‘Emergency!’ : The Tony Williams Lifetime

Tony Williams was my first jazz drummer hero. I discovered him on Miles Davis’ Nefertiti, which was the first Miles Davis album I bought. I loved his nuanced playing; intricate and informed while still having a lot of power behind the set. When Nefertiti was released in 1967 Tony Williams was all of 22 years old, which by then he had already been playing professionally since he was 17. His first gig? Playing with Miles Davis in his second greatest quintet.

I’d heard Tony Williams on another album called Trio Of Doom, which was an incredibly short-lived collaboration between Williams, Jaco Pastorious and John McLaughlin. Their only release was this live set that was recorded in Cuba. Unfortunately I think between the monolithic egos of Williams and Pastorious that collab was never going to last, but we got a hell of a set out of ’em.

Tony Williams had released two solo album with Blue Note, Life Time and Spring. The former was released in 1964 while the latter was released in 1965. Once Miles took off for more far out jazz regions with Bitches Brew, Tony Williams decided to head out on his own journey as well. A play on his first solo album’s title, Tony Williams formed The Tony Williams Lifetime with the great John McLaughlin on guitar and organist Larry Young. Now, as I was working my way through the great jazz albums on the 20th century I had come across The Tony Williams Lifetime debutEmergency! and it didn’t connect with me. It felt kind of chaotic and manic, with spoken word poetry in a few cuts. Between John McLaughlin’s dissonant chords and soloing and Larry Young’s buzzing bumblebee organ shots I could never find a place to land. So I left Emergency! to sit in my subconscious for my brain to attempt to digest another time.

Fast forward to 2023 and the UK record label Be With Records reissuing this behemoth double LP. It had been a few years since I’d listened to it so I thought the hell with it and had my local record guy order me a copy. When it arrived I put it on the turntable and spent some time with it and lo and behold…I didn’t think much of it still. I don’t know what the problem was. It still had the grimy, tape hiss sound that it had when I first streamed it back in the day. It still seemed oddly chaotic and that bee swarm buzz was all over the place, guitar and organ not caring about personal space. I mean, I was glad I bought it as the packaging was nice and I still love my man Anthony “Tony” Williams and all, but I just didn’t see myself spinning this record much more than what I already had. I may have been telling myself that as I spent at least $40 on it, so I was going to appreciate it one way or another, dammit.

Fast forward again to this past Friday. I’d taken the day off so I could lump it together with having MLK Day off as a company holiday and give myself a nice 4-day weekend. I headed over to the Community Center in North Webster to get some laps in. Besides having a YMCA, the Community Center allows folks to come in and walk laps. I wanted to get some miles in before the day started so I went over to walk amongst all the old folks(there’s a Senior Center in the building as well that is the hot place to be if you’re in your golden years.)

I’d been listening to Stephen King’s audiobook for Bag of Bones and decided I needed some music instead. For some reason I thought about Emergency! and pulled it up. Maybe it was walking amongst the grey-haired contingency, or seeing tables upon tables filled with old puzzles, DVDs, and Lee Child novels for the taking but man I was immediately locked in when “Emergency” kicked in. The break neck pace and fiery soloing of Williams, McLaughlin, and Young felt urgent, heady, and insistent on blowing minds. That gritty, tape hiss sonic color only adds to the feeling that this is being broadcast from some other plane.

McLaughlin’s playing is a cross between his blistering work on Davis’ Jack Johnson, as well as his more sophisticated shredding with Mahavishnu Orchestra. Larry Young gives us more of a Jan Hammer feel, and less Jimmy Smith. It’s like math rock before there was math rock.

“Beyond Games” has a weird strut to it, and the first of the spoken word from Williams himself. Def Jam poetry before it existed, Williams gives us a heady dose of groovy jam and coffeehouse spoken word. There’s the serious jamming of “Where” and “Vashkar”, while “Via De Spectrum Road” starts out like a serious blues jam with some tasteful vocals over top. We do get some fusion thrown in for good measure, but the song is the grooviest of the lot here.

“Sangria For Three” sounds like if Blue Oyster Cult tried their hand at jazz fusion and changed the course of their own history. “Something Spiritual” closes things out in a dichotomy of mood and might.

After deep diving The Tony Williams Lifetime’s Emergency! I’m convinced that Williams, McLaughlin, and Young did as much to bring in the fusion movement as Miles did with his “Electric Miles’-era. Emergency! and Bitches Brew both came out in 1969, and gave jazz lovers something to sink their teeth into. Those stuck in the era of hard bop and cool jazz pretty much choked on that first bite. They didn’t get it, and didn’t really want to get it. To them it was just dissonant noise, no melody to lock into. But fusion wasn’t about melodies and smokey jazz clubs. It was about opening your brain and letting the music rewire you.

Where Miles went in a more psychedelic direction, letting songs slowly bloom in a haze of LSD and tribal grooves, Tony Williams went with might and touches of chaos, taking the songs into the stratosphere with breakneck rhythms and shredding solos. Ultimately I think Tony Williams saw the direction fusion was ultimately going to take. Even Miles put out his version of Emergency! with the great guitarist Pete Cosey on Dark Magus(as well as Pangea and Agharta.)

Sometimes you’re ready for an album, and sometimes you’re not. It took me several years to find my way into Emergency!, and all it took was walking amongst a bunch of old folks in a community center.