Jazz Q Praha - Pozorovatelna (The Watchtower)
There are four very common American fusion models, first Miles Davis, second Weather Report, third Mahavishnu Orchestra and four Return to Forever. Jazz Q Praha hits the third in the list very early with the picked chord riffs, but the fire isn’t quite there to sustain it. Later in the record the band swings to the first model, hitting Miles Davis just about in his Jack Johnson prime, imitating the raunchy and slighty funky stomp, but, not quite getting it either. If anything, it proves that being familiar with the four models are likely gonna kill you on a lot of fusion, because except for rare occasions, the clone isn’t up to par on the musicianship. Dissonant picked chords like a theme from The Inner Mounting Flame are great if your musicians are going to go out there and kill it, but it’s a big let down it they don’t. Jazz Q got a lot better in their later years, this is disappointing to say the least.
Aka Moon - Southsite Anvers, Belgique 3/31/95 (video)
Aka Moon as the trio alone don’t really make me as enthusiastic as the band with additional guests. This is the trio in what seems like edited form, with a lot of fade outs on tracks, but even with this limitation I can only really absorb it in chunks and after a good 20 minutes I find myself numb to the largely non conventional melodic scales on the part of the saxophone and bassist who become a blur after a while. Of the trio shows I’ve heard or seen, this one is definitely on the better end but I find myself missing other tones and can never really imagine sitting through this again.