IN SEARCH OF A DREAM

Alphonse Mouzon was born in Charlotte, South Carolina and he has been called the World's fastest drummer. The man was at home playing Jazz or Rock and he didn't like to be pigeon-holed. So of course he was the ideal drummer in the early seventies when Jazz Fusion took off. I have three of his albums and all three are excellent. His debut from 1973 called "The Essence Of Mystery" along with "Mind Transplant" from 1975 and this one "In Search Of A Dream" from 1978. And I have to give Mouzon a lot of credit for making a legit record this late in the 70's.

Alphonse was of course an original member of WEATHER REPORT and he's brought in the original bass player from that band Miroslav Vitous. Actually the touring band that Alphonse was with in 1977 is all here. Vitous on bass, Stan Goldberg on keyboards and Bob Malik on sax. Then add guitarist Philip Catherine and a second keyboardist Joachim Kuhn. A six piece recorded in Stuttgart, Germany November 20-24, 1977. Many of these guys have played with each other at this point. Mouzon and Catherine in Larry Coryell's ELEVENTH HOUSE for example and the WEATHER REPORT connection I mentioned earlier.

I know Alphonse likes his Funk so I'm surprised at the lack of it here. He composed six of the nine tracks with Catherine, Vitous and Kuhn composing the other three. My top three were all written by Mouzon. Beginning with the opener "Nightmare" where we have Kuhn, Mouzon, Vitous and Catherine playing. A lot of electricity here. Catherine really reminds me of McLaughlin just before 2 minutes. A fast paced track including a drum solo for about a minute. "The Light" isn't a top three but it's interesting with Vitous playing e-bow and composing this one. Just him and Mouzon on this one. And Vitous adds mini-moog and electric piano!

Another top three is "Unknown Journey" which just has this amazing sound to it. Malik on sax here while Catherine is on the acoustic guitar this time. Final top three is the title track. I like the guitar and sax taking turns soloing over top, but also that base of electric piano, drums and bass. "The Ram And The Scorpio" is uptempo and Mouzon is the scorpio while his wife is the ram. It's not all gravy on here as I have a little trouble hearing that funk-box on the closer. It's okay but it adds a completely different flavour. It also opens with less than 30 seconds of the guys singing happy birthday to Alphonse who turned 29 during these sessions.

A solid 4 stars. And applause to the MPS label who again did this re-issue the right way. Treating this recording with some reverence.

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