Dreaming of the Masters

Here's another side-long cut from Miles' Get Up With It (1974). Calypso Frelimo was actually recorded in 1973, but wasn't released until the following year.  The line-up is essentially the same as that on He Loved Him Madly from the same album, although the first 10 minutes of the song couldn't sound more different, more resembling the manic funk of On The Corner before settling back into the ambiance that characterizes Loved Him Madly.  The Guardian once included Get Up With It among "the 100 strangest albums on Spotify" and described Calypso Frelimo as "entirely untethered to the earth" as it "soars and soars ever upwards, a truly beautiful expression of maddeningly creative freedom." After the quieter middle passage, the piece closes with 10 minutes of guitar-driven funk. 

Calypso Frelimo features Mr. Fisher on trumpet and organ ("Mr. Fisher" is what I get when I enter 邁爾士戴維斯 - "Miles Davis" in Japanese - into Google's Japanese-to-English translator).  Dave Liebman is on flute, John Stubblefield sax, and Pete Cosey and Reggie Lucas are on the electric guitars.  The rhythm section features Michael Henderson (bass), Mtume (percussion) and Al Foster (drums).

In 1976, I lived in a basement apartment across the street from what is now the Paradise Theater in Boston.  My roommates and I installed a pair of car stereo speakers into the suspended ceiling tiles, and I recall transforming the apartment one night into what felt to us like a NYC nightclub by playing Calypso Frelimo loudly through the system.  I can only imagine what it sounded like at 2 a.m. on the first floor.