EDDIE HARRIS — Silver Cycles (review)

EDDIE HARRIS — Silver Cycles album cover Album · 1969 · Soul Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
js
Eddie Harris built a solid reputation early in his career as someone who could turn out catchy soul jazz numbers that did well on Black radio stations. As he headed into the late 60s, Eddie, like so many others in the music world, felt a desire to branch out and experiment more. This desire to try new things came to fruition on Harris’s 1969 album, “Silver Cycles”. On this LP, Eddie established a new norm that would go on to mark much of the rest of his career as a tireless eclectic experimenter who was adept at many musical genres.

“Silver Cycles” opens with two excellent funky soul jazz workouts that I would imagine his record company insisted on placing first so that his long time fans would find what they were expecting. On third track, “Smoke Signals”, Eddie signals a definite left hand turn as this mysterious number paints an exotic atmosphere with wordless vocals and echoed saxophone lines. All through out this album Harris makes use of an Echoplex and also sometimes replaces his acoustic sax with the odd sounding electric sax. Side one closes out with, “Coltrane’s View”, which resembles “Naima”, and a sublime big band power ballade called “I’m Gonna Leave You by Yourself”. This last track is worth the cost of the entire album and one of the best songs of Harris’ lengthy career.

Side two is the more experimental side and features a lot of Eddie playing the saxophone by himself and building overlapping lines with his echo machine. His various rhythm sections (there are many guests on here) provide psychedelic fusion over drive on “Little Bit”, and insanely up tempo avant-garde bebop on “Infrapolations”, which bears some resemblance to “Giant Steps”. Musically “Silver Cycles” compares well to other experimental fusion records of the era from folks like Miles and Herbie, so why isn’t this album a well-known fusion classic? A couple things work against this album, the two colors only album cover looks cheap like a bargain bin album, and yes, Eddie’s albums tended to hit the bargain bin often and he seems to always have a cheap looking album cover. Another problem is the production, this album just sounds kind of flat in a way, but from a purely musical perspective, “Silver Cycles” is a gem in the late 60s world of psychedelic fusion.
Share this review
more

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

6 Eclectic Fusion
KROKOFANT
Buy this album from MMA partners
Spring In Stockholm Live At Konserthuset, 1959 Cool Jazz
GERRY MULLIGAN
Buy this album from MMA partners
Mikolaj Trzaska, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, Paal Nilssen-Love : The Last Temple vol.3 Avant-Garde Jazz
MIKOŁAJ TRZASKA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Mikolaj Trzaska, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, Paal Nilssen-Love : The Last Temple, Vol.1 Avant-Garde Jazz
MIKOŁAJ TRZASKA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Mikołaj Trzaska / Ingebrigt Håker Flaten / Paal Nilssen-Love : The Last Temple Vol.2 Avant-Garde Jazz
MIKOŁAJ TRZASKA
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

FASCINATING RHYTHM - The Amazing Keystone Big Band feat. Neima Naouri
THE AMAZING KEYSTONE BIG BAND
snobb· 1 day ago
Alicante
RENAUD GARCIA-FONS
js· 1 day ago
She's Forty with Me
WILTON CRAWLEY
js· 1 day ago
Tall Tillie's Too Tight
WILTON CRAWLEY
js· 1 day ago
Rhoda Scott Ladies and Gentlemen - special guest : David Linx
RHODA SCOTT
snobb· 1 day 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
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed