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Dark Magus
Dark Magus in Bloomington, MN
Current price: $20.99
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Size: CD
Dark Magus
is a live recording of a very specific 1974 Carnegie Hall date that included most, but not all, of the members who recorded the classics
Agharta
and
Pangaea
. While drummer
Al Foster
, bassist
Michael Henderson
, percussionist
James Mtume
, and guitarists
Pete Cosey
Reggie Lucas
were all present, the key element of
Sonny Fortune
was not yet in the band. Saxophonists
David Liebman
Azar Lawrence
were doubling in the saxophone chairs, while
Dominique Gaumont
, with his
Jimi Hendrix
-styled effects and riffs, was the band's third guitarist. The deep voodoo funk that gelled on the aforementioned recordings hadn't yet come together on this night at Carnegie, near the end of a tour. Featuring four titles, all of them Swahili names for the numbers one through four,
is a jam record. By this point,
Miles
was no longer really rehearsing his bands; they showed up and caught a whiff of what he wanted and went with it. Rhythms, colors, keys -- all of them would shift and change at
Davis
' whim. There were no melodies outside of a three-note vamp on
"Wili"
and a few riff-oriented melodics on
"Tatu"
-- the rest is all deep rhythm-based funk and dark groove. Greasy, mysterious, and full of menacing energy,
shows a band at the end of its rope, desperate to change because the story has torn itself out of the book, but not knowing where to go and turning in on itself instead. These dynamics have the feel of unresolved, boiling tension.
Gaumont
's effects-laden guitar playing overshadows the real guitarists in the band:
Cosey
and his partner, the rhythmically inventive
Lucas
.
doesn't fit naturally, so he tries to dazzle his way in -- check the way
cuts his solos off so abruptly while letting the others dovetail and segue. Ultimately,
is an over-the-top ride into the fragmented mind of
and his 1974 band; its rhythm section is the most compelling of any jazz-rock band in history, but the front lines, while captivating, are too loose and uneven to sustain the listener for the entire ride. ~ Thom Jurek
is a live recording of a very specific 1974 Carnegie Hall date that included most, but not all, of the members who recorded the classics
Agharta
and
Pangaea
. While drummer
Al Foster
, bassist
Michael Henderson
, percussionist
James Mtume
, and guitarists
Pete Cosey
Reggie Lucas
were all present, the key element of
Sonny Fortune
was not yet in the band. Saxophonists
David Liebman
Azar Lawrence
were doubling in the saxophone chairs, while
Dominique Gaumont
, with his
Jimi Hendrix
-styled effects and riffs, was the band's third guitarist. The deep voodoo funk that gelled on the aforementioned recordings hadn't yet come together on this night at Carnegie, near the end of a tour. Featuring four titles, all of them Swahili names for the numbers one through four,
is a jam record. By this point,
Miles
was no longer really rehearsing his bands; they showed up and caught a whiff of what he wanted and went with it. Rhythms, colors, keys -- all of them would shift and change at
Davis
' whim. There were no melodies outside of a three-note vamp on
"Wili"
and a few riff-oriented melodics on
"Tatu"
-- the rest is all deep rhythm-based funk and dark groove. Greasy, mysterious, and full of menacing energy,
shows a band at the end of its rope, desperate to change because the story has torn itself out of the book, but not knowing where to go and turning in on itself instead. These dynamics have the feel of unresolved, boiling tension.
Gaumont
's effects-laden guitar playing overshadows the real guitarists in the band:
Cosey
and his partner, the rhythmically inventive
Lucas
.
doesn't fit naturally, so he tries to dazzle his way in -- check the way
cuts his solos off so abruptly while letting the others dovetail and segue. Ultimately,
is an over-the-top ride into the fragmented mind of
and his 1974 band; its rhythm section is the most compelling of any jazz-rock band in history, but the front lines, while captivating, are too loose and uneven to sustain the listener for the entire ride. ~ Thom Jurek
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