''Open Fire'' is the debut studio album by American guitarist

Ronnie Montrose Ronald Douglas Montrose (November 29, 1947 – March 3, 2012) was an American guitarist who founded and led the rock bands Montrose and Gamma. He also performed and did session work with a variety of musicians, including Van Morrison, Herbie H ...

. The album, which has jazz, rock and acoustic concepts that of similar to, '' Blow by Blow'' (1975) by

Jeff Beck Geoffrey Arnold Beck (born 24 June 1944) is an English rock guitarist. He rose to prominence with the Yardbirds and after fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, he switched to a mainly instrumental style, with a focus ...

. Ronnie hints in previous Montrose albums that he was heading in this direction. Songs like "Whaler" and "One And a Half" from '' Warner Brothers Presents... Montrose!'' and "Tuft-Sedge" and "Merry-Go-Round" from '' Jump On It'' contained various acoustic, synthesizer and string elements that showed Ronnie was looking to branch out from his hard rock persona. Ronnie reunited with friend

Edgar Winter Edgar Holland Winter (born December 28, 1946) is an American musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist, playing keyboards, guitar, saxophone, and percussion, as well as singing. His success peaked in the 1970s with his band the Edgar Winter Group ...

who produced the album and played piano and keyboards as well. Ronnie welcomed Montrose alumni

Jim Alcivar Jim Alcivar is an American keyboard and synthesizer player and sound engineer. He is most noted for his connection to guitarist Ronnie Montrose and appearing in his bands Montrose and Gamma and on his first solo album ''Open Fire''. His father i ...

on keyboards and

Alan Fitzgerald Francis Alan Fitzgerald (born July 16, 1949) is an American musician. A multi-instrumentalist, he is best known as the second bassist of Montrose and as keyboardist for Night Ranger. He has also performed with Gamma, and former Montrose bandmat ...

on bass and were joined by drummer

Rick Shlosser Rick Shlosser is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music. He has been a member of Van Morrison's band and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. He's also been a varied sessions drummer. Discography 1970s * Andy Pratt - ''Records Are Like Life'' (1 ...

who appeared with Ronnie on

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards. As a teenager in t ...

's ''

Tupelo Honey ''Tupelo Honey'' is the fifth studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released in October 1971 by Warner Bros. Records. Morrison had written all of the songs on the album in Woodstock, New York, before his move ...

''. The album begins with "Openers," an orchestral piece very similar in style to

The Planets ''The Planets'', Op. 32, is a seven- movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav Holst, written between 1914 and 1917. In the last movement the orchestra is joined by a wordless female chorus. Each movement of the suite is name ...

Gustav Holst Gustav Theodore Holst (born Gustavus Theodore von Holst; 21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite ''The Planets'', he composed many other works across a range ...

, which blends into "Open Fire," the closest thing to a straight-ahead rocker on this disc with an unmistakable Ronnie Montrose lead guitar sound. "Mandolinia" begins with a pulsating Moog sequencer bass followed by layers of mandolin sounds and guitars. "Town Without Pity" is a slick cover that replaces

Gene Pitney Gene Francis Alan Pitney (February 17, 1940 – April 5, 2006) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. Pitney charted 16 top-40 hits in the United States, four in the top ten. In the United Kingdom, he had 22 top-40 hit singles, inclu ...

's vocals with a blistering lead guitar by Ronnie and backed by fine piano work by Edgar Winter and more orchestration by Bob Alcivar. "Leo Rising" is an acoustic guitar piece. "Heads Up" and "Rocky Road" are two examples of jazz fusion. "My Little Mystery" features more acoustic guitar with Edgar Winter manning the harpsichord and another excellent use of Bob Alcivar's orchestra resulting in a

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

ending. The album ends fittingly with a song titled "No Beginning/No End." Starting off with Moogish special effects by Jim Alcivar, Ronnie coasts in with some smooth acoustic guitar work and follows this by incorporating another soaring lead and leading to a rousing finish. On the strength of this effort, Montrose was invited to perform with accomplished jazz and jazz fusion drummer Tony Williams. On July 27, 1978, Montrose joined Williams,

Brian Auger Brian Albert Gordon Auger (born 18 July 1939) is an English jazz rock and rock music keyboardist who specialises in the Hammond organ. Auger has worked with Rod Stewart, Tony Williams, Jimi Hendrix, John McLaughlin, Sonny Boy Williamson, a ...

(keyboards),

Mario Cipollina Cipollina is Italian for chives. ''Cipollina'' may also refer to: People * Adriano Cipollina, Belgian soccer player who entered free agency in 2018; see List of Belgian football transfers summer 2018 * Amara Cipollina, French gymnast and bronze ...

(bass) and special guest

Billy Cobham William Emanuel Cobham Jr. (born May 16, 1944) is a Panamanian Americans, Panamanian–American jazz drummer who came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with trumpeter Miles Davis and then with the Mahavishnu Orchestra. He was indu ...

also on drums for a show in Tokyo as the "Tony Williams All Stars". The setlist included "Rocky Road", "Heads Up" and "Open Fire" and the "Open Fire" performance appears on ''

The Joy of Flying ''The Joy of Flying'' is a jazz fusion album by Tony Williams. It was recorded at the end of The Tony Williams Lifetime years, and is considered his first solo album since 1966. It includes three duets, two with Mahavishnu Orchestra keyboardist ...

'' by Tony Williams (1978).

Track listing

;Side One # "Openers" - (Bob Alcivar) - 2:54 # "Open Fire" - (

) - 3:53 #* Ronnie Montrose -

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...

#* Jim Alcivar -

Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...

, sequencer programming #* Alan Fitzgerald - bass #* Rick Schlosser -

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

# "Mandolinia" - (Montrose) - 3:14 #* Ronnie Montrose - guitar,

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

mandocello The mandocello ( it, mandoloncello, Liuto cantabile, liuto moderno) is a plucked string instrument of the mandolin family. It is larger than the mandolin, and is the baritone instrument of the mandolin family. Its eight strings are in four paire ...

#* Jim Alcivar - sequencer programming #* Edgar Winter - bass synthesizer #* Rick Schlosser - drums # "

Town Without Pity ''Town Without Pity'' (German: ''Stadt ohne Mitleid'') is a 1961 American/Swiss/West German international co-production drama film directed by Gottfried Reinhardt. Produced by The Mirisch Corporation, the film stars Kirk Douglas, Barbara Rütti ...

" - (

Dimitri Tiomkin Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin (, ; May 10, 1894 – November 11, 1979) was a Russian-born American film composer and conductor. Classically trained in St. Petersburg, Russia before the Bolshevik Revolution, he moved to Berlin and then New York City ...

Ned Washington Ned Washington (born Edward Michael Washington, August 15, 1901 – December 20, 1976) was an American lyricist born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Life and career Washington was nominated for eleven Academy Awards from 1940 to 1962. He won the Bes ...

) - 3:17 #* Ronnie Montrose - guitar #* Edgar Winter -

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

#* Alan Fitzgerald - bass #* Rick Schlosser - drums # "Leo Rising" - (Montrose) - 3:49 #* Ronnie Montrose - guitar #* Jim Alcivar -

ondes Martenot The ondes Martenot ( ; , "Martenot waves") or ondes musicales ("musical waves") is an early electronic musical instrument. It is played with a keyboard or by moving a ring along a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin. A player ...

;Side Two #

"Heads Up" - (Montrose, Winter) - 3:39 #* Ronnie Montrose - guitar #* Alan Fitzgerald - bass #* Rick Schlosser - drums # "Rocky Road" - (J. Thomassie, C. Brent, J. Smith) - 4:23 #* Ronnie Montrose - guitar #* Edgar Winter - piano #* Alan Fitzgerald - bass #* Rick Schlosser - drums # "My Little Mystery" - (Montrose) - 4:40 #* Ronnie Montrose - guitar #* Edgar Winter -

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...

# "No Beginning/No End" - (Montrose)- 5:54 #* Ronnie Montrose - guitar #* Jim Alcivar - Moog synthesizer, effects #* Edgar Winter - piano #* Alan Fitzgerald - bass #* Rick Schlosser - drums

Personnel

– guitar,

, Moog sequencer bass *

, martenot, sequencer programming *

– bass *

– drums * Bob Alcivar - orchestra

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

, conductor

Production

*Edgar Winter - producer *Dick Bogert - engineer

References

*Ronnie Montrose; "Open Fire" liner notes; Warner Bros. Records 1978 * All Music Guide {{Authority control 1978 albums Ronnie Montrose albums Warner Records albums