1976
Flight Never Ending
01. Aba Cua
02. Frankincense
03. Heartsong
04. The Wizard
05. Visions of Another Time
06. Trapezoid
07. Maginary Monsters
08. Flight Never Ending
Columbia Records, 1976
Mingo Lewis - percussion, synthesizers, congas, clavinet, and vocals
Louis Bramy - percussion, bells, vocals
Mike Kapitan - keyboards, piano, synthesizers, drums vocals
David Logeman - drums
Eric McCann - electric bass
Kincaid Miller - synthesizers, keyboards clavinet
Randy Sellgren - electric guitar, acoustic guitar
"Heavy symphonic synthesizer music with a lot of really happening rhythmic patterns" is how Mingo Lewis self describes Flight Never Ending. And honestly, there's not much more to add. But I will anyway. Mingo Lewis was New York City born and bred, son of jazz guitarist James Lewis. In 1970, Carlos Santana got wind of the legendary percussionist jamming in Central Park, and asked he join the band, which he did for the following four years. Following that, he hooked up with Return to Forever for their No Mystery tour in 1975, thus the similarity in sound was no coincidence including the funk track 'Trapezoid'. It also cemented an important relationship with one Al Di Meola, who not only recorded Lewis' composition 'Wizard' on his debut, but also repurposed 'Frankincense' into 'Chasin the Voodoo' on his Casino album (I can hear all of you now going "I knew I heard that song somewhere!"). Eventually Lewis relocated to San Francisco later in '75 and latched on with a hot, but unknown, progressive rock band known as Light Year that we only learned about a few years ago through the brilliant archival Reveal the Fantastic album. For the remainder of the tracks not listed, well you the listener are in for a treat. Read everything above, including the links, and you can figure out the rest. As my old friend Herky Jerky says, this is one of the best 70s fusion albums ever made! Don't miss this one.
Even though this 1976 album is very obscure, it's one of the best 70s Fusion albums ever made, sitting in that top tier and sharing a fundamental idiomatic template with Hymn-era RTF, Cobham's Spectrum, Eleventh House, Santana's Lotus, Lenny White's Venusian Summer, Electromagnets, Jean-Luc Ponty's mid 70s work, etc. I'm not mentioning Mahavishnu because that's just in a totally separate category than everything else ever. This specific style of music is simply one of my absolute favorite things in life and listening to this album is purely orgasmic musical ecstasy just like those other masterworks. Every track here goes for the religious burn and sting, even the lone vocal cut "Visions of Another Time". Usually on these 70s Fusion albums if there are vocal cuts they are bizarre nonsequitur disasters, but the singing on that cut is actually awesome and not commercial or cheesy at all. It just makes the album yet more special. Another special twist is the anomalous Funk Fusion of "Trapezoid" in the vein of RTF's No Mystery, with its slamming lopsided hard groove.
Spearheaded by one accomplished percussionist by the name of James Mingo Lewis (whose credits include Al DiMeola, Santana and The Tubes to name a few), he and several more than competent musicians unleashed this one-shot heavily Afro-Latin-tinged fusion effort in 1976. Overall, the feel is much akin to Return to Forever-meets-Santana, with tons of synthesisers (using very cool warm analog sounds) and percolating percussion driving it along. And of course, there's the searing guitar of one Randy Sellgren who seems to find a middle ground between Carlos Santana and RTF-period Bill Connors. The moods range from ethereal and driving ("Heartsong", easly one of the best tracks) to primal ("Aba Cua") to intense and ominous ("Flight Never Ending", "' 'Maginery Monsters") with a bit of get-down funk thrown in ("Trapezoid") for good measure. "Wizard" was later to be reworked on Al DiMeola's :Land of The Midnight Sun" album, but honestly, this version is rawer and far more soulful than DiMeola's white-bleached over-technical version. There si one vocal cut "Visions Of Another Time" that mixes intense prog-rock with heavy Latin almost Salsa grooves, with Mingo doing some serviceable vocals.
02. Frankincense
03. Heartsong
04. The Wizard
05. Visions of Another Time
06. Trapezoid
07. Maginary Monsters
08. Flight Never Ending
Columbia Records, 1976
Mingo Lewis - percussion, synthesizers, congas, clavinet, and vocals
Louis Bramy - percussion, bells, vocals
Mike Kapitan - keyboards, piano, synthesizers, drums vocals
David Logeman - drums
Eric McCann - electric bass
Kincaid Miller - synthesizers, keyboards clavinet
Randy Sellgren - electric guitar, acoustic guitar
Even though this 1976 album is very obscure, it's one of the best 70s Fusion albums ever made, sitting in that top tier and sharing a fundamental idiomatic template with Hymn-era RTF, Cobham's Spectrum, Eleventh House, Santana's Lotus, Lenny White's Venusian Summer, Electromagnets, Jean-Luc Ponty's mid 70s work, etc. I'm not mentioning Mahavishnu because that's just in a totally separate category than everything else ever. This specific style of music is simply one of my absolute favorite things in life and listening to this album is purely orgasmic musical ecstasy just like those other masterworks. Every track here goes for the religious burn and sting, even the lone vocal cut "Visions of Another Time". Usually on these 70s Fusion albums if there are vocal cuts they are bizarre nonsequitur disasters, but the singing on that cut is actually awesome and not commercial or cheesy at all. It just makes the album yet more special. Another special twist is the anomalous Funk Fusion of "Trapezoid" in the vein of RTF's No Mystery, with its slamming lopsided hard groove.
Spearheaded by one accomplished percussionist by the name of James Mingo Lewis (whose credits include Al DiMeola, Santana and The Tubes to name a few), he and several more than competent musicians unleashed this one-shot heavily Afro-Latin-tinged fusion effort in 1976. Overall, the feel is much akin to Return to Forever-meets-Santana, with tons of synthesisers (using very cool warm analog sounds) and percolating percussion driving it along. And of course, there's the searing guitar of one Randy Sellgren who seems to find a middle ground between Carlos Santana and RTF-period Bill Connors. The moods range from ethereal and driving ("Heartsong", easly one of the best tracks) to primal ("Aba Cua") to intense and ominous ("Flight Never Ending", "' 'Maginery Monsters") with a bit of get-down funk thrown in ("Trapezoid") for good measure. "Wizard" was later to be reworked on Al DiMeola's :Land of The Midnight Sun" album, but honestly, this version is rawer and far more soulful than DiMeola's white-bleached over-technical version. There si one vocal cut "Visions Of Another Time" that mixes intense prog-rock with heavy Latin almost Salsa grooves, with Mingo doing some serviceable vocals.
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