There's really nothing better than to discover or unearth an utterly unknown lost classic, as happened so often on Tom's cd reissue wishlist. This rare and expensive album is in the genre of 'spiritual jazz' or perhaps 'spiritual fusion' if such there be, but it's a real beauty on its own terms, full of inventive riffs, excitement, the energy of a large band, and wonderful fusion songwriting-- and so completely unknown!
Here are the full details on this release. Surprisingly for something so rare, it was not a private pressing, but released by LMI records. I'm at a loss as to what song to upload as sample so I just did the first track like I did with Dreamworld - Gates to Eternity (which I will post soon, promise). It's called "I'm just a primitive bebop caveman--" it reminds me of that wonderful old Saturday Night Live skit about the lawyer who was once a frozen caveman but who was thawed back to life played by the late Phil Hartman, which always ended with his crazy lawyerly shenanigans and the ridiculous comment, "Hey, I'm just a dumb caveman, I don't understand any of your crazy civilization, your complicated laws, but I do know one thing: my client is innocent!! " after which the jury would always release the murder suspect to the judge's shock and consternation. Hilarious.
Track A2 is a song by Dennis Kita which travels in the most delightful way between I think A minor and G sharp minor from one line to the next, a really surprising modulation for a song. "Mahad" by Jim Fairs is just pure and blissful fusion energy and happy smashing around like a bus full of drunk pilgrims about to arrive in Compostella or maybe Justin Bieber in a hotel room with his 'posse' and a ton of pot stashed with them, or perhaps Toronto's wonderful mayor Rob Ford in a washroom alone for a few hours in a drunken stupor. The wonderful phrases played by I think saxes and flutes just keep building and building as if a flock of birds were coming out of a clear marsh...
But the best track by far, and clearly the most progressive, is B2's "Rackshasi Hornpipe" which is not the expected ethnic rambling song a la Agitation Free, rather something that clearly could have appeared on a classic french fusion album by Transit Express or french Mosaic (Ultimatum), with its beautiful build from electric guitar arpeggios up to the unison sax-flute melody, and it just keeps building and building in both interest and energy to the end. Stunning you will agree.
Now I'll admit the last track "Christmas in Caracas" is throwaway, for me, because it is exactly that rambling ethnic stuff that I find quite boring-- not only that but if memory serves me (which it rarely does anymore), it stays in only two keys through the whole length, something I find worthy of criminal prosecution for a record like this.
Notice the wonderful credit on the back:
Special thanks to
Dr. Benjamin Robinson
Dr. Benjamin Robinson
I would like to thank him too, for making this just incredibly beautiful lost work of art. Soon I will be able to post an mp3 of it too as well, please be patient as this will turn up eventually. Meantime there are lots more rarities for me to share, don't worry about that either. This first track is by no means the best one on the album, I do hate it when people post the best track and the remainder prove to be disappointing:
It gives me great pleasure to be able finally to introduce you to this masterpiece of funky fusion that is utterly unknown, at last I received permission from The Great Nebula-- that is, he who has shared with me so much wonderful stuff... please thank him for this gem...