FunkFreak75 The end of Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi-era team lineup is officially an Eddie Henderson album due to Eddie's leadership (initiative, funding, and role as principle composer), and it's another great one. (The next of Eddie's album's, 1975's Sunburst, again has a great lineup of young and seasoned jazz musicians--including Bennie Maupin and George Duke--but there is a radical shift in musical styles toward a more radio- and sales-friendly "smooth" or "funky/disco" jazz fusion that became popular in the mid-70s.) Recorded in San Francisco in October of 1973, the album wasn't mastered and released until 1974--long after Herbie had called it quits on the head-in-the-clouds, atmosphere-exploring Mwandishi septet. (Herbie recorded his first album with a new funk/R&B lineup of four in September, 1973. The album, Head Hunters, was released on October 13 or October 26 [depending on sources] to become the biggest selling jazz album of all-time--until George Benson's Breezin' laid claim to that title in 1976.) How the recording sessions for Inside Out happened after Herbie had dismantled the Mwandishi septet and after he had already recorded his new pop-oriented album is a mystery to me. If any one out there knows how this happened, please let me know!

1. "Moussaka" (8:59) Patrick Gleeson and Bennie Maupin get first crack at opening this album: it sounds like the real-time sounds of a sunrise. At the end of the first minute Buster Williams' bass and Bill Summers congas start us off on a journey across the desert but then we slow way down as if to examine the scenery from some carapace high up above the desert floor. But then at 2:40 the journey recommences--exactly the same way it began at the one minute mark--this time allowing Eddie time to solo with his muted cornet. Then Herbie gets a turn in the fifth minute with his Fender Rhodes. Such a nice Caravanserai groove going beneath it all. Eddie retakes the reins with a muted flugelhorn at 5:30. A second track is given to Eddie for the intermittent dipersal of flourishes from his unmuted trumpet until at 7:30 that instrument takes the lead where he is joined by a legion of other horn and wind instruments (Obviously Eddie, Bennie, and Patrick have become enamored of multi-track overdubbing.) (18/20)

2. "Omnipresence" (2:14) another display of circling instruments that sounds/feels like the presence of something. The two drummers are busy as Eddie and the rest fill the cauldron with more ingredients in order to make the soup. (4.375/5)

3. "Discoveries" (5:08 ) multiple horns are tracking while Buster and the drummers are providing a kind of DEODATO version of "A Love Supreme" but then things veer right and we've got a more train-like cannonball racing downhill so that Bennie's clarinet, Herbie's clavinet and Fender Rhodes, Patrick's burbling saw synths, and Eddie's trumpets (muted and unmuted) can weave their off-set flourishes of melody. Very interesting and progressive. The music on this album is definitely exploring new, expanded ideas of what is linear and how melodies can be delivered by all of the instruments of a large ensemble while being out of sync with one another. I like this one more for its innovation than its engaging qualities. (8.875/10)

4. "Fusion" (3:33) a veritable continuation of the previous song (there is no break between the two) sees a shift in the rhythm track coming from both the bass and drums. Over the top Eddie, Bennie, and Herbie manage the melody delivery with subtle collaboration and admirable discipline. (8.875/10)

5. "Dreams" (7:21) drums and bass going rogue while the lead instruments hold the melody together simultaneously and smoothly. Interesting! The recording and engineering is so perfect: with every subtle sound captured and balanced gently into the mix. I can't recall hearing a jazz album on which each song's soundscape is so egalitarianly distributed. Rather amazing. And beautiful! (14/15)

6. "Inside Out" (9:25) It's Buster again to lead the way out of the gates. Drummers and clavinet follow as Eddie's horns and Bennie's tenor saxophone start their own journeys. Clavinet gets a little "me" time before multiple horns give a loosely banked MILES-like pepper spray--a pattern of delivery that Eddie continues to reinforce with his trumpet's own first foray as sole soloist. This is a really fun song to listen to while paying attention to any and every one of the individual musicians--listening for their subtle expressions of unrepressed individuality. Even the two drummers are playing so subtly off of one another, creating something that is spiraling around Buster's bass lines, feeding the other instrumentalists into explorations and expressions of their own creative heights. In the sixth minute Bennie gets the second extended solo with his tenor sax. I like the relaxed length of times given between soloists. Herbie's wah-ed Fender Rhodes gets the next solo, filling the eighth minute. Bennie and Eddie come squawking out of the pond like two geese (or more as each is given multiple tracks) to try to cut Herbie off but Herbie just continues on with both his Fender Rhodes soloing and his clavinet (multi-tracked or played simultaneously?--or, more likely, taken on by Bennie Maupin?) Very cool song to listen to over and over. (19/20)

7. "Exit #1" (2:54) the bookend opposite of the album's opening four minutes: this must be the sunset. Perfect! (5/5)

Total Time: 39:34

The music on this album is so much more experimental, feeling innovative on several fronts, than any of the previous Mwansishi-era albums. While not as melodic, the weaves are incredibly complex for the fact that it feels as if each individual musician has been set loose on his own path and journey with the same map and destination but with the freedom to follow their own independent paths and means to get there. It's really a breath-taking and marvellous to watch (and listen). If this isn't the peak of the experimentalism that was the spirit and intent of the Mwandishi albums, then I don't know what is.

A/five stars; musically this may be a minor masterpiece but to my ears there are developmental things going on here that, for me, proclaim an evolutionary jump in the progress of jazz-rock fusion--a jump that is in direct opposition to the pervasive tendency toward favoring smooth audience accessibility over mathematical and creative exploration and experimentation. A Top 30 Favorite J-R Fuse Album from prog's "Classic Era."

FunkFreak75 Recorded in the Winter of 1973 (February 27 & 28), this was recorded with Herbie Hancock's sitting Mwandishi Septet before its disbandment.

1. "Scorpio-Libra" (11:12) opens immediately with a funky Isaac Hayes "Shaft"/Bitches Brew pretentiousness that is immediately winning due to its cocky arrogance. It's spacey yet still jazzy, free form but mapped out, and full of musicians sounding like they're really having fun. Patrick Gleeson's play on synths and organ sounds so loose and liberating and I LOVE the two drummers! Billy and Lenny both bringing their best, playing with and off of one another. Herbie, of course, is so solid on the Fender Rhodes but he's mixed a little too far into the background (until his solo in the seventh minute). And Bennie Maupin and Eddie just playing their hearts out. Great stuff! (18.5/20)

2. "Mars in Libra" (8:40) sounds very much like the same foundation as the previous song with much wilder performances from the soloists, more dynamic and independent energy from the drummers. Space music in which the pioneers are exploring deep dimensions of the universe. I can tell the boys are having their fun but I personally find that I'm kind of done with Buster Williams' bass line that's holding it all together. Then it all just kind of ends: no ceremony or gravitas just ... done! Weird. (17.5/20)

3. "Anua" (8:30) opens with bass and drums, long-sustained flue and keyboard notes with crazy-wind synth sounds flying around just beneath the surface. Eddie's muted and unmuted horn joins in, takes the lead as the band solidifies its support beneath. It's a beautiful weave of full whole-band chords with incredible leadership from Buster Williams' double bass. The dreaminess of the foundational music reminds me of Freddy Henderson's Love Connection a few years down the road as well as many of the Crusader's Joe Sample's and Huber Laws' solo albums from the time. Beautiful stuff that could easily exist without the soloists on top--thought there are some dreamy solos in the seventh and eighth minutes. (despite the drums getting a bit drowned out by the cymbal play). (19/20)

4. "Spiritual Awakening" (2:33) synth-generated "water"/"bird" noises over which Eddie ejaculates his horn and riffs while the rest of the band just floats and flit in and out of the sonic field. (4.375/5)

5. "Revelation Realization" (8:00) really smooth night groove from the bass with double horn tracks on top and the two drums and keys pushed way down in the mix. I know this gives the listener much greater access to the fine bass and horn play, but then we have to listen that much harder to pick up the nuances of the two amazing drummers. Fender Rhodes and Bennie Maupin's bass clarinet get brought forward somewhere in the third minute. Everybody (except Pat Gleeson's continued synth play with constantly panning water and wind sounds) is contributing some truly beautiful melodies. So nice. The dénouement is long (almost 2:30) and a bit too drawn out for my tastes. A weird but, at the same time, wonderful song. (13.75/15)

Total Time: 38:55

I know that one of the reasons I like this album and its successor, Inside Out--as well as the last two of the Mawndishi albums, Crossings and Sextet--is due to the presence and influence of synthesizer expert Patrick Gleeson. Patrick's contributions to Lenny White's Venusian Summer--making that five out of the the 30 albums in "Classic Era" Jazz-Rock Fusion--make me think that his genius plays no small factor in my coming over to Jazz-Rock Fusion 1972-75.

A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of spacey jazz-rock from the Mwandishi lineup.

Sean Trane The little sister of Realization, Inside Out was recorded six months later in the same conditions (Frisco with Drinkwater), but with former WE’s Eric Gravatt replacing RTF’s Lenny White and finding Bill Summers on congas. One of the main differences with IO is that there are more and shorter tracks on the present, when compared to its predecessor, even though Moussaka and the title tracl reach respectively roughly 9-mins each. Other than that’s the general sonics are much the same, maybe a tad more dissonant at times, somewhat contemporary at others (Omnispresence and Exit 1), but the recipe is pretty much unchanged from the older sister’s Realization cooking pan. Gleeson’s electronic twiddlings are again a source of amazement, when not challenged too hard by Eddie Mganga’s sometimes-extreme trumpet playing. Apparently, there appears to have some un-credited electric funky guitar parts in Fusion and in the title track. Musically, the present is a tad more varied in its musical scope.

Sooo, if you want to acquire this album in CD format, you’ll have no choice than to find the 2on1 Capricorn Years Anthology, where Inside Out is coupled with his next album Inside Out, but since these two are very similar in style, you probably won’t mind at all casting two shots from one stone. The only downside to this solution is that one of the two artworks gets sacrificed and that the succession of both albums so similar can be a bit lengthy and too much in one sitting. Personally I tend to prefer the older sister, but let’s face it, the younger one is just as aurally sexy, if not a tad more challenging. Generally seen as the third stooge, the following Sunburst is a fairly different affair, despite part of it still claiming the Mwandishi legacy.

Sean Trane After being part of the early jazz-rock adventures with Mwandishi, Henderson went out on his own for a steaming hot trio of album in the first half of the 70’s, the first of which Realization owes much to Hancock’s band, to the point that the entire Mwandishi line-up plays on it, in addition to Lenny White (then Return To Forever). And indeed, if you’re looking for a successor to Sextant, Realization is the one to search for. Soooo, with Herbie, Bennie, Billy, Buster, Lenny and electronic wizard Pat Gleeson in tow, the mood is certainly very much Mwandishi-like, but slightly quicker, since we have a double-drummer line-up. The ambiance is lso slightly different, maybe due to the West-Coast Frisco recording location (where he was practicing medecine), recorded over two days in the late winter and produced by resident studio Drinkwater (can’t invent that name, uh?).

If the general mood of Realization is somewhat faster and more energetic than in Sextant, it’s also a bit more accessible, even if Gleeson’s electronic “bidouillages” are a bit more present. The two lengthy Libra tracks on the first side are often bordering on dissonance, but never really cross the barrier. Unfortunately, if Maupin’s bass clarinet is not sufficiently present on this album, Eddie Mganga’s brass instruments are well counter-balanced with Bennie Mwile’s wood instruments, but under the refereeing of Hancock’s Rhodes. Maupin’s Anua opens the flipside in the same kind of mood, but the short cosmic Spiritual Awakening is filled with spacey electronic wizardry, slowly leading in the Hancock-penned track Revelation title track thing, where Hart’s bows the contrabass for a few seconds.

Sooo, if you want to acquire this album in CD format, you’ll have no choice than to find the 2on1 Capricorn Years Anthology, where Realization is coupled with his next album Inside Out, but since these two are very similar in style, you probably won’t mind at all casting two shots from one stone. The only downside to this solution is that one of the two artworks gets sacrificed and that the succession of both albums so similar can be a bit lengthy and too much in one sitting. But nevertheless, this is a killer JR/F album that’s always reaching for the limits of your sanity, but never outreaching itself in heavy dissonances. Wild stuff, especially if Mwandishi’s three albums is your thing.

darkprinceofjazz Realization is one of those albums that flies under the radar somewhat, Eddie Henderson who was heavily influenced by the electric music of Miles Davis, but not to point of absurdity, really cranks out a funk fusion masterpiece, Very much in the style of the Mwandishi band albums he participated on, with loose bubbling bass grooves, but certainly they do not groove in the Headhunters sense, this music has more in common with the Hancock album Sextant, "Space Funk" would be a good way to describe this music, I have really grown fond of this style and sound, high quality imaginative rhythms and special effect sounds sprinkled throughout, with free wheeling trumpet bursts, African style rhythms driving the music, perfect to my ears, Realization and Inside Out both are in the Hancock Crossings and Mwandishi style, and well worth exploring.