dreadpirateroberts In essence there are only three things ‘wrong’ with this album as I see it – one; it’s a little overproduced, two, the hints of ‘world music’ are not very strong in spite of what the package suggests, and three, it’s not an amazing album.

For an album not to be amazing is certainly forgivable, and I am enjoying ‘Shape Shifter’ with its focus on the guitar as a lead instrument, as opposed to an instrument that gets showcased between guest vocalists. And by ‘lead’ I mean it in terms of main focus, rather than its potential for jazz-fusion soloing. There’s nothing on ‘Shape Shifter’ that approaches the transcendence of say, ‘Caravanserai’ but it’s still Santana, still effective overall and distinctive at times.

In pre-release press, Carlos mentioned the band’s landmark 1972 album in relation to 'Shape Shifter,' and it bears some resemblance, in terms of its instrumental focus (the album has only true vocal track) and its occasional Latin moments, but not a lot of jazz. It’s more of a pop rock album at times, though that’s probably almost as misleading as comparing it to ‘Caravanserai.’ Most certainly ‘Shape Shifter’ is pop-influenced – blending aspects of his ‘Smooth’ era and select parts of his past, wilder efforts with some few steps toward world music. Admittedly, this North American Indian component isn’t a large feature, but it’s welcome when it does appear, most notably in the opening song, which is dramatic but still great stuff.

In terms of production, the use of keyboards rather than piano, and the very clean, almost plastic guitar sound that can be heard on many of the rhythm tracks, adds to the slick, partially unpleasant feel to some of the sonics. While it’s nice to hear an organ simulated on ‘Shape Shifter,’ some of the other synth parts don’t seem to gel, like in ‘Dom.’ Not to pick on the keyboards, they don’t stick out like a sore thumb or anything, but I didn’t find them effective on every song. Thankfully, much of the guitar solos are presented in a form that’s a little more raw, I feel I can just make out some of the attack on the strings – not sure if this has anything to do with Santana releasing this on his own (new) label ‘Starfaith Records’ but it’s nice to hear in any event.

Compositionally there’s a lot to like, despite a sameness to some of the material. The opener is probably the best piece on the album, while some of the more ballad-influenced material like ‘In the Light of a New Day’ or ‘Angelica Faith’ making use of the quintessential Santana guitar phrasing. Elsewhere it sounds like more of a band effort, especially in the early stages and latter half. In fact, it’s when they let more of the Latin rather than Pop feel into the record that I find myself enjoying ‘Shape Shifter’ most – tracks like ‘Macumba in Budapest’ or ‘Mr Szabo’ show this, with its percussion and use of keyboard. Even the vocal cut, ‘Eres La Luz’ has some of that feel. In addition there’s ‘Nomad’ where the band gets rocking. Here the keyboard solo reminds me a little of something from ‘Welcome’ perhaps, and Carlos himself is spurred on to get a little more aggressive.

Despite being uncomfortable reviewing an album so soon after its release, I do feel that three stars or ‘good but not essential’ is a fair assessment of this one. Fans looking for moments akin to Santana’s first forays into jazzier material will not find it here. Few would truly expect that, I imagine, but fans in need of a rest from the (at times) formulaic approach that has dominated his work in recent years, should at least check ‘Shape Shifter’ out and make their own decision.

js Tohpati Bertiga is the latest fusion project from guitar virtuoso Tohpati Ario Hutomo. On the band’s first album, “Riot”, he teams with bassist Indro Hardjodikoro and drummer Adityo Wibowo to make a fierce hard jazz-rockin instrumental trio. Those who miss the early days of jazz rock, before cheezy guitar synth patches and digital effects smoothed out all the nice rough spots, will certainly enjoy Tohpati’s naturally distorted guitar sound and rare tasteful use of effects. Not only do the early days of jazz rock have an influence on this crew, but also the raw NYC punk jazz scene of the 80s as well. This trio also has a penchant for tightly wound compositions with frequent time signature changes which reveal an interest in math-metal and modern progressive rock. Putting all this together you end up with something similar to Tony Williams Lifetime crossed with King Crimson, Battles and Vernon Reid.

Although bassist Indro easily holds his own in this powerful power trio, much of the interplay in this group comes down to the virtuoso skills of the drummer and guitarist. In this respect this band recalls other classic drum/guitar duos such Mitchell/Hendrix, Blood Ulmer/Ronald Shannon Jackson, Fripp/Bill Bruford, McLauglin/Tony Williams, Holdsworth/Tony Williams and so on. Fans of intense guitar shredding will find a lot to enjoy here, Tohapti and his rhythm section are relentless.

dreadpirateroberts Mostly live from the Havana Jam Festival in 1979, the ‘Trio of Doom’ album comes from something of a supergroup in terms of line-up, but also from something less than a side project, the trio apparently having been assembled expressly for the live show. While the three later recorded in the studio too, those pieces are not are raw as the live set, and suffer in comparison.

With Williams, McLaughlin and Pastorious together here, expectations should be high, though for me, they aren’t met. The line between ‘exciting improvisation’ and ‘aimlessness’ is criss-crossed too often for me, in spite of great individual performances and a wonderful ‘togetherness.’ Tony Williams is impressive, almost monstrous throughout the live tracks, while the studio cuts seem to pale with its cleaner sound and shorter running time. In fact, had the album been a longer live set, I think I’d have enjoyed it more. Taken together, the overall effect is almost redundant. I understand the desire to record in a controlled environment, but the studio versions, especially that of the powerful ‘Dark Prince’ (composed by McLaughlin,) don’t contain much fire and I feel the ‘Trio of Doom’ album would have been more memorable without them.

Jaco’s ‘Continuum’ is quite nice, it even approaches soothing and William’s ‘Para Oriente’ is probably the stand out, bringing some funk to their jamming and taking the piece all over the map at times. Passages of ‘Are you the One, Are you the One?’ represent some of the more unsatisfying moments, as if the three players were struggling for something memorable but never quite found it. In fact, that’s partly the problem for this one, though at the same time it is by no means a horrible release. I’m torn between suggesting this for fans only, especially of Williams who is the element who could have brought things up to three stars for me, even if ultimately, this is two albums in one. The live and the studio. And because the studio versions don’t bring much to the table, it’s not really a three star record in my book.

js The first “Shaft” movie soundtrack, scored by Isaac Hayes, was one of the most popular and innovative soundtracks for its time. For the second Shaft movie, director Gordon Parks tried to make the soundtrack himself and didn’t fare nearly as well. For the third in the series, “Shaft in Africa”, the call went to Johnny Pate. Pate was a great choice, because like Hayes, Pate had the background in sophisticated orchestral arranging as well as a background performing street tough funky RnB. Its this combination of conga and wah-wah guitar driven rhythms topped with slick modern orchestrations that are the hallmark of the highly collectable 70s crime jazz soundtrack commonly referred to as “blaxploitation”.

This is a very well done soundtrack and all the classic blaxploitaion elements are here: African percussion, bold panoramic horn driven melodies, exotic tone colors and plenty of wah-wah guitars and clavinets for everyone. Pate’s approach is slightly more traditional than Hayes, his romantic numbers like “Aleme finds Shaft” sound more like classic movie soundtracks than modern RnB, but the upbeat numbers are not lacking in contemporary funk rhythms. One highlight is “El Jardin” on which a hard piano riff is topped with an exotic oboe melody backed by pizzacato strings, pure heaven for the exotica collector. Early hip-hop fans may recognize the piano riff as being the background for one of Queen Latifah’s first hits.

This album is highly recommended for collectors of crime jazz soundtracks, blaxploitation and exotica in general. If there is one major drawback to “Shaft in Africa”, it is the brevity of this release. The original LP is barely about 27 minutes long, and that’s with adding the movie’s big pop hit, “Are You Man Enough”, to both sides of the original LP. On a side note, fans of 70s soul and RnB may notice how strongly “Are You Man Enough” resembles the previously popular and politically oriented hit, “Backstabbers” by the O Jays.

Sean Trane Definitely Trane’s other key 61-released album along with Africa/Brass, Olé is simply the best album he recorded with the Atlantic label, daring and adventurous enough that it could’ve been released on Impulse! Still by this time, Trane’s first quartet had not come to fruition yet, as the bass is still shared by Workman and Art Davis, while on winds, John shares the spotlight with the ever-excellent Freddie Hubbard and George Lane. With a very orangey artwork colour (shared by both Atlantic and Impulse!), Olé was recorded only two days after Africa/Brass, and this is no accident. If A/B had the obvious African influences on some tracks, Olé cannot escape showing its Spanish influences, at least on the title track.

Opening on a Flamenco-tinged contrabass, Olé soon engages in a strange piano-led raga trance, where Trane acts as the snake charmer with his haunting sax line, but Lane’s flute is the dragon charmer and just after that, Hubbard tames the tiger with his trumpet. What an amazing start, but things simply won’t calm down and soon enough, right after Tyner takes over the controls, the two basses are adding some amazing depth, with one plucked bass, while the second gets tamed by its bow to shriek some stupendous and guttural growls. Maybe a little later than Mingus’ Ysabel’s Table Dance or Miles & Evans’ Aranjuez pieces, Trane is now hot on their heels to post-bop’s supremacy race. Yes, Olé’s sidelong title track is one of the master’s top 10 tracks ever, and one of his most instantly recognisable.

The flipside opens with Dahomey Dance, the jazz is a lot more standard where the African influence doesn’t really appear obvious, neither immediately, nor in the long run. But it features a cool enthralling groove. The McCoy-penned Aisha might hint towards a Middle-East or Maghreb influence. Yup, the flipsude certainly fail to confirm the excitement of the A-side, but the Olé title track is soooo awesome that it is essential all by itself.

Warthur Having heard Pekka Pohjola's first four solo albums before taking on this one, this one came across as something of a departure to me, dominated as it is by synthesisers. It comes across as an attempt to blend classical choral work with New Agey synthesiser meditations, and whilst there's nothing inherently silly about that idea at the same time I don't think it works particularly successfully here; rather than creating a whole which is greater than the sum of its parts, I feel that the album ends up adding subpar New Age music to subpar choral music and ends up with something mildly more irritating than either of its halves.

Those who come to Pekka's music specifically looking for his Zappa-esque hyperactive workouts or his more sedate fusion styles (as seen in albums such as Visitation) will find this album a disappointing oddity. Those who are particularly interested in fusions of electronic music and choral music might consider this a worthwhile attempt, but I'm sure there's better examples of this sort of thing out there.

Warthur Having spent two albums edging away from the comedic, Zappa-inspired whimsicality of his debut solo album, Pohjola injects a sense of fun back into his music with Visitation, particularly on the energetic and almost funky Dancing In the Dark. What's particularly notable here is that at this point the overt Frank Zappa homages are entirely out of the picture, Pohjola having arrived at his own distinctive style of fusion which is expressed with style and verve over the course of the album. Without any guest stars of the stature of Mike Oldfield to overshadow him, Visitation is purely Pohjola through and through, and an excellent expression of his maturing musical personality.

Warthur There's no denying that in John Coltrane jazz possessed an incredible talent. Musicians can spend years and years trying to carve an album as perfect as A Love Supreme; Coltrane and three sidemen knocked it out in a day. Years ahead of his time, Coltrane here offers an album-length composition in which he explores his spirituality through a combination of drifting but not entirely free playing coupled with some glorious post-bop soloing. Although it's not a fusion album, various fusion luminaries such as John McLaughlin or Carlos Santana have paid tribute to it over the years, and in some respects I can sort of see it as a precursor to Miles Davis' In a Silent Way - both albums leave you adrift in a sea of music and show a complete ability to tune the listener in to the emotional space required to best appreciate them. It's avant-garde material, but it's avant-garde which wants to be understood and is more than happy to guide the listener into a place where they are in rapport with it.

js In 1996 the Evidence label released their incredible collection of Sun Ra singles in a 2 CD box set called “Sun Ra : The Singles”. This labor of musicological love received high praises from Sun Ra fans and jazz fans in general. Four years later Evidence released this odd collection of various Ra songs culled from the Saturn label called “Sun Ra Greatest Hits“. Most of these songs are not singles though, but are instead cuts taken from albums. Basically this CD tries to give a chronological overview of Ra’s career and ends up being somewhat successful in that regard.

The first half of this CD centers around Ra’s early years when his band was playing very quirky hard bop that sounded like few others. Certainly Ra’s enduring mark on jazz will be his later experimental work, but its great to hear his early work together in one collection. Although Ra’s take on the hard bop of the day is full of modern elements, there is also an intangible element to this music that recalls the earlier swing days where Ra learned his trade. Capturing the essence of early jazz is something that cannot be faked and was a hallmark of Sun Ra’s band even when playing their most futuristic music. This mix of jazz’s older noire past with modern elements made Sun Ra’s music somewhat similar to the music of Charles Mingus during this time. Both of these artists were way ahead of the pack in the mid-50s.

As mentioned earlier, this CD does attempt to present an overview of Sun Ra’s career, so after the first half made up of early works, the second half of this CD deals with Sun Ra’s more avant-garde music. Its in the presentation of the avant-garde material that this CD starts to develop problems. Basically Sun Ra’s later avant-garde music is “album music” and pulling excerpts from those albums only works as an attempt to document his musical journey, but it does not make for a satisfying listening experience. More so than many other jazz artists, Sun Ra’s albums were often unique one-time musical visions that stand as complete entities that shouldn’t be chopped up. On a positive note, this CD does end with two cuts that should be of interest to Ra fans who may not already own these two. "The Order of the Phantom Jesters" shows Ra's interest in the lounge exotica of the day and seems to be a full song, not an excerpt, and "The Perfect Man" is one of the top cuts from the singles collection and has his small combo playing a James Bond styled noir low-fi synth pop hit.

This CD makes a good collection for someone who is new to Sun Ra and wants a basic overview of his music, but for long time fans of Ra’s music, the collection of early material is nice, but the chopped up later works are mostly frustrating, although the piano cut from “Monorails and Satellites” is very nice. For those seeking a good representative album of Sun Ra’s avant-garde music, “Live at Montreaux” is a good place to start.

Warthur For his third solo album, Virgin offered Pekka Pohjola the chance to take advantage of the talents of Mike and Sally Oldfield and Pierre Moerlen - an inspired choice of guest artists, since the musical direction here moves yet further away from the Zappa-influenced sound of Pohjola's first two albums to explore a more serious brand of contemplative jazz-rock of a sort which would appeal to fans of Oldfield's work or of Pierre Moerlen's Gong's albums from this era.

Sadly, the presence of a star of Mike Oldfield's stature on the album would enable a scam which proved too tempting for the publishers to resist: in some territories, the album was entitled The Consequences of Indecisions and released as a Mike Oldfield album, a completely outrageous decision particularly considering that Pekka has sole songwriting credit on the album! Some other releases of the album credit it to Mike Oldfield, Sally Oldfield, and Pekka Pohjola - with Mike Oldfield's as the most prominent. These incredibly disrespectful rebrandings of the album represents a blatant attempt at deceiving the record-buying public into thinking that they were buying another Mike Oldfield album, but whilst the album would appeal to Oldfield fans, it's very much Pekka's show, and to misrepresent that is not only insulting to him, but is also kind of disrespectful to Mike Oldfield too.

None of that is relevant to my final rating, of course, which I am basing solely on the music presented here, but I did want to highlight that because I don't like the idea of people paying top dollar for a "rare Mike Oldfield album" only to find it's this.