The track is the result of a collaboration between the jazz fusionPat Metheny Group and rock singer David Bowie and is actually a version of Metheny's song "Chris" with lyrics and vocals added by Bowie.
It was released as a single which reached #14 in the UK, and #32 in the US.
"Peace Frog" is a song by The Doors which appears on the album Morrison Hotel. It was released on vinyl in February 1970 by Elektra/Asylum Records and produced by Paul Rothchild.
It has a fairly short running time of 2:50 and blends seamlessly into
the next track on the album, "Blue Sunday", making it easy for radio stations
to play the two songs consecutively. The lyrics were adapted from a
couple of Morrison's poems, one being entitled "Abortion Stories".
A song by Santana from their 1969 album Santana. It was written by Clarence "Sonny" Henry and recorded by jazz percussionist Willie Bobo in 1968 on his album of the same name. The song is in simple verse form[1]. Next year it was recorded by Santana.
"Evil Ways" is about a girl who is spiteful. "You've got to change your evil ways, baby/Before I stop lovin' you." She tries to make her boyfriend jealous by associating with her friends. "You hangin' 'round, baby/With Jean and Joan and-a who-knows-who."
Some radio stations play edit versions of the song, cutting a few bars from the introduction, parts of the organ instrumental portion in the middle, and the coda, shortening the guitar improvisation by fading the song out earlier, part of this reason is to make it more for AM radio use, than for progressive rock use.
The "Inner Mounting Flame" is Mahavishnu Orchestra's first studio album, released in 1971.
A remastered version of the album, on CD, was released in 1998 by Sony Music Entertainment. It features a facsimile of the LP front cover, a new set of liner notes by Bob Belden, as well as many photographs of the band.
The Inner Mounting Flame consists solely of original compositions by John McLaughlin.
The track "You Know, You Know" was sampled in Massive Attack's "One Love", Mos Def's "Kalifornia", Black Sheep's single "Similak Child", David Sylvian's "I Surrender", Cecil Otter's "Rebel Yellow" and Blahzay Blahzay's "Intro" from Blah Blah Blah album.
The intro for "Noonward Race" was written for the full band and not just as a guitar-and-drums duet as heard on the album. During the recording of the piece, a long-standing tension between Rick Laird and Jerry Goodman boiled over into a full brawl, with the two of them knocking Jan Hammer and his keyboards over during the struggle. McLaughlin and Cobham continued to play at full volume during the entire altercation, and McLaughlin liked the effect so much he instructed Laird, Goodman, and Hammer to sit out while he comped behind Cobham's solo later in the song.
The Mahavishnu Orchestra was a jazz-rock fusion group, led by John McLaughlin, that debuted in 1971, dissolved in 1976 and reunited from 1984 to 1987.
The band's original lineup featured "Mahavishnu" John McLaughlin on acoustic and electric guitars, with members Billy Cobham on drums, Rick Laird on bass guitar, Jan Hammer on electric and acoustic piano and synthesizer, and Jerry Goodman on violin. This first incarnation of the ensemble was a multinational group: McLaughlin is from Yorkshire, England; Cobham from Panama; Hammer from Prague, Czechoslovakia; Goodman from Chicago, Illinois; and Laird from Dublin, Ireland. Jean-Luc Ponty was actually McLaughlin's first choice for violinist, but the idea was stalled by "immigration problems". Ponty would later play with McLaughlin on both Apocalypse and Visions of the Emerald Beyond. The group is best known for their albums The Inner Mounting Flame (1971) and Birds of Fire (1973).
This group was considered an important pioneer in the jazz fusion movement. McLaughlin and Cobham met while performing and recording with Miles Davis during the Bitches Brew sessions. McLaughlin was also influenced in his conception of the band by his studies with Indian guruSri Chinmoy, who encouraged him to take the name "Mahavishnu" which means "Divine compassion, power and justice."
McLaughlin had particular ideas for the instrumentation of the group, in keeping with his highly original concept of genre-blending in composition. He particularly wanted a violinist as an integral contributor to its overall sound. As the group evolved, McLaughlin adopted what became his trademark: a double neck guitar (six-string and twelve-string) which allowed for a great degree of diversity in musical textures, and Hammer became one of the first to play a Mini Moog synthesizer in an ensemble, which enabled him to add more sounds and solo more freely, on the guitar and the violin.
Their musical style was an unprecedented blending of genres: they combined the high-volume electrified rock sound that had been pioneered by the Small Faces, the Who and later by Jimi Hendrix (who McLaughlin had jammed with on his initial arrival in New York as part of the Tony Williams Lifetime), complex rhythms in unusual time signatures that reflected McLaughlin's interest in Indian classical music as well as funk, and harmonic influence from European classical music. The group's early music was entirely instrumental; their later albums had songs which sometimes featured R&B or even gospel/hymn-styled vocals. In the aforementioned two albums, though, the group goes from an intense fusion of upbeat genres (a representative example of which is the song "Vital Transformation") to very serene, chamber music-like tunes, such as "A Lotus On Irish Streams," a composition for acoustic guitar, piano and violin, and "Thousand Island Park," which drops the violin and incorporates double bass; or from low-key to extremely busy in a single piece, such as "Open Country Joy."
Coming to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with trumpeter Miles Davis and then with Mahavishnu Orchestra, Cobham is, in the words of Steve Huey, "generally acclaimed as fusion's greatest drummer with an influential style that combines explosive power and exacting precision.[1]
George Duke (born 12 January 1946 in San Rafael, California)[1] is a piano and synthesizer pioneer and singer. A multi-talented musician, he has worked with numerous acclaimed artists spanning numerous genres as a recording artist, composer, record producer, professor of music, and music director. He made a name for himself with the album The Jean-Luc Ponty Experience with the George Duke Trio. He is known for his solo work as well as for his collaborations with other musicians, particularly Frank Zappa.
Coming to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with trumpeter Miles Davis and then with Mahavishnu Orchestra, Cobham is, in the words of Steve Huey, "generally acclaimed as fusion's greatest drummer with an influential style that combines explosive power and exacting precision.[1]
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock (b. April 12, 1940) is an Americanpianist, bandleader and composer.[1] As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet", Hancock helped redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section, and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound. He was one of the first jazz musicians to embrace synthesizers and funk. Hancock's music is often melodic and accessible; he has had many songs "cross over" and achieved success among pop audiences. His music embraces elements of funk and soul while adopting freer stylistic elements from jazz. In his jazz improvisation, he possesses a unique creative blend of jazz, blues, and modern classical music, with harmonic stylings much like the styles of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.
