Flares: Julian "Pepe Mtoto" Priester

Trombonist Julian Priester spent two-years with Herbie Hancock as part of the lineup of musicians that produced the three ground-breaking "Mwandishi" albums and concert tours. Herbie's own patience and enjoyment of the Mwandishi lineup and style had waned; he was ready to make people happy--to make fun, enjoyable music; he wanted to start a funk band. Thus, the Mwandishi lineup was disbanded in the Spring of 1973 and Julian, like his bandmates, found himself without a band and without a job. But he was riding enough inspiration from the Mwandishi gigs to want to make a studio album of his own--the result being the Love, Love album--an album made up of his own compositions and involving the participation of several of his collaborators from the Mwandishi lineups. Several of these other Mwandishi band members had already begun to produce "solo" albums--a couple of them even being blessed with the presence of not only many of the Mwandishi lineup but even the fearless leader, Herbie himself. The first was Eddie Henderson's Realization (which was recorded on February 27 & 28 of 1973--before the actual disbandment of Herbie's Mwandishi band) and released in 1973; the second was Julian's Love, Love, which was recorded on two dates, June 28 and September 12, and then released in early 1974. The third solo "Mwandishi" release was yet another Eddie Henderson album: Inside Out, which was recorded in October of 1973 and released in early 1974. The last Mwandishi-related album released by one of the Mwandishi lineup members was Bennie Maupin's Jewel in the Lotus which was recorded and released in 1974 but did not have the participation of either Eddie Henderson or Julian Priester.)  

     The music for Love, Love was recorded in two sessions, June 28 and September 12 or 13 of 1973. The album includes appearances from seven collaborators from Herbie's Mwandishi albums--all of whom are listed with their African nicknames that Herbie's percussionist friend Mtume Babatunde gave according to the personality traits he saw. Herbie himself did not participate in the Love, Love sessions.

JULIAN PRIESTER aka "PEPE MTOTO" Love, Love (January 1974)

Known more as Herbie Hancock's trombonist during the Mwandishi-era sex- and septets, this was Julian's first release after the formal disbanding of Herbie's Septet--here released and recorded under Manfred Eicher's new ECM label, as was Bennie Maupin's solo release of the same year, The Jewel in The Lotus. While Maupin used four of the Septet to help record his album, Julian almost accomplished this album as a one-man solo project, playing the roles, himself, of bass trombone, tenor trombone, trombone [alto], baritone horn, horn [post], flute, cowbell, percussion [small], synthesizer [Arp 2600, Prototype Arp String Synthesizer], producer, mixer, and composer on all songs with only synthesizer expert Patrick Gleeson (the seventh and final addition to Herbie's Septet) and drummer Ndugu Leon Chancler from his former band. 

Working under his Mwandishi alter ego name, "Pepe Mtoto," Julian here is exploring the "cosmic music" that he found himself attracted to in the 1960s while working with Sun Ra and his Arkestra.

LIneup /  Musicians:
Julian Priester ("Pepo Mtobo") - trombone, horns, whistle, flute, percussion, synthesizers
Patrick Gleeson - synthesizers
Hadley Caliman - flute, saxophone, clarinet
Mguanda David Johnson - flute, saxophone
Bill Connors - electric guitars
Bayete Umbra Zindiko (Todd Cochran) - piano, clavinet
Ron McClure - electric bass (Track 1)
Nyimbo Henry Franklin - electric bass (track 2)
Ndugu Leon Chancler - drums
Kamau Eric Gravatt - drums, congas

1. "Prologue/Love, Love" (19:30) an extremely engaging groove with some very Deodato-like keyboard and bass play providing the spine of the entire side-long song. The overall feel does have more of a long-play Krautrock feel despite the business of the contributing musicians (particularly keyboard artist Todd Cochran and electric guitarist Bill Connors but also bassist Ron McClure). The drums, percussion, and bass are incredibly solid and steady throughout, which offers the soloists very fecund ground on which to perform their psychedelic gymnastics. It feels as if all of the soloists were given plenty of room and encouragement to experiment and "go off"--even during the live recording. As a result, this is a great, eminently enjoyable, and also very soothing and hypnotic song. (37/40)

2. "Images/Eternal Worlds/Epilogue" (18:24) a song that seems founded far more in more-traditional form and structure despite the rogue bass playing of Henry Franklin. In the third minute, drummer Ndugu Leon Chancler and electric pianist Todd Cochran seem to fall back into Deodato-like mode, yet are free enough to expand upon their foundational forms to express themselves with admirable abandon. Pat Gleeson and Priester also seem to be having a creative free-for-all, spewing forth all kinds of animal-like noises (Julian seeming to concentrate on the elephantine). Even the sax player in gets into the act in the sixth and seventh minutes. This is some cosmic ride: entropy rules! Thus it is quite unexpected when the whole band suddenly shifts in the eighth minute into a sudden shift into a low-piano chord and cymbal-guided "Love Supreme"-like motif, congealing over the next two minutes into such tightly -engaged and -focused unit that their gradual, almost imperceptible transition into what feels like a high-speed Latin rumba line by the eleventh minute made me wonder (more that once) if I was still listening to the same album--or even the same band! These are obviously very serious and very skilled jazz musicians. Pianist Todd Cochran is especially impressive but so is everyone else. They are so tight! So skilled! So professional! After the first rather psychedelic song of hypnotic space funk and the chaotic opening seven minutes of this, I would never in a million years have predicted this amazingly sophisticated "big band" jazz! I love this song--immediately wanted to play it again and then left it on repeat for the whole morning! Wow! (39/40)

96.25 on the Fishscales = A/five stars; an amazingly fresh expression of the relatively new Jazz-Rock Fusion idiom containing free-form experimentation over super-solid rhythm play, spanning the spectrum from the spacey-psychedelic to the most professional big band sound. One of the finest J-R Fuse albums of its time (with great sound thanks to Manfred Eicher and his ECM label); definitely in my Top 10 Jazz-Rock Fusion Albums of prog's "Classic Era" (#3!)