Troc — Troc 1973 (France, Jazz Rock,Fusion)
Drummer Andre Ceccarelli is joined here by the Magma alumni of Jannick Top, Francis Moze, and Claude Engel - all apparently slumming in the (then) trendy soul oriented jazz-rock waters, that no doubt had Christian Vander shaking his head in disgust. The vocals are sung by Scotsman Alex Ligertwood, who would provide a similar white boy crooning on Brian Auger’s albums shortly thereafter (and later more famously for Santana, who was performing similar music by that time). Ligertwood also gets credit for most of the compositions presented here. Other key members are Henry Giordano on Fender Rhodes and Jacky Giraudo on guitar, who honestly do a lot of the heavy lifting here on the solo front. There’s quite a bit of talk about Miles Davis, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report, and Soft Machine in the liner notes to the CD. Those are what are known in the literary world as red herrings. Radio friendly blues numbers such as ’Old Man River’ tend to keep albums like this from being recognized as the stone classic it could have been. Oh well, missed opportunity. A good album that comes recommended.
Tracks:
01. Kali Lo — 0:00
02. Truth Verite — 6:37
03. Old Man River — 13:21
04. Stick Time — 19:23
05. Troc (Bonus) — 30:03
06. Plum — 33:28
07. Maybe Tomorrow, Not Today (Bonus) — 37:03
08. Did You Ever — 41:23
Personnel:
Alex Ligertwood (Alexander John «Alex» Ligertwood) — vocals
Jacky Giraudo — electric guitar (01, 02, 04, 06, 08)
Claude Engel — electric guitar (03, 07)
Henri Giordano — Grand piano, Fender electric piano
Jannick Top — Fender bass (01, 02, 04, 06, 08)
Francis Moze — bass (03, 05, 07)
Andre Ceccarelli — drums
Yves Chamberland — producer