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Whilst Fairport’s offshoots were doing their thing in the mid-seventies, those in the jazz world were getting to grips with funk and thus, ‘fusion’ was born. As the excellent sleeve notes by Laurence Prangell (March 2006) remind us, Miles was the leader and his lieutenants were Herbie, Grover, Byrd [Donald], Hubbard and Lonnie [Liston Smith] — but this album concentrates on the foot soldiers.

One of my favourite labels was Muse and the album starts with a track from one of their artists, Walter Bishop Jr. So typical of the period with congas, Fender Rhodes and sax solos, horns and over nine minutes long. Still worth getting is the 1977 album Soul Village from which this track is taken.

Nat (brother of ‘Cannonball’) Adderley’s ‘K High’ follows the ‘template’ but as you’d expect, it’s more ‘jazz’ and the funk comes from the Clavinet of Onaje Allan Gumbs. It came out on another label of prominence in the US, Inner City.

Another big name in ‘pure’ jazz circles is Joe Henderson from his Blue Note period but he did 10 years with Milestone and sixteen albums. ‘Gazelle’ was one of Gilles Peterson’s favourites in the ‘Jazz with Attitude’ days if I remember correctly.

Other names you might recognise more from their band membership/session work than any recordings under their own names are Chuck Flores, Azar Lawrence, Mike Longo and Larry Willis. Then there’s some I’ve not heard of at all like Ramon Morris, Larry Bright, and Carter Jefferson.

Shamek Farrah provides the ‘template’ with an avant-fusion attitude that came out on the label (could it be any other?), Strata East.

Some highlights are the Longo’s ‘Like A Thief In The Night’ with Ron Carter’s bass solo, the trombone solo on ‘First Come First Serve’ and the dancer ‘Tomorrows End’ (with moog effect on the Lyricon - so 70s). Lawrence’s ‘Force Of Nature’ is straight outta the Shiftless Shuffle Jazz Room with some hard percussion by Mtume.

The album ends with a the title track of Jefferson’s only album on the Dutch label, Timeless and whilst it’s true that all these tracks are of their time, they are all in the hall of fame of all your favourite jazz DJs Murphy, Beadle, Dewsbury, Forge et al. They must have spent a small fortune buying the original versions 10-15-20 years ago so this double LP set is much more cost effective.

Whilst you’re at it, I’d also recommend the excellent Soul Brother compilation, African Spirits and the more recent Pharoah Sanders compilation, Anthology: You’ve Got To Have Freedom. Now that’s an attitude.

Reviewed: V/A - Fusion With Attitude (Soul Brother) Cat No. SBPJ 28 Release Date: April 2006
Tracklisting:
A1 Walter Bishop Jr - Soul Turnaround (9:10)
A2 Nat Adderley - Septet K High (9:31)
B1 Ramon Morris - First Come First Serve (4:44)
B2 Larry Willis - Out On The Coast (4:30)
B3 Mike Longo - Like A Thief In The Night (5:36)
B4 Larry Bright - Tomorrow’s End (5:13)
C1 Shamek Farrah - First Impressions (5:13)
C2 Azar Lawrence - Force Of Nature (8:41)
D1 Joe Henderson - Gazelle (7:34)
D2 Chuck Flores - Padali (5:30)
D3 Carter Jefferson - Rise Of Atlantis (6:55)

Link:
www.soulbrother.co.uk