LIFT!

4.5 stars. This is my favourite Volker Kriegel album and it was released in 1973. In a nutshell what we get is prominant bass along with John Marshall doing his thing on the drums while sax, violin, guitar and electric piano take turns leading and also filling out the sound.This is a fantastic album !

"Lift !" is such a beautiful track with the soprano sax leading early then it picks up before the violin leads before 2 minutes.The guitar with prominant bass comes in as it settles.The violin is back 3 minutes in then the sax leads again.Violin leads one more time as the tempo speeds up at the 6 minute mark.

"Three Or Two In One" features electric piano, sax, drums and more leading the way. I love this stuff. It's laid back and we get some guitar before 2 minutes leading then the violin with bass, electric piano and cymbals stand out.The sax then replaces the violin. Incredible track !

"Forty Colours" is a slow moving track with the violin leading followed by intricate guitar.

"A Piece With A Chord From A Yorkshire Terrier" is my favourite. I like the electric piano early but it's the electric guitar that starts to solo as the bass and intricate drumming help out that blows me away. Sax replaces the guitar 3 minutes in and the electric piano is prominant too. It settles back before 4 1/2 minutes with the bass leading. Cool !

"Electric Blue" is uptempo and violin led to start.The violin is shredding 2 1/2 minutes in. Sax leads 6 1/2 minutes in as the bass, drums and electric piano also standout. Nice. Big finish on this one.

"The Lame Donkey" is a laid back and intricate guitar led track with flute. "Between The Seasons" has a relaxed sound early then the electric piano leads after a minute and the bass stands out too.Violin 2 1/2 minutes in then the guitar returns.Violin again leads 4 minutes in.

"Blue Titmouse" is uptempo and intricate and perhaps a little known fact is that the blue titmouse actually has blue tits. I kid you not. Okay I lied.

A great album with some killer German and British musicians that will please Jazz / Fusion fans in a big way.

Recorded in March of 1973 (5th through 10th) and then released in June by MPS (advertised as "Most Perfect Sound" but actually an acronym for "Musik Produktion Schwarzwald" [due to its location in Villingen], Germany's premier producer of jazz music--comparable to the USA's Blue Note label). Despite band leader and chief composer Volker Kriegel's name atop the marquee, the album turns out to be a collaborative effort between an international lineup of superstars, with representatives from the UK, Poland, and Germany.

1. "Lift!" (6:54) a mellow song to open the album leaves me curious about Volker's intentions here in 1973. There are some elements of this countrified song that feel inspired by some of the other softer Jazz-Rock Fusion masterpieces already floating around in the Jazz-Rock Fusion world--most specifically those of Chris Hinze and Michal Urbaniak. Nice melody expressed by Zbigniew Seifert at the end of the second minute before giving way to Volker's acoustic guitar solo. There is also a spirit of American jam band in this song--like something from the Grateful Dead or the Allman Brothers, even the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, but mostly Michal Urbaniak (minus Ula's vocalese). The band speeds up the tempo for the closing as the song is faded out as if through a building's air ventilation pipe system. (13.25/15)

2. "Three Or Two In One" (6:07) bearing some melodic similarities to some of the smoother songs of the early J-R F masterpieces: like Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Michal Urbaniak, Caravan, and Hatfield and The North, the stripped down and laid back conga foundation and Eberhard Weber bass play give this a quite accessible feel despite its harmonic and chordal intricacies and jazzy electric guitar and electric piano performances. John Taylor's electric piano performance is akin to something Herbie or Chick might accomplish at this stage of their development (and sound palette explorations) and Zbigniew and Stan Seifert's play also definitely put them into the jazz department despite the easy listening friendliness of this music. (8.875/10)

3. "Forty Colours" (3:26) the first of three compositions attributed to Eberhard Weber (who plays a beautiful bowed cello as well as the electric bass on this), it opens with Volker's acoustic guitar and Zbigniew Siefert performing a plaintive melody together over John Taylor's soothing electric piano and John Marshall's delicate cymbal work. Volker is quite impressive with his speed runs on the acoustic as I hear a lot of similarities to songs by Michal Urbaniak and Jean-Luc Ponty. (9/10)

4. "A Piece With A Chord From A Yorkshire Terrier" (6:05) a cookin' if slightly mellow instrumental palette definitely qualifies as ramped up post bop with Eberhard's jazz virtuosic double bass play, John Marshall's solid drumming and John Taylor's space-filling electric piano work. Volker is really bringing it with those speedy blues runs in the first half with Stan Sulzman's sax and Zbigniew's violin providing main melody check ins every so often, and then Eberhard's amazing bass solo in the second half. What a great Jazz-Rock Fusion piece! (9/10)

5. "Electric Blue" (8:55) Eberhard's second song contribution makes me wonder, Which came first: this album and song or Italian band AREA's Arbeit Macht Frei? (The latter didn't come out until September--which means the Volker & Company's influences had to come from another funky source--perhaps Michal Urbaniak.) The best, funkiest, hardest rocking, most Power Jazz-Rock Fusion song on the album. Everybody is giving their absolute all to this one--especially Eberhard, John, and Stan. Great jazz musicianship! (19/20)

6. "The Lame Donkey" (2:40) the final composition credited to Volker's bassist, this is pretty much a little comfort piece involving bass guitar, gentle piano chords, and acoustic guitar playing beneath a repeating melody coming from what sounds like a synthesizer (which is uncredited but probably coming from John Taylor's right hand). (It turns out it's Eberhard playing an ocarina through some kind of reverb effect.) Volker's acoustic guitar lead work is rather sublime: so smooth and fluid. (9.125/10)

7. "Between The Seasons" (4:38) back to the gentle side of song construction with a palette of instrumental sounds that could easily spawn a BOB JAMES or Smooth Jazz album. Nice, enjoyable, if surprisingly easy and rather simplistic. (8.875/10)

8. "Blue Titmouse" (3:55) exploiting a couple of very 1960s pop rhythm tracks (think The Mamas & The Papas and The Carpenters), here everybody gets to lay it out like an instrumental practice for a Motown or soft R&B hit, especially Stan, Zbigniew, Eberhard, and Volker. Volker's Motown-like rhythm guitar is impressive for fitting this type of song in a "Shaft" and Junior Walker & The All-Stars kind of way. Eberhard can play some great Soul/R&B bass, Volker some cool, melodic and unobtrusive lead guitar. If John Marshall's drums were recorded better I might also enjoy his input. (8.875/10)

Total Time: 42:40

It turns out that this collection of songs is far more collaborative than some of Volker's more dynamic guitar-centric albums (thus the addition of the "and Friends" in the title--as noted on the album's own liner notes) which makes for some interesting, more spread out and "full" music palettes and outcomes.

A-/five stars; an excellent if slightly mellow minor masterpiece of gorgeous Jazz-Rock Fusion collaborative work. I love the way the spotlight is shared and how the quality and accessibility of the overall song is the top priority of each song outcome.