Do not let the western "classical music" cover selections and the 1970's birth date of this recording scare you away. While CTI could sometimes have it's over produced string/cheesy moments, at it's best CTI presented some modern classics. Some of the jazz-rock sounds CTI was producing would later become more specifically associated with ECM and Manfred Eicher's ethereal (and somewhat less groovy) Nordic palette.
As a side note, Jack DeJohnette has stated (in Rick Mattingly's book- The Drummer's Time) that he helped formulate the classic ECM cymbal sound by having his cymbals recorded with a separate microphone over and under each cymbal to capture the ping and the overtones. DeJohnette has also pointed out that while he is often known for his ability to float lightly with cymbal shadings alone, that the bass drum is essential and has always had a solid foundation in Jazz. DeJohnette states that due to the historic poor recording (he calls out Atlantic Records as a prime offender) of the bass drum on so many jazz tracks, that often only the accents were captured. This in turn helped lead generations of jazz drummers to think the kick drum was only for dropping occasional bombs as opposed to being part of the pulse as it is in all other American groove music. In the same article, DeJohnette pays respect to VanGelder's Blue Note recordings for their bass drum fidelity.
This recording like so many other jazz classics was recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in the land of my birth. For an idea of just how many jazz classics were produced by RVG in his North Jersey studios see- Van_Gelder_Studio
On this track, (a pre-Tribe Called Quest) Ron Carter evokes the primal awakening of the forest sound on the intro along with Law's, leading into DeJohnette's taut, linear, melodic drumming. This performance gave me a new appreciation for the musicality and similarity of DeJohnette's drumming with the logical yet still emotional polyphonic lines of Bach. Any organist who can play a Bach fugue, seriously puts to test the average drummers' multi-limbed coordination pretensions.
