The Tony Williams Lifetime
Encyclopedia
The Tony Williams Lifetime was a jazz-rock fusion
group led by jazz
drummer
Tony Williams.
with John McLaughlin
on electric guitar, and Larry Young
on organ. The band was possibly named for Williams' debut album as a bandleader, Life Time, released on Blue Note
in 1964. Its debut album was Emergency!
, a double album
released on Polydor
/PolyGram Records in 1969. It was largely rejected by jazz listeners at the time of its release because of its heavy rock influences, but it is now looked upon as a fusion classic. Jack Bruce
joined the group to provide bass
and vocals on its second album, Turn it Over, released in 1970.
McLaughlin left the group and was replaced by Ted Dunbar
on its 1971 album, Ego. This album featured Ron Carter
on bass and cello, and Warren Smith
and Don Alias
on percussion. Lifetime gigs around this time featured Juini Booth on bass. Following Larry Young's departure from the band, Tony Williams was the only original member remaining. The fourth and last Lifetime album for Polydor/PolyGram, 1972's The Old Bum's Rush, featured an entirely new personnel and a keyboard
-heavy sound. It received poor reviews, and the group was effectively dissolved for several years.
In 1974, Williams put together a new Lifetime featuring Bum's Rush holdovers Webster Lewis
on keyboards and Laura 'Tequila' Logan on vocals, along with former Cream/Lifetime bassist Jack Bruce
and British guitarist Allan Holdsworth
. This lineup, sometimes referred to as Wildlife, recorded an album's worth of material at Atlantis Studio in Stockholm Sweden that has never been officially released.
he called the New Tony Williams Lifetime featuring bassist Tony Newton, pianist Alan Pasqua
, and guitarist Allan Holdsworth
. This lineup recorded two albums for Columbia
/CBS Records
, Believe It
in 1975 and Million Dollar Legs
in 1976. These albums were reissued on one CD in 1992 as Lifetime: The Collection
. After recording Million Dollar Legs, guitarist Allan Holdsworth
departed and was replaced by Marlon Graves for the subsequent tour undertaken to support the album.
In 1977, Williams parted ways with Graves, Pasqua, and Newton and formed another Lifetime lineup with entirely new personnel consisting of Mike Hoffmann (lead guitar), Gerry Mule (2nd guitar), Paul Potyen (keyboards), and Michael Formanek
(bass). This lineup recorded demos for the Columbia label but had no official releases, and played a small number of live gigs performing material from "Ego" and the two New Lifetime albums "Believe It" and "Million Dollar Legs."
In July 1978, Williams toured Japan with Ronnie Montrose
(guitar), Brian Auger
(keyboards), Mario Cipollina (bass) and special guest Billy Cobham
also on drums for a series of concerts. They were billed as the Tony Williams All Stars. Later that year he released The Joy of Flying
, an eclectic solo album featuring a mix of styles and collaborations with Herbie Hancock
, Cecil Taylor
, Tom Scott
, Stanley Clarke
, Michael Brecker
, George Benson
, and Jan Hammer
. It also contains
"Open Fire
" recorded by the All Stars earlier that year.
In 1979, Williams put together another all-new Lifetime featuring Tod Carver (guitar), Bunny Brunel
(bass), Bruce Harris
(keyboards), and Tom Grant
(keyboards). The band's sound was a major departure from the former New Lifetime's classic fusion: the high-energy shredding heard on Believe It and Million Dollar Legs was largely abandoned in favor of a cerebral and groove-laden approach that emphasized mood and melody over technical virtuosity. As with the 1977 lineup, the 1979 Lifetime played a small number of live gigs and no studio recordings are known to exist. Toward the end of this period, Williams pared the lineup down to a trio and played some gigs with Tom Grant
on keyboards and Bunny Brunel
on bass.
In late May 1980, Williams and a new trio incarnation of the Lifetime featuring Patrick O'Hearn
on bass (miscredited as Patrick O'Hara) and Tom Grant
on keyboards recorded the little known Play or Die album for the Swiss label PS Productions. Stylistically, the recording found Williams returning to high energy keyboard-dominated instrumental fusion reminiscent of the 1975 album On the Mountain by Elvin Jones, Jan Hammer and Gene Perla.
of jazz fusion. It was also one of several albums that the members of The Allman Brothers Band
listened to regularly early in their career.
John Zorn
named the Tony Williams Lifetime as a specific musical inspiration in the liner notes
of the Naked City
album Radio.
Since the death of Williams in 1997, Jack DeJohnette
and John Scofield
formed Trio Beyond
with Larry Goldings
in honour of The Tony Williams Lifetime. They released one album, Saudades
(2006), on the German label ECM
.
In 2006, former Lifetime members Allan Holdsworth and Alan Pasqua toured with drummer Chad Wackerman
and bassist Jimmy Haslip
performing a set comprising original as well as Lifetime material. Live at Yoshi's, a DVD from the U.S. leg of the tour, was released in 2007 and followed by the 2CD set Blues for Tony in 2009.
In December 2008, guitarist Vernon Reid
, organist John Medeski
, drummer Cindy Blackman
, and former Lifetime member Jack Bruce
played a week of shows in Japan as the Tony Williams Lifetime Tribute Band, playing a set of 1969/70 Lifetime material. This was recorded in high-definition and shown on Japanese TV.
The Lifetime Tribute Band featuring Jack Bruce reformed in February 2011 to play a further ten shows in high profile jazz clubs in North America. Unusually the dates have early & evening shows, something most rock musicians stopped doing at the beginning of the 1970s.
Reaction to the 2011 U.S. Lifetime shows has been so positive that the band have re-named themselves Spectrum Road, after a track on 1969's first Lifetime album,and post tour are to go into the studio to record a new album for the U.S. jazz record label Palmetto Records
.
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
group led by jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
Tony Williams.
Original line-up
The Tony Williams Lifetime was founded in 1969 as a power trioPower trio
A power trio is a rock and roll band format where the traditional power trio has a lineup of guitar, bass and drums, leaving out the rhythm guitar or keyboard that are used in other rock music to fill out the sound with chords...
with John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin (musician)
John McLaughlin , also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an English guitarist, bandleader and composer...
on electric guitar, and Larry Young
Larry Young (jazz)
Larry Young Larry Young Larry Young (also known as Khalid Yasin (Abdul Aziz) (October 7, 1940 in Newark, New Jersey—March 30, 1978 in New York City) was an American jazz organist and occasional pianist. Young pioneered a modal approach to the Hammond B-3 (in contrast to Jimmy Smith's...
on organ. The band was possibly named for Williams' debut album as a bandleader, Life Time, released on Blue Note
Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...
in 1964. Its debut album was Emergency!
Emergency! (album)
Emergency! is a double album by The Tony Williams Lifetime. Released in 1969, it was the group's first album and one of the first significant jazz fusion recordings...
, a double album
Double album
A double album is an audio album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically records and compact discs....
released on Polydor
Polydor Records
Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone...
/PolyGram Records in 1969. It was largely rejected by jazz listeners at the time of its release because of its heavy rock influences, but it is now looked upon as a fusion classic. Jack Bruce
Jack Bruce
John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scottish musician and songwriter, respected as a founding member of the British psychedelic rock power trio, Cream, for a solo career that spans several decades, and for his participation in several well-known musical ensembles...
joined the group to provide bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and vocals on its second album, Turn it Over, released in 1970.
McLaughlin left the group and was replaced by Ted Dunbar
Ted Dunbar
Ted Dunbar was a jazz guitarist, composer, and educator. He published four volumes on jazz. He trained as a pharmacist at Texas Southern University, but by the 1970s only did pharmacy work part-time. He was also a trained numerologist and had studied other aspects of mysticism...
on its 1971 album, Ego. This album featured Ron Carter
Ron Carter
Ron Carter is an American jazz double-bassist. His appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar. Carter is also an acclaimed cellist who has recorded numerous times on that...
on bass and cello, and Warren Smith
Warren Smith (jazz musician)
Warren Smith is an American jazz percussionist.Smith was born in Chicago, Illinois, into a musical family; his father played saxophone and clarinet with Noble Sissle and Jimmy Noone, and his mother was a harpist and pianist. He studied clarinet under his father from age four...
and Don Alias
Don Alias
Charles 'Don' Alias was an American jazz percussionist.Alias was best known for playing congas and other hand drums...
on percussion. Lifetime gigs around this time featured Juini Booth on bass. Following Larry Young's departure from the band, Tony Williams was the only original member remaining. The fourth and last Lifetime album for Polydor/PolyGram, 1972's The Old Bum's Rush, featured an entirely new personnel and a keyboard
Electronic keyboard
An electronic keyboard is an electronic or digital keyboard instrument.The major components of a typical modern electronic keyboard are:...
-heavy sound. It received poor reviews, and the group was effectively dissolved for several years.
In 1974, Williams put together a new Lifetime featuring Bum's Rush holdovers Webster Lewis
Webster Lewis
Webster Lewis was an American jazz and disco keyboardist.Lewis was born in 1943 in Baltimore, Maryland, and studied at the New England Conservatory of Music under Gunther Schuller. He started out in jazz working with Tony Williams, George Russell, Bill Evans, Stanton Davis, and the Piano Choir...
on keyboards and Laura 'Tequila' Logan on vocals, along with former Cream/Lifetime bassist Jack Bruce
Jack Bruce
John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scottish musician and songwriter, respected as a founding member of the British psychedelic rock power trio, Cream, for a solo career that spans several decades, and for his participation in several well-known musical ensembles...
and British guitarist Allan Holdsworth
Allan Holdsworth
Allan Holdsworth is an English guitarist and composer. He has released twelve studio albums as a solo artist and played many different styles of music over a period of four decades, but first drew attention for his work in jazz fusion...
. This lineup, sometimes referred to as Wildlife, recorded an album's worth of material at Atlantis Studio in Stockholm Sweden that has never been officially released.
The New Lifetime
In 1975, Williams put together a quartetQuartet
In music, a quartet is a method of instrumentation , used to perform a musical composition, and consisting of four parts.-Western art music:...
he called the New Tony Williams Lifetime featuring bassist Tony Newton, pianist Alan Pasqua
Alan Pasqua
Alan Pasqua is a jazz pianist, educator and composer who co-composed the CBS Evening News theme. He also has had an extensive career in pop and rock music, most notably as a founding member, keyboardist and songwriter of the 80s hard rock band, Giant. He studied at Indiana University and the New...
, and guitarist Allan Holdsworth
Allan Holdsworth
Allan Holdsworth is an English guitarist and composer. He has released twelve studio albums as a solo artist and played many different styles of music over a period of four decades, but first drew attention for his work in jazz fusion...
. This lineup recorded two albums for Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
/CBS Records
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
, Believe It
Believe It
Believe It is the first album by The New Tony Williams Lifetime, released in 1975 on Columbia Records.The New Lifetime was a jazz fusion band formed by the drummer Tony Williams with Allan Holdsworth on guitar, Alan Pasqua on keyboards and Tony Newton on bass...
in 1975 and Million Dollar Legs
Million Dollar Legs (album)
Million Dollar Legs is the second album by The New Tony Williams Lifetime, released in 1976 on Columbia Records.The album features the jazz fusion drummer Tony Williams with Allan Holdsworth, Alan Pasqua and Tony Newton. The Allmusic review awards this album with 1 star...
in 1976. These albums were reissued on one CD in 1992 as Lifetime: The Collection
Lifetime: The Collection
Lifetime: The Collection is a compilation album by The New Tony Williams Lifetime, released in 1992 on Columbia/Legacy Records.The album contains all of the music from the two original New Lifetime albums Believe It and Million Dollar Legs...
. After recording Million Dollar Legs, guitarist Allan Holdsworth
Allan Holdsworth
Allan Holdsworth is an English guitarist and composer. He has released twelve studio albums as a solo artist and played many different styles of music over a period of four decades, but first drew attention for his work in jazz fusion...
departed and was replaced by Marlon Graves for the subsequent tour undertaken to support the album.
In 1977, Williams parted ways with Graves, Pasqua, and Newton and formed another Lifetime lineup with entirely new personnel consisting of Mike Hoffmann (lead guitar), Gerry Mule (2nd guitar), Paul Potyen (keyboards), and Michael Formanek
Michael Formanek
Michael Formanek is an American jazz bassist born in San Francisco, California and associated with the jazz scene in New York City....
(bass). This lineup recorded demos for the Columbia label but had no official releases, and played a small number of live gigs performing material from "Ego" and the two New Lifetime albums "Believe It" and "Million Dollar Legs."
In July 1978, Williams toured Japan with Ronnie Montrose
Ronnie Montrose
Ronnie Montrose, is an Amercian rock guitarist who has headed his own bands as well as performing with a variety of musicians, including Sammy Hagar, Herbie Hancock, Van Morrison, The Beau Brummels, Boz Scaggs, Beaver & Krause, Gary Wright, Tony Williams, The Neville Brothers, Dan Hartman, Edgar...
(guitar), Brian Auger
Brian Auger
Brian Auger is a jazz and rock keyboardist, who has specialized in playing the Hammond organ.A jazz pianist, bandleader, session musician and Hammond B3 player, Auger has played or toured with artists such as Rod Stewart, Tony Williams, Jimi Hendrix, Sonny Boy Williamson, Led Zeppelin, Eric Burdon...
(keyboards), Mario Cipollina (bass) and special guest Billy Cobham
Billy Cobham
William C. Cobham is a Panamanian American jazz drummer, composer and bandleader, who has called Switzerland home since the late 1970s....
also on drums for a series of concerts. They were billed as the Tony Williams All Stars. Later that year he released The Joy of Flying
The Joy of Flying
The Joy Of Flying is a Jazz fusion album by Tony Williams. Although it was recorded at the end of the The Tony Williams Lifetime years, it is considered a solo album. It includes three duets, two with Jan Hammer and one with Cecil Taylor, and three different quartets. The first quartet features Jan...
, an eclectic solo album featuring a mix of styles and collaborations with Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, Cecil Taylor
Cecil Taylor
Cecil Percival Taylor is an American pianist and poet. Classically trained, Taylor is generally acknowledged as one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and...
, Tom Scott
Tom Scott (musician)
Tom Scott is an American saxophonist, composer, arranger, conductor and bandleader of the west coast jazz/jazz fusion ensemble The L.A. Express.-Biography:Scott was born in Los Angeles, California...
, Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...
, Michael Brecker
Michael Brecker
Michael Leonard Brecker was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Acknowledged as "a quiet, gentle musician widely regarded as the most influential tenor saxophonist since John Coltrane," he has been awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer and was inducted into Down Beat Jazz...
, George Benson
George Benson
George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....
, and Jan Hammer
Jan Hammer
Jan Hammer is a composer, pianist and keyboardist. He first gained his most visible audience while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the early 1970s, as well as his film scores for television and film including "Miami Vice Theme" and "Crockett's Theme", from the popular 1980s...
. It also contains
"Open Fire
Open Fire (Ronnie Montrose album)
Open Fire was the first instrumental album from Ronnie Montrose which explored jazz, rock and acoustic concepts in the vein of Blow by Blow by Jeff Beck. Ronnie dropped hints in previous Montrose albums that he was heading in this direction. Songs like "Whaler" and "One And a Half" from Warner...
" recorded by the All Stars earlier that year.
In 1979, Williams put together another all-new Lifetime featuring Tod Carver (guitar), Bunny Brunel
Bunny Brunel
Bunny Brunel is a French-born American bass guitarist who has played with various jazz notables including Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and numerous others...
(bass), Bruce Harris
Bruce Harris
Bruce Harris OBE was the Executive Director of Casa Alianza, a charity whose aims are the rehabilitation and the defence of children....
(keyboards), and Tom Grant
Tom Grant (jazz musician)
Tom Grant is an American contemporary jazz/jazz fusion pianist and vocalist.- Biography :Tom Grant was born in Portland, Oregon to a musical family – his father was a tap dancer who owned a record store in Portland, and his brother was an avant-garde jazz pianist. At a young age, Grant learned to...
(keyboards). The band's sound was a major departure from the former New Lifetime's classic fusion: the high-energy shredding heard on Believe It and Million Dollar Legs was largely abandoned in favor of a cerebral and groove-laden approach that emphasized mood and melody over technical virtuosity. As with the 1977 lineup, the 1979 Lifetime played a small number of live gigs and no studio recordings are known to exist. Toward the end of this period, Williams pared the lineup down to a trio and played some gigs with Tom Grant
Tom Grant (jazz musician)
Tom Grant is an American contemporary jazz/jazz fusion pianist and vocalist.- Biography :Tom Grant was born in Portland, Oregon to a musical family – his father was a tap dancer who owned a record store in Portland, and his brother was an avant-garde jazz pianist. At a young age, Grant learned to...
on keyboards and Bunny Brunel
Bunny Brunel
Bunny Brunel is a French-born American bass guitarist who has played with various jazz notables including Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and numerous others...
on bass.
In late May 1980, Williams and a new trio incarnation of the Lifetime featuring Patrick O'Hearn
Patrick O'Hearn
Patrick O'Hearn is an American multi-instrumentalist musician, composer and recording artist. While his musical repertoire spans a diverse range of music, he is an acclaimed New Age artist in his solo career...
on bass (miscredited as Patrick O'Hara) and Tom Grant
Tom Grant (jazz musician)
Tom Grant is an American contemporary jazz/jazz fusion pianist and vocalist.- Biography :Tom Grant was born in Portland, Oregon to a musical family – his father was a tap dancer who owned a record store in Portland, and his brother was an avant-garde jazz pianist. At a young age, Grant learned to...
on keyboards recorded the little known Play or Die album for the Swiss label PS Productions. Stylistically, the recording found Williams returning to high energy keyboard-dominated instrumental fusion reminiscent of the 1975 album On the Mountain by Elvin Jones, Jan Hammer and Gene Perla.
Legacy and tributes
At the time of its release, Emergency! was notably influential on the then-emerging genreGenre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
of jazz fusion. It was also one of several albums that the members of The Allman Brothers Band
The Allman Brothers Band
The Allman Brothers Band is an American rock/blues band once based in Macon, Georgia. The band was formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman and Gregg Allman , who were supported by Dickey Betts , Berry Oakley , Butch Trucks , and Jai Johanny "Jaimoe"...
listened to regularly early in their career.
John Zorn
John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...
named the Tony Williams Lifetime as a specific musical inspiration in the liner notes
Liner notes
Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...
of the Naked City
Naked City (band)
Naked City was an avant-garde music group led by saxophonist and composer John Zorn. Active primarily in New York City from 1988 to 1993, Naked City was initiated by Zorn as a "composition workshop" to test the limits of composition in a traditional rock band lineup...
album Radio.
Since the death of Williams in 1997, Jack DeJohnette
Jack DeJohnette
Jack DeJohnette is an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer. He is one of the most influential jazz drummers of the 20th century, due to extensive work as leader and sideman for musicians like Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett and Sonny...
and John Scofield
John Scofield
John Scofield , often referred to as "Sco," is an American jazz guitarist and composer, who has played and collaborated with Miles Davis, Dave Liebman, Joe Henderson, Charles Mingus, Joey Defrancesco, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Pat Martino, Mavis Staples, Phil Lesh, Billy Cobham,...
formed Trio Beyond
Trio Beyond
Trio Beyond is a jazz fusion/free jazz band, formed in 2003.The trio was formed by drummer Jack DeJohnette and guitarist John Scofield, after conversations between the pair about how important Tony Williams was for them in that he provided musical influence as drummer and bandleader.Organist Larry...
with Larry Goldings
Larry Goldings
-Life and career:Goldings was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His father was a classical music enthusiast, and Larry studied classical piano until the age of twelve. While in high school at Concord Academy, he attended a program at the Eastman School of Music. During this period Erroll Garner,...
in honour of The Tony Williams Lifetime. They released one album, Saudades
Saudades
Saudades is the name of the debut double-disc album released by Trio Beyond in 2006 on ECM records. Saudades is a Portuguese word meaning sadness or longing for times past, or in a musical context, blues.-Reception:...
(2006), on the German label ECM
ECM (record label)
ECM is a record label founded in Munich, Germany, in 1969 by Manfred Eicher. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a wide variety of recordings, and ECM's artists often refuse to acknowledge boundaries between genres...
.
In 2006, former Lifetime members Allan Holdsworth and Alan Pasqua toured with drummer Chad Wackerman
Chad Wackerman
Chad Wackerman is a jazz, jazz fusion and rock drummer; arguably best known in the United States for his work as a drummer and percussionist in Frank Zappa's band...
and bassist Jimmy Haslip
Jimmy Haslip
Jimmy Haslip is an American electric bass player and record producer best known as a founding and current member of the pioneering fusion group Yellowjackets...
performing a set comprising original as well as Lifetime material. Live at Yoshi's, a DVD from the U.S. leg of the tour, was released in 2007 and followed by the 2CD set Blues for Tony in 2009.
In December 2008, guitarist Vernon Reid
Vernon Reid
Vernon Reid is an English-born American guitarist, songwriter, composer, and bandleader. Best known as the founder and primary songwriter of the heavy metal band Living Colour, Reid was named #66 on Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.Critic Steve Huey writes, "[Reid's]...
, organist John Medeski
John Medeski
Anthony John Medeski is an American jazz keyboards player and composer. Medeski is a veteran of New York's 1990s avant-garde jazz scene and is known popularly as a member of Medeski Martin & Wood...
, drummer Cindy Blackman
Cindy Blackman
Cindy Blackman is an American jazz and rock drummer. Blackman is best-known for recording and touring with Lenny Kravitz...
, and former Lifetime member Jack Bruce
Jack Bruce
John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scottish musician and songwriter, respected as a founding member of the British psychedelic rock power trio, Cream, for a solo career that spans several decades, and for his participation in several well-known musical ensembles...
played a week of shows in Japan as the Tony Williams Lifetime Tribute Band, playing a set of 1969/70 Lifetime material. This was recorded in high-definition and shown on Japanese TV.
The Lifetime Tribute Band featuring Jack Bruce reformed in February 2011 to play a further ten shows in high profile jazz clubs in North America. Unusually the dates have early & evening shows, something most rock musicians stopped doing at the beginning of the 1970s.
Reaction to the 2011 U.S. Lifetime shows has been so positive that the band have re-named themselves Spectrum Road, after a track on 1969's first Lifetime album,and post tour are to go into the studio to record a new album for the U.S. jazz record label Palmetto Records
Palmetto Records
Palmetto Records is an independent American jazz record label founded in 1990 by Matt Balitsaris. -Artists:*Ben Allison*Lili Anel*Matt Wilson*Fred Hersch*Ted Nash*Bill Mays*Larry Goldings*David Berkman*Dr...
.
Discography
- 1969: Emergency!Emergency! (album)Emergency! is a double album by The Tony Williams Lifetime. Released in 1969, it was the group's first album and one of the first significant jazz fusion recordings...
- 1970: Turn It Over
- 1971: Ego
- 1972: The Old Bum's Rush
- 1974: Wildlife (unreleased)
- 1975: Believe ItBelieve ItBelieve It is the first album by The New Tony Williams Lifetime, released in 1975 on Columbia Records.The New Lifetime was a jazz fusion band formed by the drummer Tony Williams with Allan Holdsworth on guitar, Alan Pasqua on keyboards and Tony Newton on bass...
- 1976: Million Dollar LegsMillion Dollar Legs (album)Million Dollar Legs is the second album by The New Tony Williams Lifetime, released in 1976 on Columbia Records.The album features the jazz fusion drummer Tony Williams with Allan Holdsworth, Alan Pasqua and Tony Newton. The Allmusic review awards this album with 1 star...
- 1978: The Joy of Flying
- 1980: Play or Die
- 1992: Lifetime: The CollectionLifetime: The CollectionLifetime: The Collection is a compilation album by The New Tony Williams Lifetime, released in 1992 on Columbia/Legacy Records.The album contains all of the music from the two original New Lifetime albums Believe It and Million Dollar Legs...
(compilation)