JOE FARRELL — Moon Germs (review)

JOE FARRELL — Moon Germs album cover Album · 1973 · Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
Sean Trane
Third CTI album from the RTF wind man, and featuring again an all-superstar line-up, this time with Herbie replacing Chick, DeJohnette reclaiming the drum stool from Elvin and Stanley holding the bass. Recorded in late 72 in RVG studios, the album sports a weird moonlike eyeball watching over some kind of geometric forest at night, and while one could fear that the album is going to be even further “out there” than its two predecessors; actually it’s probably Farrell’s most accessible to date.

The A-side features two Farrell compositions, the first of which is the almost-12-mins Great Gorge, which has Hancock batting homeruns on either sides of the field at will, but not in the extremely dissonant range; though he does go electronics (something he’d experienced in his recent Mwandishi album, but that was Pat Gleason’s job. The 7-mins+ title track is a much more standard piece, where Farrell shines like a thousand full moons.

Oddly enough, if Farrell had opted to let Chick have space for a composition in Outback, in the present album, he doesn’t do the favour to Hancock, and it’s again a Corea piece that find space, though Herbie does it great justice. If Time Lies is an earthy piano piece, Farrell soars high above in the stratosphere with soprano sax. The album-closing Stanley almost-10 mins composition Bass Folk Song is maybe the album’s most energetic piece, due in no small amount to the young Clarke, who just like DeJohnette were still climbing the jazz notoriety (none of the two having yet recorded as solo artiste). While Stan was only appearing for the first time on a CTI album, JDJ was now almost a CTI veteran, before becoming an ECM pillar.

Again, if you’re looking to the “soft jazz” trademark that the CTI label was best-known for (Benson, Grover, Deodato, etc); you’d better stay away from yet another attention-demanding Farrell album, despite this one being the most fusion-like so far of Farrell’s solo career; though his next one would indulge further in avant and fusion directions.

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Jazz Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

About (or On)First Visit Avant-Garde Jazz
ELLERY ESKELIN
Buy this album from MMA partners
Noah Kaplan Quartet : Out Of The Hole Avant-Garde Jazz
NOAH KAPLAN
Buy this album from MMA partners
To Walk On Eggshells Avant-Garde Jazz
RUSS JOHNSON
Buy this album from MMA partners
Snakeoil : Snakeoil Ok Avant-Garde Jazz
TIM BERNE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Poetry of Place (from the exhibit by painter Karen Allen) Jazz Related Improv/Composition
CHRIS DINGMAN
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

Satoko Fujii Tokyo Trio Dream a Dream
SATOKO FUJII
js· 1 day ago
Wojciech Jachna Squad - Ad Astra (Promo Teaser)
WOJCIECH JACHNA
snobb· 4 days ago
Nitty Gritty
RUSS SPIEGEL
js· 4 days ago
Never in a 100.000.000 Dreams
SUPERSISTER
js· 5 days ago
Love is a Fire that Burns Unseen
PETER MADSEN
js· 5 days ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed