Sorcery revisited, or jazz backwards

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 23:06:49 -0800

More often than not I learn about music backwards, that is, in reverse chronological order. When I posted "Sorcery" by Poland's Big Band Katowice back in October, it did not occur to me to wonder about the song's origin. It was just today, listening to Billy Cobham's 1975 album A Funky Thide of Sings, that I heard the song again:

02 Sorcery

Billy Cobham

The story of how I finally listened to Billy Cobham after 30-odd years of not listening is for another time, but the result is that I wish I had just listened in the first place. So here was "Sorcery" again, in an electrified, more concise but less lively version, but the intriguing part was the media player displaying Keith Jarrett as the composer. Keith Jarrett, the godfather of New Age piano? A little digging and I learned what probably everyone else in the world already knew, that Keith Jarrett did indeed compose "Sorcery" in 1966, when he was 21 and a member of the Charles Lloyd Quartet; it was first released on the Forest Flower album:

Keith Jarrett-Charles Lloyd - Sorcery

Charles Lloyd

The title fits, I can easily visualize a bad-ass wizard striding down a lane in time to this tune a la Tony Manero and "Stayin' Alive." And then he stops abruptly, points at me, fixes me with a paralyzing stare, and says (in Alan Rickman's voice) "Gonna getchoo." Help!

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Sorcery revisited, or jazz backwards