Sandy Bull — Still Valentine’s Day 1969 …

Sandy Bull — Still Valentine’s Day 1969 …

“Fusion” as a musical descriptor still evokes noodly-jazz shivers, but for sixties guitar-visionary Alexander “Sandy” Bull, it’s the best way to describe his musical prowess. Rising out of the folk scene, Bull began to alchemically dabble in other forms like jazz, classical, raga, bozza nova, and rock, melding these disparate sounds together via his electric and acoustic guitars (as well as banjo and oud) into a strange new fusion. This package complements last year’s crucial John Fahey set from that same night, the first such recordings of Bull to surface. He’s a tad out of sorts here, less from his debilitating drug habit and more from a new guitar/ amp set-up. Technical difficulties aside, once he finds the wormholes inside extended meditations like “Manha de Carnival,” “Memphis,” and “Electric Blend,” he rips open new realms of slithering, roiling cauldrons of sound, mesmerizing audiences both then and now.

 
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