ANDERSON - BRUFORD - WAKEMAN - HOWE

Jon Anderson was on vacation in Greece in 1988, making music with his friend Vangelis. It was during this time that he came up with the idea of reforming the classic 1971 Yes lineup the one that had produced Fragile and Close to the Edge. This seemed unthinkable, considering that Yes was already on a different path and had just released Big Generator the previous year.

Anderson contacted Steve Howe, Bill Bruford, Rick Wakeman, and Chris Squire. However, Squire declined the invitation and reminded Anderson that the name Yes was legally his property. If Anderson wanted to release an album with that lineup, it would have to be under a different name. Eventually, Bill Bruford brought in bassist Tony Levin to join the project.

The first part of the recording began in France. There, Anderson gathered his bandmates with an epic idea something in the spirit of Close to the Edge. Howe had a ton of unused ideas left over from his time with Asia. Wakeman was open to anything his bandmates wanted to do, and Bruford agreed to participate, though he made it clear he wouldn't do any songs longer than 20 minutes. Anderson took charge not just musically, but also handling accommodations, the well-being of his friends, and even the smallest production details. Anderson and the guys wants Brian Lane back to managed the project and he accepts, Lane also manages GTR but he was out of the new incarnation of Yes . Jon Anderson aimed for a sound reminiscent of classic Yes, and although Eddie Offord declined to join but in the other hand Roger Dean enthusiastically returned to create the artwork.

The vibe was good and full of creative energy. It was actually a friend of Anderson's who suggested naming the band using their last names, as their legacy carried enough weight to rival the Rabin-Squire-White-Kaye version of Yes. Arista Records supported the idea and provided the necessary logistics.

The band then moved the project to Montserrat Island to record. Wakeman, Bruford, and Levin traveled there and had a great time recording their parts. Steve Howe recorded his guitar sections separately at West Studios in London. The main conceptual theme of the album centered on Native American culture, treated with a notable sense of respect and depth.

In a 2021 note, Howe explained that Steve Thompson and Michael Barbiero who co-supervised the mixing with Anderson were very much in demand at the time, but unfamiliar with the Yes sound and how the band had traditionally balanced their instruments. Some songs appeared to be pieced together during post-production, and the writing credits didn't accurately reflect each member's real input. For example, Howe is credited on the opening track "Themes," but stated he had nothing to do with it, while other tracks that were mostly his work are shared with others. Bruford echoed this, saying that although he's listed as a co-writer on all tracks, he contributed neither to their writing nor arrangement?his role was limited to re- recording drum parts that had originally been programmed before he joined.

That led to the album's biggest flaw: the sound. With its ultra-modern reverb and heavy reliance on machines, the final product ended up feeling more like a techno version of Yes than the organic, analog sound fans hoped for. Electronic drums and sequenced percussion stripped much of the warmth from the music, and Steve Howe's guitar was barely present. Even more surprising, Tony Levin's bass so distinctive in other projects has almost no presence at all. What started as a brilliant concept gradually got diluted by excess and misguided production. One can't help but wonder what this album could have become if it had been recorded in a more traditional, analog way.

Finally, Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe contains some truly beautiful music, thoughtful lyrics, and moments of brilliance but the final result didn't quite live up to the promise of the lineup or the spirit of classic Yes. It's a case of what could have been.

Jon Anderson seems particularly fired up by a disdain for the capitalist mechanisms of the music industry on the opening track 'Themes' which features lyrics like 'Be gone you ever-piercing power play machine!' and 'I am out at thee with a vengeance!'.

After years of amassing solo projects under their collective belts, Bruford, Howe and Wakeman sound inspired and driven playing in the same room. Wakeman's keyboard wizardry then blasts through the speakers on the cinematic 'Fist Of Fire' like a long lost friend!

Next is the multi-part 'Brother Of Mine' which is fine but doesn't do quite enough to justify its running time. This is followed by 'Birthright', a song where Jon Anderson waxes lyrical about the nuclear testing in South Australia in the 1950s.

Musically, the band are in top form here with Howe's stinging guitar lines matched with Bruford's tribal polyrhythms against a backdrop of Wakeman's painterly keyboard layering.

As with a lot of Yes albums since the glory era, things become a bit inconsistent after this point and the middle sags considerably with some decorative, feathery material. The latin-infused 'Teakbois' picks up the pace a bit but feels more like a Jon Anderson solo venture than a true group effort.

Things are salvaged though with the hard-rocking suite 'Order Of The Universe' which hammers things home with a big drum sound, kitchen sink percussive clangs, hard-rock guitar and cheesy but epic synth brass. This track is also the closest Anderson's choirboy vocals have come to sounding 'gritty'!

The closing track 'Let's Pretend' rounds things off nicely with a spare arrangement of vocals and acoustic guitar and the whole production is packaged in a fantastic canyon fantasy landscape sleeve by Roger Dean. What more could a Yes fan ask for at this point?

Although I played the album a lot at the time, it has fallen into oblivion with me. Because I regularly have the album played in my CD player as part of this review, it is actually striking that everything is so beautifully laid out.

Jon Anderson sings in any color you want, from tender pink to passionate red to sunny yellow and bright blue. Listen to how passionately he brings Quartet, split into four parts. I think his performance on this album is above average anyway and that makes sense because initially it was going to be his solo album. Who also rises above himself sometimes is guitarist Steve Howe. From where he gets his lyrical Licks time and time again has been a mystery to me for years. Subtly, he swings his parts through the music again this time. The qualities of keyboardist Rick Wakeman are also skyhigh again. His piano playing is beautiful and since many tracks on the album have piano-oriented passages, Wakeman is the man. His synth runs and additional brass sounds are also fine, although they sometimes seem a bit dated. Still, that doesn't hurt a song like Order Of The Universe. This is the band at its strongest and it looks good on them.

It's up to Bill Bruford to keep it all together with his drums on this album. It goes without saying that this is the ideal music for his characteristic playing. What a muzzo. The way he frames opener Themes and then lets it swing is so personal. The bass parts are provided by Tony Levin, they couldn't have made a better choice. His playing fits perfectly into the picture.

The album has nine well-varied songs, three epics of around ten minutes and six shorter songs around it. It is clear that we are not talking about a complex album like "Close To The Edge", but you can clearly hear that almost the same musicians are working here. In Brother Of Mine this is best highlighted, beautiful melodies, great vocals and a blissful guitar solo at the end of the second movement.

Of the other songs, the fiery Fist Of Fire, the ethnic-sounding Birthright and the Jon And Vangelis-like songs The Meeting and Let's Pretend create a well-oiled whole. Teakbois, decorated with a Caribbean rhythm, feels like an outsider that many will zapp away. Although the song has had over thirty years to mature with me, I have only gained a little more appreciation for the second part. Oh well, everyone makes a mistake sometimes.

"Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe" is a beautiful album that was made at exactly the right time. How nice it is that good deeds have been done in the past!

Originally posted on www.progenrock.com

Anderson, together with Bill Bruford, Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe, sufficiently identified with the best years of the band, used their surnames to give shape to this Yes without a name, accompanied by bassist Tony Levin (King Crimson) and backing musicians. And this is when the controversy begins over the effective participation of Bruford, Wakeman and partly Howe in the recording of the album which, on the other hand, was built on discarded pieces from previous projects and ideas by Anderson, scraps of Howe discarded from Asia and GTR, among others, transmitting in its development the sensation of being faced more with a patchwork of pieces than with a harmonised and well-assembled work.

And while it is true that the proposal has points that do not favour it, such as the insipid beginning of "Themes", the failed and unnecessary attempt at Caribbean music in "Teakbois", or the candid and mellow simplicity of "Let's Pretend", it is also true that the album is closer to the traditional progressive spirit of Yes than 90125 and Big Generator, with very interesting pieces such as the intense "Brother of Mine", a reloaded version of the energised 70's prog vibe, the contentious "Birthright", the atmospheric melancholy of the heartfelt "The Meeting" and the fabled beauty of "Quartet" with its splashes of the band's legendary songs, enough tracks to consider it a more than acceptable album.

ABWH had a brief existence, only releasing that studio work and a follow-up reflecting the launch tour. After that, they reunited with Squire's Yes to form an exaggeratedly large group that buried any attempt at continuity for the quartet.

Very good

3.5 stars

ABWH's sole album, a self-titled effort, was released in 1989. It's obvious that Anderson et al hoped for this to be the spiritual successor of Yes's classic period. For the first time since 1980's Drama, Roger Dean artwork graced the album cover, and Arista Records made this album's catalog number 90126.

The music on ABWH is far, far more artistically ambitious than the Trevor Rabin-Yes material. At the same time, it was 1989, and the stretch of the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s was truly a dark time for progressive rock. The album starts off strong, except for Wakeman's [%*!#]ing grating synth tones. The songs are engaging, dynamic, and a big improvement over Big Generator. But then the album hits its first hiccup with the 10-minute suite "Brother of Mine". It's fluffy and cheesy, sappy and saccharine. Howe's playing is so overwrought it's comical, and when the song tries to kick into higher gear, Wakeman's synth brass tones ruin it. The poppy, energetic section with handclaps gives some awful "Kumbaya" vibes.

"Birthright" could have been a good addition to a late-80s action movie soundtrack, with its slow build and John Carpenter-esque cavalcade of high-energy synths in the climax, but it's middling at best when taken in the context of its full six-minute runtime. "The Meeting" continues this trend of overlong songs, meandering for four aimless minutes of piano tinkling. And when the sappy acoustic intro of "Quartet" comes in, with Anderson's pop-ballad-style lyrics, it's tough to slog through this. For nine minutes, this song drifts in unimpressive, acoustic territory.

But with the opening of "Teakbois", you will pray to have that back. Did you want to hear [&*!#]ty '80s Yes play calypso music? No, you didn't. You're a reasonable individual. No one should want this. It's awful. Please, make it stop.

After the longest seven-and-a-half minutes of your life, Steve Howe finally gets to play a guitar line that sounds like Steve Howe to open the penultimate track. Wakeman's synths continue to spray diarrhea over everything, and Anderson's attempt to do a more intense vocal style feels forced and unintentionally funny. Despite this, this is probably the strongest track on the album and a much-needed respite from the preceding bombardment of garbage.

Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2019/03/24/deep-dive-yes/

"An Evening Of Yes Music Plus" is a DVD of Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman & Howe that was released in 1994. In reality, this is the only true live DVD by this Yes' version, if we don't consider "In The Big Dream", which is only a video with three promotional video clips "Brother Of Mine", "Order Of The Universe" and "Quartet/I'm Alive)", plus a live version of "Heart Of The Sunrise" filmed during their "An Evening Of Yes Music Plus" live tour, made in 1989.

"An Evening Of Yes Music Plus" is a DVD with a live show that was recorded at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, in California USA, in 1989, when they toured their eponymous debut and only studio album "Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman And Howe". In 1993 they released a live album with the same name with fifteen tracks. However, in contrast to the release of the live album's version of this concert, the DVD version only saw the light of the day in 1994.

The DVD opens with "Benjamin Britten's Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra" which is based on a classical oeuvre of Benjamin Britten, and represents the introduction of the live show that substitutes the popular Igor Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite" usually used by Yes to open their live shows. From their self-titled studio album we have "Themes", "Brother Of Mine", "Birthright", "The Meeting", "Order Of The Universe" and extracts of "Teakbois". From "Time And A Word" we have extracts of the title track. From "The Yes Album" we have "The Clap", "I've Seen All Good People" and "Starship Trooper". From "Fragile" we have "Mood For A Day", "Long Distance Runaround", "Heart Of The Sunrise" and "Roundabout". From "Close To The Edge" we have "And You And I" and "Close To The Edge". From "90125" we have extracts of "Owner Of A Lonely Heart". From Wakeman's albums we have extracts of the albums, "Gone But Not Forgotten" of "Coast Of Living", "Catherine Parr" of "The Six Wives Of Henry VIII" and "Merlin The Magician" of "The Myths And Legends Of King Arthur And The Knights Of The Round Table".

This concert by Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman & Howe will always be fondly remembered and cherished by long time Yes' fans. It was seen as a real Yes' reunion and the album and the live tour offered a real competition with the existing Yes' official line up that included, at the time, Chris Squire, Alan White, Trevor Rabin, and Tony Kaye. Here, the band played a host of Yes' classics, as well as a selection of songs from their debut album. They were supported by a few guest players. Jeff Berlin, a bassist very well known because he had already worked with some of the band's members. Julian Colbeck, a well known former professional keyboardist that usually collaborates with several bands and musicians. He participates with some additional keyboards. Milton McDonald, a very well known session guitarist who plays with many artists and participates on this album with some additional vocals and an extra guitar work too.

The music is full of glamour and class. It rips through stellar versions of their classics "Close To The Edge", "And You And I", "Heart Of The Sunrise", "I've Seen All Good People", "Starship Trooper", as well as recent tracks, "Brother Of Mine" and "Order Of The Universe". A real treat is seeing Jon Anderson walking through the crowd and singing his opening solo spot, and you really get the feeling that the singer really loves his fans. Steve Howe especially looks pretty motivated throughout the set, something that seemed lacking from him in the years that followed. It's nice to see so many close ups of Bill Bruford, whose nimble drum work is always a pleasure to behold, but it's a real shame that Berlin is basically ignored by the camera crew. You barely catch a few glimpses of him over this DVD's 2 hours length. That brings us to the main drawback to this release, the quality of the video. There are too many instances where the cameras are on the wrong musician. It isn't perfect, but it's great, because thankfully the audio of this DVD is very good.

Conclusion: It's now passed some time since I reviewed the CD live version of the concert and I reiterate all that I wrote before. "An Evening Of Yes Music Plus" is one of the best live performances I've heard and seen in all my life. It represents one of the best live shows ever performed by Yes. Here we have my favourite line up of the band, but unfortunately it's missing my favourite bassist, Chris Squire. It shows the four members of Yes in a great shape and the willingness of them is evident throughout all the concert and it became particularly noted at the end of it. Relatively to the quality of the release of the DVD, I'm a bit divided, really. In relation to the sound, I must say that it's absolutely irreproachable and amazing. But I can't say the same about the quality of the video. Especially the camera work leaves a lot to be desired. Relatively to the bonus tracks they're all very interesting and complete perfectly well the DVD.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

"An Evening Of Yes Music Plus" is the debut live album of the musical project of Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman And Howe. It was recorded live at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, in California USA, in 1989, when they toured their eponymous debut and only studio album "Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman And Howe". However, it was only released in 1993. Like as happened with almost all Yes' albums and with their self-titled studio album, the art cover for the album was also created by Roger Dean. It features a painting from him which was titled "Floating Islands".

The line up on the album is Jon Anderson (lead vocals), Bill Bruford (drums and percussion), Rick Wakeman (keyboards) and Steve Howe (backing vocals and guitar). But, the album also has the participation of three other musicians, Tony Levin, who performed bass on their eponymous studio album as well as on most of the live tour. Still, he fell sick during this tour and was replaced by Jeff Berlin, a bassist very well known by them because he had already worked with some of the band's members. Julian Colbeck, a well known former professional keyboard player that usually collaborates with several bands and musicians such as with Yes and Steve Hackett, the ex-guitarist of Genesis. He participates on this album with some additional keyboards. Milton McDonald, a very well known session guitarist who plays with many artists and participates on this album with some additional vocals and extra guitar work too.

"An Evening Of Yes Music Plus" contains material from their self-titled studio album, songs from past Yes' albums and excerpts from Rick Wakeman's solo albums. The album opens with "Benjamin Britten's Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra" which is based on a classical oeuvre of Benjamin Britten, and represents the introduction of the live show that substitutes the popular Igor Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite" usually used by Yes to open their live shows. From their self-titled studio album we have "Birthright", "Themes", "Brother Of Mine", "Order Of The Universe" and extracts of "Teakbois". From "Time And A Word" we have extracts of the title track. From "The Yes Album" we have "The Clap", "I've Seen All Good People" and "Starship Trooper". From "Fragile" we have "Mood For A Day", "Long Distance Runaround", "Heart Of The Sunrise" and "Roundabout". From "Close To The Edge" we have "And You And I" and "Close To The Edge". From "90125" we have extracts of "Owner Of A Lonely Heart". From Wakeman's albums we have extracts of the albums, "Gone But Not Forgotten" of "Coast Of Living", "Catherine Parr" of "The Six Wives Of Henry VIII" and "Merlin The Magician" of "The Myths And Legends Of King Arthur And The Knights Of The Round Table".

If you've seen Yes all over the years, most of these songs will, no doubt, be very familiar to you. The performance of the entire band is spot on, Anderson especially in fine form and Howe, as always, giving a virtuoso performance. Although Wakeman's choice of modern keyboard tones at times borders on cheesey, the guy still blazes through these new and classic tracks. In addition, the set opens up with some great solos which are always very fun to hear.

This album certainly has that Yes sound mostly due to the fantastic vocals of Anderson. He sounds great on all of these CD's. Wakeman is also a dominant force here. Still, his keyboards and synthesizers have a more 80's sound which stands to reason as the album was originally released in 1989. Of course, I can't forget about Howe. Still, his playing is quite restrained, there are many beautiful acoustic moments to be found and he does let loose occasionally like on the rocking "Order Of The Universe", a feel good, up tempo tune with a heavier section featuring fiery work from Howe and Bruford. Other highlights include the poignant "Brother Of Mine" featuring Anderson's patented soaring timbre and the some super and catchy tracks where Howe's acoustic guitar is quite sublime. Remember, the album as a whole is a relaxing listen. Still, you will find no "Gates Of Delirium" here which is completely understandable given the decade this was made. The bottom line is the band sounds tight and progressive and made many Yes fans happy with this album.

Conclusion: We can consider this live album divided into three parts, the solo tracks, the ABWH's tracks and the Yes' tracks. The solo tracks are in my opinion very good and much better than the solo tracks on "Fragile". The ABWH's tracks represent some of the best musical moments of that album and are for me much better performed live than performed in the studio. The Yes' tracks include some of Yes' best works, and the live version of "Close To The Edge" is absolutely great and surprising and is probably, in my opinion, the best live version released by them. When I reviewed ABWH's album I agreed with Easy Livin, when he said that the album was a missed opportunity. On this album I agree with Gatot when he says that this is an underrated live album. It's one of the best live albums of Yes and is also one the best live albums I've heard in my life. The individual live performances of Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman and Bill Bruford are completely irreproachable and absolutely unforgettable. The live album also has an amazing sound quality.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Right from the bat, the first song Themes was pretty promising. Sure it was sorta 80s like, that was too be expected but it has promise. And then Fist Of Fire, and after that Brother of Mine, and then?yeah. I wasn't really expecting something like the 70s but, I wasn't expecting this. The drums are pretty basic, Jon's vocals can get kinda annoying, the guitar is kinda weak and the pianos while good, just aren't really worth more than that. But this album also has some good in it. The songs are pretty fun too listen too, they are pretty upbeat for the most part, and they definitely get the whole Yes flow across. But despite that, I don't know, this is a weird album.

I haven't felt this mixed about an album in so long and I am just confused? I don't know whether to dislike or like this album. And I don't think I ever will.