In A Slightly Less Than Silent Way: “Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)” by Deodato

The CTI Records label was started by producer Creed Taylor in 1967, initially as a subsidiary of A&M before going independent in 1970. The underlying idea seems to have been to sell jazz to sceptics. After Bitches Brew, the way forward seemed particularly clear, and it was Taylor’s avowed aim that, although the music released on CTI should be commercial or at least approachable, the visions of the involved artists should remain intact and not tampered with. Another way to look at it would be as a lifeline for old-school Blue Note types unconvinced by avant-garde affairs, and at the time the label’s output was generally dismissed as superior muzak.

Actually the range of artists involved was a lot broader than might initially be thought; everybody from Paul Desmond and Gerry Mulligan, via Stanley Turrentine and Freddie Hubbard, to Bob James and Antonio Carlos Jobim turned up on the label at one time or another, and the music released was mostly much better and more inventive than any “muzak” label might suggest. Of course, few in the early-mid seventies would have known about the sampling culture that was about to emerge, of the young hip-hop generation who would take CTI’s grooves and run with them, let alone things like acid jazz and what was being imbued in the minds of impressionable young people in places like Bristol.

 

Of all the CTI releases, however, the biggest-selling was Prelude by the Brazilian Eumir Deodato. Hitherto a reliable arranger, mostly in the bossa nova field, Taylor gave him his big chance and Deodato used it to provide the public with popular jazzed-up classics; possibly an overstatement, but Prelude does also include (and in part derives its title from) Deodato’s take on Debussy’s Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (nowhere near as convincing a reimaging as Marion Brown’s Afternoon Of A Georgia Faun), as well as a version of “Baubles, Bangles And Beads” which tune owes quite a lot to the second movement of Borodin’s String Quartet in G.

To paraphrase Jean Brodie, for people who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing that they like. But the big hit off the album was the crafty funk reshaping of Richard Strauss’ prelude as (then) recently deployed in 2001: A Space Odyssey. No rearrangement of Ligeti’s Atmosphères is to be heard but the fanfare and sentiment of Zarathustra were still recent enough to pack a reasonable emotional punch – it had only been three months since Apollo 17 returned to Earth (the poignancy of which is captured in "Tomorrow," the final track on Public Service Broadcasting's The Race For Space), since when no manned mission beyond low Earth orbit has yet been undertaken.

Deodato’s arrangement was inevitably edited for seven-inch single consumption but is still best experienced in its near-nine-minute totality. Beginning with softly discordant murmurs from Deodato’s Fender Rhodes and John Tropea’s guitar, a groove is soon in place and the orchestra, made up of first-call New York studio players, intone the main theme solemnly. In fact the rhythm section is rather stellar, including as it does both Ron Carter (acoustic) and Stanley Clarke (electric) on bass, Billy Cobham (very inventive) at the drums and Ray Barretto and Airto Moreira on percussion.

Following a brief conversation between the two basses, the stage is set for long solos by Deodato (Zawinul-esque corner pocket seduction) and Tropea (very much in a John McLaughlin mood) before the orchestra returns, their fanfare underlined by the bandleader’s In A Silent Way whole-tone keyboard figures. After the piece climaxes, it dissipates, its constituents floating back into space. It sounded modern and funky enough to be a hit, and if it seems unusual for a piece of unalloyed jazz-funk to appear in this list, then I remember watching on mid-seventies television the Lionel Hampton orchestra performing the same arrangement (with the veteran Hampton, of course, soloing on vibes). Clearly, however, everybody from Bambaataa to the Wild Bunch was also listening, and taking careful notes.

Date Record Made Number Two: 31 March 1973

Number Of Weeks At Number Two: 1

Record At Number One: “Killing Me Softly With His Song” by Roberta Flack

UK Chart Position: 7