![]() ![]() He doesn’t seem fully present or into it all the time, sometimes more like a percussionist “playing in the style of Airto” rather than the man himself. ![]() Levin lays down the lower register funk, freeing up Mraz to do more textured and melodic things in the upper register.Īirto is somewhat underutilized on this record. This may partly be due to the fact that he is featured right alongside upright bassist George Mraz. ![]() Levin was not a complete stranger to soul jazz/funk sessions in the early 70s – other records I have with him from this period include Jack McDuff and Deodato – but this is probably the first time that he really stood out for me in this capacity. One pleasant surprise is the presence of a young Tony Levin on bass, years before he would start progging it up with Peter Gabriel and King Crimson. The band he put together to create this moody, genre-blurring music with vaguely spiritual inclinations is more than up to the task. I don’t know what kind of soundscape he had in mind when he went into the studio to make this album, but with the help of some very competent friends, he created a canvas on which he could moan, wail, and shriek (pleasingly) on soprano and alto sax in ways I did not expect. Musicians of Mariano’s caliber can pretty much do whatever they want and pull it off. I’m not sure the album art does the music justice, and in fact I would nominate it for my art gallery of Garish and Gaudy 1970s Jazz-Funk Album Covers, a project I am initiating right now (other inductees include a Blue Mitchell record I picked up recently, and this amazingly fugly George Duke/Billy Cobham thing). It either attracts or repels you away, depending on your musical polarity. The garish cover art, with a creepy eyeball thing glaring out at you, acts like a sort of magnet. I had no idea Mariano had made any records this heady until I stumbled on it. Might as well start here, even if this is an atypical example. Along with Phil Woods, these artists constitute a group of highly prolific jazz cats about whom I’d love to spread some enthusiasm. Incidentally this is also how I discovered Lew Tabackin, who became Toshiko’s second husband and formed a much longer musical partnership. Although his name appears on classic records by Mingus, Chico Hamilton, Shelley Manne, Elvin Jones (hey, lots of drummers seem to like him), I think I first started really paying attention to Charlie Mariano through his work with the wonderful Toshiko Akiyoshi, to whom he was married for a few years in the 60s. ![]()
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January 2023
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