NICE [AKA: EVERYTHING AS NICE AS MOTHER MAKES IT]

The US version came out with a different cover and not any better than this one. The contents on the disc however was just the same on both side of the Atlantic and unremarkable but at least it did not contain any reworking of classic music that I dread so much.

The opening track is a revisting of the theme of one of their non-album single (that you can easily find as a bonus track when buying a recent remastered copy of the debut album) and the very psychic touches are still there , but it is easy to compare how much the band had evolved by this time.The Hardin cover Hang On To A Dream definitely put a lid on my expectations of this band as the vocal departement was so very average (to the point of adding a children's choir) and this explains why so much of their later music was instrumental. Diary stiil has a few traces of psychadelia and the last track of the first side is a lenghty work out withimprovisations limited to Emerson's solo KB .

The second side has two lenghty tracks , yet another version of Blue Rondo (but not quite as good as the original version) but still holds some interest mainly on the bass works and a Dylan cover She Belongs To Me which leave no real traces in your mind as the needle lifts off the disc. For a twelve min track , this tells that there is a problem.

For confirmed Emerson fans!

Thankfully the first thing to report here is that the prodcution quality is way better than 'Ars Longa Vita Brevis'.As a 3 peice band The Nice were now making strides in developing their 'sound'. 'For Example' is my favourite track as they take a theme through different musical incarnations from jazz to Hendrix power trio via Gregorian chanting.Unique and very clever and extremely well played.In particular 'Blinky' Davison is on fine form on the kit.There's also the brilliant adaption of Bob Dillon's 'She Belongs To Me' featuring masterfull keyboard work from Keith Emerson.The only thing that stops me giving this a 5 star rating is the lack lustre live version of 'Rondo' which is a 'filler' if ever there was one.

Well it's strange that Emerson & C. chose this title for this work!! After all it wasn't their debut album, but perhaps it was due to the increasing successful feedback (in front of their previous interesting albums) of some music critics and the audience as well, which recognized the quality features within the contamination of styles regarding their first two issues (apart from their ingenuousness).however this "The Nice" is less ingenuous than "Ars Longa Vita Brevis" and probably closer to their debut album, sometimes even more immediate, but it's clear that often also a super group makes itself more visible and above all appreciable when They have been able, by promoting their all their works, to perform some important gigs at least. it's the situation of this ensemble from the UK, the real precursors of the progressive rock in the form We still know and that's quite important!! At the end I have to repeat the same evaluation as in their previous albums, even though also the present issue is better than their most famous "Ars Longa Vita Brevis": a "3 stars" rating once again.

Prog Explorers must have this legendary album!

For those who really want to explore prog music, I advise you to enjoy this CD and try to understand thae subtleties of the music and how they later influenced the further advancement of prog music. The music might not really favor your ears for two reasons: sonic quality and (probably) excessive use and improvisations of keyboards by the maestro: Keith Emerson. Remember, the Nice was the embryo of what later became ELP (Emerson Lake and Plamer) and Refugee (which comprised of Lee Jackson, Brian Davidson and Patrick Moraz who later joined Yes). So, the band itself is a legendary in the history of prog rock.

The music features all elements of classical music, improvisations as well as song-oriented music. "Rondo" is a good example of how the band blended classical music and long improvisations (which may cause you to get bored). Oh yeah, if you are already familiar with early albums of ELP, you would definitely like this song because all keyboards sounds are completely ELPish. Through this track Keith Emerson demonstrates his virtuosity in playing the keyboards with some complex notes throughout musical segments. Unfortunately, this does not seem so attractive for me because the rhythm section which comprises drums and bass are so boring - repeated chords and notes all the time while Keith delivers his keyboard work.

"Hang On To A Dream" is a good eaxmple of song-oriented composition. It has nice and catchy piano / keyboard works on top of strong melody sung by Lee Jackson. I personally love the voice quality of Lee Jackson. I think, his voice is so unique that I cannot find any other vocalist can sing like the way he does. Try Refugee, you will fully understand what I mean. But in this "Hang On To A Dream" he also sings excellently.

Overall, this is a good album which explores all components of classical music, improvisations and song-orientated compositions. This is a must for those of you who really want to explore prog music from its roots. You would understand how classical music influnced prog. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Hanging on to a dream. . .by a thread

This was in fact the third album by The Nice, and their final studio recording. Even then, only the first side was actually recorded in the studio, the second side containing a pair of lengthy live tracks. The band decided this time to produce themselves, a brave decision which, perhaps surprisingly, was to prove to be a correct one.

From a song writing point of view, it seems the band were experiencing significant writers block, the tracks here being a selection of reworkings and covers. As the title of the opening "Azrael revisited", implies, it is a re-recording of "Azrael", previously a non-album B side of their first single. "Hang on to a dream" is undoubtedly the most beautiful song the band ever recorded. Originally composed by Tim Hardin, the vocal delivery is notably far more delicate than usual, the song as a whole being a sheer delight.

Even what appears to be the one of only a pair of new band compositions on the album "Diary of an empty day" turns out to use a piece by Lalo for its music to accompany Lee Jackson's lyrics. "For example" starts out about as close as the Nice got in the studio to what became Emerson Lake and Palmer, largely due to the distinctive organ playing of Keith Emerson. The track is certainly progressive in structure, wandering off in a number of directions including a jazz piano passage and a burst of the Beatles "Norwegian Wood". Overall it comes across as unfocussed and poorly arranged.

The second side of the album has a lengthy re-working of "Rondo", which originally appeared on the first album, and a cover of Bob Dylan's "She belongs to me" (from his "Self portrait" album) both recorded live in New York. The rendition of "Rondo" does not really add anything to the studio version, while the lengthy interpretation of Dylan's "She belongs to me" may not go down too well with Dylan fans, but visitors to these parts should be fine with it. In some ways, it is like Yes's version of Simon and Garfunkel's "America", the original song being used as a basis for some extended improvisation around its theme. The track gives the best indication of the way the band would go on their following fully live release "Five bridges".

In all, this is the most accomplished of the Nice's first three albums. Despite the rather patchwork nature of the album in terms of part live/part studio and the lack of genuinely new material, it makes for an enjoyable listen. At the end of the day, that is all that really matters.

I am rather embarrassed with this third "Nice" album.

If song writing has never been a major asset of the band, they quite surpassed themselves in this one which is only their third album. We are used to experience this characteristic while a band has recorded several albums and that they don't have the same amount of inspiration or that they change from musical style to be in-line with the ambient environment.

But this can absolutely not be the case for "The Nice". They only recorded two albums prior this one (of which half of "Ars Longa" is based on a classical theme) and they actually invented a genre on their own. Creativity should have been at its peak.

Unfortunately, all that we get here are some covers (even if "Hang On To A Dream" holds a fine melody), some existing songs in another format and two (yes 2) new compositions which are only remarkable for Keith's work. He saves whatever could be saved (even if his two band mates are quite skilled as well).

Vocals are mostly dreadful and destroys partially a track as For Example which has definitely some good merits.

The live part of this album is the one I prefer the most; probably because it shows how performing and wild "The Nice" could be during a live performance. This "Rondo" version is quite a ride and should please any ELP fan but to be honest, the Dylan cover ("She Belongs To Me") can't be considered as a great moment of music. Improvised, loose and way too long (but this is a good example of all the excesses that prog will generate later on). A good jamming effort for sure, but that's all.

This is not a very "nice" album and I can't reasonably go higher than two stars for my rating.

This album I first heard when a teacher in a high school music appreciation class played it for the us. At the time I was a huge ELP fan, and was overjoyed. Now I know he could have chosen better.

This album is quite inferior to the previous Ars Longa Vita Brevis. The studio recordings are a step back toward the psychedelic style of the first Nice album, and away from the symphonic gem that was ALVB. It's not bad because of that, but it is definitely inferior.

For Example is pretty good, as it shows the band experimenting with a theme in multiple styles. Then there's Rondo '69. I have two problems with this piece. First, it's main theme is based on Dave Brubeck's Blue Rondo A La Turk, an amazing jazz masterpiece in 9/8 (split into 2-2-2-3). Nowhere does The Nice give Brubeck any credit, although most of the song is played. Secondly, they take this fantastic rhythm, and play it in 4/4. Grrrrrrrrrrr..... I know Keith can do better than this.

Still, this is a three star album.

Being a fan of ELP, it felt only only natural to me to start digging in the past of the band's three members. This journey began with the first two King Crimson albums where Greg Lake played a significant role and then followed by exploration of Atomic Rooster's debut album with Carl Palmer on drums. It did take me a bit longer to dig into Keith Emerson's past due to the low availability of the three original studio albums from the Nice and my complete reluctance of purchasing a compilation album. Eventually I did get a hold of a used copy of the band-titled 1969 release and that's where my journey felt complete. But what about the actual album, you might ask?

To tell you the truth, I was expecting just a bit more from this early power trio formation. Maybe I set my expectations way too high for this '60s band, but it's hard not to considering the talent the existed within the collective. If anything, the live material featured on side two really shows that both Brian Davidson and Lee Jackson could hold their own against Keith Emerson, which is a great achievement in itself. The biggest problem for me here is the writing. After listening a bit more of the earlier the Nice albums, it appears that this problem stretches pretty much all throughout their short career. The members were just not that good at writing memorable compositions. The Nice is more of a jam-based band that created one or two riffs and then constructed their arrangements around them, reminiscent of the Psychedelic rock movement of the time.

One might argue that the band was running thin on ideas by the time of this release and therefore resorted to completing the album with two lengthy live performances on side two. Personally, I think that this was on contrary a very wise move from the collective since the Nice is ultimately a live band and therefore should, first hand, be experienced as such. I honestly consider side two to be the highlight of this album since it shows a great energy burst from all of the members that I fail to notice in their studio performances.

In the end, I can understand why the band decided to call it a day after this release. All of the members depicted great potential in their individual performances but the final result never really came off as a legitimate band effort. I might argue that this is the problem that followed most of Keith Emerson's career but at least ELP knew that giving the actual compositions more room than the individual solo spots would pay off in the end.

**** star songs: Azrael Revisited (5:56) Hang On To A Dream (3:59) Rondo '69' (7:55) She Belongs To Me (12:15)

*** star songs: Diary Of An Empty Day (3:58) For Example (8:55)

Self-titled albums, especially mid-career self-titled albums (though some debuts qualify as well), are generally treated as an opportunity for a band to make a confident "statement of purpose," indicating that they believe that they are firmly at the peak of their powers and they have established their own unique style. While I believe that The Nice absolutely felt this way when they recorded and released this half-studio/half-live album, I instead find myself listening to this as, in essence, an odd dress rehearsal for Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Unfortunately, there are two main problems with this: Lee Jackson isn't Greg Lake, and Brian Davison isn't Carl Palmer. Jackson's voice continues to be a serious problem, and while he has songwriting credits, he doesn't come across as having the same genuine songwriting gift and ability to counter Emerson that Greg Lake would soon be showing. As players, Jackson and Davison are fine, but they're not electric in the same way that Lake and Palmer would be in regards to making the technical prowess of ELP into the stuff of legend. Overall, this album isn't exactly bad (though it is in parts), but it's weirdly bland for having so much stuff going on.

It's a little disconcerting that the best material on the album by a good distance comes from recycling earlier classics. "Azrael Revisited" is indeed a reworking of "Azrial," only without the great guitar playing of the original (the initial riff is played by piano), and the tune is still quite entertaining, and the long piano-centric jam that occupies much of the second half of the song is pretty rousing. The opener of the live half is "Rondo (69)," and it's basically exactly what you'd expect from a live version of "Rondo" with no guitar. It's a blast, of course, and the rhythm section is still awfully tight, but it seems pretty soon to be getting into releasing stuff like this.

The other studio tracks all leave me with the strong nagging wish to hear them redone by ELP (in their prime). "Hang On to a Dream," a cover of a Tim Hardin number, is utterly beautiful when centered around Emerson's majestic piano parts, and is flat-out abysmal when centered on the vocals. Jackson decided to go the route of using a timid whimper, and the attempts to prop him up with angelic female backing vocals are awfully tacky. Lake probably could have made this into something rivaling "Take a Pebble" if he'd sung it in the early 70s, but this doesn't come close. It should be noted that ELP actually did do a version of this eventually, but this was in the early 90s after Lake had largely lost his voice and Emerson had glommed onto digital synths for all they're worth, so it's not really worth hearing. "Diary of an Empty Day" is worth it for all of the playful and energetic organ/piano work, but it would have done better as an instrumental; the sung parts go in one ear and out the other for me. Finally, the nine-minute "For Example" is an interesting horn-laced mix of blues, jazz and classical, with silly quotes of "Norwegian Wood" and "America" stuck near the end, but the sung parts are pretty unbearable. The first portion is mostly hurt by the unintentional comedy of the whispered "pianissimo" backing vocals, but the mid-section is primarily obliterated by Jackson's hoarse voice bellowing out at full force. Emerson is a blast, though.

On the live side, the concluding track, immediately following "Rondo (69)," is a 12-minute cover of Bob Dylan's "She Belongs to Me," and oh this is not good. I'm not offended in principal by the idea of a jammy expansion of a short Dylan song, but this particular jam is all kinds of tedious, and not at all on the level of, say, the extended versions of "Aquatarkus" that ELP would be playing in a few years. Maybe Emerson suddenly made a big leap between this point and when he joined ELP, but it seems more likely to me that the big leap came solely from his collaborators.

I had a harder time acquiring this particular Nice album than any other, and while it's got its good qualities, it has enough bad qualities that I can't especially recommend that anybody else go through the same trouble. This was the final studio recording from the band, and it's just as well; it's just as likely that the band was only going to get less interesting from here on out. If you can get "Azrael Revisited" and "Rondo (69)" without too much difficulty, though, be sure to give them a listen.

"I can't think of words to this music, no reason or rhyme to abuse it"

The group's third full-length release - simply called "Nice" - is a half studio, half live album. The studio side starts with Azrael Revisited, which is a re-make of Azrael (Angel Of Death) which was the b-side on the group's first single from a couple of years earlier. Next up is Hang On To A Dream, written by Tim Hardin. This is a very nice song with great piano work by Emerson. Sadly the vocals of Lee Jackson don't work as well. In the 1990's, Emerson re-recorded the song with Greg Lake and Carl Palmer for the ELP box set Return of the Manticore, and comparing Lee's vocals with those of Lake, the limitations of the former becomes painfully clear. Still, this tracks is definitely the highlight of Nice, with the wonderful jazzy middle-section being especially noteworthy.

The studio side continues with Diary Of An Empty Day and For Example. Both are decent songs, but the lyrics are weak. Phrases like "I can't think of words to this music, no reason or rhyme to abuse it" and "I can't think what to say, my head's a blank today" indicates that inspiration was running low in the lyrics department.

The live side holds two tracks, the first of which is a rendition of Rondo entitled "Rondo '69" to distinguish it from the studio version that already had appeared on the band's 1967 debut album. The other live track is a cover of the Bob Dylan song She Belongs To Me running more than 12 minutes. Both live tracks were recorded at The Fillmore East in New York City.

Overall, I find this album more enjoyable than the first two. But the half studio, half live nature and the heavy reliance on covers and re-makes precludes a higher rating.

Finally getting to this, I think I'm a tad surprised to see how low/middling the ratings are for The Nice's output. Similarly, it's interesting seeing them, a very short-lived late-60s group, labeled as Symphonic Prog and not Proto-Prog; I think I may have been looking at their role in the sound of Prog itself all wrong. This, simply entitled Nice (1969), is their third studio album (with two live tracks).

Initially feeling justified in my feelings of them as Proto-Prog, "Azrael Revisited" is our opener, with this very specific, warm tone from the keys and Lee Jackson's gruff vocal delivery. What's cool to me especially though is that something that sounds like this can live in the '60s at all. This perhaps pseudo-acoustic piano tone is something that Keith Emerson would continue to develop later on with his Wild West-inspired ragtime material (a feature of most ELP albums). To me, the ultimate submission in this era-, genre-, and Emerson-specific arena is "The Sheriff". And when comparing to that or "Jeremy Bender", our opener here is honestly far less interesting or gripping. The fade to black, at least, was a nice touch. This is then followed by a looking-forward to Trilogy, "Hang On to a Dream", a piano ballad with most delicate vocals from Mr. Jackson, backed by really beautiful, chamber(?) vocals. Light, jingly percussion and a bouncing bass come in around the midpoint, during a surely-acoustic piano solo. Ultimately, despite its far-flung strengths, "Hang On" is bordering on "Collectors/fans only" to my ears.

We then get a track I was quite excited for, "Diary of an Empty Day", our last regular ol' song-length tune before three mini-epics. The composition swirls about with more light, though cymbal-heavy drums and bouncing bass guitar, as Emerson fugues about on Hammond. The flamenco-esque acoustic guitar by the end was a real treat, too! And onto that first 'mini', the nearly 9-minute "For Example" greatly resembled, in part, Tarkus to come. I'm realizing I've not mentioned drummer Brian Davidson, but honestly, even when he's free-wheelin' as he is here, I feel he just gets lost in the mix, so to speak. I don't find myself thinking, 'Oh wow, that drum fill was cool' or whatever... Is what it is. Props then to Carl Palmer, amirite? Closest we get thus far is after minute 2, with this slack, rolling bashing he gives the kit, but then I also recognize for the second time (at least) how weirdly lo-fi the actual mix is. It's very muddy. What you might as well expect from 'truly' live-recorded material, which we're just coming to, but... Yeah... Very familiar Hammond figures can be found in the middle. One thing I hope is in fact Davidson is the lovely vibes we get the privilege to hear in the straight-ahead Jazz explosion we're gifted near the end. Delightful. And of course I would get excited about a "Norwegian Wood" reference haha.

The final two tracks are recorded live at Fillmore East, the first being "Rondo '69" [Nice.], a partial cover of the Dave Brubeck Quartet classic "Blue Rondo a la Turk" off their beloved Time Out, interestingly released 10 years before this (1959)! I wanted to give it a listen here, taking a pause, and, frankly, this is progressive [Proto-Prog?!] music assuredly! And this is the same sentimental nature (for what came before) and ambition (in order to truly look ahead) that I believe was shared by Keith Emerson. I'm not surprised, really, but were The Nice that much better live?! Intro alone, they sound fantastic (even Mr. Davidson haha). Anyhow, "Rondo" was first released by The Nice on their '67 debut, The Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack (been a while, admittedly). And finally, we have an interesting cover of Bob Dylan's "She Belongs to Me", originally released on his Folk Rock classic album Bringing It All Back Home (1965). The keyboards are most reminiscent to Dave Stewart's performances off of the most contemporary Arzachel. But also sounds a bit like Rick Wakeman early on in his time with Yes? Awesome, memorable riffs here. Very enjoyable; how I think long and drawn out should go. I'm sure it was a blast to have seen live. And it should really be mentioned just how unlike the original this is.

[I guess it is nice to see your feelings about an album shared, at least given overall ratings, by the largest group of reviewers; if that makes sense.]

True Rate: 3.75/5.00

The Nice's debut album - The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack - was so cutting edge and full of promise, but the departure of lead guitarist David O'List really threw the project out of whack. Strife and grief (especially from O'List's camp) in later years lamented record label Immediate's positioning of Keith Emerson as the leader of the group, but it's hard to listen to even their best material and not come away with the sense that Emerson was the real breakthrough talent, and the best thing everyone else could do was simply follow his play and let him cook.

This became all the more obvious when O'List - the second most promising talent in the group - left. Ars Longa Vita Brevis, the first album in the trio format, consists of some half-assed joke songs, a classical interpretation, and the side- long title track, and perhaps the kindest thing that could be said about it is that it brought a lot of fresh new ideas to the table but didn't execute them brilliantly, and that it would take other bands - including Emerson's next project, ELP - to actually take that rough blueprint, cast aside the bits which weren't working, and tighten up the bits with potential.

But hey - it was a transitional album. You can be forgiven one of those when your band's had a setback. At some point, however, your band needs to complete that transition and actually pull together, or your project isn't long for this world.

Which brings me to the subject of this review: Nice, the third album by the group and the actual subject of this review. (Don't worry, gang, there's a reason I recapped the last two albums above.) Taken by itself, this may come across as an alright but not great slice of proto-symphonic prog from early in the genre's existence - with a decent keyboardist, vocals which are a bit middling, and a major burden in terms of the production.

Production was a bit of a problem with all three albums that the Nice made for Immediate, who I can only conclude simply cheaped out when it came to the recording process. (They were cash-strapped at the time, and by the next year had gone bankrupt.) There's a couple of live tracks on here - taking up the entirety of the second side on vinyl - and one suspects that one reason for their conclusion was a realisation that the live recordings sounded better than the studio tracks, where the production job is simply a touch too thin to do the material justice.

It will also not escape the attention of the listener enjoying this in isolation that a chunk of this material consists of cover versions. Of course, they're Nice-ified cover versions, but by this point in the 1960s did we really, truly need yet another band padding out their set with Bob Dylan covers? Especially Bob Dylan covers which consist of a snippet of a Bob Dylan song and then lots of additional improvisations and flourishes? You don't even need to dig into the history of the band to get the sense that there's a songwriting shortfall here.

But let's widen our lens and take in the band's back catalogue now. The debut album was right on the cutting edge of what would become known as progressive rock, brought a swathe of fresh ideas to the table, and had a rough and ready approach to it which made it possible to forgive the production shortcomings. The second album had its production difficulties and might have leaned a little too hard on novelty numbers on its first side, and its second side epic proves that there's a difference between "groundbreaking" and "good", but there was at least a sense that new ideas were being brought to the table; an effort is clearly being made even if the results aren't what they could be.

Here, though, we have cover versions, we have rehashes of material that the Nice had already put out (Azrael and Rondo), and that's kind of it. There's no sense of forward momentum here; if anything, the band seem to have regressed a bit compared to the ambitions of Ars Longa Vita Brevis, and if you're a prog listener you'd probably rather listen to an ambitious work which fumbled than an unambitious work which aimed for "satisfactory" and just about made the cut.

Widen the lens further, and let's look at what other bands are doing in 1969. The Moody Blues, who put out their first proto-symphonic album in the same year as the Nice's debut, will out out not one but two albums this year - On the Threshold of a Dream and To Our Children's Children's Children. Not only could either of those releases absolutely wipe the floor with this album without breaking much of a sweat, but both albums find the band advancing their style, as has the intervening In Search of the Lost Chord. Meanwhile, an upstart group called King Crimson is unleashing a debut album on the world which will be an utterly transformative work in the genre of progressive work, a quantum leap building on the efforts of predecessors - including the Nice - but reaching wholly new territory hitherto untouched. I could talk here about the 1968-1969 accomplishments of groups the Nice had toured with back in 1967 such as the Jimi Hendrix Experience or Pink Floyd, but that would be beating a dead horse.

The idea that Nice could possibly stand out in a musical scene which was experiencing the Big Bang moment which was In the Court of the Crimson King is, in retrospect, laughable. But even at the time, it should surely have been obvious that the Nice just weren't keeping up with their peers. Acts which had emerged at the same time they did had outpaced them in terms of subsequent musical development. Brand new bands were emerging which left the Nice looking like old-fashioned anachronisms within a mere two years after The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack put them at the spearhead of the movement.

It might have been harsh of Keith Emerson to have expressed the view, towards the end of 1969, that the Nice had outlived its usefulness - but I defy anyone to listen to this album and tell me that the Nice were thriving. The fact is that after a debut which was both historically important to the genre genuinely good, and a second album which was far less consistent but at least still originated some important prog ideas, their self-titled album fails on all measures. It's not a well-produced and tightly written 43 minutes of music on its own terms, it's far from the best album in the Nice discography, and whilst the previous two albums were key moments in prog history (even if, to my taste, only the debut remains satisfying to listen to), the only historical value this one has is that it demonstrates why the band had to end.

This had a brief surge of commercial success when it first came out, but its comparative obscurity next to In the Court of the Crimson King, the two Moody Blues releases of 1969, Electric Ladyland - or freakin' UMMAGUMMA, for crying out loud! - is the surest proof that it simply lacked staying power. And that was pretty much that for the Nice. Sure, a couple of posthumous releases - Five Bridges and Elegy - crept out after the fact. But hailing from late 1969 and cobbled together from live shows, they hail from a point in time when the writing was already on the wall, Emerson was already looking at putting together a supergroup (a big chunk of the early drive behind Emerson, Lake & Palmer seems to have been "Let's do trio-era Nice, but make it WORK this time!"), and the slide towards oblivion was too late to halt. They crawled into early 1970, but by that point were continuing out of politeness rather than passion, seeing out their last few dates before walking away for good.