BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 2: Tony Williams Lifetime Turn It Over Bill Laswell Remix

When I saw Cindy Blackman's Spectrum Road in 2012 I closed my eyes and listened to the closest thing to Tony Williams Lifetime Project from the early 1970's.  Back then the group consisted of Jack Bruce, John McLaughlin, Larry Young and Tony Williams.  They were called Lifetime. It truly was a super group.  A group that was so heavy that they could give any band from that era a run of it's money.  Cindy Blackman decided to have a little fun and recreate the project with one alum from Lifetime and a few seasoned veterans in the music world to recreate that magic.  This time It was Vernon Reid, John Medeski, Jack Bruce and Cindy Blackman.  A superstar lineup that had most of the crowd in awe.

I talked about the album Emergency in a post from October of last year and now I'm going to talk about an album that came out a year later in 1970 with a little bit of a catch.  The album is called Turn It Over.  The catch is this album got in the hands of an awesome bass player and Remixer as it were; Bill Laswell. You have seen me post about Laswell before so there really is nothing new.  Actually there is one thing that is new.  Three of the tracks on this remix are unreleased and five are unedited.  For fans of Tony Williams, like myself, the bonus tracks are great.  Also for fans of these other musicians this is great too.

For people who don't about Tony Williams and the rest of the band then I will give a little information about his band.  First member is Jack Bruce.  We really know who he is.  He played in Cream, and is probably my favorite bass player.  Next is John McLaughlin, an awesome guitar player and a future post about his band The Mahavishnu Orchestra will be posted at some point.  John, has been part of the same British circle as Jack Bruce.  Next is Larry Young, his influence is his playing. He redefined the organ as not only an Jazz instrument, but an instrument that influenced people like John Medeski. Lastly Tony Williams, He played with Miles Davis and was nineteen years old when he made his debut on an album he also called Life Time which was his.  Oh yeah, he was the drummer on another album I plan to post called Out To Lunch by Eric Dolphy, another favorite album of mine.

Put all these guys together and you have one powerful band.  All except Jack Bruce played with Miles Davis and that unity and chemistry might be the glue they had.  Jack Bruce can play with anyone and this band is powerful and these guys are pretty damn good to say the least. With all this greatness this band really could do no wrong. Sadly they only made one album together.  I don't know the back story about how this great gathering broke up, but I figured that if it is not broke don't fix it.

From the opening song "Vuelta Abajo" we know that this band is on fire.  It's my favorite track on the album.  When I saw the Spectrum Road band play it was truly an awe inspiring performance.  I can only imagine how the original band really rocked it back then in 1970.  I also could see this band be a great co-headliner of Jimi Hendrix and his Band of Gypsys if Hendrix lived.  There is one drawback of this group is Tony Williams sings, if I were working with them I would have Jack Bruce, because his was pretty powerful in Cream.  He only sang on song on the original.

After hearing Cindy Blackman's tribute to this group you can see why a band like this has to be talked about.  They were true creative originals.  A band like this I would have loved to hear more from them.  This remix gave a great light on how powerful that this band was.  I focused on this album's remix because it's twice as long as the original and the music is amazing.  These guys can give any band from that era a serious run for their money.  Even the the tracks not on the original like "Do That" pack a punch.  A band like this makes you think about the greatness of other supergroups like Cream, Blind Faith, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Humble Pie, and countless others.  So check out this supergroup and you will love it as much as I do.  Greatness comes once in a blue moon and this is on awesome blue moon. ENJOY!!!