Customer Reviews

Out of Sight & Sound

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This is such an important recording, here you have a group of young players who never gave it a second thought just to do something they just did it. It was a carefree time this group features Larry Coryell on guitar, Jim Pepper on sax, Bob Moses on drums, Chris Hill on bass and Columbus Baker on 2nd guitar. Produced by Bob Thiele who must have held on for dear life. Flashes of psych sounds are found on this album. Larry plays sitar on I'm gonna be free. But this is not a pop album nor is it mainstream. It really provided the basis for fusion found in the early 1970's , Bitch Brew and Nucleus from the UK kind of music. The cd reissue features detailed notes and photos. I was pretty surprised they could dig that much material up on this group. The remastering sounds very good given the age of the material. Fans of late sixties music will enjoy this music as well as folks into early fusion music.

Long ago, my guitarist friend plunked the needle down on "Lady Coryell", saying "Be forewarned... Larry Coryell CAN'T SING."

So, I feel I should issue the same caveat. Larry Coryell can't sing. But, having said that, let me say that Coryell's strained vocal cords don't prevent the Free Spirits' "Out of Sight and Sound" from being a trippy, delightful artifact of 1966.

Coryell (guitar) joined with two other aspiring jazzers, Jim Pepper (sax and flute) and Bob Moses (drums) to create this wacky but inventive attempt at a pop album. Whatever you call this, don't call it FUSION. It's a giddy, often goofy mix of garage psychedelia, folk, and a sprinkling of jazz. The lyrics are clever and jokey, the music is creative, but it's very much 1966--a mixture of "go-go jazz" and introspection. Remember, nothing much innovative was yet on the pop horizon... the Beatles, the Mothers' "Freak Out", "Fresh Cream". I'm sure that people who have never heard "Out of Sight and Sound" will be surprised at how poppy it sounds.

Enjoy this album for what it is, a quirky fluke, a good party record. But for a better indication of the musicians' talents, visit Coryell's early work with Gary Burton or Chico Hamilton. Moses, the drummer, later became a respectable jazz composer ("When Elephants Dream of Music"), and Pepper established himself as a sought after tenor man.

This is a fun and obscure little album. It consists of lightly psychedelic, concise jazzy pop songs played adeptly with lightness and vitality. This is to be expected, as this is basically a psychedelic pop/rock record played by jazz musicians. Reading about this album before I heard it led me to believe it was an early example of fusion, which it's not. The only improvisation on this record consists of brief solos by guitar and saxophone tucked into the pop compositions, and the rhythms move with a straight-ahead rock beat rather than swinging or floating. It's pretty surprising to hear more of Larry Coryell's voice than his guitar (another review complained about his singing, but it has a charming roughness to it (like the vocalists of many other mid-60s bands.) Honestly, none of these songs would sound out of place on a Nuggets compilation. It's definitely worth seeking out if you're a fan of 60s psychedelic rock and pop; just expect a focus on the songs, not any kind of solo or ensemble improvisation.