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

40 Year Itch: Birds of Fire Cracks The Top 20

[Purchase]

Mahavishnu Orchestra's fusion-istic  follow-up to the #11 charting Inner Mounting Flame, Birds of Fire cracks the Tops 20 at #19 on March 31st , 1973 on its way to #15. Guitarist and sole composer John McLaughlin said of his road-tested band "We were on a wave, we were experiencing a success that was unforseen, and we were making light-year jumps in terms of playing together, developing new ways of playing."



   Birds of Fire offers listeners some of the loudest and most rocking fusion on the planet ("One World", "Biurds of Fire") as well as delicate numbers ("Thousand Island Park") that probably offered a map for where most jazz fusion wound up going. "Miles Beyond" is dedicated to Miles Davis with whom Mclaughlin once played. Incredible dynamics! With both McLaughin and ( on "One World")  drummer Billy Cobham especially shining.