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Chus View Drop Down
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Points: 1991 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Opinion on Ian Gillan's solo albums
    Posted: October 31 2006 at 13:23
 I've only heard about 4 of his songs, so this is rather a request for opinion than a suggestion.
One of the songs that drew my attention was "Clear Air Turbulence", which if I'm correct had some jazz-fusion elements.
 
 I recall reading once in some article about his departure from Deep Purple. It said that he left because DP had nothing musically challenging for him. So maybe he went with some forgotten jazz-fusion classics in his catalog.
 
 I know that there are probably many threads concerning his possible inclusion but any opinion is welcome here.
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Points: 3928 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 31 2006 at 13:27
Well I'm not convinced he should be included but he did have a jazz rock phase. I had 'Clear Air Turbulence' and 'Child In Time' and they didn't sound like anything Gillan did before but I don't remember too much otherwise. I'm a big fan of his 'Glory Road' album which matches most of his Deep Purple output.
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Points: 4252 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 01 2006 at 07:34
I followed Ian Gillan's career with interest during his "vacations" from Deep Purple, "Child in Time" is a brilliant album, "Clear Air Turbulence" was indeed  a change from his usual style, very jazzy, but therefter his music was straight rock. "Mr, Universe" is one of my favourite albums, though  the japanese "East World" release contains many songs from that album and is much better sound quality. I didn't like "Magic" much, "Toolbox" is a great album, nothing remotely Prog from Ian, though!
 
 
 


Edited by mystic fred - November 01 2006 at 07:36
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Points: 1823 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 01 2006 at 07:53
I thought Magic was a great album. Future Shock wasn't bad. I haven't heard the others although the Sunday newspaper gave away a free Gillan live CD last week and I thought that a lot of it was just straightforward blues rock.


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Points: 376 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 01 2006 at 11:12
The Ian Gillan Band (the one with Mark Nauseef and Ray Fenwick) could definitely be included on here. Child in Time is one of my favourite unheralded albums, particularly the second side which has a nice jazzy version of the title track and some wonderful space rock on Let It Slide.

They were jazz-fusion/prog as opposed the later more hard rock-oriented Gillan band.
 
Even Gillan had their prog moments mostly due to Colin Towns keyboards - Abbey of Thelema, For Your Dreams, Demon Driver, On the Rocks, Born to Kill
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Points: 12800 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 01 2006 at 11:34
Clear Air Turbulence, especially with a number of the band members with jazz sensibilities, is a valid (heavy) jazz rock album. Indeed Gillan's  sometimes forgotten and rather sprawling Live At Budakan has a couple feet in the jazz rock camp. BTW why do Virgin Records print a lie on the liner notes of the CD version of Live At Budakan , claiming the single CD has the whole recording, when if you have the original Japanese double vinyl import, you find it has a couple of additional tracks???
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Points: 3928 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 01 2006 at 13:13
Reminds me of the butchering job Virgin did to VDDG's 'Vital'. Almost the entire last side of the original vinyl was missing from the original CD of that.
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Points: 24392 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 06 2006 at 16:41
I definitely agree about "Clear Air Turbulence", and I also remember suggesting it for inclusion some time ago. I also agree with Drachen Theaker about the "prog quotient" added to Gillan (the band) by Colin Towns' masterful keyboard work: all the songs he mentioned are firm favourites of mine.  
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Points: 15585 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 06 2006 at 17:05
I have an obscure but legitimate VHS video by Gillan under the guise of GARTH ROCKET & THE MOONSHINERS. It's mainly rock based, but it includes an excellent rendition of the negro spiritual "BRAZOS".
 
I wasn't very taken by "Clear Air Turbulence", the version of "Child in time" was awful. I can understand why he is being proposed though, I guess the album did have a prog leaning.
 
I think clarity is needed about which of his projects is/are being proposed though. Is it IAN GILLAN, GILLAN, or THE IAN GILLAN BAND or all three? Then of course, there's Gillan and Glover...
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Points: 1991 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 06 2006 at 19:32
Originally posted by Easy Livin Easy Livin wrote:

I have an obscure but legitimate VHS video by Gillan under the guise of GARTH ROCKET & THE MOONSHINERS. It's mainly rock based, but it includes an excellent rendition of the negro spiritual "BRAZOS".
 
I wasn't very taken by "Clear Air Turbulence", the version of "Child in time" was awful. I can understand why he is being proposed though, I guess the album did have a prog leaning.
 
I think clarity is needed about which of his projects is/are being proposed though. Is it IAN GILLAN, GILLAN, or THE IAN GILLAN BAND or all three? Then of course, there's Gillan and Glover...
 
 I think it's IAN GILLAN BAND... at least that's how it's listed... in GILLAN is mostly straight rock and I dunno much about GILLAN & GLOVER, I listened to some of their songs and they don't sound too progressive (they were both from DP... of course you all already know hehehe).
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Points: 376 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 07 2006 at 08:46
Originally posted by Easy Livin Easy Livin wrote:


I think clarity is needed about which of his projects is/are being proposed though. Is it IAN GILLAN, GILLAN, or THE IAN GILLAN BAND or all three? Then of course, there's Gillan and Glover...<FONT face=Arial>


I think the Ian Gillan Band is the only one that should be included. Two of their three albums are prog IMHO - Clear Air Turbulence and Child in Time. Scarabus was more straightforward rock.

Gillan were hard rock (albeit with a few prog flourishes) so don't really qualify. His solo stuff and the Gillan/Glover album definitely don't.
    
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Points: 3928 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 07 2006 at 09:21
Yeah I believe there's perhaps some merit in including Ian Gillan Band, but at a later (much later imo) stage. I don't have the albums now but I vaguely remember them being very jazzy.
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Points: 1 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 23 2006 at 10:26

Ian Gillan's solo career had several stages......

1. Ian Gillan Band, which produced 4 albums....Child In Time, Clear Air Turbulence, Scarabus, and Live At Bukokan (Vols. 1 & 2), along with a handful of "collections and rarity" releases.  The band generally played rock-jazz, although the last of the 3 studio albums (Scarabus, probably their best) had shorter songs and, while the guitar and keyboards still added a jazzier feel, was more in the "hard rock" genre.  Overall, this band would definitely fall into the "prog" category, especially the 1st two albums as well as the live album, which has many tracks from Clear Air Turbulence.

2. Gillan, a band that produced a string of albums, was Ian Gillan's most successful period in between stints with Deep Purple. The band produced the following albums......Ian Gillan (Japanese release only), Mr. Universe, Glory Road, Reading Live & More (an EP, basically), Future Shock, Double Trouble, and the final album as a band, Magic, along with a slew (and I mean a SLEW) or compilations and outtake albums and such. Although generally this band didn't venture too far from hard rock territory, they had in their midst the keyboardist Colin Townes (the only member of the Ian Gillan Band that continued on with Ian for many more years). This guy had some of the strangest keyboard sounds and his bizarre lead lines added progressive tinsel to many of the tracks. Each of the albums had a least one "prog-rock" type of song.  On Mr. Universe, the track "Fighting Man" (similar to DP's "Child In Time") appeared. On Glory Road, the track "On The Rocks" has an epic quality. On both Future Shock and Double Trouble there are several tracks that could almost pass for prog-rock, and on the final album Magic, the track "Demon Driver" DEFINITELY falls into prog territory (probably the band's most "prog-rock" moment of all).
 
3. Ian Gillan, solo artist......this is the period after Gillan fell apart where he used studio musicians as opposed to having an out-and-out band. During this period he came out with the albums Toolbox, Naked Thunder, Dream Catcher, and a handful of other releases.  This is basically hard rock, plain and simple, nothing in the way of progressive music.
 
Hope this helps to clarify things.
 
Zap


Edited by zap_niles - November 23 2006 at 10:29
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Points: 12800 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 23 2006 at 12:53
Originally posted by zap_niles zap_niles wrote:

Ian Gillan's solo career had several stages......

1. Ian Gillan Band, which produced 4 albums....Child In Time, Clear Air Turbulence, Scarabus, and Live At Bukokan (Vols. 1 & 2), along with a handful of "collections and rarity" releases.  The band generally played rock-jazz, although the last of the 3 studio albums (Scarabus, probably their best) had shorter songs and, while the guitar and keyboards still added a jazzier feel, was more in the "hard rock" genre.  Overall, this band would definitely fall into the "prog" category, especially the 1st two albums as well as the live album, which has many tracks from Clear Air Turbulence.

 
Zap
 Most supportive of what you write here - and would go with your ''rock-jazz'' categorisation to reflect the ratio of rock to jazz played. It is worth pointing out the sort of musican who appeared in Gillan (the band). Take Mark Nausseff Gillan's drummer and you'll discover a pedigree jazz drummer - his work on  CMP Records with guitarist Miroslav Tadic is pretty cutting edge fusion.
 
 
 
Over thirty years of international concert tours, numerous recordings in Europe, Asia and the USA, and hands-on research of Indonesian, Indian and African musics are some of the main elements which have influenced the music of American born Mark Nauseef. It is a music enriched by the great artists he has played with and the master musicians with whom he has studied.

Mark has performed and/or recorded in an unusually wide variety of musical situations with such artists as, amongst others, Joachim Kühn, Jack Bruce, Rabih Abou-Khalil, Trilok Gurtu, Steve Swallow, L.Shankar, Hamza El Din, The Velvet Underground, Markus Stockhausen, Gary Moore, Kyai Kunbul (Javanese Gamelan), Andy Summers, Ian Gillan, Tony Oxley, Tomaz Stanko, Kenny Wheeler, Edward Vesala's "Sound and Fury", Thelma Houston, David Torn, The Ladzekpo Brothers (Ghanaian music and dance), Charlie Mariano, The Gamelan Orchestra of Saba (Balinese Gamelan), Kudsi Erguner, Phil Lynott, George Lewis and Lou Harrison.

Nauseef studied Javanese Gamelan with K.R.T. Wasitodiningrat, Balinese Gamelan with I. Nyoman Wenten, North Indian Pakhawaj drumming with Pandit Taranath Rao and Pandit Amiya Dasgupta, Ghanaian drumming and dance with Kobla and Alfred Ladzekpo, Dzidzogbe Lawulvi and C.K. Ganyo, and 20th Century Western percussion techniques and hand drumming with John Bergamo and Glen Velez.

In addition to his own recordings, Nauseef has also worked as a producer. He recently returned from Indonesia where he produced recordings of traditional Balinese and Javanese music, some of which have been released on the CMP 3000 "World Series". Mark was instrumental in establishing this series which presents traditional musics from a variety of non-Western cultures.

All of this flows into drummer Mark Nauseef's music, and, together with his own personal means of expression, make up his distinctive sound. DOWNBEAT magazine has called his recordings "mysteriously moving, thoroughly personal and boundary mocking."
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