AMALGAM — Prayer for Peace (review)

AMALGAM — Prayer for Peace album cover Album · 1969 · Avant-Garde Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Sean Trane
An amazing first album for this Amalgamated quartet (well a trio really, since the second bassist only plays on the closing title track), a project lead by saxman Trevor Watts, PFP might seem a tad psychedelic due to the strongly artistic late-60’s artwork, but it’s quite misleading, because the music is firmly entrenched in the jazz realm, somewhere between free-form and traditional jazz. It might be a little misleading to label the present album as avant-garde, but we’re not that far away from Impulse!’s New Thing.

What can be said of a sax-lead trio, as the possibilities are rather limited and everything that could be done has been said in the sidelong Tales Of Sadness opening the FPF album. Watts’ sax does go sometimes beyond the dissonance barrier, but it’s nothing shocking to open trad-jazzheads. The soundscapes are a tad more extreme or free in the three-part Judy’s Smile (actually three improvisations on the original theme) that fills most of the flipside, but again nothing too screechy or dissonant, as all three remain gentle both rhythmically and harmonically. The closing title has Barry Guy on the bowed-contrabass, but while I generally like this, in this case, I find it a miss. So, while PFP is certainly worthy of a listen (or five), I wouldn’t say that it is haunting or fascinating and certainly won’t rivet you to the edge of your seat.
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