It’s Fusion Friday, jazz fans. Brace for the weekend with “Emergency! the face-melting opening track from a 1969 album of the same name by drummer Tony Williams and his band Lifetime. The album came just a few short years after Williams’ stint in Miles Davis’ Second Great Quintet, a band he joined at the age of 17. Distancing himself from Davis’ funk-heavy fusion aesthetic, Williams employs an edgier, more rock-oriented sound on Emergency!, detonating rocket boosters of rhythm beneath guitarist John McLaughlin and organist Larry Young.
Feature photo of Tony Williams (© Jan Persson)