TRIO OF DOOM (WITH JACO PASTORIUS AND TONY WILLIAMS)

This is the "legendary" Trio Of Doom" who got together for the Havana Jam in 1979 and features three giants from the world of jazz fusion - John McLaughlin, Jaco Pastorius and Tony Williams. I've read that McLaughlin wanted this to be released "over my dead body" as he believed Pastorius wasn't in the right frame of mind at the time however there doesn't seem to be much wrong with his playing here. The energy displayed by the three is quite astonishing and, as you would expect, there is a large amount of soloing going on here. Although you occasionally get the feeling that they're just showing off, it's undeniably exciting stuff.

There are 5 live tracks from the Havana concert included here and studio versions of three of the tracks (although one of the three versions of "Papa Oriente" contains a mere 7 seconds of music).

If you're a fan of fusion and want to hear 3 outstanding musicians at the top of their game then you can't really go wrong here (especially considering the very reasonable price it's available for). It's nicely packaged and the sound is clear (apart from the live cymbals which apparently weren't miked up during the gig and sound a little artificial). A must-have for fusion fans.