ALPHONSE MOUZON — Mind Transplant (review)

ALPHONSE MOUZON — Mind Transplant album cover

Album · 1975 · Fusion

4/5 · 2025-04-10
FunkFreak75

Alphonse's breakthrough funk album that is often cited as his best work. What a coup to get not one, not two, but three amazing guitarists both reaching the prime of their careers in Tommy Bolin and Lee Ritenour and Jay Graydon! The album was recorded April 4-10, 1974, at Wally Heider Studios in Los Angeles with Skip Drinkwater in the production seat, it was then released in March 1975 on Blue Note.

1. "Mind Transplant" (4:05) hard drivin' rock with a lot of funk reveals a side of Alphonse that I do not know! Impressive but issuing no memorable riffs, melodies, or solos to make it memorable. (8.75/10)

2. "Snow Bound" (3:05) another impressive rock-oriented album that kind of goes nowhere. (8.75/10)

3. "Carbon Dioxide" (4:38) great drumming beneath those rock guitar riffs from the very opening. When the musicians settle into a flowing groove at 0:45 Tommy Bolin gets to lead into the melody, but then there is a dramatic tempo shift around 1:30 that leads into a very-JEAN-LUC PONTY-sounding high-speed chase passage in which Tommy flies around the fretboard with the more-than-adequate support of second guitarist Jay Graydon. Jerry Peters's Hammond B3 gets the second solo but it's oddly mixed behind everyone else. (8.875/10)

4. "Ascorbic Acid" (3:26) impressive drum opening that leads into a song structure in which Alphonse's snare hits feel off-center, making for a kind of odd distraction throughout. On this song Lee Ritenour gets front billing while Jerry Peters plays some pretty awesome Fender Rhodes beneath. I really admire the incredible tightness of all of the musicians' performances. (8.875/10)

5. "Happiness Is Loving You" (4:09) a bit slower and more melody-oriented, it's another excellent twin-guitar exhibition--though Lee gets the credit as the guy with all the solos. Not a great song but it does have catchy melodies and some pretty great nuanced double-guitar work between Jay and Lee. (9/10)

6. "Some of the Things People Do" (3:40) vocal screams at the beginning let one know that we're in for a Afro-funk song that sounds very much like the recent music coming from EARTH WIND & FIRE (without the horns) or KOOL AND THE GANG and/or THE OHIO PLAYERS. Alphonse's singing voice is okay--he's got plenty of confidence and swag--it's just not a great pop song. (8.75/10)

7. "Golden Rainbows" (6:56) a spacey, cinematic song in the vein of the stuff JEFF BECK, THE ISLEY BROTHERS or NARADA MICHAEL WALDEN will be doing. Nice. (13.5/15)

8. "Nitroglycerin" (3:03) as the title indicates, this one is pretty explosive: more from Alphonse and bassist Henry Davis as much as from the twin guitarists and Jerry Peters. Sounds a lot like Jeff Beck's "Freeway Jam." (9.25/10)

Total Time: 33:06

An album that is most impressive for the dominance of its hard-rockin' lines and sounds to me more like the music that would be coming out of bands like RUFUS and

B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of hard-drivin' jazz-rock fusion.