FIVE BRIDGES SUITE

Regardless of its short-comings, and we could all list a few ~ the recording, Lee Jackson, Emerson's misplaced primal organ-howling ~ Five Bridges is a remarkable project which showed a band doing what many were likely fantasizing about but couldn't pull off: the merging of a small rock ensemble with an orchestra. There are more successful attempts at this, like Mahavishnu's Apocalypse, but none with more edge and new excitement shown on this album. Even the Dylan cut is great, though the CD version I have [Keith Emerson with The Nice] omits 'Country Pie/Brandenburg' and 'One of Those People' and adds some good things from the Elegy album. Problems aside, this is a session each prog lover has to come to terms with as it is so vital to the movement.