Voyage To Uranus

Clive Stevens was a British saxophonist and composer who played with Bob Downes and Manfred Mann before immigrating to the U.S. and studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he befriended guitarists John Abercrombie and Ralph Towner. Stevens signed to Capitol in late 1973, and released two jazz fusion classics just months apart in 1974. The first, Atmospheres featuring Clive Stevens & Friends, showcased the saxophonist with Towner on electric piano and clavinet, Abercrombie and Steve Khan on guitars, and the Mahavishnu Orchestra rhythm section -- bassist Rick Laird and drummer Billy Cobham. Voyage to Uranus returned Towner and Abercrombie, but in the company of bassist Stu Woods, drummer Michael Carvin, and percussionist David Earle Johnson. While the first volume has been given its critical due, Voyage to Uranus has languished in obscurity; its first reissue was in 2015. Opener "Shifting Phases" recalls, at times, Soft Machine, Ian Carrs Nucleus, and Return to Forever. Introduced by a jazz-funk vamp from Woods and Abercrombie, Towner plays snaky electric piano across the backdrop as Carvin drives the vamp on his snare and hi-hat. Abercrombie takes the first solo -- phase shifter in full effect -- before an electrified Stevens playing soprano sax joins him on the melody. Towners wafting, spacey Rhodes piano adds dimension as the band bubbles and cooks all around him. "Culture Release" opens with spiky rolling drums before Towners funky clavinet roils while Abercrombie goes at him head-on. Stevens trades fours with both players as Woods holds it down. "Inner Spaces and Outer Places" is driven by a bumping funky bassline. More prog rock than fusion, it offers interlocking cadences, syncopated time signatures, and rolling grooves before a soloists duel between Abercrombie and Stevens. The albums second half is a bit gentler but holds most of the compositional gold. Stevens was a wonderful melodic improviser and a composer who understood how to write for an ensemble. His insistence on space, lush tonalities, and restraint governs this half. Dig the easy soul-jazz vibe in the title track as he soars above Towners tasty comping on the Rhodes, while Abercrombie fingerpicks the changes; Woods, Carvin, and Johnson create a sweet, grooving, rhythmic pocket. The speculatively intense "Electric Impulse from the Heart" is fueled by resonant tenor and dark, distorted piano chords. The guitarist and rhythm section offer dramatic circular phrases and harmonic extrapolations akin to King Crimsons. "Water Rhythms" walks a jagged line between fusion and prog with elegant congas, wonderfully funky guitar comping, and a spiraling tenor sax solo. Carvins break-laden drumming gathers intensity while Abercrombie adds a greasy wah-wah vamp before Towners grimy, imaginative Rhodes solo. The gentle closer, "Return to the Earth," offers Towner playing acoustic 12-string and Stevens on flute as the rest of the band enfolds them in a spacious, pillowy caress. Voyage to Uranus is not only a fitting companion for its better-known predecessor but a stellar, criminally underheard chapter in 70s prog-jazz fusion. ~ Thom Jurek