ANDERSON BRUFORD WAKEMAN HOWE

We all know the music of Yes and ABWH, so I won't review the music here.

The real compelling reason to pick this up is that it is the only official live release of the ABWH line-up with Tony Levin on bass. There are some bootleg releases with Levin, but this is the only officially released one, and I would argue it is the best quality recording with Levin out of all the bootlegs as well.

Levin had gotten ill prior to the Shoreline Amphitheater show that became An Evening of Yes Music Plus, so Jeff Berlin stepped in for the rest of the US leg of the tour. Levin rejoined for the UK leg that followed, and this show was captured as part of a radio broadcast at the NEC in Birmingham, England on October 24th, 1989.

It becomes pretty apparent that Levin owns the ABWH material. Berlin did an amazing job jumping in on short notice and learning all the songs in just days, but on An Evening... you can tell he is just playing the material. Levin is clearly a first-class member of this band, with much more interaction with the other musicians. Birthright and Order of the Universe are great, and Levin of course plays both bass and Stick where Berlin was bass only.

But beyond that, Levin shows us what an incredible talent he is by making the Yes material his own as well. I have to be careful I don't get lynched by the Yes faithful, but in my opinion the renditions here of Long Distance Runaround, Starship Trooper and Heart of the Sunrise rival any other live version. This performance of Close to the Edge takes my breath away. I'm not even going to get into any debate on Squire vs. Levin or whatever, but you really should pick this up just to have this performance in your library.

Where this release falls short is in the production, which seems pretty amateur for these folks, even considering it seems to have been more of an independent release. There are some nasty glitches in Jon Anderson's solo medley, but that's what it is so maybe there was no choice there. The track order on the second CD is just plain wrong - track 3 is really Anderson's banter between songs, tracks 3 & 4 are actually 4 & 5, and Order of the Universe is for some inexplicable reason stuck out of order as track 8 with a huge gap of silence when in reality it should have followed Heart of the Sunrise.

Some editing choices are really questionable. Close to the Edge sadly has the beginning and ending fades cut off a bit, which I'm sure was due to space restrictions, but they could have edited out some crowd between songs rather than doing that. This is such a definitive performance of this epic, that cutting it short like that kills that opening and closing drama. Seriously, if they would have given me the masters, I could have done a better production editing job using Soundforge on my laptop.

The other big problem is the amount of hiss in the recording. Maybe they felt they wanted to release it without altering the original recording, but a little noise reduction would have done wonders. Especially during The Meeting, where the hiss is so loud compared to the quiet keyboards and vocals that I find it painful. I was able to clean it up myself with some mild noise reduction in Soundforge, and restored some clipped peaks, so I just think they could have given it a little more care and produced a way better sounding release.

On the plus side, the 12 page booklet is pretty good, with background on ABWH and bios of all the performers, including Milton MacDonald and Julian Colbeck, both of whom played a larger role in the performance than a lot of folks realize. Fans won't learn a whole lot new in the booklet, but it's still fairly well done.

So, how to rate it? We know the material is great. Even if you aren't as fond of the late-80's stylings of ABWH (Bruford's electronic drums sound pretty dated nowadays), the Yes material here is among the best. As a document of what ABWH was like playing live with Tony Levin, this is a must have. But the production sucks.

I'm a huge Tony Levin fan, so for me this is an excellent addition to any prog rock music collection, and I have to rate it a 4. If you aren't as excited about having a document of Levin with ABWH, this is more good, but not essential, so a 3. If the sound quality really pisses you off, and you don't have the means to fix it up on your own, you might even consider it a 2.

Tough to rate -- I give it more of a 3.5 overall, but I'll round up to 4 for the Levin factor.

That said, much of this work sounds uninspired. Not bad, but not good either. Except for Long Lost Brother of Mine, which fits in nicely into the Yes pantheon of greatness, the rest of the album is...well, pedestrian. Some songs have high points, but it seems to me that they have a tendency to meander. Technically, this is well played, overproduced, and underwritten.

The worst thing about this album was the follow up --Union, where the Anderson, Brufurd, Wakeman and Howe team sounded absolutely insipid to the point that they overdubbed extra keyboards, guitar, vocals, etc., until all recognition of Yes-ness was lost.

Get Anderson, Brufurd, Wakeman and Howe to complete your collection, but don't get this if you are only mildly interested in Yes.

The three solo -so to say- meddleys by Jon Anderson, Steve Howe (both with Yes material) and Rick Wakeman (with own material from Henry VIII's Wives or Merlin albums) add to the interest of this double Cd.

Three stars because of the sound but, in the doubt... four stars for the music.

However, there's an issue: the production values are so 80s they hurt, and not in a good way. From Rick's occasionally Casio-sounding keys to Bill's artificial-sounding drums to the cheesy clapping during Brother of Mine, the sound of the album is horribly dated - and probably sounded dated back in 1989, considering that the production values here would be more suited to an early Asia album. On top of that, the mix is really shoddy - the drums are too loud, Steve Howe's guitar playing is too quiet, and Tony Levin's bass performances are often buried entirely. One for the committed Yes fan only.

Actually the only one very active in composing was Jon Anderson. One can like him or not, but his solo career were proceeding in parallel to the "other YES" one and it's not a susprise if most of this ABWH sounds like a Jon Anderson's solo of that times.

So take a bunch of averagely good songs from Jon's pocket, have them played and arranged by some of the most skilled people available in the surrounding and you'll have something very close to a masterpiece.

The album is opened by "Themes" that's nothing special, but has the typical Anderson's sound enriched by the YES arrangement. , followed by a very good short song like "Fist Of Fire" that's another typical Anderson's thing, but what follows? "Brother Of Mine" can be criticized for the newage lyrics, but from a musical point of view is almost an epic with instrumental parts that leave room for short solos on which the band members can exploit all their skills. Listen to what Howe's guitar does in the background, to how Wakeman's piano supports Jon's singing in the first part of the song. Maybe Bruford has less to do on this song respect to his colleagues, but he's always present with his alternative signatures, we just have to pay attention to him, specially in the first transition when Howe introduces "Long lost brother of mine"... I think this song alone is already a good reason to have this album.

"Birthnight" is more influenced by Howe, at least I feel it as it was. Lyrically it's still an Anderson's song, but all the album is so. This is a YES song, anyway. If you put it in a playlist with Going For The One and give it to a Yes newbie he would probably think that they come from the same album.

At this point we are still on the A side of the vinyl. Not bad isn't it?

"The Meeting" closes the side A, if I remember correctly. A moment for Wakeman. His piano and keyboards support a short song that sounds a lot like Jon and Vangelis, but even though I like the Greek keyboardist a lot, when the piano is played by Wakeman there's a significant difference.

Mandolin and acoustic guitar are the openers of side B. "Themes" is started by a typical Howe's thing. You can compare it with some of the early Howe's solo albums. I think mainly to Turbulence. 80s pop? Absolutely not. It's easy, melodic and solar, but it's Yes music with no doubts and as I have already written nobody was expecting a new Close To The Edge in 1989.

The only forgettable track is "Teakboys". Unfortunately it's since "Song of Seven" that Anderson places salsa or south-american rhythms in general, at least once per album. Bruford has probably some fun in playing this song, but to be honest I have less fun in listening. This is not my pot at all.

Back to Yes music with "The Order Of The Universe". This is the most electronic song. Bruford plays electronic drums and even Wakeman indulges with 80s sounds. It's not Trevor Rabin, also because Howe still sounds like Howe, but this is very 80s influenced. I have to say that if you don't pay too much attention to the sound and concentrate on the notes only, the intro has Wakeman at his best. The rest is quite an appendix to Big Generator, or better to 90125. I consider 90125 as one of the best prog albums in the poor scene of the 80s so I'm not too disturbed by this song and I wasn't actually, even if I dislike Big Generator that's too pop even for a yes fan like me.

The closer is one of the best things of the album. The acoustic guitar is excellent but in some passages we can clearly hear Vangelis that's also credited on this song. The man who was about to become the Yes keyboardist after one of the many Wakeman's leavings is finally playing with the band and I think that he should be credited for the composing of this song, too. This seems to come directly from Short Stories and has the effect to leave the listener unsatisfied. I mean that after this song I'd like to have more of this stuff.

This is not a masterpiece. It's not comparable with any of the early Yes albums (between Yes Album and Tales), but it's one of the few things that a progger can save from the 80s and with just a weaker moment that's the salsa thing. Forgive that song and let it enter your collection if not yet there.

For me it's a 4 stars with an advice: I have liked Union, too. If you totally dislike that album consider this as a 3 stars only.

It has superb Jon Anderson vocals, it has colourful guitarwork of Steve Howe, it has keyboard mastery of Rick Wakeman, and the drumming of Bill Bruford (though sadly electronic in too many places). Tony Levin as the guest bassist is a top musician too, no doubt of that. But something is just missing. It must be the absence of Squire that prevents this album to sound like true YES. Or true anything. I'm not talking only about the sound per se, but rather the compositions. 'Brother Of Mine' probably has the highligh moments of the entire album but even that turns out to be overlong mess. Some other longer tracks are quite pretentious if not totally irritating. 'Quartet' cites classic YES titles in its silly lyrics which sadly lead the blatant music instead of music taking the lead. Here and there the music leans heavily towards the horrible 80's synth aesthetics. 'Teakbois' is a calypso mess which sounds ridiculous. The album ends beautifully with an acoustic, calm and intimate Anderson song 'Let's Pretend' (Vangelis had something to do with it if I remember right).

This phoney album is best to be compared to the notorious Union. It tries hard but mostly fails miserably. Several years later, with Squire in (and Bruford replaced by Alan White) they succeeded better on the Keys To Ascension live/studio hybrids to write new progressive rock of higher credibility. Not that I like them either very much.

Unforunately, the stuff that actually counts, was not near as good as I had expected. On the back I thought there was a lot of promise with the multi-sectioned tracks, but this record is far, far from good Yes. Better than what they had been releasing? Definetely. As good as there works from about 69 to 79? Definetely not. It sounds rather cheesy and, I hear too much of the 80's Yes still rearing its ugly head every now and again. The playing is good as to be expected, but this was just a bit more of a let down than what I thought I was getting.

The Six Wives Of Henry VIII album that I got for four dollars however.....

While it does have a bit more in common with that era than the Rabin-era Yes music, a lot of changes have occurred in the Yes-camp. These four artists hadn't all worked together since Close To The Edge, but I'd say this kind of sounds like a combination of Tormato and Big Generator.

The 80s were here and there is no doubt about that on this album. Bill Bruford is happy to use synthetic drums. Rick Wakemans keys have a pretty strong '80s feel. Steve Howes guitar, on occasion, features a bit more of an AOR edge than it ever did in the '70s.

Of course, a change of sound was inevitable. Steve Howe had since been in Asia and found great success there. Rick Wakeman had been doing his own thing for nearly a decade. Bill Bruford hadn't been in Yes for over fifteen years, working on his solo material, in King Crimson, and in UK since those days. Jon had spent his years working with Rabin on the more pop- oriented Yes sound.

When all is said and done, it's actually kind of refreshing, if not what I expected. The songs are enjoyable (Teakbois is probably my favorite), and they don't sound like they are trying too hard to be what they once were (they tried that years later on Keys to Ascension and it earned them only one really great song).

So this is definitely an enjoyable album, giving an impression of what Yes might have sounded like had they incorporated the '80s into their existing sound instead of breaking and reforming like they actually did. It's not as good as their best material from the '70s (and I don't think quite as deep), but still an enjoyable listen.

Chris Squires presence though is greatly missed, both on the bass, and in the backup vocals which just don't sound quite as full.