5TH AVENUE BUS

Having had to rebuild his group from scratch, contemplating their debut album 's little catastrophe, Lee wisely sought some more songwriters in the person of John McBurnie (guitars and percussions and vocals) and also Brian Chatton (Kbs and vocals). So not only Lee made space for a real songwriter, but accepted shared vocal duties, he picked up his bass again and would call upon ex-Crimson drummer Mike Giles to play drums on their future three records, even though he and McBurnie handled percussion instruments as well. Finding a record deal on the legendary Vertigo Swirl label, they came up with one of the ugliest ever artwork on this label (with Lee's face enlarged in the bus entrance. Musically fairly different than their debut album, Fifth Ave Bus is more to do with CS&N than with The Nice or any other prog group around, although on the odd song, they could play up a proggy storm, especially with Giles drumming it up.

The huge majority of the songs are written by guitarist McBurnie, and his feeling has a definitive west coast pop/rock like the afore-mentioned trio, but without Young and most of them shall not raise the proghead's eyebrow, except for the percussion middle section Dog Got Bitten or the middle section of the lengthy Sweet Hill Tunnel, where Chatton shows his keyboard palette, the wind noises allowing some ambiance to take hold and the excellent interplay between Chatton's palette, Lee's bass and Giles' drums. The last point of interest is the closing Pastor Roger, which has a Family feeling, partly induced by the vocals Chapman-esque lead vocals (Jackson trying to have some range and coming up with screeches), but nowhere is there any kind of hint of instrumental mastery throughout the album, even in the Giles participations. It might amaze you to find that it is guest musicians pulling the electric guitar solos or the excellent piano just mentioned above (Lawrie Wright, also writer of one other track); which has me wondering exactly how these guys managed on stage. apparently they appeared as a purely acoustic "folk" trio (there is a bit of that), in which case soloing became unneeded.

Although I've only heard once their debut long ago (which is why I didn't review it), it's difficult for me to say whether FAB is an improvement on KP, but their singer/songwriter stuff is a bit of a change although both albums remains in the soft folk rock domain. With only small art rock glimpse to show for The Nice's former greatness and a very different stage allure, appearing as an acoustic trio, JH was heading nowherte and it was getting there fast.

Esoteric continue to surprise with their rehabilitation of more forgotten gems from rock's golden age, this time with the three Vertigo label releases from Jackson Heights, of which this is the first. (They previously made one album for Charisma, `King Progress'). Surprise is certainly the operative word here; this is music of exceptional quality.

Lee Jackson was the bassist and vocalist in celebrated classical rock pioneers The Nice, who was pretty much left high and dry when Keith Emerson had bigger ideas and formed ELP. One would assume that Jackson Heights would consist of Jackson and backing guys, so the first surprise is that the vocals are shared between three, and that this blend is one of the group's major strengths. It is also interesting to learn that on vocals and guitars is one John McBurnie who would later turn up as vocalist/co-writer on Patrick Moraz's unstoppable `Story Of I' and successor `Out In The Sun'. The core trio is completed by Brian Chatton an equally capable keyboardist/vocalist.

This trio went out on the road without a drummer, an economic necessity, as well as perhaps a desire to distance themselves from the full-on organ driven electric assault of The Nice. In the studio however it was a different story and it is an extreme pleasure to hear the mighty and unmistakable Mike Giles (King Crimson) performing on Drums throughout. For family tree fans it's a parallel Nice/King Crimson pairing to show that it wasn't all about what Emerson and Lake did next.

The first thing to remark upon about the music itself is that it is sophisticated, highly listenable and extremely well recorded. It is one of life's eternal mysteries why records recorded in 1972 sound better than they do today. Excellently constructed music, crisp acoustic guitars, beautifully recorded vocals and punchy drums make this a joy to listen to. For fans of adventurous, timeless music, this is a great listen, it is difficult to find comparisons but if you enjoy the McDonald and Giles album, this will be right up your alley. It eschews the traditional bombastic elements of the genre and concentrates on warm, immaculately arranged and played songs which rarely lose focus and sound extremely fresh today.