As shown by my previous post, I really, really like the trio format. Saxophone-bass-drums (David Murray's The Hill with Joe Chambers and Richard Davis, with Davis playing arco during most of his solos). Piano-bass-drums (Ellington's Money Jungle with Mingus and Roach - Mingus' playing reflects he looks on the album cover - angry and out of step - but in a good way). Even three guitars - Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin & Paco De Lucia's Friday Night in San Francisco (a tad wanky -you'll exhaust yourself trying to keep up with what's being played). I suppose I'm drawn to this format because it allows for a music that is subdued and exploratory. For a rainy day. Generally. Today's selection is an exception to that rule.
Above you will see pictured the 1959 album "A Dynamic New Sound," one of guitarist Wes Montogmery's first albums under his own name. Incredibly tasteful guitar solos with organ (Melvin Rhyne) and drum (Paul Parker) accompaniment. The album cover says it all - the guitarist is fully illustrated, while the drummer and the organist are but a few quick brush strokes.
Flash forward ten years.
Ten years of rhythmic invention, if not ten years in recording technology. 1969. The record: Emergency! Here, all three players simultaneously fill a lead role. A very loud lead role. While the composition is credited to the guitarist (John McLaughlin) and the record is under the drummer's (Tony Williams) name, on this track, it is the organist (Larry Young) who has the most inventive solos. The whole is the sum of consistently shifting parts. This is music-as-argument.
1970 saw the release of the band's final album under its original lineup, (turn it over). By the following year, McLaughlin had left the group to follow Sri Chinmoy and to form his own group, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, which would use the same interplay dynamics, though with much better recording technology at hand, to achieve critical and commercial success. Williams and Young (who now went by the name Khalid Yasin) added two additional percussionists, a guitarist, and an upright bassist (Ron Carter on record, Joony Booth on tour) for the (perhaps tellingly titled?) album Ego. With so many percussionists, there's almost an Art Ensemble of Chicago vibe to these proceedings, minus Lester Bowie:
Williams, however, is simply brilliant in this clip, backing Stan Getz:
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