Saxophonist, flutist, and composer
Charlie Mariano was 26 years into his recording career as a leader when he popped this wild bit of hardcore jazz-rock fusion out in 1976. He'd been playing with musicians from all over the world for most of his tenure, and
Helen 12 Trees was no exception. The musicians
Mariano was capable of recruiting had always been astonishing; in fact, it was his norm, but this group, despite being together for a very short time, was one of his finest.
Mariano is aided by
Jan Hammer from the
Mahavishnu Orchestra on keyboards, former
Graham Bond Organization and
Cream bassist
Jack Bruce,
Soft Machine drummer
John Marshall, Polish violin wizard
Zbigniew Seifert, and Asian percussionist Nippy Noya. Just under 40 minutes in length, this is one of the great, under-heard records to ever come out of the fusion years. Tracks like "Parvati's Dance," where
Mariano plays the Indian nagaswaram, a reed instrument that has a very unusual tonality, is gorgeous when juxtaposed against
Seifert's droning violin or
Hammer's high-pitched wandering keys.
Bruce and
Marshall are playing a near dub rhythm of pulse and bubble. "Thorn of a White Rose" is by
Hammer, the only non-
Mariano cut here. It carries within it dueling, winding lines of violin and saxophone, and
Hammer becomes the funky part of the rhythm section where
Bruce carries a straight series of four-note lines very forcefully as
Marshall plays his kit in knotty military style with heavy snare.
Mariano's solo hits the skronk a bit before
Hammer comes right back to post-bop jazz on the Rhodes. "Neverglades Pixie" is a ballad gone to wonky funk, where the hand percussion on bells, vibes, metal rods, and other more standard instruments adds another layer to
Marshall's rimshots as
Seifert takes a solo right out of Cajun fiddling and the blues -- until he meets
Hammer's big, cluttered chords and winds it out to the Gypsy jazz side of things. The bottom line is that over seven tracks, this set never runs out of surprises, grooves, kinetic energy, or astonishing improvisational ideas. But more than this, it never runs out of soul either, given
Mariano's great sensitivity as a leader. There is pure poetry in this music, albeit of a very strident nature, and it's certainly some of the finest under
Mariano's name as a leader -- it's a stone classic and one of the best examples of post-
Miles jazz-rock fusion ever recorded! MPS was a visionary label, and kept putting out quality jazz, rock, and big-band records until it closed its doors in the late '70s, and this title is prime evidence of label boss
Joachim Ernst Berendt's vision. ~ Thom Jurek