Tony Williams - "Emergency!" (1969) @320


During Tony Williams' stint with Miles Davis, he displayed an unparalleled mastery of time and texture, suggesting at once the meter-less pulsations of Milford Graves and Sonny Murray, and the polyrhythmic swing of Max Roach, Art Blakey and Philly Joe Jones. The Davis rhythm section (Williams, bassist Ron Carter, pianist Herbie Hancock) learned to superimpose fresh harmonies and rhythms on top of a flexible basic pulse, driven along by the drummer's percolating hi-hat. And when the band broke up, each member gravitated towards some aspect of the emerging new pop music: The Beatles, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix. And if Herbie felt the funk, Tony wanted to rock, and to that end he formed the most slamming, freewheeling organ trio in the history of jazz.

Emergency!, and its companion, Turn It Over, are about as good as it gets. Completely groundbreaking when released, the sound is avante garde even today. Williams plays like a man possessed and McLaughlin, whose guitar virtuosity carries more purpose and funk than it would later in his Mahavishnu Orchestra work, has never been better. The third member of this unlikely trio, organist Larry Young, contributes enormously to the sound's uniqueness with smeared chords that appear according to some unfathomable logic, he is always surprising and interesting.

The Tony Williams Lifetime played so loud that on club dates Williams needed monitors to hear the drums. Hard to imagine just three people produced this tidal wave of music. The singing is forgettable, although not horrible. But the melding of rock, blues, and jazz is truly astonishing. This has been called the first fusion album, and it's true that Williams, along with McLaughlin, were, in collaboration with Miles Davis, at the very edge of fusion. Whether it's the first can be debated, what's indisputable is the way Emergency! raises the bar for rock and jazz, from the vantage points of technical excellence, daring, and sheer unbridled intensity. A must-have recording. By El Lagarto (Ambler, PA).



Williams's group Lifetime, which looked on paper like an organ jazz-funk trio, produced in 1969 this headlong hybrid from jazz complexity and rock immediacy. Williams, fresh from edging Davis towards his jazz-rock-soul period, concocts a driving, high-volume fusion that has more conviction and flare than anyone else's would until the advent of the great Mahavishnu Orchestra a couple of years later. That band was led by Williams's collaborator here, John McLaughlin, as blistering and savvy a guitarist as any jazz-rock saw. Larry Young's organ is a skirmishing juggernaut, clearing and blasting into space above, behind, beneath, and between the drummer's crashing, jittering rhythms. A cautionary note: To be sure, Williams's singing on Emergency! is brave, at best, but it is blessedly limited. By Peter Monaghan.

Track listing:

1. Emergency (9:41)
2. Beyond Games (8:24)
3. Where (12:18)
4. Vashkar (5:03)
5. Via The Spectrum Road (7:56)
6. Spectrum (9:58)
7. Sangria For Three (13:19)
8. Something Special (5:32)

Personnel:

Tony Williams - Drums, Vocal
John Mclaughlin - Guitar
Larry Young - Organ