Mountain was formed by Felix Pappalardi, the multi-talented producer of Cream. He plays bass with Mountain, and is joined by Leslie West on guitar, Steve Knight on organ and Norman Smart on drums, The group is appearing through tonite at Ungano's, at 210 W 70th Street.

Mountain is not a Cream imitator. There are many of these. Mountain's abilities surpass Cream's in several ways. The vocals, most of them by Mr. West, are far superior to what Cream ever managed. Norman Smart's drumming is not at all like Ginger Baker's unique style. And the additionof the organ (Cream was a trio; guitar, bass and drums) adds yet another dimension.

The similarities are in the bass and guitar. Mr. Pappalardi is an emotion bassist. Like Jack Bruce, who played for Cream, his bass snarls and punches in unusual, jabbing styles, rather than following meekly the lead of the guitarist. If the guitarist were a lesser man than Leslie West, Felix Pappalardi would scare him right off the stage.

Mr. West, formerly lead guitarist for the Vagrants, is quite a talent himself. He is a fat mountain of a man, wearing buckskin with fringes and topped by a teased puff of black hair. Like Eric Clapton, who was guitarist for Cream, he leans toward great gobs of chords followed by short pepperings of single notes.

In a manner few rock guitarists can manage, he wrings exquisite emotion out of each note. He seems to strangle it, then relents and lets the sound slip from his fingers.The mark of a really great Blues and Rock guitarist is the amount of variation he can squeeze out of one note. Mr. West, like Mike Bloomfield, is very good at this.

Now the group has re-formed and played New Years Eve at the Felt Forum before the packed, the adoring and the remembering.

It was as if the trio had never been away and everybody had been locked into the time machine. The same hard-driving overly fuzz toned hard rock was trucked out, all elemental, basic and suffering no energy crisis. Fortunes for the members, Leslie West, Felix Pappalardi and Corky Laing, have been mixed while they were away from the mountaintop, but on Monday evening they seemed pleased to be together again and played like it.

Mountain consists now of Leslie West, Felix Pappalardi and Corky Laing, but in it's various manifestations since 1967 it has always had at least one more player. Late last year the band got together again and played a few dates with a rythym guitarist in tow, but Thursday's concert, part of the reformed group's first national tour, was down to the core trio.

It's all they need. Admittedly Mr. West's and especially Mr. Pappalardi's vocals aren't all that distinctive.* But instrumentally, this is an absolutely first-class rock band, simultaneously simple and inventive within a readily accessible set of rock conventions. Mr. West is a dazzling guitarist, individual, and full of clever references to every other rock guitarist he can think of. Mr. Pappalardi is both a supportive and a stylistic bass player, and Mr. Laing flails away at his drum kit with amusing abandon. Best of all, the three play together sympathetically.
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John Rockwell

*Webmaster's note:
Any Mountain fan knows that Leslie and Felix had/has two of the most distinctive voices in Rock.