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Its hard to know what to expect from an Eddie Harris album as he is been known to play everything from pop to avant-garde. On some albums he will present his unique take on a certain genre only to cast that style aside for his next album. Such is the case on “Come on Down” where Harris and his crew explore the world of hippie style long winded soul/rock jams, and also throw in some very Harris styled exotic numbers as well.
The album opens with “Don’t You Know Your Future is in Space”, an excellent progressive big band/jet age pop extravaganza that combines George Martin with Don Ellis and Enio Morricone. Harris fans who are looking for that oddball exotica hit will be pleased with this one. “Live Right Now” features the band playing a classic 60s jam based on just one repeating riff played to death. Classic rock/RnB jam bands like the Allmans, Jimi Hendrix, Ten Years After and the Buddy Miles Express knew this style well and Eddie Harris makes this one burn with his intense constant double time rhythm solos. It doesn’t hurt that all star RnB bassist Duck Dunn is on board as well as Cornell Dupree on guitar. Side one closes out with a soft ballad that features some vocals by Eddie sung through his electric saxophone, which gives his voice a very strange reverb and “space-age” type effect. The great modern bop stylist Joe Diorio provides the guest guitar accompaniment on this one.
Side two opens with an old school RnB pop tune that finally settles into a jam section toward the end and the final two songs of the album return to the relentless rock jam style that makes up most of this LP. The album closer, “Why Don’t You Quit”, features that other popular hippie jam device, the 3 to 5 chord sequence that repeats forever. This form was given birth by songs like “Hey Joe” and “All Along the Watchtower” and was given a death blow by the overblown “Free Bird”. Anyway, towards the end of this jam Eddie plugs his electric sax into an echoplex and sounds like Jimi Hendrix, you go Eddie Harris.
Fans of Eddie Harris will not be disappointed in “Come on Down”, you get to hear his burning hot one time take on the flower power get down generation, plus a couple of his usual quirky one-of-kind classics. By the way, strange album cover, looks like it might be a joke on record companies who were reluctant to put African-American faces on their album covers, even the star performer.