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mike elliott - city traffic

The album starts with the title cut “City Traffic” written by Bob Rockwell, the saxophonist with Mike’s fusion group, Natural Life. The song was recorded by that band as well a year or so earlier on their album “Unnamed Land”.

  Beginning with some intricate electric bass guitar work by Billy Peterson and Mike floating the melody on top, the piece soon expands into a powerful up-tempo Latin/Jazz flavored track propelled by Bill Berg on drums and Mike demonstrating his considerable and tasteful technique before Billy takes over the soloing duties, deftly concealing the difficulty of his instrument with a beautiful crafted flowing solo, which leads to soaring restatement of the melody to finish the piece.

   "Invitation”. First of all, a song best not taken on by the faint of heart player! It starts with some intricate interplay between Mike’s electric guitar and Billy’s acoustic bass, then when Berg kicks in on the drums, becomes a hard swinging mid tempo groove. The creativity seems to come from all directions on the tune. Any one of the Trio’s members could have claimed “bandleader” on this one.

  Where does one start to describe “Buncha Funktry”? This original from Mike is as eclectic as one piece of music can be! Mike claims it came from his early country and funk roots, and I guess that’s as good an explanation as can be offered. I personally can’t really claim to hear the “country” parts, but what I do hear is compositional brilliance, and some great guitar playing! This trio track was fattened up a bit with Mike’s overdub of some acoustic guitar as well.

  The trio was reduced to a duo for the Jobim classic “Triste”. With Billy on acoustic bass again, this cut features Mike and Billy feeding off each other with the improvisational lines being created by one, and finished by the other. A marvelous bass solo from Billy towards the end leads into some even more intricate interplay between the two as the tune works towards a satisfying conclusion.

  Hold on to your hats! “Dearly Beloved” is a rocket ship of a track, with Mike’s incredible technique the feature, but not at the expense of musicality, as every note fits perfectly, albeit very quickly! Bill Berg and Billy Peterson fill the rhythm section duties with aplomb, and support beautifully while never overplaying.

  Mike unplugged his Gibson Super 400 guitar and performed solo on “Maybe September”. To me the true measure of any musician is their harmonic knowledge and ability to enhance a piece of music beyond the ability of mere mortals, as well as blazing technique. Mike possess both, and demonstrates them beautifully here.

  Antonio Carlos Jobim gets a second nod here with “”How Insensitive”. A vehicle for Billy Peterson’s impressive soloing abilities. The melody and first solo are his, and done beautifully, before Mike kicks in with another tour de force solo. Bill Berg keeps a loose but solid groove from start to finish without ever resorting to actually playing the basic bossa nova beat that most drummers would have started with. The song closes with Billy’s restatement of the melody, and a reprise of the opening theme.

  “A Big City Elf Is A Metro Gnome” was the original title of  “MetroGnome”, but the title would have been longer than the track. About one minute of flash, and this tiny diamond of a tune is over. Why so short? According to Mike, “the damned thing was just too fast to play on. I soloed over it, but it was awful, and we were out of studio time, so we just kept the head”. (The album was recorded in its entirety in just under than three hours!)

  To sum up, City Traffic is a showcase for three true virtuoso musicians, and is one hell of a ride from top to bottom! Enjoy…

  Leo Herdlich

  Originally recorded September 1977 by Steve Weise at Creation Audio, Minneapolis, MN. Mastered by Bob Berglund at Sound 80. Digitally re-mastered by Mike Elliott at DMS, St. Paul, MN. May 2003.

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