Mike Nock Almanac, 1967

Mike Nock - Almanac (24/48 vinyl rip)
Improvisational Artists 1967

1) Specific Gravity One
2) Symbiosis
3) Emovations
4) Almanac
5) Hallucinogen
6) Double Split
7) J.C. Dudley

Mike Nock Piano, Cecil McBee bass, Bennie Maupin tenor sax, flutes, Eddie Marshall drums

If there is an earlier Mike Nock album, I am unaware of it. Even here this was a Band that used the name Almanac, so this may be better described as their eponymous first album rather than Mike's first as a leader. My first exposure to Nock was with Yusef Lateef and Cannonball Adderley and then the magnificent Fourth Way. This album slides right in between, on the eve of the Fourth Way, it was likely the only record on Improvisational Artists that wasn't free jazz.

The record is a modal magic carpet ride, an album boldly pointing the way to the new music of the 70's....three years earlier. The core of Nock, Cecil and Eddie is nothing short of breathtaking, As remarkable and sensitive a three-way conversation as you will ever hear. They clearly inspire young Bennie Maupin to some of his best pre-Mwandishi sextet work on record. All of the album is original and memorable music. This stuff is still fresh and exciting even 46 years later, don't miss it. 
 

Mike Nock Almanac 1967 [24/48 vinyl rip]

When you consider that this little post-bop miracle was recorded in 1967, you can't help but be impressed with how modern this music sounds. Perhaps that is why Improvising Artists, a label thoroughly devoted to free jazz, would have bought an already finished album that did not fit their profile at all. Nock and Marshall would soon be 1/2 of The Forth Way, Bennie would soon be with Miles and Herbie, and Cecil would soon be making countless superior recordings at Strata East, ECM and more. This album serves as a lovely snap-shot of a Bay Area jazz scene in the period just months before the Summer of Love.

I came across an near mint copy of this one a couple weeks ago!

The Fourth Way

This mp3 copy of the first Fourth Way album (and the only studio album)
 is the only time I have ever encountered the album and I sheepishly admit that I haven't the faintest idea where it was that I found it.

This band is always known as an ensemble but there is no doubt here on the first offering that this is Mike Nock's brainchild, he is the sole author on every tune. I can imagine walking through The Haight in 1968, Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead and Quicksilver in the park but you go walking the other direction and happen upon a small club with these guys offering the jazz response to The Summer of Love.

Compared to the two live albums that followed this one is relatively tame, but for me to hear this deepens my appreciation of what follows.

Now if someone were to come up with a fresh lossless rip.....

The Fourth Way

That's right, you are looking at the original and only studio album made by this seminal jazz fusion band. Looking through the album credits it gives you the impression that Mike Nock was the de-facto leader in that he wrote seven of the eight compositions (Michael White wrote Dance of the Mechanical Men). This album is not anywhere near as spacey as the two live albums to follow which, oddly enough, makes it the least dated sounding of the three albums they produced. What you hear on this album is a quartet of accomplished musicians exploring fresh new frontiers in music. Being the late 60's, early 70's there is the seemingly required spiritual path reference, in this case the writings on Sufi philosophy of G.I. Gurdjieff and P.D. Ouspensky. Given that the band was based out of San Francisco I guess you could say this was a 'hippie jazz' group - lots of hippies, myself included, dug this band. Even my friends who were bored to tears with most of my music dug these guys. One reason may be that they kept Ron McClure and Eddie Marshall way up forward in the mix and even rock fans could tell that they were beasts.

The Fourth Way
Capitol Records 1969

1) Everyman's Your Brother
2) Clouds
3) Sparky
4) Bucklehuggin
5) Openings
6) Gemini Trajectory
7) Dance of the Mechanical Men
8) The Sybil