Heavy Metal Be-Bop

Heavy Metal Be-Bop
Live album with a studio trackby Brecker Brothers
Released	September 1978
Venue	My Father's Place, Roslyn, New York
Genre	Jazz fusion, jazz funk
Label	Arista, BMG
Producer	Randy Brecker, Michael Brecker, Neil Jason, Kash Monet
Brecker Brothers chronology
Don't Stop the Music (1977) Heavy Metal Be-Bop (1978) Detente (1980)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[2]
DownBeat	[3]

Heavy Metal Be-Bop is a live album by the American jazz fusion group, the Brecker Brothers that was released by Arista Records in 1978. The album also includes the studio track "East River", which reached No. 34 in the UK singles chart in November 1978.

Reception

AllMusic awarded the album with 3 stars and its review by Paul Kohler states: "Recorded live in New York, this explosive set of jazz, funk, and rock material was without question ahead of its time. Michael and Randy's use of electronically altered saxophone and trumpet sounds is amazing". ^[1]

DownBeat awarded 4 stars to the album. ^[3] Reviewer Lars Gabel wrote, "No doubt about it, this album is a gas—as intended, one presumes, by the Breckers — but it comes on so strong and so relentlessly hard blowing that it almost pushes the unprepared listener out of his chair". ^[3] Gabel said the Brecker Brothers "have taken a direction opposite the one expected of musicians whose careers are rooted in studio and session work: on other people’s dates they deliver jazz as hardcore and serious as anyone’s; with their own band they engage in jazz-funk. One is hard put finding a better argument for genre democracy than the Brecker Brothers". ^[3]

Track listing

All compositions by Randy Brecker except where noted.

1. "East River" (Neil Jason, Bret Mazur, Kash Monet) — 3:35 – studio recording
2. "Inside Out"  — 9:31
3. "Some Skunk Funk"  — 6:59
4. "Sponge"  — 6:23
5. "Funky Sea, Funky Dew" (Michael Brecker) — 8:02
6. "Squids"  — 7:56

Charts

Year	Single	Chart positions [4]
		UK Singles Chart
1978	"East River"	34

Personnel

• Randy Brecker – Trumpet and Keyboards
• Michael Brecker – Tenor Saxophone
• Barry Finnerty – guitars, guitorganiser, background vocals
• Terry Bozzio – drums, background vocals
• Neil Jason – bass, lead vocals
• Sammy Figueroa – percussion
• Rafael Cruz – percussion
• Additional musicians on "East River"
  • Kash Monet – handclaps, percussion, backing vocals
  • Paul Shaffer – Fender Rhodes
  • Victoria – tambourine
  • Jeff Schoen – backing vocals
  • Roy Herring – backing vocals
  • Allan Schwartzberg – drums
  • Bob Clearmountain – handclaps

NOTE: On this specific recording Randy and Michael run their instruments through guitar amplifiers and play with various effects.

References

1. Kohler, Paul Allmusic Review: Heavy Metal Be-Bop accessed 27 June 2015
2. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 30. ISBN   0-394-72643-X.
3. Gabel, Lars (June 21, 1979). "Record Reviews". DownBeat . 46 (12): 31.
4. "Brecker Brothers – Official Charts" . Retrieved June 27, 2015.