P R I N C I P A L   W O R K S C o l l a b o r a t i o n s / s e s s i o n s   •   S o u n d t r a c k s

E A R T H Q U A K E   I S L A N D Tomato Tom 7019 (LP) Tomato 269612 (CD) 1978 39.30   1  Voodoo Wind 9.29 2  Cobra Moon 4.49 3  Sundown Dance 4.43 4  Earthquake Island I, II, III 10.07 5  Tribal Secret 3.44 6  Baliá 4.32 7  Adiòs, Saturn 1.52   Jon Hassell—trumpet, Arpstrings, Arp, Polymoog Nana Vasconçelos—drums, tabla, percussion, voice, cuica, congas, berimbau, handclaps Miroslav Vitous—bass Claudio Faereira—guitars, bass, handclaps Ricardo Silveira—guitar Badal Roy—tabla Dom Um Romao—percussion Clarice Taylor—vocals   Produced by Jon Hassell Cover painting by Mati Klarwein

P R E V I O U S   •   N E X T

This is a real surprise after the minimalist drones of Vernal Equinox. It's also the closest JH comes to anything resembling jazz, although in this case it's the jazz path laid down in the early Seventies by artists such as Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane, etc. The first half is heavily rhythmic and uptempo, suffused with an exotic, fervid atmosphere that achieves Hassell's intention of creating music to match Mati Klarwein's paintings. The mood switches midway with the Earthquake Island suite where the group move sinuously in the shadows around the sustained chords of JH's keyboards. Despite superficial resemblances to some Santana albums (the good ones), this is a rare record, even in terms of JH's oeuvre, being his only album featuring direct (English) vocals until Dressing for Pleasure. It shows the direction that numerous Fusion artists might have taken had they been possessed of greater vision and imagination. The cover painting (whose impact is ruined at CD size) by Mati Klarwein reinforces the connection with Electric Jazz, Klarwein being, of course, the cover artist for Miles Davis's Bitches Brew and Live/Evil.   Warning: vinyl copies of this album came with a record-damaging, brown paper inner sleeve. Second-hand copies may have suffered accordingly. Worth getting for the cover, though.