''Pure Music'' was the third and final album by

jazz-rock fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and keyb ...

band

Chase Chase or CHASE may refer to: Businesses * Chase Bank, a national bank based in New York City, New York * Chase Aircraft (1943–1954), a defunct American aircraft manufacturing company * Chase Coaches, a defunct bus operator in England * Chase Co ...

. The failure to sell the '' Ennea'' LP on a mass market forced Bill Chase to re-group several times and come up with a new musical approach; the result was ''Pure Music''. Though much of the music released on the album had been performed by the band over a span of a year and half, the new musical direction was a departure from vocal dominated songs and focusing more on jazz/rock instrumental tunes to showcase Bill's dynamic playing style. The over-all effect had a more "commercial" appeal and was highly popular among high school and college band students. Jim Peterik had co-written two vocal numbers for the album and to be performed live including "Run Back To Mama" and "Love Is On The Way" a third vocal version of the song entitled 'Pure Music' was scrapped from the LP because it did not sound enough like 'Chase.' Live Versions of "Bochawa" and "Close Up Tight" were forever being altered on the road. Work on a fourth LP was in the works and during 1974, Chase had been performing a melodic flugelhorn piece called "Ode To A New England Jellyfish" written by Bill; this tune was recorded during the summer of 1974 and was only missing Bill's solo section. A number of other charts were slated for potential inclusion, including "2001" a space odyssey theme (arranged by Bob Odjeda), an instrumental version of Aphrodite (from the ENNEA LP) re-titled "Shades of Venus," and Bill's arrangement of "MacArthur Park." Other selections, such as Bill's version of "Tubular Bells," never made it beyond the sketch stage. On August 9, 1974, while en route to a scheduled performance at the Jackson County Fair, Bill Chase died in the crash of a chartered twin-engine Piper Twin Comanche in Jackson, Minnesota at the age of 39. Also killed, along with the pilot, Daniel Ludwig (41) of Chicago and Ludwig's secretary Linda Swisher (26) of Wheeling, Illinois, were keyboardist Wally Yohn, drummer Walter Clark and guitarist John Emma.Jackson, Minnesota, "''Plane tragedy near Jackson ends career of Bill Chase''", Jackson County Pilot, 14 August 1974, Volume 84, Number 12, page 1.

Reception

In his retrospective review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, critic Ross Boissoneau wrote that the album "represented a dramatic change in direction for the band. Where the group's first two albums were standard if scintillating jazz-rock not all that different from Blood, Sweat & Tears or Chicago, Pure Music pointed the way to fusion. Heady stuff made all the more engaging as there was sadly to be no follow-up."

Release history

In addition to a conventional 2-channel

stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

version, the album was also released by Epic in a 4-channel

quadraphonic Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic and sometimes quadrasonic) sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of a listening space. The system allows for th ...

edition on LP and

8-track tape The 8-track tape (formally Stereo 8; commonly called eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, and eight-track) is a magnetic tape sound recording technology that was popular from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, when the compact cassette, wh ...

in 1974. The quad LP release was encoded with the SQ matrix system. The stereo version of the album was re-released in Japan on CD in 1997. The album was reissued in the UK on the

Super Audio CD Super Audio CD (SACD) is an optical disc format for audio storage introduced in 1999. It was developed jointly by Sony and Philips Electronics and intended to be the successor to the Compact Disc (CD) format. The SACD format allows multiple aud ...

format in 2018 by

Dutton Vocalion Dutton Vocalion specialises in re-issuing on CD music recorded between the 1920s and 1970s, and in issuing albums of modern digital recordings. It was established by British recording and re-mastering engineer Michael J. Dutton. Dutton Laborator ...

. This release is a two-album single-disc compilation which also contains Chase's 1971 debut album ''

''. The Dutton Vocalion disc contains the complete stereo and quad mixes of both albums.

Track listing

# "Weird Song #1" (Bill Chase) – 5:39 # "Run Back To Mama" (Bill Chase/Jim Peterik) – 3:13 # "Twinkles" (Bill Chase) – 7:14 # "Bochawa" (Bill Chase) – 5:51 # "Love Is On The Way" (Jim Peterik) – 3:30 # "Close Up Tight" (Bill Chase) – 7:34

Personnel

Bill Chase Bill Chase (October 20, 1934 – August 9, 1974) was an American trumpeter and leader of the jazz-rock band Chase (band), Chase. Biography Bill Chase was born William Edward Chiaiese on October 20, 1934, to an Italian-American family in Squ ...

–

Lead Trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B, though some ...

* Jay Sollenberger –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

* Joe Morrissey – trumpet * Jim Oatts – trumpet * Dartanyan Brown – bass,

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

* Wally Yohn –

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

* John Emma –

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 ...

, vocals * Tom Gordon –

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 ...

* Jim Peterik – vocals

References

{{Authority control 1974 albums Bill Chase albums Epic Records albums