If 32 Jazz Records hadn't purchased the Muse Records catalog, 98 percent of the world's jazz aficionados would still be unaware of
Catalyst. This two-disc compilation features the band's four albums in their entirety: Perception, Catalyst (recorded on Cobblestone), Unity, and A Tear and a Smile, nearly 140 minutes of jazz recorded from 1972-1975. The title, which depicts a funk band, is misleading and the only miscue.
Catalyst blends soul, jazz, avant-garde, rock, and Eastern influences for a super-fusion superior to what the bigger labels were promoting and selling.
Eddie Green (keyboards, vocals), Sherman Ferguson (drums, percussion, marimba),
Odean Pope (sax, flute, oboe), and
Al Johnson (bass) comprised the original group; Johnson left to work with
Chuck Mangione and was replaced by
Tyrone Brown. Some of Philadelphia's finest soul musicians, including Larry Washington (conga), Norman Harris (guitar), and
Anthony Jackson and Ron Baker (bass), augmented
Catalyst on some sessions.
The Philly-based band was a jack of all styles and master of them all. Breaking the CD down by individual albums, their debut Catalyst consisted of six contemporary bop tunes, including Green's "Ain't It the Truth," a slamming, congested groove that's as hyper as a two-year-old. "New Found Groove" is an introspective floater, livened by Green's vibrant keyboarding. "Perception" defies this CD title completely, Brown's soft, beautiful "Uzuri" is a dazzler. Two lengthy avant-garde jams -- "Celestial Bodies" and "Perception" -- spotlight each member, very little funk here.
Unity, a 1974 release, is the most fusionistic
Catalyst album. Alphonso Johnson (
Weather Report's bass player) and Mwandishi's drummer
Billy Hart play prominent roles in flavoring the six cuts highlighted by "Shorter Street," a tribute to
Wayne Shorter, the waltz-paced "Little Miss Lady," and the intriguing "Mail Order."
Catalyst's final album, A Tear and a Smile, features synthesizers, strings, woodwinds, and Charles Ellerbee on guitar and vocals. While Unity spotlights
Odean Pope's sax, this one gives drummer Sherman Ferguson the curtain calls.
If you missed
Catalyst the first time around, and most did, you can't afford to be out of the loop this time. This is a keeper, every track says something and says it well. ~ Andrew Hamilton