John Abercrombie is quickly becoming one of my favourite guitarists. Thus, i have been interested in hearing some of his other work splattered throughout the ECM catalogue. While on my hunt, i stumbled apon this little gem. Liebman himself, being new to me, blew me away with his beautiful saxa-ma-phone playing. On these three extended tribal themed jams, his playing is sparse, but very melodic. The tribal percussion is absolutely incredible. We got congas, bongos, tablas, tambourines and cowbells belting along into a wild fury! Particularly in the second track where they kick it into one hell of a funky jam, as Abercrombie takes the front and opens right up.
This is a wonderful record, another ECM gem.
3 comments:
I love ECM. So many of their records have such a cold feel to them. It's a rad vibe that no other jazz label has cultivated.
Thank you for this long OOP recording I thought I'd never hear again! It's beautiful, isn't it? This was released around the time or shortly after Lieb and Steve Grossman made up one-half of the Elvin Jones quartet (Gene Perla was the bassist) which I first heard at the Village Vanguard in the spring of 1972 with Don Alias sitting in on congas. Steve released his own killer LP around the same time, "Some Shapes to Come."
I remember seeing an instructional book for jazz musicians that was devoted exclusively to this album. So I figured it must be some kind of important work...that was a long time ago and I'd forgotten about my initial interest in finding it until seeing it posted here. Now I can say that Lookout Farm is one of the few records by other artists that compares favorably to Miles' groundbreaking early electric music (Filles de Kilimajaro, In a Silent Way). And imo it's just as good.
Just discovered your blog and it's one of the coolest eclectic music blogs out there (there's a big difference between cool eclectic and just "eclectic". Many thanks.
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