Harris, Eddie – “Silver Cycles ” – [Atlantic (Jazz)]

Eddie Harris ???Silver Cycles??? 1969

Eddie Harris is probably most remembered as Les McCann???s running partner on the ???Swiss Movement??? live LP, also from 1969, that featured ???Compared to What???. While that gig had more of a soul/ jazz flavor, this Harris-led studio LP is a showcase for electric sax experimentations in a variety of settings, including solo, with a straight-ahead quartet, a small group augmented by Latin percussion and larger bands adding expanded brass, a string section, and (on 3 tracks) a vocal group as sort of a ???soul pillow??? (a bit over the top production-wise, the sort of thing Creed Taylor would become notorious for a few years later on his CTI label). The solo track, ???Electric Ballad???, is pretty heavy on echo effects and may seem a little dated. The quartet tracks point towards Coltrane???s latter-day spiritual material. The larger group tackles some grooves that suggest a path to funk.