AMALGAM – Samanna (Vinyl Records – VS 104 / LP-1977)

Label: Vinyl Records – VS 104

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: Germany / Released: 1977

Style: Free Jazz, Jazz-Rock

Recorded at Riverside Studios, 26th January 1977.

Design [Cover Design] – John Fewster

Liner Notes – Trevor Watts

Engineer [Recording Engineer] – Adam Skeaping

Executive-Producer – Manfred Schiek

Producer – Trevor Watts

Matrix / Runout: (Side A Etched) A VS.104 A PF

Matrix / Runout: (Side B Etched) A VS.104 B PF

A1 - Samanna ................................................................................................... 20:47

A2 - Maas ........................................................................................................... 4:54

B1 - Unity .......................................................................................................... 14:44

B2 - Berlin Wall ................................................................................................... 6:50

Personnel:

Trevor Watts – alto Saxophone, percussion

Dave Cole – guitar

Colin McKenzie – bass (el. bass)

Pete Cowling – bass (el. bass)

Liam Genockey – drums, percussion

5th  album by the superb British Jazz / Improvised Music ensemble Amalgam, one of the precursors of British / European Free Jazz scene in the late 1960s and 1970s, founded by saxophonist Trevor Watts. On this album the lineup is a quintet, including guitarist Dave Cole, bassists Pete Cowling and Colin McKenzie and drummer Liam Genockey, which marks an extension of the quartet that recorded the previous album at beginning of the second phase of Amalgam, characterized by the dual saxophone – guitar frontline. The music is written entirely by Watts. This album was released on the tiny German independent Vinyl label, and was unavailable for many years. With the guitar and double electric bass the sound of the band becomes even more close to Fusion, but the extended improvisations and the virtuosity of the performers are still the same. This is still a classic and brilliant stuff as always!...

The opening sidelong title track is a wild fusion piece with some slightly dissonant passages, but the wild double bass-guitar attack is quite impressively funky (ala Stanley Clarke) and drives effortlessly the track throughout its 21-mins duration. Cole’s guitar shines occasionally (notably in the 2/3 to3/4 of the track. but mostly remains discrete, leaving clear the 8-lane freeway open to Watt’s wild sax meanderings.

Over the flipside, the 5-mins Mass features a cooler funky fusion, still double-bassed, where the both take turn in playing lead bass over a “simple” descending sax riff.

The B-side’s highlight is the almost 15-mins Unity, despite a slow start, where Watts lets it all hang out, but the double-bassed slowly and gradually clutch in the overdrive gear, letting Cole’s guitar get a wide chunk of funk in the mix as well. As the track climaxed around its 2/3, it slowly dies down to nought.

The 7-mins Berlin Wall closes the album in a pronounced dissonant sax spree, it is a raw, restless free-jazz sax wail over a punchy Prime Time undertow. Some of Watts' best work on record...   (Review by Sean Trane)

Well, Amalgam’s musical directions vary much from album to album, but Samanna is firmly entrenched in the funky jazz-fusion. Watts’ sax adventures are indeed still the driving force of the album, but here, the two bass-cylinder and Cole’s guitar unleash plenty of energy and power to the aural expansions...

If you find it, buy this album!