PHIL WOODS QUARTET – New Music By The New Phil Woods Quartet (LP-1974)

Label: Testament Records – T-4402

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US / Released: 1974

Style: Contemporary Jazz, Fusion

Recorded and Mastered At Artisan Sound Recorders, TR&M, 1974.

Mastered By [Tape-To-Disc Mastering] – Bob McLeod

Producer, Recorded By – Pete Robinson

Transferred By [Tape Transfer], Edited By – Pete Robinson, Pete Welding

A1 - Charity ........................................................................... 10:24

         (by – Pete Robinson)

A2 - Cumulus ........................................................................ 10:27

         (by – Pete Robinson)

B1 - Nefertiti And Riot .......................................................... 17:06

         (by [Nefertiti] – W. Shorter / by [Riot] – H. Hancock)

B2 - Yesterdays ....................................................................... 3:57

         (by – J. Kern, O. Harbach)

Phil Woods – saxophone

Pete Robinson – keyboards, synthesizer

Henry Franklin – bass

Brian Moffat – drums, percussion

This LP finds Woods playing in a very modern fusion-y mode than we are used to hearing from him.  With Pete Robinson on keys/synths,  Henry Franklin on bass, and Brian Moffatt on percussion.  Definitely one of his more out recordings.

When Phil Woods returned to the United States after several years in Europe, he formed a quartet with keyboardist Pete Robinson, bassist Henry Franklin and drummer Brian Moffatt that utilized electronics. Ten months of rehearsal resulted in four nights at a club and then little else before the band broke up. This LP, recorded at rehearsals in 1973, was the group's only album. On a pair of Robinson's challenging originals, the standard "Yesterdays" and a medley of Wayne Shorter's "Nefertiti" and Herbie Hancock's "Riot," Woods and Robinson challenge each other. However, the electronics, surprisingly, do sound a pretty good, and the band was only in what should have been the early stages of its development; it sometimes sounds a bit strangely and never really had a chance to mature.

Eh, that was more time and understanding ... who knows? ...

If you find it, buy this album!