ATMOSPHERES (FEATURING CLIVE STEVENS AND FRIENDS)

Clive Steven's idea of a project had grandiose line-up and unfortunately, such a stellar membership has not done much for this album's reputation and memory, since hardly anyone remembers it and the album (and its follow-up) has yet to receive a Cd reissue. Not that the music on the album is revolutionary or groundbreaking ? this is close to an early jazz- rock ala Mwandishi, Nucleus and Bitches Brew, but we are in 74 ? but it is the type of album that consolidates the genre.

Obviously, one of the strong points of this album is the Laird-Cobham section, which is obviously used to playing together, thus giving the greater freedom for the others to improvise at lengths. Indeed, composition-wise, all of the tracks are written by Clive Stevens, but the least we can say is that this is a minimum service, since the improvs are taking voluntarily most of the space. Don't get me wrong, the album is of an excellent level, both in collective cohesion (excellent interplaying between all participants) and solo-wise, where they all shine like a thousand suns. As Clive Stevens' is the project leader, you'd expect him to grab a lot of aural space with his wing instrument, which is often the case, but he allows this two guitarists space (namely in Earth Spirit and Nova 72), and Abercrombie shines particularly in Yesterday Today & Tomorrow with his electric guitar. Towner's Rhodes playing is very much in like with Hancock or Zawinul, especially in All Day Next Week.

Hopefully someday, a Cd reissue of Atmospheres' two albums will see the light of day, but in the meanwhile, you'll have to chance on the vinyls, which I'm sure are getting scarce. Nothing groundbreaking (it actually seems to be a bit late on the ball), but certainly worth throwing an ear on it.