LARRY YOUNG — Mothership (review)

LARRY YOUNG — Mothership album cover Album · 1980 · Post Bop Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
js
Recorded in 1969, 'Mother Ship' would be Larry Young's last 'jazz' record, and his last recording for the Blue Note label. The CD re-issue cover of the album shows him in a traditionally dark jazz club wearing a black tie and coat, in a few months he would be wearing a dashiki and playing psychedelic jazz rock with Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix and John McLaughlin. For those interested in Larry's transition from jazzist to fusion rocker, this LP has a lot of music that shows Young clearly in between the two worlds, and obviously moving further away from jazz. A lot of the styles present on here will show up in a slightly harder form on Young's first solo fusion recording, 'Lawrence of Newark', and also on Tony William's original Lifetime recordings. Three of the songs on here are in the semi-free post-bop style that was made popular by the Miles Davis Quintet and Ornette Coleman. Drummer Eddie Gladden displays a lot of similarities to Tony Williams as he stretches the time and provides creative fills that add to the phrasing of the soloists. On these songs Young starts his solos with mysterious passages that swell out of the background and finally builds into furious assaults that recall avant-garde saxophonists such as John Coltrane and Pharoh Sanders.

Two other songs are in a quasi-rock style that has Young providing a steady pulse on the B3 pedals leaving Gladden to do his usual poly-rhythmic drum fills. Larry's solos on these two songs show the cross-influence that was beginning to happen between himself and early British progressive and psychedelic rock bands such as Trinity and the Nice. Although Mother Ship came out after Brian Auger and Keith Emerson were well established, there is no doubt that Young's early recordings had an effect on both of them. Likewise, their use of electronic effects and synthesizers would have an effect on Young as well. Soon after finishing this recording, Young began to make synthesizers a regular part of his keyboard ensemble.

If you have ever wondered what bands like the 60s version of Ornette Coleman's group or The Miles Davis Quintet would sound like with a quasi-psychedelic Hammond B3 player on board, or what the Nice would have sounded like with a jazz drummer, this is the album for you. Larry Young is brilliant throughout this album providing creative organ sounds that may remind some of Sun Ra, Richard Kermode from Santana's 'Caravanserai' album, the young pre-ELP Keith Emerson and sometimes even those quirky 60's exotica records. All of the compositions and musicians on here are excellent!
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Jazz Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Izumi Kimura / Barry Guy / Gerry Hemingway : Six Hands Open As One Avant-Garde Jazz
IZUMI KIMURA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Raging Bulgakov Avant-Garde Jazz
SIMON NABATOV
Buy this album from MMA partners
New Start Fusion
TOM KENNEDY
Buy this album from MMA partners
Love Songs Live Avant-Garde Jazz
JOHN ZORN
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Data Avant-Garde Jazz
MATTHEW SHIPP
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

??·??·?·???·?·????
SADAO WATANABE
snobb· 17 hours ago
"Miles Between" // by Shawn Schlogel & Nancy Erickson Lamont
NANCY ERICKSON LAMONT
js· 1 day ago
Mature Hybird Talking
FRANK GRATKOWSKI
js· 2 days ago
Perspective (Peace & Love)
ISAIAH COLLIER
js· 3 days ago
T-SQUARE 45th Anniversary Celebration Concert & Tour 2023 @Zepp Nagoya ?CLIMAX?
T-SQUARE
js· 3 days ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed