Invitation to Openness

Artist: Les McCann
Label: Label M.
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 644949571322
EAN: 0644949571322
ASIN: B0000516UZ

Release Date: 2000-11-14

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Listmania:

12 Superb "Lost" Albums
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MUSIC TO PUT YOU OVER THE HUMP
Nice Fusion (the easier side of 70's electric experiments)
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Top 15 Cds of Alphonse Mouzon
B-Side Fusion (underrated and rarified albums)

Tracks:

The Lovers
Beaux J. Poo Boo
Poo Pye McGoochie (And His Friends)

Customer Reviews:

"The" soul jazz album that defines soul jazz.......2005-08-03

I waited years for this album to make it to CD. I finally got it 2 yrs ago. I had 3 copies of this album. My first one in 1971. My second copy in 77 while waiting for my record collection to catch up to me in San Diego from Guam. And now, the CD. I have over 1000 albums and over 200 CD's. This is still my favorite record to this day.

This music is so typical of the soul jazz genre. Soul jazz only works when the players play well together and the star performs well. The song the Lovers still amazes me that a group of musicians could sit down,without rehearsal and create a performance as fluid and lasting as this one.

Les McCann, Yusef Lateef, Cornell Dupree, Buck Clarke,et al No comparison within the soul jazz class

At long last!!!!.......2001-09-24

Every lover of jazz music has his list of jazz LPs that have not as yet been transfered to CDs. Two on my list have recently been released on CD, this great recording and "The Shearing Piano". Am looking forward to others being transfered to CDs, such as the "Windmills of Your Mind" LP with Bud Shank and Michel LeGrand's arrangements and his orchestra. There is a large buying public out there that's eager for such reissues. CD labels in other countries, such as Germany and Japan, are picking up on this potent market by releasing American jazz recordings that American labels have ignored. I picked up one such Clare Fischer CD on a German label while on vacation in France and some others in Greece. RCA's "Have You Met Miss Carroll?" by Barbara Carroll's Trio was released on CD in Japan and is available at Amazon.com at a rather high price tag of .... On this McCann CD, it is strongly endorsed as a "must buy"! It's a free-flowing celebration of joyful funk. It's hoped that Amazon.com will post more such CD reissues.

FINALLY BACK IN PRINT - A KALEIDOSCOPIC JAZZ CLASSIC.......2000-11-16

Infused with free-form and ethereal eastern influences, McCann's Hello to the post-psychedelic era was a cornerstone of 1972 for jazz and pop music. Friends whom I could not have previously forced a jazz LP upon suddenly turned their ears towards the turntable when I put this one on the platter. The percussion section stewed, the horns conjured up visions of Shiva spinning webs of illusion, the guitars suggested hallways of geometric shapes dancing, and McCann's electric piano and synthesizer lent pretty abstractions. It all seemed so 'formless' at first, but repeated listenings yeilded superb designs.

The Lovers at 26:00 begins sotto voce, then gradually builds into a rock-raga, then subsides again. Cuts 2 and 3 are more focused and dreamy, and the final "Beaux J. Poo Boo" melds some early analog synth with Ralph McDonald's fiery percussion and some wicked horn dialog.

INVITATION is by far McCann's most daring moment in the then-new world of jazz-fusion (before it was neutered by the late 70s architects of easy listening). It popped out of the experimental ether alongside the first two Weather Report releases, and would stand well beside either (although it is decidely more melodic).

Pursuant to this LP, McCann released LAYERS, a work which found him totally immersed in early 70s synthesizers to mixed success. His subsequent releases continued a conservative trend back to his origins.

In any event, this LP is, as the kids from the late 90s would have said, da bomb. The beautiful cover art says it all.

The genesis of trance and trip-hop.......2000-11-14

Incredible. It's a shame that this album should take so long to make its CD debut, but at least it's finally happened. This album was a departure for Les, who was exploring musical terrain pretty far removed from his bop-gospel-bluesy-sanctified-pop-jazz-piano roots. By 1971, electric instrumentation, synthesizers, rock and funk grooves and Eastern musical and spiritual sensibilities were permeating the jazz landscape heavily. Les responded by reaching deep within and creating this suite of three lengthy, open-ended improvisationally-oriented pieces. You'll swear at times that you're listening to some embryonic version of spacy electronica opuses from the Orb or Goldie. The music unfolds slowly, deliberately, mysteriously, different instruments making their appearance one by one (and played by an impressive array of top-notch musicians). By the time Yusef Lateef's snaky Eastern riffs come in about 10 minutes into "The Lovers," you'll be in a whole different place altogether. This wondrous piece of work is best heard in the dark, with some incense and the phone cut off. It's not exactly music to wash dishes to, but it's worth the effort of getting into. Lovers of trance and downtempo should discover this album immediately if they haven't already, because the concept of a "chillout room" in a club evolved out of pioneering music such as this and Miles' "In A Silent Way," which (by the way) makes for an ideal companion piece. Be sure to also check out Les' "Talk To The People" and "Layers" as well, both of which are also influential and oft-sampled classics.

Music CD:

Music CD

Music CD

Music CD

Renegade Bass Supersonic, Vol. 1 ~ Trey Max

Capture/Release ~ The Rakes

Liberty ~ Greyhounds

Tremendous Efforts ~ The Sadies

Highway ~ Free

Received, Transgressed and Transmitted ~ Nectarine No. 9

From the Archives ~ Slave

And Now... ~ Asamov

This Is What You Want ~ K-Chill & Tetraz

Paris to Purple City ~ Purple City