AOTW-January 7-13

[Guest the mommy]

Steve Grossman-Tenor and soprano saxophones

Jan Hammer-Electric piano and moog synthesizer

Gene Perla-Electric and acoustic basses

Don Alias-Drums, congas, bongos and bell

WBAI (Steve Grossman) 2:07

Haresa (Steve Grossman) 7:06

Zulu Stomp (Don Alias) 6:13

Extemporaneous Combustion (Grossman, Hammer, Perla, Alias) 6:10

Alodian Mode (Grossman, Hammer, Perla, Alias) 7:00

Pressure Point (Steve Grossman) 4:52

The Sixth Sense (Grossman, Hammer, Perla, Alias) 9:30

yes, very confusing because this album used to be known as "some shapes to come" but gene perla seems to have reissued it most recently as "the bible". why? i don't know. seems like a dumb idea on a few levels to change the name of an album for a reissue. also a little misleading? sorry i don't want to get back into dogging mr. perla's PM records label. we had a whole thread on that a bit back.

anyway-whatever you want to call it...this is a great album, IMO. i don't even usually like steve grossman. but the perla/alias/hammer rhythm section is hot. and aided by the poor and "hot" sound of the album. alias's drums sound echo-ey and cavernous on some tracks and his beats are funky and heavy. i would not be surprised if some of alias' beats on this album were sampled and used in some more modern hip hop or ninja tune-ey musics.

i am a big fan of jan hammer and he sounds very good on this album. he's playing more rhodes/less moog than might be expected of him.

grossman's soprano is not usually my favorite noise, but he is helped by the recording, which makes the soprano sound rougher and more distorted and not shrill and clear.

the tunes themselves are nice. nothing totally memorable...besides alias's beats. but some good tunes, in my opinion. it would be tough for me to pick a favorite track off the top of my head.

there is a second album by this same group-terra firma. but i don't think it is quite as good. i could change my opinion in the future.

[mikeweil]

I love this album - it's raw and wild, contrary to the polished fusion music of later eras, takes chances, grooves like mad, and approaches funky rhythms in a much more creative way than is common today.

I bought all Stone Alliance and Steve Grossman LPs back then, saw the band live twice, and wish Jan Hammer would have been a member - well, Kenny Kirkland wasn't a slouch either when he joined later (Bob Mintzer had replaced Grossman in the Stone Alliance band by then). You see, I cannot separate them all .....

I dig Grossman's Coltranesque wailings much more than the Rollins approach he adopted a few years later. He had it down, and had a fierce energy I marvelled at.

But that new album title is crazy - I wish those shapes would come back every now and then!

Edited January 7, 2007 by mikeweil

[Guest the mommy]

wow! not a popular choice!

anyways, mike W-i saw in the PM records thread you wrote down the sessionography for "heads up" and i thank you. yes, the CD reissue contained none of that info.

also mike W-if you use dimeadozen there are two 1979-1980 stone alliance shows floating around. i am actually a big fan of kenny kirkland's electric playing. he also sounded very good with michael urbaniak in the late 70s, IMO.

but i too wish that there was more "fusion" out there which sounded like "some shapes to come". some of jeremy steig's stuff from around this time w. hammer and alias also has a nice though groovier and less dirty thing going on and deserve (as poster mike casino has often called for) to be reissued.

[JSngry]

Excellent choice for AOW, mom!

I like this album very much. More now than I did then, to be honest. Choosing between it and Terra Firma, I might take the latter. Might.

Mike mentioned Grossman's "later" move off into Rollins-land, and I know what he means. However, with the benfit of hindsight, I can hear any number of moments on both of those albums that parallel Sonny's 70s music as well as the latent Rollins-ness in Grossman's playing. There's times I think, "hey, this is the type od record Sonny was trying to make!" Something else I didn't hear then that I hear now.

Also agree that Jan Hammer was bringing something special to the this type table back in those days. That, I heard then.

Definitely prefer the original title, although I can tell you that there's a cult of tenorists for whom the new one is most apt. Those Grossman PM sides made quite an impact on more tenor players than you might think.

[Guest the mommy]

forgot to mention above-this album was recorded in 1974, i believe.

jan hammer makes me think of an oft-talked about on this board album-horacee arnold's "tales of the exonerated flea". those steig albums too, along with these grossman albums...all good examples of not really fusion but plugged in and interesting jazz stuff (but not too fusion-ey like hammer's real gig)

i was reading an interview with perla about how right when he felt stone alliance was on the cusp of hitting the big time (1977? 78?) they were getting ready for a gig at ronnie scott's and grossman didn't show and that was it! and perla thought they were about to hit return to forever levels. but grossman ruined it. i respectfully disagree just because essentially a sax trio is always going to be too...um...player-oriented? to really create catchy enough stuff to be a big time fusion band. perhaps perla realized this as stone alliance didn't really end but kenny kirkland was brought on as well as bob mintzer.

i don't know why i am talking about stone alliance in this thread...but why not.

[JSngry]

Grossman was not without, uh..."personal problems", and if even a tenth of the stories I've heard are true, the guy's lucky to be alive. The no-show @ Ronnie Scott's would fit with this.

[frankie]

Grossman was not without, uh..."personal problems", and if even a tenth of the stories I've heard are true, the guy's lucky to be alive. The no-show @ Ronnie Scott's would fit with this.

is he still alive?

[JSngry]

As far as I know.

[clifford_thornton]

There was an AAJ-NY Encore on Grossman about a year or so ago. At least back then he was still kicking it.

[marcello]

I can tell you that he was playing in Italy last June, for sure.