Larry Young's Fuel/Spaceball

A mixed bag: on one hand, there aren't a lot of recordings of the great Larry Young; on the other, well, this isn't his best....The Fuel/Spaceball twofer seems like a good value for the price, but Fuel is pretty drecky. It doesn't quite work as funk or as fusion--and it's certainly not jazz. Despite a few moments, Young's stellar keyboard skills just aren't enough on display. Fernando Saunders stands out a bit on bass, but the weak and sometimes silly material just doesn't give anyone a chance to shine.Spaceball does actually work as a mostly instrumental funk/pop album with a few jazzy flashes. The playing (especially the drumming) is crisp, funky, and fairly well recorded. Young's keyboard skills occasionally shine, although usually it's just in brief flashes and flights that leave you hungry for more. There aren't any track-by-track listings of personnel, but Young is aided by Larry Coryell (who gets something of an extended solo on "Sticky Wicket" (written by Dexter Gordon?!?)). The raunchy-but-funky title track is funny in a sort of Parliament/Funkadelic vein. The musical highlight of the album is "Message From Mars" which, although it lacks any real soloing, shifts between lots of interesting chords in tricky Young-esque ways. The final track, Young's "I Am Aware of You" is played fairly straight but has some interest because it also appeared in the brief life in 1973 of the McLaughlin/Santana Band (John McLaughlin, Carlos Santana, Larry Young, Armando Peraza, Billy Cobham). You can only hear it as the framing part of a medley on a pair of rare live recordings of that band--in a highly altered form.This album might have stood out if it had come out in 1973 ala Herbie Hancock's Headhunters. But by 1976 the funk genre already wasn't what it used to be, and you can't help but wonder if Young was belatedly trying to cash in on that trend. Sad that this would be Young's last recording after his stellar solo albums, his revolutionary work with Tony William's Lifetime, and many many amazing sessions. As others have said, here's hoping that Lawrence of Newark (and I would add the Lifetime-esque Love Cry Want) comes back into print on CD!

First off Amazon is advertising buying this with "Larry Young's Fuel" on the product page. DONT CLICK THAT LINK. This release contains that 2nd album so if you buy this with Larry Young's Fuel separate, YOU WILL end up with a useless second copy of that album and that is something you don't want. Believe me, one is MORE than enough.I bought this 2 cd reissue set not hoping to hear Larry Young carry on with his Blue Note type music. He, Miles Davis, Charles Earland , Cannonball Adderely and Groove Holmes all moved their music with the times. I was hoping these recordings would be an extension of his '73 fusion release "Lawrence of Newark". They aren'tYoung's music on "Lawrence of Newark" is incredible. It is what you'd expect from the same artist who made albums like Unity in the 60's. The songs are long and evolving with a good dose of improv mixed into mystical arrangements which made me think Young was becoming deeply religious. These arrangements are sometimes interupted with heavy funk which added to the album well I felt. I'm sorry I'm talking about " Lawrence Of Newark " because as of March 2013, the CD reissue of this great album is out of print.The reissue of Young's Fuel and Spaceball are NOTHING like Lawrence of Newark and that is a WARNING to anyone thinking it might be. What you have here is second rate mid 70's funk/jazz music, well below the likes of bands like Catalyst. Instead of Young appearing to get into mysticism with his '73 lp, he sounds more like he is getting into very bad drugs.I can't find much to recommend Larry Young's Fuel (I Ching and H + J = B lack vocals which is good)and even less on Spaceball.AVOID if you want to hear the Larry Young from the 60's and on '73's Lawrence of Newark.

Do you like Larry's Blue Note stuff, with Grant Green,Elvin Jones,Sam Rivers,then his more further out stuff, then with Miles,with Tony Williams, with McLaughlin, and Santana? STOP! You have heard Larry's best, and this, although the price is great, is just terrible. Take the WORST of Sly, Donna Summer, Jan Hammer Group, and the Ohio Players (The Worm), wrap it up and you get this (I like all of those musicians/groups, but remember: their WORST moments mixed together gives this weak mess). Larry was confused as to why this was not successful, and the interview I read said it was because Larry's heart (or soul, or something like that)wasn't in it. Coryell is on Spaceball, Fernando Saunders is on Fuel, but they could not save them, and definitely Larry Young didn't. Not much B3. Hear this before you buy it. I might have given it one and a half stars if it wasn't for the vocals. The mixture of cocaine and disco killed jazz, or at least put it in the ICU. I love ALL of Larry's other disks, with Larry of Newark best. If you like Fuel you might like Music is My Sanctuary.

Nobody had written about the R2 edition. There are 2CD's in a budget 3-winged digipack. No CD binding, which is an obvious flaw, just 2 slots inside. On the other hand - there are all original artworks, both from front and back of LP (an there are pure photos, cleared from text!), there are full credits (also taken from LP) on the spare wings. No booklet or any foreword unfortunately.In a nutshell - it's very 'cheap', but somehow satisfying.The music of LY's FUEL is far from anything he had done beyond. It isn't a post-bop of Blue Note era, it isn't a furious, raw jazzrock from early 70's. FUEL is a mature fusion with deep bass lines, synthesizers, guitars and all those thangs. Though, the music is hard to compare to anything. There are clearly some elements similar to ALPHONSE MOUZON, MICHAL URBANIAK, late MAHAVISHNU and BILLY COBHAM, RETURN TO FOREVER, but Larry got something unique. The music is funky, but you won't say it's a pure funk. There are a lot of surprising changes and themes, there is a lot of groove.You could expect that nothing could stand on the way (for this music) to be awesome. But it isn't. Larry plays hell-of-a a Moog, but he didn't mastered it, he uses very 'cheap' sounds and also he plays often horribly banal themes. There are tons of fire in "Fuel for The Fire", but listening to some other tunes may let you think it's some kind of jam session or outtakes. That's the reason why "Spaceballs" is better than the first album - there are many more interesting and 'clear' compositions. But still far from perfectness of RTF, far from the improvization excellence of MO or TONY WILLIAMS.Recommended only for big fusion fans/completionists.2.5/5 for Fuel3.5/5 for Spaceball

super cd !!!!