The Trio of Doom Sessions happened around the first week of March in 1979. It has been one in one of the most wanted list for fusion fans everywhere.
The music has been mixed by John McLaughlin for this release.
FIVE LIVE TRACKS -- ENTIRE SET PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED -- RECORDED AT LEGENDARY ALL-STAR HAVANA JAM CONCERTSPlus: Follow-up sessions five days later at Columbia Studios in NYC,including two previously unreleased alternate takes of Williams’ “Para Oriente”
Produced for reissue by John McLaughlin, who also wrote introductory liner notes; also, liner notes essay by jazz critic/journalist Bill Milkowski
“Dubbed by the irrepressible Jaco as the Trio of Doom, this once-in-a-lifetime triumvirate comprised of The Mahavishnu Orchestra guitarist, Weather Report bassist and Lifetime bandleader and former Miles Davis drummer would never appear together in public again. But the results of their one rare encounter on March 3, 1979 at the historic Havana Jam were documented by CBS Records and are heard here for the first time ever.”
-- from the liner notes written by Bill Milkowski
In 1979, the concept of the power trio in rock was alive and well -- everywhere from punk’s Police and the Jam, to arena favorites Rush and ZZ Top. The concept of the hyper-amped power trio in the more rarefied field of jazz-rock fusion, however, was virtually non-existent, especially on the concert stage. For one glorious moment in 1979, a window was opened and the results -- thanks to the prescience of Columbia Records, and the combined artistry of guitarist John McLaughlin, bassist Jaco Pastorius, and drummer Tony Williams were preserved in the archives as a musical time capsule.
Nearly 30 years later, that time capsule has been opened. The 25 minutes of previously unreleased music performed live in Havana on March 3rd by the hastily named trio – an improvisational drums solo followed by four numbers -- coupled with five tracks recorded the next week at Columbia Studios in New York (including three that were later issued on the Havana Jam double-LPs, and two previously unreleased alternate takes) are now gathered together on one album for the first time. The aptly titled TRIO OF DOOM will arrive in stores June 26th on Columbia/Legacy, a division of SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT.
The collective talent of these three musicians, and their enduring influence, goes far beyond the bounds of jazz or even the jazz-rock fusion genres. All three had deep roots in rock and roll and blues -- and jazz -- that shaded their music no matter what setting they found themselves in. TRIO OF DOOM underscores a template that was passed down to the next generation of electric guitarists, electric bassists, and drummers whose styles transcended the confining limitations of jazz and rock. Improvisational jazz never rocked this hard, and instrumental rock never cooked with such brainpower.
TRIO OF DOOM, produced for reissue by John McLaughlin, commemorates two bittersweet anniversaries -- 20 years since the death of Jaco Pastorius in 1987, at age 35; and 10 years since the death of Tony Williams in 1997, at age 51. “My affection and admiration for Tony and Jaco is immense,” McLaughlin writes in his introductory liner notes, “and I miss them both.”
McLaughlin had first played and recorded with the drummer as far back as early 1969, as a founding member of The Tony Williams Lifetime (also a power trio, with organist Larry Young aka Khalid Yasin). This was the very same time that Miles Davis had recruited the British guitarist for the In a Silent Way sessions, and Bitches Brew six months later. McLaughlin also met and jammed with Jaco on New York’s downtown loft scene during this period, well before both of them went on to universal fame and immortality in The Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report, respectively.
The circumstances of Trio Of Doom’s two days of recording -- in Havana on March 3rd and back in New York on March 8th – is delineated in the 1,600-word liner notes essay written by Bill Milkowski, a frequent contributor to Jazz Times magazine and author of JACO: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius (Backbeat Books).
The 4,800-seat Karl Marx Theatre in Havana was the focal point of a three-day and three-night musical summit meeting (March 2-4, 1979) that took some 11 months (and several trips to the island nation) for Columbia to organize. In the interim, the label was able to sign and record the exciting Cuban band Irakere (featuring future stars saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera, trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, and pianist Chucho Valdes). Irakere became a symbol, a flagship for a kind of musical détente, a diplomatic outreach via the arts that might succeed where political maneuvers had failed.
A hefty population of Columbia artists (and executives, producers, engineers, and others) traveled to Cuba for the event. The pop contingent was led by Billy Joel, Stephen Stills, Kris Kristofferson, Rita Coolidge, Bonnie Bramlett, and Mike Finnegan. Columbia’s jazz roster at the time included tenor saxophonists Stan Getz, Jimmy Heath and Dexter Gordon, flutist Hubert Laws, alto saxophonist Arthur Blythe, trumpeter Woody Shaw, pianist Cedar Walton, vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, keyboardists Richard Tee and Rodney Franklin, guitarist Eric Gale (and McLaughlin), bassist Percy Heath, and drummer Tony Williams - and they were all there, along with Weather Report (Jaco, Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, and Peter Erskine).
These artists were presented alongside an equally impressive cast of Puerto Rican musicians organized by Fania Records (headlined by Ray Barreto, Larry Harlow and the Fania All-Stars, and Orquesta Aragon), and the best Cuban talent on the island, led (of course) by Irakere and native stars Elena Burke and Orquesta de Santiago de Cuba, Percussion Cubana with Tata Guines, Los Papines, Barreto, and Chanquito, Zaida Arrate, Pacho Alonso and the Yaguarimu Group, and more. The locals referred to the event as “Musica Cuba-U.S.A.,” Columbia tagged it “Havana Jam,” and an unnamed musician took top honors when he referred to “the Bay Of Gigs.”
As Milkowski reports, Trio Of Doom was assembled as a side project, owing to the presence of Tony Williams and Jaco Pastorius. “For our particular performance,” McLaughlin notes, “we were given about 25 minutes on stage, and this accounts for the meagerness of our program.” Meager perhaps in quantity, but not in quality!
Each of the three brought something to the table. Williams was given the opening salvo, the three-minute “Drum Improvisation.” McLaughlin had written and recorded “Are You the One, Are You the One?” (as a “wild jam” with Williams and premier bassist Jack Bruce, yet another power trio!) for his first Columbia LP in 1978, Electric Guitarist; and “Dark Prince” for his second Columbia LP, 1979’s Electric Dreams with the One Truth Band. Jaco’s “Continuum” was first heard on his self-titled solo debut for Epic back in 1976, his first year with Weather Report.
Tony’s “Para Oriente” was the only truly new piece, not yet recorded, though Williams played it on tour the following summer with Chick Corea and Al Di Meola. (Also in ’79, “Para Oriente” became a staple for V.S.O.P., the all-star Columbia group featuring tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, and Williams. The live track was included on their first LP, Live Under the Sky, recorded July 26, 1979, and released by CBS Japan. Twenty-five years later, it was issued in the U.S. for the first time by Columbia/Legacy, with a bonus second CD containing the July 27th second night’s concert.)
Meanwhile back in Havana, there was, says Milkowski, “a general feeling [on McLaughlin’s part] that the live tracks, while seething with kinetic energy, were unusable.” Days later, back in New York, when Columbia told him they were going to release the tracks, McLaughlin retorted, “You put it out over my dead body!”
Instead, he and his partners went into Columbia Studios on West 52nd Street on March 8th and re-cut Trio Of Doom versions of “Dark Prince,” “Continuum,” and “Para Oriente.” With some studio “sleight of hand,” i.e. overdubbed live crowd noise, “Dark Prince” was slipped into the sequence of the first Havana Jam double-LP release later in the year; with “Continuum” and “Para Oriente” saved for the Havana Jam 2 double-LP follow-up release, also in 1979. Two brief -- but illuminating -- alternate takes of “Para Oriente” are previously unreleased.
Fast forward nearly three decades, as McLaughlin reconsidered the live concert tapes from Havana and had a change of heart. Working closely with sound engineer Marcus Wippersberg at Mediastarz Studio, Monaco, and mastering engineer Christoph Stickel at MSM Studios in Munich, McLaughlin was able to overcome the deficiencies of the Record Plant Mobile Recording facilities of 28 years ago. “Mixing this recording has been a real labor of love for me,” the guitarist says of TRIO OF DOOM, one of the most astounding aural documents of its time, and the only evidence of a supergroup who “more than lived up to their audacious band name,” as Milkowski concludes.
TRIO OF DOOM by John McLaughlin, Jaco Pastorius, and Tony Williams (Columbia/Legacy 82796 96450 2) Selections: 1. Drum Improvisation (live) • 2. Dark Prince (live) • 3. Continuum (live) • 4. Para Oriente (live) • 5. Are You the One, Are You the One? (live) • 6. Dark Prince (studio) • 7. Continuum (studio) • 8. Para Oriente - Alternate Take 1 (studio) • 9. Para Oriente - Alternate Take 2 (studio) • 10. Para Oriente (studio). Tracks 1-5 and 8-9 are previously unreleased. Track 6 originally released summer 1979 on Havana Jam (Columbia 36053); tracks 7 & 10 originally released fall 1979 on Havana Jam 2 (Columbia 36180).
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