There are no prizes for guessing why I have chosen this 2012 album to grace the pages of the Crotchety Man blog. Just look at this partial list of artists:

• Billy Cobham
• Mel Collins
• Larry Coryell
• Colin Edwin
• John Etheridge
• Jerry Goodman
• Gavin Harrison
• Percy Jones
• Theo Travis
• Rick Wakeman

And that’s less than half the personnel. There are 29 musicians credited on The Fusion Syndicate in total, all of them giants in the world of jazz/rock fusion.

In the catalogues, this collection of seven tracks comes under the artist name, “The Fusion Syndicate”, but, in fact, there’s a completely different line-up on every track. Billy Sherwood, the composer and producer, is the one common thread that runs through it all. And he has done an amazing job of controlling the creative plasma that his collective has produced.

The Syndicate has another album due for release on 1st September; it’s called A Speedway On Saturn’s Rings. Billy has expanded the syndicate even further this time with the likes of Jah Wobble and Fernando Perdomo. Three sample tracks from the forthcoming album are available on streaming sites: Planet 15, The Bottle and Io, and they are all bursting with the limitless energy of atomic fusion. The future looks dazzlingly bright for The Fusion Syndicate. Take a tip from me, investing in their next album will undoubtedly bring you rich rewards.