MILLION DOLLAR LEGS

Recorded at Caribou Ranch, Neder Land, Colorado in June of 1976 for August 20 release by Columbia Records.

A1. "Sweet Revenge" (6:04) definitely a hard-rock-oriented tune with a five chord repeating power motif within which Tony and keyboardist Alan Pasqua fly around while Allan and bassist Tony Newton hold down the fort until the 1:35 mark when the musicians shift into a spacious funk groove that is led by Tony Newton's bass line and Tony Williams' steady straight-time drumming while Alan and Allan add little of their spice to the mix. By the three-minute mark Allan is back to providing the five power chords while Tony Newton remains fixed to the funk bass lines as band leader Tony and the keyboardist begin to add their spicey flourishes and riffs. Guitar gets some solo licks in during the sixth minute but really nothing more: it never becomes a song for solo set ups; the musicians are each responsible for working their own creative ideas over and above the mainline they are each charged with. Very interesting! Once again "Jazz Drummer" Tony Williams surprises me with his firm rock orientation and commitment. (9/10)

A2. "You Did It To Me" (3:50) is this where DEVO got the ideas for their hit "Whip it"? Tony Newton's vocals (multiplied with some tracks effected with heavier reverb) is rockin' funky R&B in a kind of Jazz-Rock AVERAGE WHITE BAND form and sound. (The uncredited horn section leads me to surmise that all of those extraordinary horn lines can be attributed to keyboard genius Alan Pasqua and his familiarity with the very latest of keyboard technologies--perhaps the Yamaha CS-80 or ARP Omni or even Mellotron.) Though Jack Nitzsche is listed as contributor of arrangements, not artist/musician/or group is ever credited, which makes the employment of a horn section suspect. Rated up for the extraordinary work of Alan Pasqua. (8.875/10)

A3. "Million Dollar Legs" (6:36) using JIMMY CATOR BUNCH's bass line from "Troglodyte," Billy Preston's "Outa Space"- style clavinet, plus some gorgeous ARP strings, more keyboard-generated horns, Disco drumming, and horn-like lead guitar work from Allan gives you this interesting . By this time, the third song in line, I am coming to feel that band- leader Tony Williams had a very diverse and comprehensive plan for this album, for these musicians--a plan for which his enlisted musicians would have to be fully-attentive to. (9.125/10)

A4. "Joy Filled Summer" (5:51) the melodic offerings of this song almost make it guilty of sliding into the realm of Smooth Jazz (especially with Tony's anchoring it all in his souped-up Disco drumming) but there is just too much nuance and complexity going on here to ever call this "Smooth"--and too much rock infusion to call it "Jazz"--and yet, Jazz-Rock Fusion it is in all it's perfect if decadent glory. (SO sad to see/hear J-RF go this route.) At the end of the fourth minute the band deigns it possible (and perhaps permissible) to clear out for some Holdsworth pyrotechnics but it's short-lived as the other three exceptional musicians all are suddenly flooding the pool with their own extraordinary offerings: all at the same time! Amazing! I mean, musically this isn't that enjoyable, but instrumentally it's quite a show! (9/10) B1. "Lady Jade" (3:59) gentle Fender Rhodes and, later, ARP Strings and Moog synth from Alan P. that sound as if they could be coming from or BRIAN JACKSON or JOE SAMPLE (or Richard Clayderman!): it's like an overture or intro to something much bigger, much more grandiose. With this song I've finally begun to understand how and why Allan Holdsworth treasured his two year stint with Tony Williams as the most formative and transformational of his lifetime: the music here is so creative, the ideas so fresh and boundary-pushing (and eclectic). While the end results, as polished and incredibly-well-executed as they are, may not be to everybody's liking, they are, each and every one, displays of extraordinarily complex, extraordinarily difficult pieces to play. What an adventure! What an apprenticeship for any musician! As a matter of fact, I would go so far to say that any musician who is hired, mentored, and then launched out into the world after being part of a Tony Williams project has been given the finest "finishing school"--or, better yet: "graduate school"--experience available on the planet. (9.25/10)

B2. "What You Do To Me" (7:06) beautiful and melodic "smooth" Alan Pasqua-decorated funk with deceptively hard to play music in which each of the band members has to keep devoutly disciplined as well as ego-lessly focused in order to add their own idiosyncratically-generated "more" on top. The execution of this song reminds me of the stories that Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis tell of Prince's demands of them during band practice/rehearsals for THE TIME: always adding more to what he wanted from his musicians: dexterity, syncopation, polyphony, harmony with and over the melodies, but then movement (dance moves), looks and facial expressions and other theatricals, vocals, costuming, attitude, etc. The point is: by asking/expecting more from his musicians (multi-tasking), Prince was able to help his musicians grow: to help them realize that they are capable of so much more than they themselves ever thought themselves possible. I imagine that this is exactly how Tony Williams made his collaborators feel: as if they were helped to re-imagine themselves as much better, much bigger, much more capable musicians (and humans) than they had ever imagined of themselves. (13.875/15)

B3. "Inspirations Of Love" (9:48) Opening with a rather bombastic full band "orchestrated" motif that feels like an opening overture or intro to a Broadway musical, but then after 90 seconds everybody just kind of quits: going on a walkabout as Tony Newton and Alan Pasqua wander off into a stunned space-filling spacey space filler with spacious bass notes and swirling Rainer Brüninghaus-like waves of piano runs that feels like part Pharoah Sanders, part space interlude. At 3:45 the full band/orchestra chords signal the entry into a new motif (reminding me of The Soft Machine's "Hazard Profile") which then turns into a funk-rock Mahavishnu--like vehicle for some stellar new-era Allan Holdsworth soloing until Tony asks for a clear-out in the sixth minute to make room for a beautiful and impressive (for being so incredibly smooth) extended drum solo, the echoing cavernous tom-tom play extending well into the eighth and ninth minutes even as Alan Pasqua's Chick-Corea-like waves of piano runs begin to rejoin and fill part of the field. At 8:20 Tony Newton's big bombastic bass re-enters and leads the band into an "orchestrated" outro that feels like a bookend match to the song's rockin' Broadway musical opening. An unusual song that feels like a response to some of the more symphonic and proggy pieces of recent Lenny White, Chick Corea, and Return To Forever albums (Venusian Summer, Leprechaun, and Romantic Warrior, respectively). I found this particular song so surprising, so wildly unexpected yet so uncommonly creative and mystifyingly enjoyable (for the cinematic and melodramatic journey it takes one one) that I found myself listening to it over and over for several hours before I finally felt that I could finally get a grasp on it. One of the best musical listening experiences I've had in a long time. (20/20)

Total time: 43:14

The technical and keyboard wizardry of Alan Pasqua really comes shining through for me throughout this album. Tony's drumming are dependably flawless and Allan Holdsworth guitar playing feels very restrained and constrained while Tony Newton's contributions feel spot on top-notch quality for whatever Tony Williams is asking of him (which is considerable--but which the 15+ years Motown/James-Jamerson-trained bass player is well prepped and suited), but, in my opinion, it's really the keyboardist's album to show off on despite the exceedingly high demands Tony has placed on his band mates. As for my assessment on Tony's performances and accomplishment: I am awed at his ability to play at multiple levels of technical prowess: playing flawlessly on the timing front while spicing things up with his endlessly-creative flourishes and embellishments that wow and impress without taking anything away from the rest of the song or his collaborators. To listen to six songs over 43 minutes in which not a second is wasted, not a second is "coasting" or moving along rotely, without having to work, not a second goes buy without the listener being able to find a "resting" place for any of the musicians, this is such a rare feat in the world of music that I have endless respect and admiration for this album.

A/five stars; a purely unique masterpiece of incredibly well-rendered and well-played performances of intensely- creative and highly-sophisticated musical ideas unlike any other album from Jazz-Rock Fusion's "peak era" that I've heard. For those listeners and critics of this album who fail to see its redeeming qualities--the way it stands up to either the standards set or the expectations provided by Tony's previous albums (or Allan Holdsworth's future potential), I will stand up mano à mano to them and task them with one single proposition that should serve to settle any dispute as to whether or not this album is great: I want you to show me that you can play one minute of any part of any of these musicians' parts in any one of the songs on this album. If you can do that without flaws or overdubs, then and only then will I let you get away with trashing this album as a "sub-par" sellout illustrating the crumble and demise of the Jazz-Rock Fusion movement. Instead, I choose to hold this album up as one of the most remarkable peaks and apogees of the entire Jazz-Rock Fusion scene.

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