FUSION III

I spent time with this record, and the previous one called "Fusion" six years ago, about a month apart. This time around I wanted to compare the two recordings since they are related, both with "Fusion" in their titles. The similarities are Michal's violin playing, and Urszula his partner's wordless vocals. These two albums "sound" very different from one another. Released a year apart, and also a continent apart.

Michal and his partner would move to the USA leaving his band behind. Urbaniak was such a fan of American Jazz, and on "Fusion III" he gets his wish to play with some American greats. So it's somewhat ironic that his keyboardist on "Fusion III" is Wlodek Gulgowski from Poland. He hadn't played with Urbaniak previously, as he had moved to Sweden in 1965. He would join MADE IN SWEDEN for their final release the following year in 1976.

For my tastes in Fusion Urbaniak's previous four albums blow this one away. All in that 73/74 time period with the live "In Concert" being part of that plus their studio records "Inactin", "Atma" and "Fusion". "Fusion III" on paper might look better, but the results do not agree with this. Unless you like funky music that is. I prefer the more European Jazz style that he played in Poland with those experimental passages. "Fusion III" is more accessible, melodic and softer. I feel that his Polish band is on another level, but honestly it's more the style of music they are playing.

So besides Michal, Urszula and Wlodek, all born in Poland, we get John Abercrombie on guitar, Anthony Jackson on bass and Steve Gadd on drums. Larry Coryell guests on one track, plus we get some other guests on here adding some vocals, extra guitar and drums. It's kind of crazy that the previous record "Fusion" didn't have bass or guitar on it, yet I adore that record. There was no guitar on "Atma" or "Inactin" either, but both had electric bass. My favourite tracks are the opener and closer which are the two parts of "Chinatown". And my favourite bits are what the keyboarder is doing playing synths and clavinet along with an abundance of electric piano.

A lighter and more commercial sound to this record over his previous stuff, but this is still a solid 4 star record in my world. I'll just stick to his Polish records from that '73/'74 period. Urbaniak's best!

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