During the 1970s jazz-rock, or “fusion” was such a popular genre that bands like Weather Report, Mahavishnu OrRchestra and Return to Forever were filling outdoor theatres while acoustic jazzers were still struggling in small clubs. One of the busiest keyboardists at the time, who’s still alive and well, was Jan Hammer. He was on the landmark early Mahavishnu releases, and also toured with Jeff Beck during his famous Blow By Blow days, as well as joining with the likes of Billy Cobham and Al DiMeola for exciting sounds.
Most fans forget that Hammer had his own group for awhile, and it is a ball of fire! With Tony Smith/dr, Steve kindler/vi and Fernando Saunders/b it combines elements of all the aforementioned bands and names, on this album from gigs in mid-October 1975 at New York’s Bottom Line. This band is a FORCE!
All of the ingredients for fusion are sparkling here; manically complex charts with hairpin turns and fiendishly technical twists and turns as on the frantic “Red and Orange” and hard hitting “Topeka” as well as dark and sinewy solos that defy gravity with Kindler searing through “Darkness (Earth In Search Of A Sun)” and the mood swings with Hammer as he sears around ‘Sixth Day/Country and Eastern Music”. Smith is an avalanche of energy on the wild “Twenty One” and the team almost goes rock steady with some vocals on “Earth (Still Our Only Hope”. And what would fusion be without spacey atmospheres? Hammer supplies plenty on the stratospheric “I Remember Me” that has more ingredients thrown in than ratatouille. Dig it!