Sean Trane
Whether this is the debut album or not is debatable, but its his first one under his own name and what a debut this album makes. It's actually virtually impossible to tell that the guitarist on this album will be the jazz and jazz-rock giant he became. Behind this very hippy-ish artwork hides a pure blistering piece of hard rocking guitar. The line-up consists of permanent sidemen such as school friend Mike Mandel (KB), drummer Purdie, with the bass slot still not decided between Rainey and Stinson. Guesting are old collab Amerindian Jim Pepper, Miles collab Ron Carter, while wife Julie signs the liner notes (and gets two track credits as well) and in-house producer Danny Weiss at the production helm, this debut album is certainly no accident and the very base of LC's early career.
Quite a varied album we get here, as the tracks range from the good rocking sung track like the opening Sex track (sounding like Lenny Kravitz circa Let Love Rule, with more instrumental space) and Morning Sickness (guitar as medication), to incandescent lengthy instrumental extrapolations Jam With Albert (Stinson the bassist), from the softer psych-blues Beautiful Woman (again early Kravitz comes to mind) to the slow-starting boogie Elementary Guitar Solo #5 (an excuse for a hot searing and soaring solo) turning into a wild mid-section tempo. The two Julie-penned tracks are both quality piece that do not detract from the rest of the album, especially the wild No One Really Knows, starting out nicely, until Larry hoofs it into the stratosphere with his guitar and the closing Ah-Wuv-Oh, where Pepper's flute plays an interesting contrast with Larry's guitar.
Certainly one of LC's best moments in his career that will feature many, I would like to point out that if LC would progress musically greatly, he was starting from a solid base like this album. Indeed this album can't be called jazz, jazz-rock t all, it is a pure R'nR album, and one that's highly recommended, too
