BRUFORD LEVIN UPPER EXTREMITIES

The greatest Crimson album without Robert Fripp!

I kid you not. If Fripp could claim the King Crimson spirit was resurrected in the band he created in 1981 (and which was originally called Discipline), surely these guys can say the same! For the life of me I do not see what this album has to do with jazz-rock/fusion, since it's closer than anything to Crimson music, and KC has officially been designated an "art rock" band.

Take "Fin de siècle". Surely the middle part of this wonderful piece sounds like a cheeky little parody of King Crimson's "Red"? Bruford almost admits as much in his liner notes, when he writes that 'the louche duet in the middle is all red velour and bead curtains'. And how about "Etude revisited"? Doesn't Tony Levin's stick-playing remind you of 1980s Crimson's electronic gamelan? Or take the opening track, "Cerulean Sea". Here, David Torn's obnoxious heehaw on lead guitar is very similar to Robert Fripp's playing on THRAK.

I don't mean to say this album sounds merely derivative. Bruford and Levin, masters both, are in the spotlight throughout (on 'Drumbass' and 'Torn Drumbass' the two of them play a single instrument!) but trumpeter Chris Botti and guitarist David Torn provide original accents that are exhilerating or sometimes deeply moving. Botti's trumpet sounds wonderfully romantic on the gentle "A palace of pearls" and Torn provides manic lead guitar on "Cracking the Midnight Glass", an update of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" with exhilerating counter rhythms.

In summing up, this marvellous album will be of great interest to anyone who enjoys the musicians involved. It's almost as good as David Torn's own CLOUD ABOUT MERCURY, which was performed by the same combination of players (but with Mark Isham instead of Chris Botti on trumpet).