Having A Spaceball

Larry Young’s Fuel: SpaceBall and Moonwalk
From: Spaceball [Arista, 1975]

So I’m still on a bit of a fusion tip and realised I’ve yet to feature any music by Larry Young, a man who burnt so brightly before dying of pneumonia at the shockingly young age of 38.

An organist of immeasurable talent, Young was involved in the recording of many of the great Blue Note jazz albums of the sixties including those of Grant Green and Joe Henderson before moving into the world of fusion and funk in the early seventies.

Like many jazz artists who moved away from the traditional sound, Young’s post Blue Note work is often either overlooked or dismissed out of hand. However, upon listening to it again what strikes you most is how left field it is, even Young’s biggest success “Turn Off The Lights” has him going crazy with a synthesiser over the groove heavy track.

Spaceball, released in 1975, was the last album to be published during Young’s lifetime and offers up late Larry’s usual mix of the good and the bad. While the quality is too varied for me to call this a forgotten classic, when Young struck gold he produced some absolute gems.

The title track displays Young’s talents of combining fun with artistic merit as he gives the first two minutes of the record over to a funky scat laced over orgasmic female vocals (this is as good as it sounds, honest) before the instruments kick in with that 70’s Young sound of high pitched synths, funky bass and general craziness. Refusing to ever just stick with a groove the track veers from side to side and up and down without ever losing the rhythm. More than a hint of Parliament’s influence on this recording as well.

Moonwalk starts with a lovely little break and lots of echoey spaced out effects before the groove sets in. It’s undoubtedly one of those tracks that slowly takes hold of the listeners interest as it progresses, the sounds layering up to create an otherworldly feel, the throbbing bass re-verbs that appear late in the track are absolutely killing it as well.

Music to brighten even the dullest day, don’t sleep.