Les McCann - Invitation to Openness
(Water)
Over 25 albums deep into his recording catalogue, “Invitation” stands as McCann’s magnum opus, highlighted by the jaw-droppingly brilliant, 26-minute, side-long jam, “The Lovers.” A baker’s dozen dream team (including five drummers/percussionists, two electric guitarists and a harpist) gathered in Atlantic Records studios in Manhattan one day back in 1971 to breath life into McCann’s dream. Comparing the final result to “The Balero,” McCann originally wanted to call it “Phucking,” but settled for the label’s compromise. Now I’m the first to admit that I’m not the world’s biggest jazz fan, but I know what I like and McCann’s space jam is definitely on my shortlist of favorites. The compositions I enjoy most glide by effortlessly, subliminally entertaining me as I go about my daily routines. Like a first-rate film director guiding his actors through improvisational scenes and whose presence is invisible to the viewer, McCann told producer Joel Dorn to “get these guys in the room, kill the light, then I come in and start playing and we’ll see what happens.” Bassist Jimmy Rowser said, “there was no prewritten music, no tunes, no rehearsals. We just showed up and started playing.”
Breathtakingly unforgettable in its simplicity, there’s not a misplaced note to jar you out of your reverie. In fact, 21-year old guitarist David Spinozza’s searing wah-wah guitar may be the opening segment’s most recognizable element, with Yusef Lateef’s snake-charming oboe soloing close behind. At about the 10-minute mark, you may find yourself doing a double take at McCann’s familiar piano tinkling that sounds just like Ray Manzarek’s opening solo to “Riders on the Storm.” All the while, drummer Donald Dean keeps a steady, unobtrusive pulsebeat, and his interplay with Spinozza midway through the track is as tight as Fripp and Bruford’s syncopated shenanigans during King Crimson’s heyday. And I’d swear I heard vestiges of Traffic’s “Glad” at about the 16-minute mark, particularly in McCann’s playing off Rowser’s punctuated basslines.
Dean’s hyperactive timekeeping bolsters Lateef’s colorful flutelines on the clumsily-titled “Beaux J. Poo Boo.” There’s a playful, ear-catching quality to McCann’s variations on the tune’s single chord, similar in feel to the early film and TV work of Quincy Jones. Listeners approaching the album from the rock medium may again find easy comparisons to Soft Machine or “John Barleycorn”-era Traffic, with the delicately intricate skinwork of Jim Capaldi, Robert Wyatt and John Dunsmore recognizable reference points.
The final track, boasting the cumbersome Bill Cosby-ish title, “Poo Pye McGoochie (and his friends),” opens with McCann’s gentle piano motiv until his John Murtaugh-programmed Moog synthesizer introduces itself into the mix. Then things really get weird! Bassists Rowser and Bill Salter’s dueling solos introduce the first jam, centered around Spinozza and fellow guitarist Cornell Dupree’s call and response interplay with Lateef’s funky tenor sax soloing. A brief Crimson-esque interlude introduces the second jam, a punchy, rocking segment that yields to McCann’s playful ruminations. The final jam brings the group together for one last run through the main theme before Bernard Purdie’s rousing drum solo wraps up this wonderfully tight package, lovingly assembled (as usual) by the wonderful folks over at Water Records with their typically informative, 16-page glossy booklet including producer Dorn’s and author Ron Neal’s original liner notes and up-to-date essays and interviews (with McCann, Dorn and others) by Peter Relic. You don’t have to love jazz to love Invitation To Openness. Fans of Traffic, King Crimson, Soft Machine and other jazz-inflected rock ensembles will certainly want this in their collections.
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