The Free Spirits featuring John McLaughlin - Tokyo Live (1994)

Tracklist

01 - 1 Nite Stand
02 - Hijacked
03 - When Love Is Far Away
04 - Little Miss Valley
05 - Juju At The Crossroads
06 - Vukovar
07 - No Blues
08 - Mattinale

personnel :

Guitar, Mastered By, Mixed By, Performer, Producer, Supervised By - John McLaughlin
Drums - Dennis Chambers
Keyboards, Organ, Organ [Hammond], Trumpet - Joey DeFrancesco

Although it is tempting to think that The Free Spirits (the trio featured on this CD), due to the similarity of the instrumentation (guitarist John McLaughlin, organist Joey DeFrancesco and drummer Dennis Chambers), would be an updating of Tony Williams's groundbreaking fusion group Lifetime, the reality is somewhat different. McLaughlin may get top billing but this music sounds very much like a Joey DeFrancesco-led Jimmy Smith revival date with most of the selections being blues-based. There are some introspective moments for the guitarist (who plays strictly electric here) but DeFrancesco dominates the ensembles and takes the lion's share of the solo space. The music is enjoyable enough although none of the compositions (all but Miles Davis's "No Blues" are by McLaughlin) are all that memorable.~ Scott Yanow