's Pop Renaissance
Interview by John Swenson, Zoo World, 11 April 1974
"I GREW UP in a musical environment," states Chick Corea matter of factly as he sits cross legged in the main room of the apartment ...
Brian Auger: Straight Ahead Again
Interview by Michael Gray, Melody Maker, 27 July 1974
BRIAN AUGER has been stomping round the commercial radio stations as part of his duty in promoting his latest album Straight Ahead by the Brian ...
Herbie Hancock, Minnie Riperton: Carnegie Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 12 October 1974
Coarse Hancock ...
Alice Coltrane, Santana: Carlos Santana & Alice Coltrane: Illuminations (CBS)
Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 19 October 1974
SO WHAT did you expect he'd do next? Open a macrobiotic restaurant in Marin County? ...
Hatfield And The North: Hatfield & The North
Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 16 November 1974
IN A LAND and a business where quickfire hype and quickfire playing are adjudged almost twin brothers, Hatfield And The North are very much on ...
Review by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 11 January 1975
IT'S JUST ANOTHER of the great Woodstock fallacies. Let's face it, aside from the Who, Havens, and lovable John B. Sebastian it was those nice ...
Carla Bley, Michael Mantler: Michael Mantler: No Answer; Carla Bley: Tropic Appetites (Watt)
Review by Richard C. Walls, Creem, February 1975
THE TAYLOR-Burton of the avant-garde music set have formed their own record label and on their first two offerings we find Mike taking on that ...
Mahavishnu Orchestra, John McLaughlin: John McLaughlin: Phew! — This is a Jolly Interesting Article!
Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 1 February 1975
— And BOY! has it got a lot in it! First, there's the full gen on Miles Davis, plus all the top-secret stuff about In ...
Chick Corea, Return to Forever: Chick Corea: Playing the Harmonics of a Hotel Ass Cushion
Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 8 February 1975
...among other harmonics of course. The piano man describes the development of his new outlook to BRIAN CASE ...
Larry Coryell: Coryell and Spam... (With Not So Much Miles In It)
Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 22 February 1975
"I'm always secretly happy when somebody comes to me after a concert and says 'I didn't like it because it was too commercial.' It means ...
Soft Machine: Parc des Expositions, Paris
Live Review by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 22 March 1975
PARIS. DEAR Comrade. Here is my report on the delegation of British musicians to the rally of French Communist youth in the Parc des Expositions ...
Alphonse Mouzon: Meet the Seaside Landlady's Nightmare
Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 12 April 1975
Your delicate NME representative cowers under his seat in the hotel lounge while Alphonse Mouzon ('my real name's Manny Finkelbaum') lives up to his heavy rep as ...
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 12 April 1975
THE VERY Famous Tony Williams once included on one of his albums a track entitled 'Some Hip Drum Shit'. ...
Jeff Beck, Mahavishnu Orchestra: Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jeff Beck: Avery Fisher Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 10 May 1975
NEW YORK: The pairing of John McLaughlin and Jeff Beck proved to be a guitarist's delight at the Avery Fisher Hall on Wednesday and Thursday ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 5 June 1975
JEFF BECK SEEMS finally to have figured out that his is not going to replace the great '60s group which bore his name and featured ...
Larry Coryell: Dingwalls, London
Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 12 July 1975
YOU COULD tell it was Jazz night at Dingwalls. ...
Billy Cobham: When This Man Plays Drums, He Thinks Of A Box Trying To Roll
Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 26 July 1975
BRIAN CASE interviews BILLY COBHAM, the Buddy Rich of the seventies. ...
Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 26 July 1975
NAT HENTOFF really should know better. Having, in the past, written liner-notes for the very best (Davis, Trane) he now finds himself eulogising the "scope ...
Supercharge: The Nashville, London
Live Review by Chas de Whalley, New Musical Express, 13 September 1975
SUPERCHARGE CERTAINLY HAVE something to celebrate. They've just signed a five year record contract, and are probably hoping to be very rich one of these ...
Mahavishnu Orchestra: Visions Of The Ever Changing Mahavishnu
Interview by Mick Brown, Sounds, 13 September 1975
The Mahavishnu Orchestra is now a quartet. The frequent structural alterations to the Orchestra may be bewildering to some but to John McLaughlin it's all ...
Stanley Clarke: Return to Love (Nemperor Records)
Review by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, October 1975
BASS PLAYERS are not really famous for standing out in the world of rock. McCartney, of course...Jack Bruce...Bill Wyman sometimes. In Jazz, however, where the ...
Weather Report: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Times, 28 November 1975
MENTION "JAZZ rock" to me in the normal way, and I yawn. The two elements, apparently so close, seem mutually inimical: the fire tends to ...
Wayne Shorter, Weather Report: Wayne Shorter: The Sunny Weatherman
Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 6 December 1975
TO SAY that Wayne Shorter looked happy would be the understatement of the year. ...
Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 13 December 1975
Here's WAYNE SHORTER taking care of business. TCB. And what business — taking in the days with Maynard, the Messengers, and Miles right through to today's WEATHER ...
The Brecker Brothers: Breckers Blow Into The Discos
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 20 December 1975
New York's top sessioneers tell Chris Charlesworth of their personal bid for fame ...
Brand X, Genesis: Collins cleans up with Brand X
Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 10 January 1976
LET'S GET two things very clear at the outset: one, Brand X is a serious, full-time band, not a spare-time excuse for jamming or having ...
Mahavishnu Orchestra: Inner Worlds (CBS 69216)
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 21 February 1976
THE NAKED BODY of John McLaughlin, surmounted by a beaming face, hints, on the album cover, of purity, devotion and honesty. ...
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 27 March 1976
NICE TO SEE Osibisa back in the news and making some chart action after a difficult spell when it seemed they had lost their grip ...
Weather Report: Black Market: Wayne Shorter & Weather Report #6
Profile and Interview by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, April 1976
WEATHER REPORT — the adventuresome, electronically-spiced neo-jazz group founded five years ago by Josef Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, and Mirsolav Vitous, and still co-led by the ...
Profile and Interview by Giovanni Dadomo, Street Life, 3 April 1976
EVERYTHING you ever heard about Minnie Riperton is true about Flora Purim. Truer, in fact, for not only does the 34 year-old Brazilian singer have ...
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 3 April 1976
JON HISEMAN produced this album for Ian Carr, and between them they have certainly got the bite and attack of the current Nucleus without losing ...
Stanley Clarke, Alan White: Stanley Clarke and Alan White: Solo Flights
Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 3 April 1976
Once, when individual members of a band began to make solo albums, it was a sign that the seams were beginning to split a portent ...
Al Jarreau: Ronnie Scott's, London
Live Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 17 April 1976
RIGHT NOW I'm reaching for the ol' Thesaurus, trying to find an original way of saying "unique new talent explodes like a comet on the ...
Osibisa: Fairfield Hall, Croydon
Live Review by Chas de Whalley, New Musical Express, 24 April 1976
ONLY CRITICAL SNOBBERY could deny Osibisa the distinction of having played one of the finest sets I have seen this side of Christmas. On this ...
Colosseum II: Strange New Flesh
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 5 June 1976
THERE COMES a moment during 'Dark Side Of The Moog', when the clamour of the strident arrangement fades away, and Jon Hiseman begins a simple, ...
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 26 June 1976
Rock'n'Roll? Nah, that's kids' stuff ...
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 3 July 1976
SO MANY bands have broken up in the past, or experienced ill-feeling within the ranks because some of the members have felt restricted, tied-down, perhaps, ...
Weather Report: The True US Art Form
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Melody Maker, 31 July 1976
"PEOPLE ARE beautiful everywhere," says Josef Zawinul. "I think a real open person, I don't care what music he is playing, is going to be ...
Weather Report: This Man Is Watching Out For Custard Pies
Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 7 August 1976
It seems most successful artists participate in the ritual — with Presley coming to mind as a particularly adept dodger. Right now, though, we're watching ...
Blood Sweat & Tears: Blood Sweat and Tears: More Than Ever (CBS) ***
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 21 August 1976
BST WERE one of the key bands of the late 60s who began to give rock a respectable musicianly image and yet I've always had ...
Brand X: Band Breakdown : Brand X
Profile and Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 28 August 1976
WHEN YOU consider what a prestige gig of world class it is to play Ronnie Scott's, it may seem surprising, even a touch opportunistic, that ...
Brand X: Ronnie Scott's Club, London
Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 3 September 1976
UNTIL SEPTEMBER 11th, there is a chance to see, nightly, a man who is arguably the most interesting electric bassist working in popular music. His ...
John Handy: Jazzman's new direction
Profile by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 15 September 1976
"HARD WORK," that's what John Handy and his band chanted... Handy blew on the alto sax, the audience at Keystone Korner clapped along in a ...
Profile by Vernon Gibbs, The Village Voice, 18 October 1976
THE LINES that stretched around the block welcoming Al Jarreau to his second New York appearance at the Bottom Line were evidence to his devotees ...
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 20 November 1976
WHEN I sat upon my mother's knee during the years of austerity, being spoon-fed National Health bubble and squeak, and listening to the Light Programme, ...
Stanley Clarke: School Days (Nemperor)
Review by Richard C. Walls, Creem, December 1976
IF YOU'VE heard either of Clarke's two previous Nemperor albums then you're already familiar with the music here. The basic conception remains the same — ...
Return to Forever, Stanley Clarke: Stanley Clarke Returns To Forever (For Now)
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 24 February 1977
NEW YORK — Stanley Clarke sits attentively behind the mixing board in Electric Lady's Studio B, concentrating a dispassionate producer's gaze on Roy Buchanan in ...
John McLaughlin & Shakti: The Bottom Line, NYC
Live Review by Miles, New Musical Express, 30 April 1977
"McLAUGHLIN LOOKS GOOD with long hair," said Nancy. ...
Jan Hammer, Jeff Beck: Jeff Beck & Jan Hammer: More Lively Than Wired
Interview by Fred Schruers, Circus, 9 June 1977
Jeff Beck Explodes With The Jan Hammer Group Live ...
Weather Report: Joni Mitchell? Clark Gable?
Interview by Robin Katz, Record Mirror, 26 November 1977
What have they got to do with JOE ZAWINUL ? ROBIN KATZ finds a connection ...
Carla Bley: The Carla Bley Band: Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti MI
Live Review by Dave DiMartino, Michigan State News, 16 January 1978
Bley makes American debut ...
George Benson: Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London
Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 30 January 1978
A BLACK AMERICAN musician, the leader of a band which sold several million records in 1977, told me last week that the blues are dead. ...
George Duke Reaches for the Sky
Interview by John Swenson, Circus, 2 March 1978
Crossover Success Comes Easily for Keyboardist ...
Chet Baker: You Can't Go Home Again (Horizon)
Review by Richard C. Walls, Creem, April 1978
IN 1953 CHET Baker was jazz's fair haired boy, young white West Coast lyrical soft trumpet player and, with Gerry Mulligan's pianoless quartet, as famous ...
Brian Auger, Julie Tippetts: Brian Auger and Julie Tippetts: Encore
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 22 April 1978
AS REUNION albums go, this is considerably better than The Byrds' album, Booker T and the MGs', The Small Faces' or The Animals', but that's ...
Larry Coryell, Steve Khan: Larry Coryell and Steve Khan: Two For The Road (Arista SPART 1050)****
Review by Hugh Fielder, Sounds, 6 May 1978
LARRY CORYELL'S continuing musical adventures are leading him down a series of unexpected avenues — who he's playing with now is anybody's guess — but ...
Freddie Hubbard: Chokin' On The Eezi Spred...
Interview by Brian Case, New Musical Express, 26 August 1978
FREDDIE HUBBARD tried a slice garnished a la Creed Taylor but the taste proved unsatisfactory. Here's how. ...
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 30 September 1978
"BRAKES ARE locked. The steering is jammed!" Peter Robinson wrestled with the steering wheel as he drove like a Dalek around Bristol City centre last ...
Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 30 September 1978
DESPITE ALL your Weather Reports, Coreas, Dukes and such, Brand X remain the sum total of British jazz-rock to reach what might reasonably be termed ...
John McLaughlin & The One Truth Band: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 14 October 1978
THIS WAS A celebration of John McLaughlin's 25th anniversary as a guitar player — an event similarly rnarked by the recent Electric Guitarist album, which ...
Weather Report: City Hall, Newcastle
Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 14 October 1978
IF YOU spent an evening in the company of some guys and the only word they uttered was 'Goodbye' you might well think they were ...
Interview by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 28 October 1978
THIS YEAR'S Weather Report is twice as nice as last year's. And doubly dodgy. ...
Weather Report: Mr. Gone (Columbia)
Review by Richard C. Walls, Creem, February 1979
I'VE ALWAYS been for labelling music, an unpopular attitude among some critics, some musicians and practically all record companies. The irritating thing about the anti-label ...
Ronnie Laws: Flame (United Artists UA-LA881-H)
Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 4 February 1979
LAWS' FLAME SET ON LOW ...
Jack Bruce: Jack's Sound of 1979
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 24 February 1979
IT SEEMED like the end of an era when we discovered, last week, that Jack Bruce and the Robert Stigwood Organisation have parted company. ...
Narada Michael Walden: Awakening (Atlantic)
Review by Pete Wingfield, Melody Maker, 19 May 1979
SERENE MR WALDEN, Sri Chinmoy disciple and erstwhile drummer with the all-clad-in-white Mahavishnu Orchestra, surely knows which side his cosmic bread is buttered. Seems like ...
Weather Report: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 14 July 1979
Driving with a devil in their tank ...
Live Review by Richard Grabel, New Musical Express, 14 June 1980
NOBODY EXPECTS Public Image Limited to sell massive amounts of vinyl to the American public. So to see the "Sold Out" sign on the Palladium ...
Airto Moreira: the Venue, London
Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 23 September 1980
THAT SOUTH American music should have been the source of vitality and inspiration in jazz that it has over the past decade is due in ...
Interview by Vivien Goldman, New Musical Express, 25 October 1980
"Being poor is not because money doesn’t exist and being rich doesn’t mean you know everything. But in America, art has more to do with ...
Review by Richard C. Walls, Creem, March 1981
THE CONTROVERSY thus far: Pretty is the word you want to use when you talk about Pat Metheny — from his guitar styling to his ...
Pat Metheny Shrugs Off Success
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Rolling Stone, 17 September 1981
NEW YORK CITY — In his salad days as a (barely) postadolescent college instructor, Pat Metheny should have been teaching Healthy Attitudes 101 in addition ...
Donald Byrd and 125th Street, NYC: Love Byrd (Warner Bros K52301)
Review by Paul Sexton, Record Mirror, 17 October 1981
IT'S NOT just love that's come around for Donald Byrd. It's the music scene too, to the healthy state of affairs where he can have ...
Overview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 15 November 1981
PUNK JAZZ? It's hard to imagine a more unlikely musical combination. Punk rock favors short, fast songs and disparages musical technique in favor of "anyone-can-do-it" ...
James Blood Ulmer: Streets, Boston MA
Live Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 19 January 1982
Ulmer builds a pressure cooker ...
A Certain Ratio, Pinski Zoo: A Certain Ratio: Lyceum, London; Pinski Zoo: The Venue, London
Live Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 19 February 1982
WHO WOULD have thought, after it had been received into the White House and on to the Parkinson show, that jazz could ever again become ...
Tom Browne: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 10 April 1982
SWEET THUNDER OF A JIVE JAZZ CAT ...
Ornette Coleman: Of Human Feelings (Antilles)
Review by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 8 May 1982
JUST ONE ORNETTO! ...
James Blood Ulmer: Black Rock (CBS)
Review by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 13 November 1982
BLACK AND BLOOD! ...
James Blood Ulmer: The Bottom Line, New York
Live Review by Richard Grabel, New Musical Express, 5 February 1983
DEMOLITION BLUES ...
Ronald Shannon Jackson: Breaking the Dance Code
Interview by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 19 March 1983
Richard Cook unscrambles the music of Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society — a muzak so mean it could make an everyday breakfast in America quake... ...
Joe Sample: The Hunter (MCA MCF 3164)
Review by Paul Sexton, Record Mirror, 30 April 1983
THE SOLO crusades count for just a little more now that drummer Stix Hooper has apparently fought his last battle with the Crusaders. Joe Sample ...
Paco de Lucia, Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin: McLaughlin/Di Meola/De Lucia: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 20 June 1983
A COMBINATION of John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola and Paco De Lucia — three guitarists in the world heavyweight class — promises a multitude of ...
Al Jarreau: Jarreau (Warner Bros.)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1983
ALTHOUGH POP has always seemed Al Jarreau's destiny, his disposition toward jazz kept getting in the way. It wasn't so much that Jarreau bopped when ...
James Blood Ulmer: Ace, Brixton, London
Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 9 July 1983
A PROTÉGÉ of Ornette Coleman and disciple of Coleman's theory of harmolodics — a musical system of such devious complexity that possible only Coleman and ...
Ronald Shannon Jackson: Fascinating Rhythm: Ronald Shannon Jackson & The Decoding Society
Interview by Don Snowden, LA Weekly, 17 November 1983
IF YOU'VE tapped into the East Coast/intemational jazz press recently, you've no doubt seen Ronald Shannon Jackson touted as "the future of jazz drumming" and ...
Jaco Pastorius: Beverly Theatre, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 23 November 1983
JACO PASTORIUS established himself as the most influential bassist of the late '70s during his extended tenure with Weather Report. But if Sunday night's 90-minute ...
Interview by Steve Roeser, Rock's Backpages Audio, 1984
The out-there guitarist talks about his early musical life; his association with Ornette Coleman; the ups-and-downs of his Columbia Records deal, and his adoption by the New Wave clubs in New York and elsewhere.
File format: mp3; file size: 37.2mb, interview length: 40' 40" sound quality: **
Review by Richard C. Walls, Creem, January 1984
WELL, YOU'RE in luck. Two of the most acclaimed musicians of the neofusion "harmolodic" school (quotes around harmolodic because, word-wise, it's become the "auteur" of ...
Bill Laswell: Baselines (Elektra Musician 60221-1 US Import)
Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 14 January 1984
I HAD HIGH hopes for Laswell's Baselines but large tracts turn out to be a bit of a pain, I'm afraid. ...
Ronald Shannon Jackson & the Decoding Society: Barbecue Dog (Antilles)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 14 January 1984
GOOD ROASTIN' TONIGHT ...
James Blood Ulmer: The Venue, London
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 4 August 1984
IF, AS IT'S often noted, a week is a long time in pop, how long is four years in avant-jazz-funk? ...
Working Week: Shaw Theatre, London
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 4 August 1984
WHILE THE nadir of pop's current dalliance with jazz was reached by the terminal twit who mimed a trumpet solo through a saxophone on Ear-Say ...
Herbie Hancock: Sound-System (Columbia)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, November 1984
DON'T MAKE the mistake of turning up your nose at this because it's "another goddamn rock record." Don't even fall for the line that Sound-System ...
Miles Davis: Teo Macero: Thoughts of Chairman Teo
Interview by Max Jones, The Wire, November 1984
TEO MACERO is best known as the producer of dozens of classic Miles Davis LPs, from Sketches Of Spain to Star People. Here he talks ...
Billy Cobham's Glass Menagerie: Dingwalls, London
Live Review by David Sinclair, The Times, 21 April 1986
WITH HIS explosive playing style and highly developed technique, Billy Cobham earned the dubious accolade among rock audiences, unused to such an advanced jazz playing ...
Last Exit: Bill Laswell's Last Exit: Paradiso, Amsterdam
Live Review by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 31 May 1986
SUCH IS Fourth World Funker Bill Laswell's anonymity that few of us know which of this combo was actually him. It turned out to be ...
Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 14 June 1986
AS if he hasn't got enough on his plate, what with producing Motorhead and Fourth World funking all over the place, BILL LASWELL's gone and ...
Working Week: Ronnie Scott's, London
Live Review by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 6 September 1986
NOW YOU HAS JAZZ! ...
Review by Don Watson, New Musical Express, 11 October 1986
SO, THE last two, troubled decades of Miles Davis — from Voodoo to Tutu, from the blistering frustration of On The Corner to the comfortable ...
Ronnie Laws: Mirror Town (CBS 4S0068 1)
Review by Paul Sexton, Record Mirror, 1 November 1986
ISN'T IT great sometimes when an artist you'd given up for dead comes back to life (almost) as good as before? Ronnie Laws had several ...
Miles Davis: Tutu (Warner Bros.)
Review by Mark Rowland, Musician, December 1986
TUTU IS A pop album. Tutu is a jazz album. Wait, you're both right! Tutu seems unlikely to pry many new converts from either camp, ...
Interview by Steven Rosen, Musician, January 1987
"THE GUITAR is a very difficult instrument to get a great sound on. There's no doubt about it — it takes a lot of years." ...
Review by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 21 February 1987
ASYLUM OF NUMBERS ...
Madhouse: 8 (Warner Bros/Paisley Park)
Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 5 March 1987
OK ROCK SLEUTHS. It's time to hunt for those context clues. Madhouse's debut album, 8, comes our way courtesy of Paisley Park, the custom label ...
Ornette Coleman Explores Old, New
Report and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 25 June 1987
APPEARS WITH HIS TWO BANDS ...
Interview by Richard Cook, The Wire, January 1988
In this rare interview, Europe's leading label boss explains exactly what ECM stands for. ...
Ronald Shannon Jackson, Last Exit: Ronald Shannon Jackson: A Jackson In Your House
Profile and Interview by Mark Sinker, The Wire, January 1988
Lone-star sticksman Ronald Shannon Jackson — the percussive power behind Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Power Tools and Last Exit — plays rough with ...
James Blood Ulmer: Pied Bull, Islington, London
Live Review by Jack Barron, New Musical Express, 30 April 1988
DRUNK ON BLOOD ...
Stanley Clarke Lets His Bass Do the Talking in Solo Album
Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 29 July 1988
STANLEY CLARKE got an offer last year that he couldn't refuse... once he picked himself off the floor. ...
Melvin Gibbs, Power Tools, Sonny Sharrock: Sonny Sharrock & Melvin Gibbs: New York Is Now
Profile and Interview by Mark Sinker, The Wire, March 1990
Guitar and bass tune up for the next wave of sonic assault, from Blind Willie's blues to M-BASE and beyond. Our man behind the amps ...
Sonny Sharrock: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Live Review by David Sinclair, The Times, 18 April 1990
Brash display of showmanship ...
Sonny Sharrock: Ask the Ages (Axiom/Island)
Review by Byron Coley, Spin, September 1991
GUITARIST SONNY Sharrock is best known (or at least most revered) for his work's skronk-fusionist qualities. His massively searing string-attack has been legendary in noise-fan ...
Miles Davis Inspired 4 Decades Of Jazz
Obituary by Geoffrey Himes, Evening Sun (Baltimore), The , 30 September 1991
FEW JAZZMEN are ever identified with even one major innovation in the music. Miles Davis, who died Saturday at age 65, was associated with at ...
Review by Edwin Pouncey, New Musical Express, 12 October 1991
THE JAZZ noise made here is powerful and alluring enough to snare the unwary punter into its ever-thrilling web of sound. ...
Interview by Tony Scherman, Musician, May 1992
The bedroom secrets of a drummer's hands ...
Fred Wesley: Comme Ci Comme Ça (Antilles)
Review by John Morthland, LA Weekly, 14 May 1992
LIKE HIS fellow James Brown alumnus Maceo Parker, trombonist Fred Wesley returns to the jazz of his youth to prove that there is life after ...
John McLaughlin, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Miles Davis: John McLaughlin: God of Fusion
Retrospective and Interview by Colin Harper, unpublished, 1996
Author’s note: I reviewed John’s Cork Jazz Festival gig circa January 1996, and then interviewed him in London shortly after that. Features based on the ...
Interview by Colin Harper, Rock's Backpages Audio, 17 January 1996
The fleet-fingered jazz-rocker looks back to the '60s, through his time with the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Shakti, and fondly remembers his time with Miles Davis, and playing with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck and more.
File format: mp3; file size: 52.3mb, interview length: 57' 09" sound quality: ***
James "Blood" Ulmer: James Blood Ulmer
Interview by Jason Gross, Perfect Sound Forever, April 1998
THOUGH THERE'S BEEN hundreds and thousands of hotshots who vowed to take the guitar to the next level after Jimi Hendrix broke the doors open, ...
Live Review by Lloyd Bradley, MOJO, September 1998
DIGNITY OR DESPAIR: How are these funk giants confronting the present day? ...
Jazzanova: Remixes 1997–2000 (Jazzanova Compost)
Review by Kodwo Eshun, The Wire, November 2000
IF YOU LISTEN forward from mid-90s Adam F to late 90s Shy FX to early noughties Hospital Recordings, it immediately becomes apparent that 'jazziness' in ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001
ONE OF THE new breed of record producers of the '80s and '90s, Laswell regards songs as "an old-fashioned primitive format". He is renowned for ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001
b. 4 January 1942, Yorkshire, England ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Ian Carr, b. 21 April 1933, Dumfries, Scotland; Jeff Clyne (replaced by Roy Babbington); Karl Jenkins (replaced by Dave MacRae); John Marshall; Brian Smith; Chris ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001
b. William Evans, 1920, Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA ...
Bill Laswell, Carlos Santana: Bill Laswell/Carlos Santana: Divine Light (Columbia Legacy)
Review by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, September 2001
IN 1997, PRODUCER Bill Laswell was granted access to Columbia's tape vaults where, using the original masters, he put together Panthalassa, his devoted reconstruction of ...
Wayne Shorter: Barbican, London
Sleeve and programme notes by John Lewis, Time Out, 29 March 2003
Featuring Wayne Shorter — tenor and soprano saxes Danilo Perez — piano John Patitucci — double bass Brian Blade — drums ...
Blood Sweat & Tears: Seeing Through The Past Darkly
Retrospective and Interview by Brian Torff, International Association of Jazz, 2005
HISTORY HAS a strange and highly selective memory. The past seems to lie in shadows with a filtered and distorted prism for a lens, and ...
Miles Davis: Mapping the Sonic Future: Miles Davis' In a Silent Way
Retrospective by Don Snowden, Rock's Backpages, December 2009
IN THE MIDST of all this full-blown industry overkill of the 40th anniversary of this or the expanded deluxe-edition commemorating 25 years of that, one ...
Béla Fleck, Abigail Washburn: Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn
Interview by Bill DeYoung, Connect Savannah, April 2014
FROM LOUIS & Keely to John & Yoko to Derek & Susan, married couples have worked together to give us some of the most interesting ...
Blick Bassy: "I want to expose the dangers of the immigration dream"
Interview by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 9 September 2015
The Cameroonian singer-songwriter draws on figures from Miles Davis to African freedom fighters to produce his soulful, melodic sound — but it wasn't until he ...
Essay by John Lewis, The Guardian, 6 October 2016
A generation of jazz musicians has grown up with hip-hop in its blood. The result is the thrilling reinvention of a genre that has been ...
Thundercat: Gorilla, Manchester
Live Review by Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 26 March 2017
The gifted bassist and Kendrick Lamar sidekick twists fusion, soul and hip-hop into magical shapes. ...
Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 29 March 2017
The prodigious bassist's songs veer between jazz fusion and intimate, soulful pop – augmented live by detours into wild improvisation ...
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