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!
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