Crossing over 

into the true inner space  

 

"is this the most amazing sax and bass you'll ever hear?"

There are rare and special times in most people lives but especially for athletes, artists, writers and musicians where you cross across a boundary between "normal" life and some form of transcendental experience. For musicians it is almost impossible to describe .. time slows and stops, the notes you are playing, the music you are playing with seems to create a beautiful, intense and exquisite feedback loop that intensifies and inspires and that seems to last forever. You never forget these moments.

 

One such moment for me was in late 1975 when we were recording the album Hara,  At our 8-track studio Glo Audio, I had put down a guitar part (mainly Echoplex, phaser and volume pedal) and some Mellotron with my drummer Alan Hodkinson.  I got two friends, Rod McDevitt (who played amazing bass in a band I was in called Astral Plane and who had not touched his bass in over a year) and Mitchell Burns who I believe is one of the greatest soprano sax players in the world (shame he lives in Canberra) to put down tracks, I can see it today 40 years later as clearly as it was yesterday. Mitch and Rod both crossed over into the special inner space. To watch and to hear was a overwhelming experience. Rod was so lost in that space that he kept playing for a minute or so after we had told him the tape was no longer running, Mitch's playing is indescribable and beautiful.

 

I have included the track here in full ... tell me that this isn't one of the greatest bass/sax inter-plays you've ever heard.  I want as many people as possible to hear two wonderful musicians lost and found in that inner space.