Song Of Innocence

Axelrod's debut, and a '60s masterpiece. Celebrated as psychedelic, the birth of jazz-fusion, the harbinger of hip-hop, Song of Innocence is a hybrid that no one, not even Axelrod himself, could describe. Grounded by Wrecking Crew vets Earl Palmer and Carol Kaye's funk, torn between the juxtaposition of musical elements, put at ease, Axelrod's sweeping arrangements, which utilize brass and strings in a way that no one of his era did. It's both violent and sublime.