Spirit In the Sky - Open Sky

Sep

2

Spirit In the Sky - Open Sky

≡ Category: 1970s, Essential, Free Jazz, Post Bop, Reviews |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING

Rating:

Open Sky’s follow up to their underrated debut, Spirit in the Sky was recorded in the studio rather than live, like it’s predecessor. There is no dropoff in energy however. The principal musicians, Bob Moses (drums), Dave Liebman (reeds), and Frank Tusa (bass) are on fire.

The opener, Amy, has a simple attractive melody which Liebman plays in the rubato open and close. In the middle, the trio ignites, Bob Moses bashing away on the drums, Liebman delivering blistering commentary on saxophone and Frank Tusa playing tasty fills around a pedal point. Listening to Tusa on this cut reaffirms what a great loss to the jazz world it was when he left music in the late 70s, and for that matter, how tragically underrecorded he was.

Come To Supper Tonight, Rada begins with an enchanting rubato duet between Liebman’s flute and Tusa’s bowed bass. Then Tusa gives us the pulsing, dancing outline of the tune. Bob Moses joins him on the drums and soon enough, Liebman has switched to tenor sax, and is wailing away. As usual, Liebman’s improvisations are passionate and fully explore the harmonic implications of the tune.

Then we get a through composed tune by Bob Moses, mfwala myo lala, a duet between Liebman on saxophone and Moses on vibraphone. It’s a charming and idiosyncratic piece.

It’s Liebman’s turn for an original with Striving For Truth, on which he plays piano, which is clearly not his instrument. What he lacks in technique, he makes up for in pure musicality. In a way, Liebman’s effortful reaching almost defines Striving For Truth, and in fact was probably the best way to approach the tune.

The stop and go rhythms of Bugs Bunny perfectly communicate the personality of that wascally wabbit. There are some Arabic modes employed in the tune, no doubt inspired by Bob Moses watching the cartoon. It’s a heck of a lot of listen to and must have been a blast to play.

Frank Tusa’s lone contribution as a composer, Seeing You, is tremendously moving in it’s surface awkwardness, but there’s nothing accidental about Tusa’s initially tentative approach to the piece. Seeing You is built on two major triads, one an interval of a 4th above the other.

The final tune, Spirit in the Sky, is by Liebman and it’s kind of a fusiony affair, complete with voices and electric piano. It’s actually a good tune, but it’s marred by some weak voice work. The free singing at the end of the tune is particularly tragic — it would put rutting cats to shame. I’m not going to name names, but Dave Liebman’s normally good sense seems to desert him when it comes to hiring singers. To be fair, there aren’t too many jazzers who have had success with using singers in their work. Eberhard Weber comes to mind as an exception.

Anyway, this a minor quibble. Spirit in the Sky is a worthy followup to Open Sky’s debut. Although some of the tunes on this date are through composed and others have a structure, the playing on Spirit in the Sky is quite free, just like on the debut recording. What you’ve got is three master composers and players, at the peak of their abilities, making music without regard to commercial considerations. This is one of the great jazz recordings of the early 70s.

Amazingly, Spirit In the Sky is only available on the PM Records label, where you can also hear samples of the tunes.