Ron Carter - Bass, Cello, Guest Artist
Tony Williams - Composer, Drums, Primary Artist, Producer, Vocals
Suzanne White - Design Coordinator
Sung Lee - Design, Serp
Don Alias - Drums, Percussion
Todd Williams - Drums, Producer, Vocals
Deborah Hay - Editing
Ray Hall - Engineer
Ted Dunbar - Guest Artist, Guitar
Larry Young - Guest Artist, Organ
Jack Bruce - Guest Artist, Vocals
Tommy Dunbar - Guitar
Khalid Yasin - Organ
Michael Gross - Paintings
Warren Smith - Percussion
The Tony Williams Lifetime - Primary Artist
Jack Lewis - Producer
Tom Greenwood - Production Assistant
Carlos Kase - Production Assistant
Terri Tierney - Production Coordination
Bryan Koniarz - Reissue Supervisor
Jerry Rappaport - Reissue Supervisor
Ben Young - Research, Restoration
Amazon.com:
The back cover of this 1971 record shows Tony Williams's head exploding and that image pretty well hits the mark. The Lifetime was a volatile ensemble, in terms of the nature of the music it created, the erratic quality of that music, and the ever-shifting personnel creating it. This incarnation ushers in little-known guitarist Ted Dunbar alongside bassist Ron Carter, organist Khalid Yasin (Larry Young), and a pair of percussionists to augment Williams's own skin work. Even the Lifetime's best albums--Emergency and Turn It Over--contain a few unsatisfying and muddled moments amid their chaotic, cluttered brilliance, and this record's ratio is even a bit worse (especially during the dated vocal droning). But when the ominous and burning fusion peaks, as it does on "Circa 45" (spearheaded by Dunbar's acute guitar) and the ghoulish "The Urchins of Shermese," the stuff oozing from your head will be the jelly of delight. --Marc Greilsamer