Tony Williams - There Comes a Time

There Comes a Time


The end of my high school years and the beginning of my college ones consisted of listening to a lot of post-Miles Davis influenced jazz fusion. Along with a heap of friends, we would regularly and enthusiastically chat about records released thirty-five to forty years prior, as if they were newly reviewed pitchfork media albums. The musicians who no loner play in the jazz/rock style that we adore had little bearing on our affection for the sounds they produced in the late 60s through the early 80s. A close friend introduced me to this Tony Williams track that was compiled on his "Best of..." cd. It wasn't until a year or two ago that I finally listened to the original release entitled, "Ego." A bit shocked, that we jazz nerds listened to the first and second Lifetime records but never placed "Ego" on the turntable or mentioned it in conversation. Although critics seem to regard "Ego" as trite and aesthetically indistinguishable from other jazz-fusion rock records in early 70s, "Ego" which isn't an entirely interesting listen, is buoyed by "There Comes a Time"- the closet thing i've heard to a blisteringly funky love ballad. Tony Williams, who sings on the song, sounds like an earnest and perhaps unqualified second string background singer - expressing honesty, sincerity, and an unpretentious evocation of charity and love.