Marc Soucy isn’t only flexing his ivory-tickling chops on the re-released 1983 live burner “When I Take The Five”— he’s stomping the accelerator on a wild jazz-rock fusion ride that’s dripping with sweat and ballz. With Jeff Carano slapping the bass and Ray Lavigne pounding the skins, this track isn’t some dusty museum piece; it’s a nitro-charged throwdown proving that Soucy’s roots are planted deep in the soil of spontaneous, seat-of-your-pants musicianship.
Forget those spacey synth mazes from his later Antartica era—this is Soucy rough-edged and rough-cut, swapping out the electronic bells and whistles for the electric spark of three guys locked in a dirty, groove-filled throwdown. His piano work here isn’t simply technical—it’s theatrical. Picture Keith Jarrett crashing a prog-rock party, tossing out rhythmic punches and melodic haymakers with a shit-eating grin, knowing he’s got the baddest rhythm section this side of Valhalla backing him up. Carano’s bass lines are the secret sauce, thumping with a gutsy, no-frills drive that keeps everything on track even when Soucy’s fingers go off the rails. And Lavigne on drums shows he’s a firecracker with pinpoint accuracy, hitting hard enough to shake buildings but nimble enough to dance through Soucy’s crazy tempo changes like he’s walking a tightrope blindfolded.
The track’s magic is in that feeling of a live wire zapping through your speakers! Recorded in ’83, this performance feels like catching lightning in a bottle—a four-minute thrill ride where jazz gets down and dirty with rock’s in-your-face carriage. Soucy’s piano keeps brawling with Carano and Lavigne, trading licks like barbs in a back-alley jam session.
“When I Take The Five”: this is music with dirt under its fingernails—a swinging, swaggering “gtfo” to overproduction. For rockheads craving grit, it’s a revelation: proof that Marc Soucy’s rep as a genre-blending maverick didn’t start in a synth lab. It was forged onstage, where risks are taken, mistakes are glorified, and the groove is king.