FunkFreak75 An album that is as notable for luring guitar phenom Allan Holdsworth away from a pretty good gig with The Soft Machine as it is for being one of the legendary drummer's finest.

1. "Snake Oil" (6:30) opening with a truly funked up bass, the surprisingly-raunchy guitar from Allan Holdsworth enters with Tony's surprisingly straightforward drumming to establish a foundational framework within which the band members work in their little nuances of extras until 1:40 when Allan begins a guitar solo of subtly varied guitar chords based on the foundational flow. The band is very tight but, again, surprisingly stiff and unadventurous--until Alan Pasqua starts a clavinet solo around the three-minute mark. Thereafter one can hear Tony start to loosen up and fly around his drum kit beneath the rigid form of his bandmates. In the sixth minute, Allan launches on a surprisingly controlled and "slow" solo for about a minute, and then the song just slow fades! Wow! Kind of weird--and definitely unexpected! (8.75/10)

2. "Fred" (6:48) one of Allan's compositions, it is surprisingly melodic and smooth--especially Allan Pasqua's keyboard parts (which Allan matches with his soft guitar chords for the first two minutes. Tony's play is nice. Electric piano gets the first solo--a surprisingly extended two minute jaunt during which Tony's drum play just gets more and more dynamic. Allan finally enters as the soloist at 3:45--but it's Tony again who garners all my attention--even after 4:25 when Allan finally starts to cook, it's Tony that I am enjoying the most. How can a drummer be this "melodic"? Nice guitar solo finally ends about 5:37 whereupon we reenter the lush keyboard-and-guitar chord sequence of the opening. Nice tune. Great drum display! My favorite. (13.75/15)

3. "Proto-Cosmos" (4:02) a nice driving jazz-rock tune on which Tony once again shines despite more-than-adequate performances from his band mates--just nothing as extraordinary or dynamic as Tony's play. (8.875/10)

4. "Red Alert" (4:39) opening with a rock sound that sounds like the sound palette of Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein." At the end of the first minute bass player Tony Newton is the only one left carrying the song forward as everybody else clears out for a stupendous Allan Holdsworth solo. This is the first time on the album that Allan has displayed any of the fireworks that we heard on his last album prior to this one, The Soft Machine's Bundles. Alan Pasqua gets the next solo on his electric piano in the second half of the third minute. I love how both Holdsworth and Newton (as well as Williams) embellish their own "support" play beneath Pasqua--this is the first time the three have done this to this degree. (8.875/10)

5. "Wildlife" (5:22) a slow, melodic arrangement with upper register electric piano and electric guitar presenting and carrying the BOB JAMES-like melody forward from the start. Holdsworth takes his time taking the first solo slot--and never hits third gear, just maintains and supports the basic melody, pretty much. Pasqua's clavinet is a nice second keyboard and Newton's bass play is the most loose and satisfying that we've heard beneath Pasqua's cool electric piano solo in the fourth minute. I LOVE how the bass and drum play--both fairly straightforaward and sedate--give the feeling of pushing: giving more power and even trying to push the pace up a notch. Really cool feeling! Otherwise, just a nice song. My second favorite song. (9/10)

6. "Mr. Spock" (6:15) another song that seems to have more of a rock and pop orientation--at least until the speed is finally established at the one-minute mark. In the second minute, Alan Pasqua takes the first solo with silence from Mr. Holdsworth beneath--which makes Tony's play even more noticeable. Nice bass play from Mr. Newton. Even Tony's straightforward play is filled with such nuance and subtlety! Holdsworth puts in a decent solo in the fourth minute with Pasqua now completely dropping out. Cool idea! Tony's solo play in the second half of the fifth minute (beneath Holdsworth somewhat annoying distorted three-chord guitar play) feels a little bit "amateurish" for its showy-ness. (8.87510)

Total time 33:36

Overall this is a nice album of almost proto-Smooth Jazz on which Tony Williams shows us some of the amazing power he controls in his most basic drum play. The rest of the quartet are adequate in their play but rarely jaw-dropping. The songs are a little too formulaic with the way in which they are set up to harbor a succession of individual solos (except for "Fred").

B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of jazz-rock fusion. The album recording experience that Allan Holdsworth credits for being the most significant learning experience of his musical career.

FunkFreak75 "The loudest stuff I ever heard in my life," recalled Herbie Hancock of a Tony Williams Lifetime concert that he attended in the fall of 1969. Knowing that he was probably risking his hearing later in life, he stayed for the entire show. "It was … new. It was exciting and very arresting." Miles Davis heard the trio perform their amped up set at a club in Harlem in the early winter. John McLaughlin had only been in the US for two weeks (he had come to New York specifically to join Tony Williams' Lifetime project) when he got a call from Miles asking if he would join him in the studio on February 18. This single day of recording would result in the July release of Miles' landmark fusion album, In a Silent Way.

Volume One (35:01) 1. "Emergency" (9:35) power drumming with loud, distorted electric guitar power chords open this one with Larry Young's organ providing the low and middle ground including all of the bass lines. John McLaughlin's guitar playing moves easily between runs that exude smoke and fire and those that evoke comfort and supplicating beauty, while his chord play in support are often jagged, angular, and confusing in their complex intention. Meanwhile, Larry Young gets some time to come out from his cave beneath the bridge (which is exactly when John gets his most ambiguous: is he trying to be mean or just provocative?). While some of the sound is a bit muddied (especially in the higher end), the jamming is so focused, so tight, so intertwined. and then it just ends! Probably my favorite song on the album. (19/20)

2. "Beyond Games" (8:17) built over a blues progression, Tony uses his speaking voice to recite some pre-Gil Scott-Heron poetic social commentary. (He sounds so young--like the lead singer of the Brighter Side of Darkness: just sitting in his high school classroom wishing he could say his thoughts out loud. John's guitar is ominous in its support while Larry's organ (and bass line) is almost Timmy Thomas gospel-like. You can tell that this song was recorded on the same take as the previous one--two songs on the same tape continuously--as all of the sounds and levels are the exact same. after six minutes the repetitive four bar four-chord progression gets a little old--which is right when Tony returns to speaking his quotidian poetry advice. (17.5/20)

3. "Where" (12:10) a very-sparsely populated opening is where Tony chooses to start singing his philosophical musings. In the third minute John begins to solo cerebrally while Tony's drums provide steady yet-minimal support and Larry's organ is so quiet it's almost non-existent Then in the fifth minute John begins to go to a higher gear and Larry's right hand and Tony's prowess begin to show--but then all this is cut off at the five-minute mark for a quiet section in which Tony sings his ambigous mult-level questions. This then ends after which Tony's cymbal play and John's small repetive blues chords provide support for a two-minute organ solo. There is a very basic hard-bop motif shifted into in the ninth minute while Larry resumes soloing. This is not the fire and ice that I was expecting to hear from these practitioners of scorched-Earth tactics. (Nor was I expecting lyrics or singing.) (21.5/25)

4. "Vashkar" (4:59) the signatory song of this album, here we have the fiery interplay between drummer and guitarist with the organ providing the glue between them. Lots of stop and start, loud and soft alternations. Great skill that would be better if there was a more pleasing melodic hook. Another favorite. (9/10)

Volume Two (36:28) 5. "Via The Spectrum Road" (7:50) like southern blues swamp rock--and acoustic guitar and not one but two vocalists singing. John's blues-rock lead guitar is purposely placed in the background--sounds as if it's coming from a different room. The nuances are numerous and delightful. Too bad Larry is relegated to being pretty much the bass player. Sounds like something from the Sixties--especially John's raunchy guitar play. Larry's distant and sparse injections of organ chords have an other-worldly spacey feel to them and Tony's drumming is marvellous but overall this is not really something that a musician would really get into. I know this one is considered revolutionary, but it is far from my favorite. (13/15)

6. "Spectrum" (9:52) Wow! What a ride Tony, John and Larry take us on. There is no let-up or break to the break-neck speed that these musicians hurl through space and time--and Larry even gets some lead organ time despite having some very demanding bass lines to keep going. Quite a stunning (and exhausting) ten minutes of hard-bop-based power fusion. John's lead and rhythm play are both quite often abrasive--and unapologetically so as he keeps doing the irritating, angular things he just seemed to temper with bridges of more-classic and familiar (and softer, more melodic) riffs. A very impressive song. (18.25/20)

7. "Sangria For Three" (13:08) another barn-burner, this song has some very experimental passages (like the fifth minute and the 11th and 12th minutes) as well as some that are very hard-driving rock and others that are very Hendrix-like in their powerful blues-rock. This is my other top three song: I just love all of the shifts and turns, the high speed chases and the stuck-in-the-mud experimental passages, and the powerful Hendrix-like passages. (23.5/25)

8. "Something Spiritual" (5:38) not one of the timeless beauties that John would pump out with great regularity over the course of the rest of his career, more a testament to the challenging and repetitive work required to establish a spiritual practice and then keep it going. Great drumming beneath the very repetitious four chords played by John and Larry to mind-numbing nauseum. But I get it! (8.75/10)

Total time 71:29

I can see why this is such an important and, yes, seminal album--especially for the rise and notice of the fusion of jazz and rock 'n' roll musics, but it's really not a an album of great songs: ground-breaking and often great performances, but often so raw and under-developed, rarely enjoyable or "finished" feeling.

A-/five stars; a minor-masterpiece of genre-busting rock- and avant-infused jazz music that would open the doors for all other jazz-rock fusion ideas and bands to come flooding into the fold. Definitely one of THE landmark albums of the J-R Fusion movement.

Steve Wyzard ONE OF THE GREATS!

When the great fusion albums (such as In a Silent Way and Enigmatic Ocean) are being discussed, Tony Williams' Believe It outright demands to be mentioned with them. This might come as a surprise to some, as there are some caveats that should be addressed:

1) Its length. The original LP ran a little over 33 minutes. Later CD re-issues have added extra tracks that don't really add to the album's greatness. Don't think of Believe It as "short", think of it as "succinct" and "visceral".

2) Electric bassist Tony Newton. With a soul/r'n'b background, he's not the first person you'd think of when you imagine who should play bass on a "fusion masterpiece". He acquits himself quite admirably with this line-up, and adds effects to his two compositions that, while hip for 1975, do not ruin the album.

3) Too rock/too jazz. On Believe It, guitarist Allan Holdsworth and keyboardist Alan Pasqua give two of their best performances EVER in their long and checkered careers. If you're a fan of these two, you will LOVE this album. Holdsworth's snarly, distorted tones, however, have alienated many, leading to the "too rock for jazz, too jazz for rock" dismissal he is all-too-often tagged with.

4) The follow-up. This line-up recorded just one other album, Million Dollar Legs. With a hideous cover, vocals, strings, and horns, it is in EVERY way inferior to Believe It and led Holdsworth to bolt for Bill Bruford's new group.

If you can overlook the above and have acquired the taste for classic fusion, Believe It will become a (ahem) LIFETIME listening experience. While very much of its age, this fiery recording session has transcended its contemporaries and will never grow old. There are no weak moments, and the songs and amazing solos are all out of this world. And needless to say, Tony drums up a storm. While he put out many albums and sat in on many sessions, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more dynamic Williams performance recorded after this one. And let it be said here that "Fred" is one of Holdsworth's greatest moments ever!

Atavachron When we are witness to a new kind of art, it should be noted. And though the first glimpses of an unproven form are sometimes raw, the impact is usually undeniable. This is the case with 'Emergency!'. Sometimes ugly but always real, this little record is very likely the first true and fully blended mix of modern jazz with electric rock in all its manic glory. There had been hints at it, experiments and false starts that often lacked total vision, like Cannonball Adderly's use of pop stylings in jazz. As well, Miles Davis is most often credited with being the 'father' of jazz-rock but on closer inspection, Davis is, at best, its grandfather whose 'In a Silent Way' (1969) was more a flirtation between styles than an infusion of musics. There were superior and better-realized fusion projects to come, such as John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu and the later symphonic aspirations of Chick Corea and Al Di Meola. But in hindsight, this rough, tainted and trance-induced set, deeply intuitive on a level not before heard, is the first recording of jazz artists doing what the heavy blues and psych scenes had been doing for years. And while there had been those who progressed jazz itself, such as Jimmy Giuffre, Dave Brubeck or Gunther Schuller, no one had brought together the hot bop of Coltrane with the howling rock spirit of Jimi Hendrix in the same room at the same time. Finally... Fusion with a capital 'F' had arrived, kicking and screaming but alive and well.

This session, not to be confused with Williams' first album as leader in 1964 titled 'Lifetime', had all the makings for explosive creativity and boundary- wrecking; John McLaughlin's guitar sounding more urgent and other-worldly than ever, Larry Young's irrepressible organ, and Williams' ridiculously confident charge on drums. If one didn't know better, the nine-minute title cut could just be the sound of another crazy jazz band bopping their way into the 1970's with drug-induced abandon. But the unmistakable sounds of riff rock can be heard fighting to break on through, Larry Young's insistent organ- grind, McLaughlin's lead, and the whole thing coming alive with Williams' crashes and acrobatic backbeat. Some acid mud follows, as well as passages of sheer spontaneity. 'Beyond Games' is hideous and nervous freeform featuring Williams' bizarre vocals and the 12-minute 'Where' is a troubled dervish of a jam, dizzying and sweaty with odd rhythms, sudden changes of mood and semi-classical lines running between guitar and organ. But it's the fourth, 'Vashkar', where we begin to hear the first clearly-cut form of jazz rock with all of its facets, finally gelling in the way we would become familiar with in later years showing intelligent melodics, tight dynamics, and plenty of fire. 'Via the Spectrum Road' is the requisite weird pop-psych tune, but luckily the firecracking jam 'Spectrum' wakes things up again with pure hot jazz and wild soloing from everyone. It would be the highlight of the set if not for the 13- minute 'Sangria For Three', a beautifully messy explosion of jazz rock at its most pure. 'Something Special' finishes with unsettled dissonance and closes out a musical statement so bold and irreverent that it was, in the truest sense, revolutionary. A mad experiment gone out of control and one of the most important records you will ever hear.