Now here are some peculiar turn of events! Lee Schipper was an American physicist specializing in energy efficency research and considered something of a pioneer on climate issues. He was also a vibraphonist and recorded an album in 1973 with Swedish musicians Stefan Brolund, Ola Brunkert, Christer Eklund, and thick-as-thieves couple Schaffer & J:son, plus Americans Art Lande on piano and Ted Curson on trumpet, and produced by Swedish big band leader Lasse Samuelsson. The album, appropriately entitled ”Phunky Physicist” was originally only released on Italian library music label CAM in 1975 before eventually getting a Swedish reissue on Four Leaf Clover two years later with new title ”Jazz Meeting 1”. Later yet it appeared as a digital release expanded with two bonus tracks, one with the eyebrow raising title ”LSD Takes A Holiday”.
I'm not a fan of the vibraphone; it's
too close in sound to steel pans
and there's something about it that makes me restless. A personal thing for
sure, but even without the vibraphone, the album isn't too thrilling.
It's all very competent but also very dutiful, going through the
motions without much excitement. It leans towards fusion jazz but without becoming a fully
fledged fusion album of the most formulaic kind. The track ”Still
Life” moves in a silent way (if you get the drift) and is one of
the best ones on the album. Apart from that, it's Jan Schaffer who
gets to shine the most here, going crazy in opening number ”Phunky
Physicist” and ”Harvest Machine” (also found on Schaffer's
debut LP in a tamer version). ”LSD Takes A Holiday” is
unfortunately not as strange as the title might lead you to
believe.
So the album has some OK moments, but the somewhat
odd story behind it is much more interesting than the album itself.
Full album playlist with bonus tracks
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