Catalyst - The Complete Recordings Volume 1 & Volume 2 (2010) 2CDs [Re-Up]

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Catalyst - The Complete Recordings Volume 1 & Volume 2 (2010) 2CDs [Re-Up]

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In the early 70's a band named Catalyst was formed in the heart of Philadelphia. The core of the group was Odean Pope, Sherman Ferguson, Eddie Green and Al Johnson (who was replaced by Tyrone Brown after their first album). The band drew from a wide range of musical styles; jazz, funk, R&B, avant garde and fusion all found their way into the creative sonic tapestry of Catalyst. With the given talents of Catalyst they could have and should have been bigger but sadly they found themselves with little promotion or recognition outside the proximity of Philadelphia. Thankfully Catalyst were able to leave behind four extraordinary recordings that will appeal to both jazz heads and those in the hip hop community.

The Complete Recordings, Vol. 1:

It may be somewhat misleading to call Catalyst a fusion group, since that implies a rock element to the sound, and unlike such contemporaries as Mahavishnu Orchestra and Return to Forever, the Philadelphia-based band rarely incorporated overt rock influences, unless you want to count the use of electric instruments. Rather, their style was a free-form-leaning brand of jazz whose expansiveness was in keeping with the spirit of the era (early to mid-‘70s). Though they never found much success outside of the Philly scene, Catalyst made four influential albums, which were first gathered together for reissue in 1999 under the appropriate title The Funkiest Band You Never Heard. Over a decade later, these sessions see the light of day once more in Porter Records' two-volume set The Complete Recordings. Though Catalyst didn't achieve much success, a number of bandmembers became renowned in their own right, like saxman Odean Pope, who went on to play with Max Roach, but one of the real standouts on the self-titled 1972 album making up the first half of The Complete Recordings, Vol. 1 is bassist Alphonso Johnson. He would soon join Weather Report, and spends much of the album tossing out percolating, percussive flurries that keep the often funky grooves fired up, though Ron Baker and Anthony Jackson sit in on a couple of cuts. "Ain't It the Truth" is the kind of jazzy, early-‘70s funk track you could easily imagine as part of a blaxploitation film soundtrack, while "East" is a modal, Coltrane-ish piece with Eastern flavoring, and the open-ended, hard-grooving "Jabali" finds Johnson and electric pianist Eddie Green truly tearing things up. The poignantly melodic midtempo "New-Found Truths" is the closest thing to a ballad, not counting the minute-and-a-half atmospheric closer, "Salaam." By the time Catalyst released Perception later that same year, Tyrone Brown had taken over for Johnson, which may be part of the reason the second half of Vol. 1 bears slightly less rhythmic intensity. There also seems to be a bit more of an attempt to appeal to the mainstream, with two short melodic numbers that almost verge on smooth jazz. The extended workouts of the title track and "Celestial Bodies," however, more than make up for such transgressions, with Green, Pope, and company putting the pedal to the floor in no uncertain terms.

The Complete Recordings, Vol. 2:

On Complete Recordings, Vol. 2 – the second disc in the complete discography of unsung-but-seminal Philadelphia jazz-funk outfit Catalyst, the band seems to have gotten attempt to court commercialism out of their system. Whether they decided that selling out doesn't work if nobody's buying, or simply felt uncomfortable moving in a mainstream direction, there's a greater feeling of experimentation on Catalyst's 1974 album, Unity, which occupies the first half of Vol. 2. At this point, the band began working with a wider sonic palette than before, both in terms of tonal colors and guest musicians bringing different flavors to the proceedings. Good use is made of Unity's extended guest list; for instance, the eerie violins on "Athene" create an unexpected, haunting atmosphere, and when fiddler John Blair steps out for an incendiary solo, it ups the intensity of the track considerably. Original bassist Alphonso Johnson, by that time a member of Weather Report, pops up on "A Country Song" to make for a two-man bass section alongside Tyrone Brown, with one man holding down the bottom and the other playing guitar-like, fuzztone lead lines. Even Skip Drinkwater's production proves to be more adventurous, and his judicious addition of effects, like flanging and wah-wah, serve to open up the sound even further. The second half of Vol. 2 contains Catalyst's 1975 swan song, Tear and a Smile, which was the most ambitious of the group's four albums. It was also the closest to full-fledged fusion – as opposed to jazz-funk – with keyboardist Eddie Green making extensive use of synthesizer for the first time, more vocals popping up in the arrangements, and Tyrone Brown digging into a funkier, more wah-wah-heavy sound. Plainly, the band still packed plenty of punch by the end of their career, but history had other plans for them.

Review by James Allen, Allmusic.com

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Catalyst - The Complete Recordings Volume 1 & Volume 2 (2010) 2CDs [Re-Up]

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Catalyst - The Complete Recordings Volume 1 & Volume 2 (2010) 2CDs [Re-Up]

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