Stevie Wonder - “Confused Visions,” Brighton Theatre 7/4/73
Despite the tacky name (perhaps the best part of live music in the modern era is the lack of these dumb titles, usually to sell rather than share), this Stevie Wonder set captures him at something of a peak. Around this period, Wonder’s band was definitely doing some fusion or jazz rock and the long piece that opens just about ever version of this show I’ve seen is about 17 minutes long or so and it totally kills, as if you were listening to a great Mahavishnu track. Later the show tends to revolve around hits like “Superstitious” all played in an extremely funky groove. I’m not totally into some of his songs, but for the most part this is prime stuff and Wonder’s band rather badass.
Chas Smith - An Hour Out of Desert Central
At times I get the impression with this ambient album that I’m seeing a little too far into the equipment issues, that the interface between artist and listener is a little too close. That is, the equipment here occasionally betrays the fact that this sounds like a home studio recording, that for the most part this is “typical” ambient music, long rich chords whose patches ring false occasionally. But for the most part, this is actually some rather nice drone music with a good sense of the melodic nature of slow growth.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Fillmore East, New York City 6/4/70
I’m getting my CSNY shows mixed up or something, but I’ve been listening to this early June series of gigs at the Fillmore East and I thought I’d remembered one of these dates being very poor, but it turns out to be a different stint. I mention this because every show I’ve heard since seems like a major improvement meaning that was either a really bad night or I’m starting to like these guys even more than I used to. It’s funny, because it wasn’t long ago that I was complaining about how live bands spend inordinate time on solo spots and, really, noone does it more than CSNY, it just happens that most of these guys have canons of their own, particularly Stills and Young, so it’s not so much a case of, say, Rick Wakeman playing Cans & Brahms, rather it’s like they switch repertoires. Anyway the electric sets tend to be the more interesting and as this show went on it gathered steam.