Tony Williams: Life Time (Tone Poet Vinyl Edition 180g)

Contents

1. Two Pieces Of One: Red
2. Two Pieces Of One: Green
3. Tomorrow Afternoon
4. Memory
5. Barb’s Song To The Wizard

Precocious and gifted drummer and composer Tony Williams was already a member of the Miles Davis Quintet and had played on numerous seminal Blue Note recordings including Herbie Hancock “Empyrean Isles”, Eric Dolphy “Out To Lunch”, Andrew Hill “Point Of Departure”, Jackie McLean “One Step Beyond” and Grachan Moncur III “Evolution” when he recorded his own adventurous debut album “Life Time” in August 1964, when he was just 18 years old.

Williams had no intention of playing it safe on his maiden voyage as a leader and set out to document his uncompromising expression on this program of innovative original compositions. Side 1 presents the expansive two-movement suite “2 Pieces of One”, in which the drummer is joined by tenor saxophonist Sam Rivers and bassists Gary Peacock and Richard Davis. Side 2 begins with the cheerful “Tomorrow Afternoon”, featuring Williams, Rivers and Peacock. On the freely improvised “Memory,” featuring Herbie Hancock on piano and Bobby Hutcherson on vibraphone, Williams plays various percussion instruments, and the thoughtful piano-bass duet “Barb’s Song to the Wizard,” performed by Hancock and Ron Carter, which closes the album, is all him.

This Stereo Tone Poet Vinyl Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray (Cohearent Audio) from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at Record Technology Inc (RTI) and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on sleeve.