(Jazz-Rock, Fusion) The Fourth Way - Werwolf (1970) - 2011, MP3, 320 kbps

Experimental at the time, this is a difficult listen years later. Recorded live at the 1970 Montreux Jazz Festival, this album features some challenging compositions by pianist Mike Nock. Violinist Michael White shows why he was a potential star, but this heavily electrified jazz is too abstract for most.
The Fourth Way was a pioneering jazz-rock fusion group formed in the late 60s, before the horizons of the genre narrowed, and fusion became a perjorative term. The group was formed in the heady days of the San Francisco music era, comprised of pianist Mike Nock and violinist Michael White (both from the John Handy group), with bassist Ron McLure (from the Charles Lloyd quartet) and drummer Eddie Marshall.
This was the last of their three albums, recorded live at the 1970 Montreux Jazz Festival, for Capitol's underground subsidiary label, Harvest. IMO, it was their best. This was one of the first jazz combos to use electric instruments; McLure used a bass guitar, White an electric violin, and Nock filtered his electric piano through a ring modulator, like Chick Corea used with Miles Davis, and Jan Hammer on the first Mahavishnu album. In fact, the Fourth Way chronologically paralleled the Bitches Brew-era Mile Davis group so closely, that it would be hard to discern which was cribbing ideas from the other.
Fourth Way tended to be more melodic and bouyant than the darker period music of Miles, but was just as "out there". The inclusion of violin arguably made the FW even more unconventional. As an aficianado of electronic music, a la Cage and Stockhausen, I find Nock's trippy ring modulated keyboard sound particularly appealing, and his distorted piano tones sometimes sound like an amplified version of John Cage's "prepared piano".
Every track here has it's merit, but my favorite is the set closer, "Space Funk". It starts out with a pulsing bass riff similar to that of Miles's live arrangment of "It's About That Time", and eventually works it's way into a rock-beat accelarendo rhythm that predated the climax of the Who's "Baba O'Riley"!!!
Considering the sonic limitations of the original live recording, the digital transfer here is outstanding. This is it, folks; the great lost jazz fusion performance, by the most criminally overlooked group of the genre. It been out of print since the group folded in 1970. Better get it while you can.