Turn It Over [Original recording remastered]

Tony Williams, Tony Williams Lifetime | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 28, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Polygram Records
• ASIN: B0000047GB
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,917 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Japanese only limited edition pressing, 24-bit remastered reissue of the late jazz/fusion drummer's 1970 album. Sony. 2005. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Manic Depressive, Bipolar, With Psychosis, October 12, 2000

By 

Frank Gi (NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Turn It Over (Audio CD)

is the best way to describe this dark, bizarre, but extraordinary faceted album. Certainly not for the "unhip", or faint hearted, this recording weaves through some interestingly uncharted waters. From Tony's vocal in "This Night This Song", John Mclaughlin's distorted guitar in "Right On", to his subtle chord accompanyment to Jobim's "Once I Loved", complete with Khalid Yasin (Larry Young) screeching Hammond organ.("Allah Be Praised", has some great Yasin (Young) moments!) I especially dig (to my wife's chagrin) cranking up Jack Bruce's out of key vocal in "One Word", which I think is spectacular.

A highly inventive, and original venture.

Also recommened: The Tony Williams Lifetime: Emergency!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars hugely underrated fusion classic!, July 2, 2000

By 

hiroski (New York City, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Turn It Over (Audio CD)

"Turn It Over", the second (and probably also the best) release from the original tony williams lifetime, is much more satisfying than their earlier effort "Emergency" in terms of production quality. Not to mention the fact that this album represents the apex of the post Blue-note discography of influential organist Larry Young (aka Khalid Yasin). Each tune here burns with a raw intensity unmatched by any other release from the early days of "Jazz-fusion". "Focused" is the word that characterises these short and brilliant vamps; from the uncomprimising straightforwardness of "Once I Loved", to the brilliant organ in trane's "Big Nick", to the heights of ecstasy reached on Young's own contribution "Allah be Praised", each lick on this album has for this author provided endless delights. It seems that unfortunately not many others agree with these sentiments then or now, and as a consequence, Lifetime's "Turn It Over" remains a hidden gem waiting for open eared music lovers to discover.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Flawed but great, January 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Turn It Over (Audio CD)

This album has the most breathtakingly aggressive rock drumming ever recorded. Sure, John Bonham could really pound, and Keith Moon could whip up a fine mess of busy psychotic fills, but no one could attack the drums with the physical power and polyrythmic genius that Williams displays here. His playing on "To Whom It May Concern" is like a pinpoint-precise cyclone: relentlessly driving but full of outside fills that he drops in lightning-fast like a skilled boxer. The album is full of extreme emotions and it feels like the band is constantly pushing things to the edge, but then that was Williams' intention, I think; in an old (old, old) interview with Newsweek he said that he was trying to see how much the audience could take, how far they could follow before the music got to be too much.

The drawback of the album is that some of the "rock" tricks sound really dated: "Vuelta Abajo" sounds like a soundtrack to a late-60's biker film, and what to make of McLaughlin's trippy narrative on "A Famous Blues"? ("Stay...in the black abyss of your head...searching the murky corridors of your mind." Like, wow, man!) I used to also be put off by Williams' awful vocals on "This Night This Song", but now I'm starting to think that they fit in, somehow.

Anyway, this is true "acid jazz", meaning jazz played like acid rock, full of feedback, extreme concepts, and outrageous energy and volume. It's also what jazz/rock fusion should have been since it melds the anarchic feel of rock with the virtuousity of jazz, instead of lapsing into feel-good background music. Buy it!