In one of the last recordings before Cti fell semingly completely apart, Creed Taylor assembled again a batch of Cti-veterans and added a couple newcomers, including the then 19-year old up and coming Wynton Marsalis for a (yet again) shortlived group billed "Fuse one" that resulted in three recordings (two for Cti).
The first track ("Silk") and the last ("Sunwalk") bear some pop elements that make me shudder slightly but they alternate with downtempo parts with some nice soli which fully compensate. Eric Gale has some wonderful subtle yet funky spots on "Silk".
"In Celebration Of The Human Spirit" is an uptempo tune with bassist Stanley Clarke in the spotlight who (along with the others) delivers some fast soli that are not really my taste. While not necessariloy a bad, they sound less accessible and subtle than what you may expect from a Cti-album.
"Hot Fire" is in a faster latin tune that reminds me a bit to Carlos Santana, this time, none of the musicians is being showcased, almost everyone gets the chance for a solo. Interesting to hear Marsalis on a song that is almost dancable if you keep his later, conservative albums in mind.
This has never been re-issued outside Japan, hence you'll come into the pleasure of the full album. It seems not to be too difficult to grab a second hand Lp via ebay et al. You may want to search for Fuse one's compilation ("the complete recordings") that has both albums and which is also available on CD.
instead of this one which is just 33 minutes long.
Please give a big round of applause to blog reader "Alicia" who send me this gem! :-D
