from wikipedia: "Swiss Movement is a soul jazz live album recorded on June 21, 1969 at The Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland by the Les McCann trio with saxophonist Eddie Harris and trumpeter Benny Bailey. The album was a hit record, as was the accompanying single "Compared To What", with both selling millions of units."
I first heard this in late '71 or early '72...I've never grown tired of it, In fact I like it more now than then ...and I wouldn't have thought that was possible for many years.
The first song I heard is the first track on the album. It was a "Crossover Tune" as it was a hit on the FM rock stations here on the West Coast of America [I know not of the rest of the country but I imagine it was received nearly as well]. It is a 'protest song', in a manner of speaking, just as pointedly moving today as then...and nowadays it is poignantly bittersweet as well.
I find it so amazing that that Les McCann and Eddie Harris had never played together or even met until that day and didn't even have a chance to rehearse at all before taking the stage together that day. [although in the wiki bio it says that Eddie was a 'constant collaborator. I believe it must refer to thereafter.] I'm not sure about the other members of this 'jazz session' but from what wiki says about Benny Bailey, it sounds as though he'd never met or played with any of the other fellows in the session before that day.
1. "Compared to What" -
(Gene McDaniels)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiDYXuI9uSQ&feature=relmfu
2. "Cold Duck Time" -
(Eddie Harris)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCOfFqnPwlU&feature=relmfu
3. "Kathleen's Theme" -
(Les McCann)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLvA0Rg6fck&feature=relmfu
4. "You Got It in Your Soulness" -
(Les McCann)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m-ofRT3ni4&feature=relmfu
5. "The Generation Gap" -
(Les McCann)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRM6KcKDHd8&feature=relmfu
6. ""Kaftan" -
(Leroy Vinnegar) - bonus track on the 1996 reissue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qpNKq2cZBI
Eddie Harris: tenor saxophone:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Harris
Benny Bailey: trumpet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Bailey
The Les McCann Trio
Les McCann: piano, vocals on "Compared to What"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_McCann
Leroy Vinnegar: bass:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leroy_Vinnegar
Donald Dean: drums
[it was his 32nd birthday that day]:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Dean
Only Donald and Les remain alive today. A stroke in the mid 1990s sidelined McCann for a while, but in 2002 he released a new album, Pump it Up.