This is the debut album of a band nominally led, or at least organised, by bassist Marc Johnson. Since Christmas 1983, when I witnessed what was, I believe, their first public appearance – at a small restaurant in midtown Manhattan – John Abercrombie’s place has been taken by Bill Frisell. The substitution makes sense, Frisell’s swelling symphonic style providing a clear contrast to Scofield’s more abrasive, direct and, sonically speaking, conventional approach. Erskine needs no introduction, while Johnson has good credentials, including two years with the late Bill Evans.
It’s not obvious from the music that the band is directed from the bass stool, though the sonorous ostinati which pervade the traditional Black Is The Color do remind a great deal of the playing of Eberhard Weber on his Chorus album. Johnson never takes more than his fair share of solo space, if that, and his intro to Coltrane’s Resolution is brief and apposite, following more or less the precedent set by Jimmy Garrison.
In effect what we get is a mixed bag of swing, (Resolution and Bass Desires), blues, reggae (Mojo Highway), folk, country and western (Thanks Again) and ethnic themes (Samurai Hee-Haw), with solos much in the style we might expect from this crew. It’s fusion all right, but in its broadest sense, suitably stripped of excess and refined to match the requirements of this sensitive German contemporary music label.
Discography
Samurai Hee-Haw; Resolution: Black Is The Color Of My True Love’s Hair (25.22) – Bass Desires: A Wishing Doll; Mojo Highway: Thanks Again (28.31)
Marc Johnson (b); Bill Frisell (g/g syn); John Scofield (g); Peter Erskine (d). Recorded May 1985, Power Station. NY.
(ECM 1299)
