FAIRYLAND (MONTREUX FESTIVAL, 71)

Although this album was released on the unusual (for Larry Coryell) label Zodiac in 76, the album was recorded live at the Montreux festival but it's not specified the year anywhere on the vinyl , but my guess would 70, given the Rainy (bass) and Purdie (drums) line-up (they're not mentioned on the sleeve either) and the music developed being very close of an Hendrix-ey blues-jazz-rock that is also present on the Village Gate album. With a weird electrical fantasy artwork, the sleeve also claims the some previously- released material, but I have yet to encounter it.

Just four tracks spread unevenly (timewise) over the two sides, the second of which is only clocking at 14 minutes. Funnily enough the track names given on the sleeve don't follow the names Larry announces during the concert. Go figure! The opening almost 10 mins Souls Dirge is a brilliant jazz-blues exploration that shows us what Hendrix might have done in his first steps in the jazz direction as he had intended to go before his death. Larry is brilliant at imitating jimmy but fails to better his work, but Larry shows his nice voice. The following Eksdalemuir is more of the same, but here the track is instrumental.

The flipside shows a slightly different facet, where the blues is much less present, Larry doing some amazing soloing stretching the boundaries of dissonance. Both Stone and and Further Explorations are explosive tracks that are not far away from Guru Guru's UFO album minus the space rock sounds and this flipside is definitely more progressive than its flipside. If you love a guitar trio, with few riffs and almost no typical song structure, then this album and the Village Gate one are both right up your alley