Electric Bath

Despite being recorded in 1967 and released the following year I first heard this album only ten years ago and was immediately "knocked out" by it. If I heard it for the first time today I might think that it was recently recorded it is so innovative (perhaps, on reflection, it is unlikely to have either been composed or recorded in today's musical environment!). This is a big band album and the musical time signatures are "outrageous". If Brubeck thought he was breaking the jazz mould with "Time Out" then the time signatures here are truly shocking : 7/4, or themes based on 17, or 19/4 etc. No simple four four, three four waltz or even 5/4, or 9/8 here.Yet this album swings, not exactly in a foot tapping way but by being both rhythmically and melodically engaging. Oriental influences abound (hence titles such as "Indian Lady" or "Turkish Bath" (both engaging enough to have been edited and released as juke box singles).There are really just five tunes here, all fairly lengthy ranging from 5.32 to 12.21, plus the two single edits of 3 minutes.This is an album to be played, to be enjoyed, to be marvelled at not to be discussed.Go on buy a copy, you'll be amazed (and enthralled and pleased that you did!).

I'm really pleased to have got hold of this album at long last; I think I first heard it played on someone's Dansette in the `70s and since then it's crossed my path a number of times – now I have it.Don Ellis is one of the great unsung modernists of jazz; his devotion to the big-band format perhaps obscured his very exploratory and wide-ranging musical interests which opened new doors to the possibilities of jazz idioms at the end of the `60s decade.“Electric Bath” was a revelatory recording for it's time; with it's heady mixtures of unusual time-signatures, cross-rhythms and eastern harmonies – not to mention Ellis`s 4-valve trumpet and his use of quarter-tones - it was truly cutting-edge stuff.The album, here presented in a re-mastered version and with the two 45rpm singles of “Turkish Bath” and “Indian Lady” added as bonus tracks, now sounds a little dated – mainly because so many influences that made this music so new have been absorbed and expanded upon by others. Certainly though, if you haven't heard this album before or aren't deep into the jazz scene of the past 30 years or so, it still has the capacity to knock your socks off, so don't pass up the opportunity if you are thinking about buying this.The band - both in solos and ensemble sections play these rich and imaginative scores impeccably – I still have a particular for liking for Ellis`s outing with the Echoplex on “Open Beauty”.The CD has a running time of just over 51 mins. A great album worth discovering if you are feeling adventurous.

As before

I have had this on vinyl since the 1970s, but without a deck I hadn't heard it in years. Buying the CD brought back why I loved it. Inventive orchestration, great fun all round.

Even from this point in time this album still delivers. I love it. Original & tuneful & well worth the money, if fact it's a snip & should be in the collection of every discerning music lover

I could not believe that this music was recorded in 1967! Three very happy pieces and two refined slower one. It is really clssics among big band jazz music.

I don't like jazz. I want to, but I don't. I bought this because it was mentioned in a book called iPod Therefore I Am. It was described as being a weird jazz arrangement by a 21 piece band with demented time signature changes. It sounded interesting so I took a flutter on it. And I'm pleased that I did.To me it sounds like a combination of The Avengers TV theme and a plodding movie Western theme. I don't understand music so the time changes are invisible to me but I can hear the shifting dynamics. And the five trumpet players together make a unique sound.Very strange, very '60s and quite enjoyable. At first I thought Indian Lady was by far and away the best track but Turkish Bath is now starting to sound even better.

i am lucky enough to have the original lp but thought id get the cd version. really disappointing and not a patch on the original.who ever "remastered" this (their term not mine)deserves to be shot as its lost a lot.do yourself a favour and hunt down the vinyl lp and burn onto cd yourself as i ended up doing.i ended up giving this cd to oxfam !