PLAGUEDOGGIN' DOWN RABBITHOLEZ
Tony Williams Lifetime, The Trap Set with Joe Wong, Nikel Pallat vs. Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser, Ton Steine Scherben, Exodus, Venom, Slayer, Sun City Girls
A single sentence on the Wikipedia page for the Tony Williams Lifetime about a 1971 performance of theirs in France, filmed in color and broadcast on the French television program Pop2, sends me to YouTube. I don’t find that Tony Williams Lifetime color footage, but I do find this Tony Williams Lifetime color footage from the same year, at the Montreux Jazz Festival, featuring probably the same lineup, maybe even on the same overseas trip, and this band is on fire, right up there with contemporaneous ensembles like Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi and Carlos Santana’s Santana for pure burning African/indigenous polyrhythmic intensity. MVP besides Tony is Warren Smith on vibes, percussion, and other auxiliary moves. I didn’t really know who he was before watching this video, but he’s a Chicagoan in the house, and is a perfect sparring partner with Tony throughout. Oh, and just as much as Williams & Smith & Alias (Don, on congas, who played on Bitches Brew) are driving the rhythmic aspect of …