Tommy Bolin – Whirlwind

Whirlwind initial thoughts! The box-set is good, (but) not very good – an extremely mixed bag with some excellent and some “should not have beens” I’d say) Also the track selection is very uneven, it could simply have been better organised I think. The postcards are ace but the box-set physically unfortunately looks better than it is , only (made of) cheap cardboard – come on .True TB Fans would pay for better! The inlay and track detail and notes (by Jeff Cook) are better than most recent releases of this kind giving some but still scant background.
LOVED the 26-min. Marching Bag, it has always been one of my favourites whatever the version and whatsoever the track was called at the time! For the Devoted and completists it is required listening/buying but I would not say it is a generally commercial release as such – but then it IS a limited edition!
Thanks to the archives that keep these releases coming. In future it would be nice to focus more on the Private Eyes and Cobham/Mouzon eras. There is no doubt Tommy was quite unique and his best comes out on the instrumental jams – a free-flowing style and ‘that sound’! Mind you he had beautiful vocal tracks too, but they are best heard on the original/other releases before the versions here.
Ian Douglas