COLLEGIUM MUSICUM LIVE

• Hommage a J. S. Bach Konvergencie, 1971

"Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends, ladies and gentlemen .. COLLEGIUM MUSICUM!! After a few minutes listening to their music (live recordings from 1973) I had almost made this review because it's so obvious derived from early ELP ("Pictures .."-era): an omnipresence of the powerful Hammond organ (bombastic floods and flashy runs), a propulsive, metallic sounding bass and fluent drumming. The band plays less virtuosic and less fiery but they sound tight and inspired, these are good musicians who enjoy themselves and please their crowd. Only the drum solo sounds a bit boring but in those days every drummer got the opportunity to shows his skills! A fine album for Hammond aficionados.

Send comments to erik neuteboom (BETA) | Report this review (#51919) | Review Permalink
Posted Saturday, October 15, 2005

Third album from the Slovak (well Czech also back then) Collegium Musicum became the Eastern Block's ELP/The Nice, especially now that guitarist Griglak had left to found Fermata. Actually this could be considered as the group's fourth album, as the remaining trio had recorded with Pavol Hammel an album called Zelena Posta, but it wasn't credited to CM. So came this Live album holding four tracks (two aside) that are totally based on reworks of the classical master composers.

Soundwise, there is little doubt that the reduced line-up is limiting the group's spectrum to an ELP almost-clone (no singing bassist), and not much else! In some ways, the arrangements resemble also Ekseption or Trace, Focus or Finch, as the group seems content of just putting drums and bass parts to the music that's played on a single organ. You can easily imagine, the Slovaks making incredible sacrifice for a western electric instrument during the Cold War, let alone investing into a second one. One of the things that bugs me is that all of those borrowed passages from the master composers are not acknowledge, therefore making the borrowings grow into rip-offs.

Unlike some other groups like Plastic People Of The Universe (who were regularly busted as they inspired themselves from Velvet Underground and rebellion), it is easy to imagine that CM benefited from a sort of "approval" from the communist regime, since they made easy access to the classical master to the younger generations. Judging by the inside photos from the group's stage performance, they were at least playing in theatres or movie houses, shows which no doubt were at least not banned from the state police. Nevertheless, I suggest you start your discovery of CM with another album.

Send comments to Sean Trane (BETA) | Report this review (#133172) | Review Permalink
Posted Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Another great album for this Chec Republic band. I thik that is the first live album made by then, in a country of Iron Courtain when is prohibited Rock and Roll in comunist ideology. In begining of 70 years, made a live album in this context is an adventure that in some cases they pay with pr ... (read more)

Report this review (#237101) | Posted by João Paulo | Friday, September 04, 2009 | Review Permanlink

Welcome back my friends........ Once upon a time, there was something called The Iron Curtain. Behind it, a big and very creative music scene was bereft from any ideas from the free world. The distribution of albums from western bands was very limited. Rotten tapes and bootlegs, mostly. So t ... (read more)

Report this review (#214341) | Posted by toroddfuglesteg | Friday, May 08, 2009 | Review Permanlink

First live album from this outstanding band. MARIÁN VARGA is a fabulous organ player and their covers of some classical music to rock and fusion are incredible. Their sound is closer to ELP, but a little more jazzier. Not less virtuoso than EMERSON, FRITZ or VAN DER LINDEN, VARGA deliver us mu ... (read more)

Report this review (#46602) | Posted by Melos | Wednesday, September 14, 2005 | Review Permanlink

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