Showing posts with label John McLaughlin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John McLaughlin. Show all posts

Saturday, October 19, 2013

40 Year Itch : Creem Magazine's Top 10 Jazz Albums of 1973



Creem Magazine readers clearly prefer jazz with rock song structure so their Top 10 reads like a Who's Who of fusion ..minus anything with funk overtones like Headhunters or Donald Byrd. At the end of the list see Downbeat Magazine's list.

10. 

Considered by many at the time as the best guitarist in the world


9.


Brazilian crossover artist hit the Top 20 Billboard album charts with Deodato 2


8.



Two John Coltrane covers on this lp by Sir Chinmoy devotees

7.


A year after Last Tango in Paris , the Argentinian sax player returns home


6.


Jarrett's first album for Impulse! is out of print


5.


Deodato's first US album featuring the #2 single, a funky take on the 2001 theme "Also Sprach Zarathustra"


4.


It was an album before it was a group.


3.


Weather Report's fourth album and the last to feature founding bassist Miroslav Vitous.


2.

Mahavishnu drummer recorded debut with Jan Hammer and future Deep Purple guitarist Tommy Bolin.

1.


Loud rocking and then delicate fusion . A road map for every other jazz fusion band out there.


DOWNBEAT'S TOP JAZZ ALBUMS OF 1973

CRITICS POLL ( tied)


Tyner plays keyboards like they are African percussion instruments



Charlie Parker disciple got more experimental as the years went by


READERS POLL



Wednesday, July 31, 2013

40 Year Itch : Those We Missed July 1973



 


10cc's playful debut spawned four singles in the UK ( the #1 "Rubber Bullets" and #2 "Donna" among them). One of the weirdest art pop bands of its day, 10cc's entire catalogue from here to Bloody Tourists is worth owning.








Although it's home to "Knockin' On Heavens's Door" ( US #12), this soundtrack of mostly instrumentals makes for nice background listening and that's it. And why would you by a Dylan album that you didn't want to really listen to?






Fusion doesn't get more furious than on this 5-track album from Carlos Santana and members of the Mahavishnu Orchestra ( as well as Stanley Clarke of Return to Forever and Larry Young of the Tony Williams Lifetime). It's not a particularly easy listen , but the album went gold anyway.




 


No band went through more stylistic changes than this Dutch group which formed in 1961. (Their Beatlesque stuff is pretty great!) Twelve years later, Moontan  and its single "Radar Love" broke Golden Earring in the US where they toured with the Doobie Brothers and Santana. Album closer "The Vanilla Queen" is a classic rock track for disc jockeys needing a pee break. "Just Like Vince Taylor" sounds like something the Del Lords would have put out in 1984.








Prone to disenchantment, Cat Stevens left behind his hit making era with Foreigner, an album featuring a  side long suite and some prog rock and funk experimentation. Tedious but it still went gold.








After years of playing and arranging for Bette Midler and singing and writing commercial jingles, Barry Manilow signed with Bell and released his first album. "Could It Be Magic" was a #6 hit in 1975 . But the real surprise here is the rocking tune "Flashy Lady".