While overlooked at the present time, trumpeter Charles Tolliver was one of the hottest players in the 1970s, one of the few not to succumb to plugging in and going into the fusion bandwagon at the time. He’s caught here at a gig in Edmonton, Alberta back in 1973 with a sizzling team of John Hicks/p, Clint Houston/b and Cliff Barnard/dr for a collection of mostly original cuts. The songs are all in the modal/post jazz mode, and the band stretches out for most of the tunes without succumbing to numbing self indulgence.
Tolliver had a bright and bold tone, and he’s crackling on the intense “Black Vibrations” with Barnard cracking the whip on “Impact”. Houston gets a lot of space on “Earl’s World” with Hicks being his boppingest on the pleasant “Compassion” and the snappy read of “Repetition”. Tolliver is restrained and lyrical on “Truth” and rich in the blues on “Stretch”. A horn on fire!