SYMBIOSIS

Second full Jazz Q studio album is their top release. It's interesting to notice how fast jazz band, founded in mid-60s became free jazz/experimental band in late 60s and turned to bluesy jazz- rock in early 70-s.

If you ever heard Jazz Q split album with Blue Effect (where they are more free jazz part, balanced with bluesy jazz rock by Blue Effect ), you will be surprised from very first sounds of this album. First of all, band have female vocalist now ( Joan Duggan), and then they play totally different music there.

Joan's vocals are in the key of Nico, with similar timbres, just stronger. Music on this album is keyboards-dominated jazz rock, influenced by Brian Auger, with often jazzy drumming and great Frantiek Francl guitar solos over it. Music is very bluesy, far not so complex and experimental as on band's split debut.

Excellent jazzy musicianship in combination with light psychodelia of Joan's vocals and perfect guitar work bring this album on forefront of similar albums ( in fact this release could be placed at the same level with best Auger/Driscoll releases).

Best album of one of the best Czech jazz fusion bands from early 70-s. Very recommended!

My rating is 4,5 rounded to 5!

Joan Duggan who guested on vocals on a single track only on JAZZ Q's debut is back and taking a much more prominant role on this their second album.

"From Dark To Light" is very laid back and reserved vocals come in around 1 1/2 minutes. During one section after 3 minutes she almost speaks the words then it's back to the reserved singing. "Lost Soul" is a slow to mid-paced tune with a fairly heavy sound with the guitar contributing a lot to that. Vocals join in before a minute then we get a guitar solo before 2 minutes until around 3 minutes when the vocals return. Electric piano after 4 minutes as the vocals stop but the guitar continues. "Starbird" is laid back like the opener with vocals. It's fuller after 2 minutes but it settles back again. The guitar replaces the vocals after 3 1/2 minutes then the electric piano leads. Vocals are back after 5 minutes. It picks up during the final minute to a jazzy mode with vocal melodies.

"The Wizard" is by far my favourite and it's not because it's 16 1/2 minutes long either. It picks up 1 1/2 minutes in and the vocals join in. This is great ! Electric piano and vocals are most excellent here. Guitar comes in after 7 minutes and leads as the vocals stop. A calm follows where bass and sparse piano take over including a bass solo. It kicks back in after 10 1/2 minutes with vocals. Some passion here then the guitar solos before 12 1/2 minutes when the vocals stop. Vocal melodies 14 minutes in as the guitar continues to solo. Vocals are back after 14 1/2 minutes. What a song ! "Epilogue" ends it and it's a somewhat spacey instrumental.

I would rate this in my top three of favourite JAZZ Q albums along with the debut and "Elegie". Now that's not counting the album they did with BLUE EFFECT in 1970 which is my favourite one that they have been a part of.

Jazz Q here play jazz fusion with more influence from blues and classic jazz atmospheres than many of the other fusion acts of the era. The cover art suggests a clique of cool beatniks transposed to 1970s Prague, and that's exactly what you get here. With a large group of musicians joining the jam, the album has a rich sound which is unique and distinct to Jazz Q, and which also demonstrates that despite the Cold War they'd been keeping up with the latest developments in the genre. The epic-length The Wizard is a marvellous composition to lose oneself in and on the whole this album really puts Prague on the 1970s fusion map, though some of the experiments on here are somewhat more tentative and less successful than The Wizard and as a result the album is not as consistently strong as it might be.

I wrote about Pozoravatelna being the best of the lot in my review of that album. Well, maybe I really should point out that though that is true, in part, Symbiosis really is my choice of album when listening to Jazz Q. Pozoravatelna and Symbiosis are the best of the lot. There! Now I have said it.

Unlike Pozoravatelna Symbiosis is graced with vocals by Joan Duggan. She sounds like a Czech Janis Joplin or Maggie Bell. Sort of hoarse and powerful. The material on Symbiosis is really jazz-rock of the old school. Gritty, lengthy and soulful. This was the first album I really delved into and it is the only album by Jazz Q I find really interesting, seeing that I am no big fan of slick, noodling fusion.

"From dark to light" is a really great track. A slow, ballady thing that transcends the usual. It is spacious and floating, flowing and really interesting. The next track, "Lost soul", is apart from "The wizard" my favorite on here. Such a heavy piece, with the electric piano thumping and stabbing those great jazzy chords over the distorted guitar. Marvellous!

Then there is "The wizard". 16 minutes of jazz-rock extravaganza. It is really a tour de force of the genre, building and transforming itself it goes from rough to smooth and back again. Really impressive piece.

I sometimes find Duggans vocals to be slightly annoying, actually, but I am able to see past that and recognize the immense quality of this album. It is tight, cohesive, progressive and inspired. I really dig it and think that, while not in my top 5 when it comes to jazz-rock, it deserves to be ranked a classic in it's genre. More people really ought to check it out.

A band from Czechoslovakia that I'd not heard of before this album. How such wonderful and creative music was coming out of Communist countries is a bit of a mystery to me--as well as how they were gaining access behind the "Iron Curtain" to the "Western" music that was obviously inspiring is equally curious. I might need to bone up on my 20th Century history a little.

1. "Ze tmy do světla (From Dark to Light)" (6:05) plodding, cinematic music that is suddenly disrupted by an androgenous, at-times almost Janis Joplin ("Pearl")-like vocal from Joan Duggan: singing Portia's famous "The quality of mercy is not strained, ?" from William Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. while employing a little of John McLaughlin's "Resolution" beneath parts of it. (8.75/10)

2. "Ztracená láska (Lost Soul)" (6:05) a much-more-blues-rock song with raspy Pearl-like vocals singing what sounds like more famous poetry over some Jeff Beck like heavy blues-rock music. Joan Duggan's voice is strong, powerful, confident, and definitely the best part of these songs, but it's raw, bluesy style is not usually one of my favorites. Maybe the excellent musicianship beneath her helps elevate her performances. (8.875/10)

3. "Hvězdný pták (Starbird)" (7:25) opens as a beautiful, heavily emotional song to support the gorgeous vocal (in English) from Joan Duggan. Though slow and sometimes simple (and plodding) the music of the first three and a half minutes is filled with so many wonderfully interesting and engaging nuances and flourishes, and then there is an all- instrumental period in the fifth and sixth minutes in which electric guitar and electric piano get the chance to solo-- and then the shift to Latin rhythms and scatting for the final 0:45 is totally wonderful. Not your usual prog lover's jazz- rock fusion song, but an excellent song anyway: great melodies (14/15)

4. "Čaroděj (The Wizard)" (16:25) opens with 75 seconds of gentle electric piano play before bass line, rhythm guitar line, and drums and percussion line up to set up the Latinized rock foundation over which Joan Duggan again sings. She is quite a talent! After a couple of minutes supporting the vocal, the rhythm section continues on in the same SANTANA-like vein in support of a nice Martin Kratochvíl electric piano solo. In the seventh minute we see the return of Joan Duggan in the spotlight. I really like her vocal style: it reminds me a bit of Annette Peacock. Guitarist Frantiek Francl gets a little shine in the eighth minute before the music completely stops to allow some spacious electric piano chords to support electric bassist Vladimr Padrůněk's solo over the next two minutes. I really enjoy the dynamic range exhibited in this one: the upbeat happy-go-lucky parts supporting Joan's fun vocal contrasted with the heavier, more serious passage given to the bass solo and beyond. The musicians fall a little into more rudimentary blues-rock toward the end, but it's still a great listen. (27.5/30)

5. "Epilogue" (3:25) dreamy electric piano, electric bass, and "distant" horns and percussion populate this instrumental's sonic field as we bring the album to a close. It's a cross between Rainer Brüninghaus and "Auld Lang Syne." (8.75/10)

Total Time 39:25

To my mind (and ears), this is album's music is a step backwards for this band--or, at least, as step away from Jazz- Rock Fusion (which is, I have to admit, what I'm always hoping to find) and more into heavy blues-rock.

A-/4.5 stars; a minor-masterpiece of interesting and unusual vocal jazz-rock music.