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The Tony Williams Lifetime was a jazz-rock fusion
Jazz fusion

Fusion or, more specifically, jazz fusion or jazz rock, is a musical genre that merges jazz with elements of other styles of music, particularly funk, Rock and roll, R&B, electronic music, and world music, but also pop music, classical music, and folk music, or sometimes even Heavy metal music, reggae, ska, country music, hip hop...
 group led by jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 drummer
Drummer

A drummer is a musician who plays a drum or drums, particularly a drum kit , marching percussion or hand drums. The term percussionist applies to a musician performing on any percussion instrument, but usually refers to one who plays Classical music or Latin percussion....
 Tony Williams
Tony Williams

Anthony Tillmon "Tony" Williams was an United States Jazz drumming.Widely regarded as one of the most important and influential jazz drummers to come to prominence in the 1960s, Williams first gained fame in the band of trumpeter Miles Davis, and was a pioneer of jazz fusion....
.

Tony Williams Lifetime was founded in 1969
1969 in music

EventsPerhaps the two most famous musical events of 1969 were concerts. At a Rolling Stones concert in Altamont, California, a fan was stabbed to death by Hells Angels, a biker gang that had been hired to provide security for the event....
 as a power trio
Power trio

A power trio is a rock and roll band format popularized in the 1960s. The traditional power trio has a lineup of guitar, bass guitar and Drum kit, leaving out the rhythm guitar or Musical keyboard that are used in other rock music to fill out the sound with chords....
 with John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin (musician)

John McLaughlin , also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an England jazz fusion guitarist and composer. He played with Tony Williams's group The Tony Williams Lifetime and then with Miles Davis on his landmark electric jazz-fusion albums In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew. His 1970s electric band, Mahavishnu Orchestra, perfo...
 on electric guitar and Larry Young
Larry Young (jazz)

Larry Young Young played with various Rhythm and blues bands in the 1950s before gaining jazz experience with Jimmy Forrest, Lou Donaldson, Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley and Tommy Turrentine....
 on organ. The band was possibly named for Williams' debut album as a bandleader, Life Time, released on Blue Note
Blue Note Records

Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards....
 in 1964. Their debut album was Emergency!
Emergency! (album)

Emergency! is a double album by The Tony Williams Lifetime. Released in 1969, it was the group's first album and one of the first significant jazz fusion recordings....
, a double album
Double album

A double album is an sound album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold . A double album is typically, though not always, released because the recording is longer than the capacity of the medium....
 released on Polydor Records
Polydor Records

Polydor Records is a record label currently headquartered in the United Kingdom, and is a subsidiary of Universal Music Group....
 in 1969. It was largely rejected by jazz listeners at the time of its release, but is now looked upon as a fusion classic.






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The Tony Williams Lifetime was a jazz-rock fusion
Jazz fusion

Fusion or, more specifically, jazz fusion or jazz rock, is a musical genre that merges jazz with elements of other styles of music, particularly funk, Rock and roll, R&B, electronic music, and world music, but also pop music, classical music, and folk music, or sometimes even Heavy metal music, reggae, ska, country music, hip hop...
 group led by jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 drummer
Drummer

A drummer is a musician who plays a drum or drums, particularly a drum kit , marching percussion or hand drums. The term percussionist applies to a musician performing on any percussion instrument, but usually refers to one who plays Classical music or Latin percussion....
 Tony Williams
Tony Williams

Anthony Tillmon "Tony" Williams was an United States Jazz drumming.Widely regarded as one of the most important and influential jazz drummers to come to prominence in the 1960s, Williams first gained fame in the band of trumpeter Miles Davis, and was a pioneer of jazz fusion....
.

Original Lineup

The Tony Williams Lifetime was founded in 1969
1969 in music

EventsPerhaps the two most famous musical events of 1969 were concerts. At a Rolling Stones concert in Altamont, California, a fan was stabbed to death by Hells Angels, a biker gang that had been hired to provide security for the event....
 as a power trio
Power trio

A power trio is a rock and roll band format popularized in the 1960s. The traditional power trio has a lineup of guitar, bass guitar and Drum kit, leaving out the rhythm guitar or Musical keyboard that are used in other rock music to fill out the sound with chords....
 with John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin (musician)

John McLaughlin , also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an England jazz fusion guitarist and composer. He played with Tony Williams's group The Tony Williams Lifetime and then with Miles Davis on his landmark electric jazz-fusion albums In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew. His 1970s electric band, Mahavishnu Orchestra, perfo...
 on electric guitar and Larry Young
Larry Young (jazz)

Larry Young Young played with various Rhythm and blues bands in the 1950s before gaining jazz experience with Jimmy Forrest, Lou Donaldson, Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley and Tommy Turrentine....
 on organ. The band was possibly named for Williams' debut album as a bandleader, Life Time, released on Blue Note
Blue Note Records

Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards....
 in 1964. Their debut album was Emergency!
Emergency! (album)

Emergency! is a double album by The Tony Williams Lifetime. Released in 1969, it was the group's first album and one of the first significant jazz fusion recordings....
, a double album
Double album

A double album is an sound album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold . A double album is typically, though not always, released because the recording is longer than the capacity of the medium....
 released on Polydor Records
Polydor Records

Polydor Records is a record label currently headquartered in the United Kingdom, and is a subsidiary of Universal Music Group....
 in 1969. It was largely rejected by jazz listeners at the time of its release, but is now looked upon as a fusion classic. Jack Bruce
Jack Bruce

John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scotland musician, musical composer and singer. He is best-known as an electric bass guitarist, harmonica player and piano, and was most famous as a vocalist and the bass guitarist for the 1960s rock band Cream ....
 joined the group to provide bass
Bass guitar

The electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum.The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer neck and Scale length, and usually four strings tuned to the same pitches as those of the double bass, whic...
 and vocals on their second album, Turn It Over, released in 1970.

McLaughlin left the group and was replaced by Ted Dunbar
Ted Dunbar

Ted Dunbar was a jazz guitarist, composer, and educator. He published four volumes on jazz. He trained as a pharmacist at Texas Southern University, but by the 1970s only did pharmacy work part-time....
 for their 1971 album, Ego. This album featured Ron Carter
Ron Carter

Ron Carter is an United States jazz double-bassist. His unique sound has made him a long sought after studio man. His appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar....
 on bass and cello, and Warren Smith
Warren Smith (jazz musician)

Warren Smith is an American jazz drumming.Smith was born in Chicago, Illinois into a musical family; his father played saxophone and clarinet with Noble Sissle and Jimmy Noone, and his mother was a harpist and pianist....
 and Don Alias
Don Alias

Charles 'Don' Alias was an United States jazz percussionist.Alias was best known for his skill at congas and other hand drums. He was, however, a capable drum kit performer: Alias played drums on the song "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" from Bitches Brew when neither Lenny White nor Jack DeJohnette was able to capture the marching band...
 on percussion. Lifetime gigs around this time featured Juini Booth on bass. Following Larry Young's departure from the band, Tony Williams was the only original member remaining. The fourth and last Lifetime album for Polydor, 1972's The Old Bum's Rush, featured an entirely new personnel and a keyboard
Electronic keyboard

An electronic keyboard or digital keyboard is a type of keyboard instrument. Its sound is generated or amplified by one or more electronic devices....
-heavy sound. It received poor reviews, and the group was effectively dissolved for several years.

In 1974, Williams put together a new Lifetime featuring Bum's Rush holdovers Webster Lewis
Webster Lewis

Webster Lewis was an American jazz and disco keyboardist.Lewis was born in 1943 in Baltimore, Maryland, and studied at the New England Conservatory of Music under Gunther Schuller....
 on keyboards and Laura 'Tequila' Logan on vocals, along with former Cream/Lifetime bassist Jack Bruce
Jack Bruce

John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scotland musician, musical composer and singer. He is best-known as an electric bass guitarist, harmonica player and piano, and was most famous as a vocalist and the bass guitarist for the 1960s rock band Cream ....
 and British guitarist Allan Holdsworth
Allan Holdsworth

Allan Holdsworth is a United Kingdom guitarist and composer. He has played many different styles of music over a period of four decades, but is now best known for his work within the jazz fusion genre....
. This lineup, sometimes referred to as "Wildlife", recorded an album's worth of material that has never been officially released.

The New Lifetime

In 1975, Williams put together a quartet
Quartet

In music, a quartet is a method of instrumentation , used to perform a musical composition, and consisting of four parts....
 he called The New Tony Williams Lifetime featuring bassist Tony Newton, pianist Alan Pasqua
Alan Pasqua

Alan Pasqua is a jazz pianist and composer who co-composed the CBS Evening News theme. He also has had an extensive career in pop and rock music....
, and guitarist Allan Holdsworth
Allan Holdsworth

Allan Holdsworth is a United Kingdom guitarist and composer. He has played many different styles of music over a period of four decades, but is now best known for his work within the jazz fusion genre....
. This lineup recorded two albums for Columbia Records
Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label founded in 1888.Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in pre-recorded sound, being the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders....
, Believe It in 1975 and Million Dollar Legs in 1976. These albums were reissued on one CD in 1992 as Lifetime: The Collection. After recording Million Dollar Legs, guitarist Allan Holdsworth
Allan Holdsworth

Allan Holdsworth is a United Kingdom guitarist and composer. He has played many different styles of music over a period of four decades, but is now best known for his work within the jazz fusion genre....
 departed and was replaced by Marlon Graves for the subsequent tour undertaken to support the album.

In 1977, Williams parted ways with Graves, Pasqua, and Newton and formed another Lifetime lineup with entirely new personnel consisting of Mike Hoffman
Mike Hoffman

Mike Hoffman is an United States of America professional ice hockey winger for the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League....
 (lead guitar), Gerry Mule (2nd guitar), Paul Potyen (keyboards), and Michael Formanek
Michael Formanek

Michael Formanek is an American jazz bassist born in San Francisco, California and associated with the jazz scene in New York City.In the 1980s, Formanek worked as a sideman with Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Dave Liebman, Fred Hersch, and Attila Zollar....
 (bass). This lineup recorded demos for the Columbia label but had no official releases. They played a small number of live gigs performing material from "Ego" and the two New Lifetime albums "Believe It" and "Million Dollar Legs."

In 1978, Williams released The Joy of Flying, an eclectic solo album featuring a mix of styles and collaborations with Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock

Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is a jazz pianist and composer. He embraces elements of rock and roll and soul music while adopting freer stylistic elements from jazz....
, Ronnie Montrose
Ronnie Montrose

File:Ronnie Montrose 4 - Montrose - 1974.jpgRonnie Montrose, is an United States guitarist.Montrose has worked with a variety of musicians over the years, including Herbie Hancock, Van Morrison, The Beau Brummels, Boz Scaggs, Beaver & Krause, Gary Wright, Tony Williams, The Neville Brothers, and Dan Hartman....
, Cecil Taylor
Cecil Taylor

Cecil Percival Taylor is an United States pianist and poet. Classically trained, Taylor is generally acknowledged as one of the inventors of free jazz....
, Tom Scott
Tom Scott

Tom Scott may refer to:*Tom Scott , New Zealand cartoonist*Tom Scott , member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame*Tom Scott , coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels basketball program...
, Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke

Stanley Clarke is an United States jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores....
, Michael Brecker
Michael Brecker

Michael Leonard Brecker was an United States jazz saxophonist and composer. Acknowledged as "a quiet, gentle musician widely regarded as the most influential tenor saxophonist since John Coltrane,"[1] he won 15 Grammys as both performer and composer and was inducted into Down Beat's Jazz Hall of Fame in 2007....
, George Benson
George Benson

George Benson is an American musician, whose recording career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist. He is however, better known to the public at large as a Pop music and R&B singer, famous for such hits as "Give Me the Night", "Lady Love Me ", "Turn Your Love Around", "Inside Love", "In Your Eyes", and "This Masquerade", among...
, and Brian Auger
Brian Auger

Brian Auger , is a jazz and rock and roll keyboardist, who has specialized in playing the Hammond organ.A jazz pianist, bandleader, session musician and Hammond B3 player, Auger has played or toured with musician such as Rod Stewart, Tony Williams, Jimi Hendrix, Sonny Boy Williamson, Led Zeppelin, Eric Burdon and others....
.

In 1979, Williams put together another all-new Lifetime featuring Todd Carver (guitar), Bunny Brunel
Bunny Brunel

Bunny Brunel is a France-born United States bass guitarist who has played with various jazz notables including Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and numerous others....
 (bass), Bruce Harris
Bruce Harris

Bruce Harris is the disgraced former executive director of Casa Alianza, from 1989 to September 2004. He was dismissed from this post after admitting he had prostitution, who had earlier been in the care of Casa Alianza, for sex....
 (keyboards) and Tom Grant
Tom Grant

Tom Grant is a private investigator known for his involvement in high-profile cases involving celebrity clients. Grant owns and operates his own detective agency, The Grant Company....
 (keyboards). The band's sound was a major departure from the former New Lifetime's classic fusion; the high-energy shredding heard on 'Believe It' and 'Million Dollar Legs' was largely abandoned in favor of a cerebral and groove-laden approach that emphasized mood and melody over technical virtuosity. As with the 1977 lineup, the 1979 Lifetime played a small number of live gigs and no studio recordings are known to exist. Toward the end of this period, Williams pared down the lineup to a trio and played some gigs with Tom Grant
Tom Grant

Tom Grant is a private investigator known for his involvement in high-profile cases involving celebrity clients. Grant owns and operates his own detective agency, The Grant Company....
 on keyboards and Bunny Brunel
Bunny Brunel

Bunny Brunel is a France-born United States bass guitarist who has played with various jazz notables including Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and numerous others....
 on bass.

In 1980, Williams and a new trio incarnation of the Lifetime featuring Patrick O'Hearn
Patrick O'Hearn

Patrick O'Hearn is a multi-instrumentalist musician, composer and recording artist....
 on bass (miscredited as Patrick O'Hara) and Tom Grant
Tom Grant

Tom Grant is a private investigator known for his involvement in high-profile cases involving celebrity clients. Grant owns and operates his own detective agency, The Grant Company....
 on keyboards recorded the little known Play or Die album for the German label PS Productions. Stylistically, the recording found Williams returning to high energy keyboard-dominated instrumental fusion reminiscent of the 1975 album "On the Mountain" by Elvin Jones.

Legacy and tributes

At the time of its release, Emergency! was notably influential on the then-emerging genre
Genre

A genre is a loose set of criteria for a category of composition; the term is often used to categorize literature and speech, but is also used for any other Art#Art forms or utterance....
 of jazz fusion. It was also one of several albums that the members of The Allman Brothers Band
The Allman Brothers Band

The Allman Brothers Band is a Southern rock band based in Macon, Georgia, Georgia . The band was formed in Jacksonville, Florida in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman and Gregg Allman ....
 listened to regularly early in their career.

John Zorn
John Zorn

John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, orchestration, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn's recorded output is prolific with hundreds of album credits as a performer, composer, or producer....
 named The Tony Williams Lifetime as a specific musical inspiration in the liner notes
Liner notes

Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes....
 of the Naked City
Naked City (band)

Naked City was an avant-garde music group led by saxophonist and composer John Zorn. Active primarily in New York City from 1988 to 1993, Naked City was initiated by John Zorn as a "composition workshop" to test the limits of composition in a traditional rock and roll band lineup....
 album Radio.

Since the death of Williams in 1997, Jack DeJohnette
Jack DeJohnette

Jack DeJohnette is an United States jazz drummer, Piano, and composer. DeJohnette was born in Chicago, Illinois, Illinois. Besides the drums, he studied the piano, which he plays on several recordings....
 and John Scofield
John Scofield

John Scofield is an American jazz guitarist and composer, who has played and collaborated with Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, Charles Mingus, Joey Defrancesco, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Pat Martino, Mavis Staples, Phil Lesh, Billy Cobham, Medeski Martin & Wood, George Duke, Jaco Pastorius, John Mayer , and many other important artists....
 formed Trio Beyond
Trio Beyond

Trio Beyond is a jazz fusion/free jazz band, formed in 2003.The trio was formed by drummer Jack DeJohnette and guitarist John Scofield, after conversations between the pair about how important Tony Williams was for them in that he provided musical influence as drummer and bandleader....
 with Larry Goldings
Larry Goldings

Larry Goldings is an American jazz pianist, organist, and composer.His father was a classical music enthusiast, and Larry studied classical piano until the age of twelve....
 in honour of The Tony Williams Lifetime. They have released one album, Saudades
Saudades

Saudades is the name of the debut double-disc album released by Trio Beyond in 2006 on ECM records. Saudades is a Portuguese language word meaning sadness or longing for times past, or in a musical context, blues....
 (2006), on the German label ECM
ECM (record label)

ECM is a record label founded in Munich, Germany in 1969 by Manfred Eicher. ECM is best known for jazz music, but has released a wide variety of recordings, the artists associated with it often refusing to acknowledge boundaries between genres....
.

In 2006, former Lifetime members Allan Holdsworth and Alan Pasqua toured with drummer Chad Wackerman
Chad Wackerman

Chad Wackerman is a jazz, jazz fusion and rock and roll drummer....
 and bassist Jimmy Haslip
Jimmy Haslip

Jimmy Haslip is an American Bass guitar Bassist and record producer best known as a founding and current member of the pioneering Jazz fusion group Yellowjackets....
 performing a set comprising original as well as Lifetime material. They recorded a live DVD scheduled for release in early 2007, and future live dates are planned.

In December 2008, guitarist Vernon Reid
Vernon Reid

Vernon Reid is an English guitarist, songwriter, composer and bandleader. Best known as the founder and primary songwriter of the heavy metal band Living Colour, Reid was named #66 on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time....
, organist John Medeski
John Medeski

Anthony John Medeski is an United States jazz Keyboard instrument player and composer. Medeski is a veteran of New York's 1990s avante-garde jazz scene and is known popularly as a member of Medeski Martin & Wood....
, drummer Cindy Blackman
Cindy Blackman

Cindy Blackman is an American jazz and Rock drummer. Blackman is best-known for recording and touring with Lenny Kravitz. Blackman has recorded several straight-ahead jazz albums under her own name, and has performed with acclaimed jazz and rock artists, including Pharoah Sanders, Ron Carter, Sam Rivers, Cassandra Wilson, Angela Bofill, Buc...
, and former Lifetime member Jack Bruce
Jack Bruce

John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scotland musician, musical composer and singer. He is best-known as an electric bass guitarist, harmonica player and piano, and was most famous as a vocalist and the bass guitarist for the 1960s rock band Cream ....
 did a week of shows in Japan as "The Tony Williams Lifetime Tribute", playing a set of Lifetime material.

Discography

  • 1969: Emergency!
    Emergency! (album)

    Emergency! is a double album by The Tony Williams Lifetime. Released in 1969, it was the group's first album and one of the first significant jazz fusion recordings....
  • 1970: Turn It Over
  • 1971: Ego
  • 1972: The Old Bum's Rush
  • 1974: Wildlife (unreleased)
  • 1975: Believe It
  • 1976: Million Dollar Legs
  • 1978: The Joy of Flying
  • 1980: Play or Die