Released 1969 Emergency!
(1969) Turn It Over
(1970) Producer Monte Kay Genres Jazz, Jazz fusion | Length 70:24 Release date 1969 Label Polydor Records | |
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Artists Tony Williams, The Tony Williams Lifetime Similar The Tony Williams Lifetime albums, Jazz fusion albums | ||
Emergency! is the debut double album by American jazz fusion group The Tony Williams Lifetime. It was released in 1969 and was one of the first significant jazz fusion recordings. The album has commonly been regarded as a pioneering, influential, and original album in the jazz, rock, and fusion genres.
Contents
The tony williams lifetime emergency
Background
On the album, the band experiments with a wide range of genres including funk, psychedelic rock, hard bop, blues and free jazz. Williams can also be heard singing on the record on the songs "Beyond Games", "Where", and "Via the Spectrum Road". It was during John McLaughlin's tenure with the band that Williams introduced the young guitarist to Miles Davis, who was conducting his own fusion explorations at the time. This introduction led to McLaughlin playing on some of Davis's most acclaimed and influential albums, including In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew and A Tribute to Jack Johnson. Davis had a particular influence on the band, as Williams had played in his Second Great Quintet with Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, and Herbie Hancock, and Larry Young would go on to record on Bitches Brew.
Release and reception
Emergency! was originally released in 1969 by Polydor Records and Polygram Records. In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau called the album a "stunner" and hailed Williams as "probably the best drummer in the world". The record was later reissued on CD by Verve Records and Polygram in 1997.
According to J. D. Considine in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (1992), jazz fusion started on Emergency! where McLaughlin was first given the chance to combine jazz and rock. In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Leo Stanley said that it "shattered the boundaries between jazz and rock" with its "dense, adventurous, unpredictable soundscapes". Dennis Polkow of the Chicago Tribune wrote that in spite of the album's questionable sound quality, the music has an "energy and spirit" that has never been surpassed in fusion.
Track listing
- "Emergency" (Williams) – 9:37
- "Beyond Games" (Williams) – 8:19
- "Where" (McLaughlin) – 12:11
- "Vashkar" (Carla Bley) – 5:01
- "Via the Spectrum Road" (McLaughlin, Williams) – 7:51
- "Spectrum" (McLaughlin) – 8:52
- "Sangria for Three" (Williams) – 13:08
- "Something Spiritual" (Dave Herman) – 5:40
The Tony Williams Lifetime
Production
Songs
1Emergency9:35
2Beyond Games8:20
3Where12:09