Tomorrow Never Knows

Eight Miles High, Mellow Yellow, Listen People, Rain, Tomorrow Never Knows, Half a Heart.

Steve Marcus, Soprano and Tenor Saxophones. Others not.

Listening to Marcus’ rendition of “Mellow Yellow” is similar to what one might feel watching little Shirley Temple going insane in the middle of one of her cutie-pie numbers, frothing at the mouth and attacking the tin soldiers. It begins with a wide vibrato tenor and thump thump background, very very cute. After the theme is stated a few times, we suddenly hear dissonant chords from a (electric?) piano. The deluge begins, slowly culminating in passionate shrieks and growls, by Marcus while underneath you can just barely hear the melody still being played cutely, quietly. The contrast is brilliant.

This is heavy jazz with pop overtones. There is an electric sound next to Marcus’ fluid sax sound and it is generally tinny — electric piano, harpsichord, and a really nasty sounding guitar. The combination is very good. It is also eclectic with many points of reference, brought together convincingly. Definitely not a phoney attempt to please everyone and yet, you see, everyone should listen as they please.

The debt to Trane is very clear here. But all of Marcus’ solos reveal a talent which is the ability to build beautifully to a high intensity level while maintaining an essentially lyrical approach (especially in “Eight Mile High” and “Mellow Yellow”). The two ballads, “Listen People” and “Half a Heart” are unpretentious, rather quietly stated, little more. Rest periods.

The thing about this record is that when you do songs that are definitely going to be compared with the original version there is a danger that the artists’ (Marcus) statement is going to lose some of