The Fusion Reactor #131 - It's Alive!

The Fusion Reactor goes live! Tonight's show consists of eight (8) tracks from various live albums, most of them pretty long, but with some shorter ones in there for balance. Six of the tracks are what I would call fusion - or at least fusion-influenced - and the other two are pretty much prog.

Miles Davis - Tatu (part 1) (18:48)
This is from the Dark Magus album, and it's a neat funk cooker. What makes it especially fun is to try to figure out which of the three guitarists is soloing at what point. Or wait - is that Miles with his distorted wah-trumpet? Such fun. Music fit for either intense concentration or background listening.

KBB - Shironiji (13:03)
I'm not sure what Shironiji means in English, but my personal translation is "really really beautiful." This being a live version just makes it even better. Simply amazing music from a fantastic band. The intensity at the end somehow matches the serenity at the beginning. From the Live 2004 album.


Steve Howe - Running the Human Race (4:02)
Another simply beautiful piece from one of my favorite guitarists. Steve Howe probably holds a top spot in most proggers' guitarist lists. This originally from his Turbulence album, which is really great. Of course, this is the live version from Pulling Strings. Quite nice.

Mahavishnu Orchestra - Dream (21:24)
At first I had to wonder if it was worth my while to get Between Nothingness and Eternity because it only has three tracks on it. But those three tracks... oh so nice! They're not all as long as this one, but none of them feel too short. This is a textbook example of how to build a musical piece up from nothingness to... eternity, I guess. Is that a "Sunshine Of Your Love" tease in the middle? It might be, Jack Bruce played on at least one of John McLaughlin's solo albums.

Brand X - Isis Mourning (parts 1 & 2) (9:59)
Another nice dreamy piece - at least that's how it starts out. From the Livestock album. I gotta say though - poor Isis. Mourning all the time in such an odd way. Let's all have a pity party for Isis, ok? 1... 2... 3... Awwwww! I mean, seriously. I told her she never should have married that guy in the first place. But what are you gonna do? Nice interplay here between Percy Jones on the bass and everyone else. Then, is it me or does it seem like she starts to feel a bit better towards the end?

Bill Bruford's Earthworks - Come To Dust (10:53)
From the Footloose and Fancy Free album. Bill and band capture the feel of the "old-school" jazz ballad here, eliminating the need for me to dig for a classic jazz cut. Not that it would be tough, I've got some great live Wes Montgomery or Thelonious Monk or many others that I could have played. But this one is just great. Close your eyes and imagine you're in a smoky jazz club and it's the early 60's. Not that I remember that or anything, since I wasn't born yet. But one can dream, can't one?

Phish - Divided Sky (15:12)
Personally, I don't think Hampton Comes Alive is the best introduction to Phish live. But it's six discs long, and there's no way it can all be bad, right? Right. Case in point: Divided Sky. This is a song they've been playing since their Junta album, they'd better have it down by now, right? Right. And they do. Now, you know that everyone and their uncle's brother thinks that Phish is merely a jamband. They just go out there and improvise, right? Wrong. This is almost entirely composed. Very little of it is improvised. This is a 15-minute long version, and probably about 12 minutes of it are pretty much the same every time. No, the "audience solo" is not the same every time, but then again, the audience isn't completely the same every time either, are they?

Soft Machine - The Floating World-Bundles-Land of the Bag Snake-Ealing Comedy-The Man Who Waved at Trains (26:07)
I was listening to this disc the other day in the car and it occurred to me how sad it was to have it all broken apart in when it plays on the station. So... paste them together and what do you get? 26 minutes of yummy fusiony goodness. I do like the titles of the different parts, although I think "bass solo" might have been a bit more descriptive, or at least more accurate. Listen long enough, and Allan Holdsworth picks up the violin for a bit. Wonderful! At some point they suddenly went on to something completely different so I figured that was a good time to end it.

And thus ends the show. I hope it made you smile once or twice.