Breaking Funky Ground - The New Tony Williams Lifetime… From the opening bass riff on “Snake Oil” and drummer Tony William’s Bonham-like bombastic groove, this was not just another fusion romp. There was truly something innovative afoot – hence the name: The New Tony Williams Lifetime.
“Believe It” is the name of Williams’ 1975 album with this new band line-up: Allan Holdsworth (guitar), Alan Pasqua (keyboards) and Tony Newton (bass). While The New Tony Williams Lifetime was certainly of its time, with Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Chick Corea and the like exploring rock & jazz at a feverish pace throughout the 70’s, Williams’ rebooted Lifetime project was also breaking musical ground.
Prior to “Believe It”, Williams released the album “Emergency” in 1969 as The Tony Williams Lifetime. It was on “Emergency” where Williams launched into an aggressive, rock drumming style combined with his fast ride cymbal playing – born out of his years with Miles Davis. The Tony Williams Lifetime trio included most notably, John McLaughlin on guitar and Larry Young on organ.
With The New Tony Williams Lifetime band, the harmonic interplay between Holdsworth and Pasqua, combined with Williams’ slamming tom fills and Newton’s smooth bass lines, was funk fusion of a different breed.
Williams’ unrelenting rhythmic pulse propelled Holdsworth into the upper stratosphere. Here, he was able to further develop and advance his atonal, soaring guitar lines that began with Holdsworth’s tenure in UK bands Gong, Tempest and Soft Machine. Allan’s playing on “Believe It”, at times, is slightly McLaughlin-esque, but honestly delivered with his signature tone, speed and signature technical mastery of the instrument. A one-off to be sure.
The energy of Tony’s drumming, especially the sloshy Zildjian hi-hats and open Gretsch tom sounds and bass drum punches is totally unique for mid-70’s recordings. Typically, drums were muffled and often had that “cardboard box” dead sound. Not here. The drums and cymbals are open, full of tone and shimmer, thanks to Tony’s fresh approach to playing jazz fusion with a rock drum set-up: Remo black dot heads, a 24” inch bass drum and three floor toms.
“Believe It” features strong compositions from all band members. The song “Fred” composed by Holdsworth went on to become a staple of Allan’s solo shows for decades. Interestingly, he and Alan Pasqua revisit the song on Holdsworth’s “Live at Yoshi’s” CD/DVD release.
The song, “Wildlife'”, is melodically powerful and grooves so smooth. Holdsworth and Pasqua complement each other, doubling on the melody, while Williams later unleashes an eighth-note pattern for Pasqua to solo over on his Fender Rhodes. “Wildlife” was one of the standout tracks performed at a 2008 Tony Williams Lifetime tribute show at the Blue Note in Tokyo, Japan. The supergroup featured none other than Vernon Reid, Jack Bruce, John Medeski and Cindy Blackman.
In 1976, a follow-up album to “Believe It” – “Million Dollar Legs” was released by The New Tony Williams Lifetime. The album featured the same band members, but now with Jack Nitzsche providing string and horn arrangements (FYI – Nitzsche played keyboards on several Rolling Stones albums). Tony Newton brings back his funky bass lines as ostinato grooves for Williams to solo over, free from having to mark time and instead, color and react to Holdsworth and Pasqua.
The song “You Did it to Me Baby” unfortunately didn’t age well. It has a silly vocal line by Tony Newton with gratuitous horn lines. Despite it being wholly appropriate for a 70’s adult film soundtrack, it is undeniably funky.
But then, the title track, Million Dollar Legs” is pure Weather Report with sumptuous, dreamy keyboard chords Ala Joe Zawinul.
Williams’ drum solo on the track “Inspiration of Love” is pure Tony. Melodic tom runs, blazing single stroke rolls, amazing dynamics that go from a whisper to a roar. Inspirational indeed.
Sadly, there were no subsequent studio albums from The New Tony Williams Lifetime after “Million Dollar Legs”; however, there is a legendary oft-bootlegged recording “Live at the Village Gate” taken from an FM radio broadcast of the band’s September 22, 1976 performance in The Big Apple, as well as a 1974 recording with Williams, Holdsworth, Jack White, bass; Webster Lewis, keyboards; and “Tequila” Logan, vocals. This project remains officially unreleased, but circulates as a bootleg.
What’s fun about exploring these somewhat ignored mid-1970’s albums by The New Tony Williams Lifetime is how they were a proving ground for Holdsworth to develop his superpowers that he would next employ with the Bill Bruford Group in the late 70’s with bassist Jeff Berlin. Alan Pasqua went on to record with Bob Dylan, later with Holdsworth, and his album “Standards” with Peter Erskine was Grammy nominated in 2008.
And, for Tony, you can hear his fully formed drum prowess under the deceivingly simple funk grooves. His solos are not unlike those heard on much later releases like “Foreign Intrigue”, “Civilization” and “Young at Heart”.
And, the sound & fury of those beautiful Gretsch drums in the hands of a master…Believe it.
Eric Everett is a musician and writer from Cleveland, Ohio. He has worked as a writer and editor for 30 years and has five decades of drumming experience. Throughout the years he has been a contributing writer for DrumHead Magazine, Classic Drummer. Drummers Journal UK, Drum!, Not So Modern Drummer, and most recently UK-based MusicRadar. He is an active performer leading jazz and rhythm & blues bands, and has interviewed many leading musicians including Sheila E., Bernard Purdie, Steven DiStanislao (Crosby/Nash, David Gilmour) Jonathan Joseph (Jeff Beck), Les DeMerle, Ralph Peterson Jr., T.S. Monk, and Simon Phillips.