JAZZ ROCK/FUSION

This is very fine album and for 1967 it is superb. It's important link in the evolution of jazz rock. I'm not an expert but there were not many bands pushing the rock part so upfront while not loosing their jazz credentials at the time.They even throw some psychedelic percussion/flute improvisations for a good measure. Graham Bond Organisation comes to mind as another example. There were many brass rock bands created soon enough but Auger/Driscoll album predates almost all of them and surely is not worst. Brass section is excellent as is the rest. Other important parts of the sound are piano/hammond and the expressive vocals by Driscoll and Auger himself. Driscoll voice often brings comparisions with Janis, and quite rightly but it reminds me Maggie Bell from Stone The Crows even more. This album is a bit dated at times but still highly enjoyable and it remains one of the crucial moments in brass/jazz rock history. Four stars.

I've been really surprised at how much flack this album seems to have received in review, including the sole review on this website prior to mine. Is it Ardley's most impactful work? Not for most people. Is it a singular effort from an accomplished composer who was exploring new horizons for himself? Absolutely, and to be sure, Ardley's characteristic subtleties with modal jazz still totally shine through in this album. For those coming to "jazz-rock" from more of a rock arena, let me recommend that you crank this album and simply let it ROCK, especially during the first and last portions-- trust me, you'll feel it. There is an established funky groove throughout most of this work, suited with heavy bass lines and tight syncopation that at times even conjures some of the heavier prog-funk, whether or not there is a direct influence. If you like the heavy combo of funk-rock rhythm section with wind instruments & synths as heard in the Nucleus/Soft Machine love-fest, you'll be right at home with this album, which features some of the same musicians. That being said, I'll admit that sometimes the synth-laden leads don't quite deliver the lushness and tonal breadth that we know they were capable of even in the late 1970's. Moreover, some of the best parts of the album are the rarer semi-improvisational sections featuring Nucleus and the power trio core of drums/bass/guitar, which can leave one wanting more. And so, people seem to decide the album doesn't quite fit in any hyphenated genre and dismiss it as half-assed, I guess. I disagree; In Harmony of the Spheres, Ardley presents a delicately composed milestone that not only covered new ground for him, but was certainly a valuable creative outgrowth of the fusions happening in the jazz and rock worlds of the late '70s. The synths aren't competing with the more traditional brass & woodwinds & keys here-- they're carrying them to new territory, or at least making a damned-good attempt to. Keep in mind also that Neil Ardley was a sort of modern day renaissance man, and was well into his alternate career of authoring introductory science books (of which he wrote and co-authored over 100). Featuring synth frequencies tuned to the actual harmonic ratios of the orbital periods of our solar system's planets, this album is something of a musical science project, and it reflects the awe and mystique that has surely imbued our perception of the heavens since at least the Pythagoreans of ancient Greece. This isn't a guy honing his band's improv skills with thousands of hours on stage, but rather a naturalist composing tributes to our cosmos with all the musical tools at his disposal at the time. Harmony of the Spheres, while side-stepping the blistering, overdriven, and frenetic improvisation of some of its peers, is still a unique contribution to jazz-rock, patiently balancing the sophisticated textures of the former with the tight, grooving rhythms of the latter. In the sea of all-but-forgotten prog gems, this album is far less derivative than many and deserves a solid listen-through by any prog fan.

It's like Lenny tried to do too much here with his second record "Big City". I mean he invited everyone he knew to play on it as we get over 50 musicians and yes we can drop some huge names that are among them even if most play minor roles. I will drop those names later but man we get strings galore, electronics, orchestration, horns, vocals and on and on. There's multiples on almost every instrument. And while I believe this is a pretty big drop off in quality when compared to his debut released 2 years earlier called "Venusian Summer" this isn't that bad. More about my tastes I suppose. So yeah we get Brain Auger, Jerry Goodman, Jan Hammer, Neal Schon, Miroslav Vitous, Benny Maupin, Herbie Hancock, Pat Gleeson and yikes The Tower Of Power horn section(haha).

The low point has to be "Sweet Dreamer" a ballad with quivering female vocals. I can find good stuff on all the other tracks but also negative things. The closer is a live track surprisingly with prominent organ from Auger. The piano dominates as far as keyboards go along with the variety of synths. "Interludes" is short and a two part track but quite good. I really like the drums and bass on the first section while it's spacey on the second. There's electronics and impressive drumming on "Ritmo Loco" another short piece. "Dreams Come And Go Away" is one I'm not into until it turns heavier after 2 minutes with the guitar soloing over top. Some crazy strings late. "Rapid Transit" is fast and the title track good when those horns aren't blasting away.

I find "Big City" along with the one that follows this to be disappointments after that excellent debut.

Sitting unaccompanied in front of audience with acoustic guitar only and playing mainly energetic pieces.

The first piece "Toronto under the sign of capricorn" is a varied track starting lightly and then changing into loud chords before fast melodic fills. "For Philip and Django" is the only quieter tracks in terms of intensity, excellent picking. "Rodrigo Reflections" is a dynamic melodic piece. The rest of the album comes from studio, the masterfully played "April seventh" with full of taste. Other tracks are less memorable. "Copenhagen impressions" has an interesting combination of cleverly and quickly played a very soft sounding track with great chord sequence.

Quite a good concert and not too long to grow tired of hearing a single acoustic guitar.

— First review of this album —

A few years back the Finnish record company Svart Records started releasing the 70's gigs held in Helsinki's Liisankatu studios (hence the titles Pop-Liisa and Jazz-Liisa), organized and broadcast on radio by the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE. By the way, many of the bands in the Pop-Liisa series happened to be progressive rock bands/artists, including Wigwam and Tasavallan Presidentti. Especially for the Finnish jazz scene the Liisankatu gigs were culturally significant, since there weren't yet any permanently functioning jazz clubs in Helsinki until 1977. Many of the line-ups represented in the series were short-lived, some of them even temporary, but often featuring the leading Finnish jazz musicians of the time. Speaking of Unisono Quartet's stellar line-up, one could perhaps think of Olli Ahvenlahti as Finland's Chick Corea and Paroni Paakkunainen as Finland's Ornette Coleman.

Listen here in ProgArchives as Uni Sono due to the way the name is written on the sole, eponymous album (1975) recorded by a slightly changed line-up, the jazz group Unisono started life already in 1970, touring in Poland as a sextet of Olli Ahvenlahti (keyboards), Seppo "Baron" Paakkunainen (saxophones and flute), bassist Make Lievonen, drummer Reino Laine, trumpetist Mike Koskinen and guitarist Hasse Walli. The two last mentioned made an exit during the extended tour. On September 26th 1973 the remaining quartet performed live in Liisankatu. The set features four pieces, all roughly 10 minutes long.

Ahvenlahti's composition 'Long Tandem' has a steady basic groove anchored on a repetitive piano riff, until a lively piano solo takes the lead from the saxophone. 'Specially For', also by Ahvenlahti, is a mellower and slower tune. The liner notes guess that the lyrical alto sax melody might have been ispired by Gato Barbieri's theme song for Last Tango in Paris. Very beautiful. 'Totuuden aarreaitta - Treasures of the Truth' (by Paakkunainen) is a bit harder to fully enjoy. Not that it would be hard-edged free jazz, it's just sort of minimalist in a way that the listener's attention may get lost during the dry, fragmentary soloing. Make Lievonen's 'Incarnation' has a nice, bass-centred groove, and the saxophone is being played in many different tones, some of them quite gritty. All in all, this is a fine, shortish jazz gig. The sonic quality is excellent.

If you get this album on CD, you'll get another gig on the Jazz-Liisa series, from November of the same year 1973. Taivaantemppeli is one of the short-lived line-ups who never recorded studio albums. Olli Ahvenlahti and bassist Make Lievonen are again present, and the latter is also responsible of each of the three long compositions. Matti Jakola is a less known name but his flute playing is impressive. Guitarist Pekka Rechardt was soon afterwards to join Wigwam. Percussion duties are shared by Upi Sorvali and Tapani Ikonen. This dynamic fusion gig very nicely fits together with Unisono's, and the differences in the combos (e.g. guitar instead of saxophone) only make the whole richer.

4.5 stars. Such a cool story reading about Urbaniak's life in Poland as a child prodigy with the violin and then deciding to master the sax. His love for American Jazz and culture which would mean his eventual move to the USA. This is his first live record from 1973 and it was recorded at the Warsaw Philharmonic in May of that year. A five piece here with the bass player adding electric piano while another musician adds Hammond and Farfisa. Besides Michal's violin play his partner Urszula's vocal prowess dominates this album. Kind of a wish come true for me as I always loved her scat singing and wordless melodies and wished she was featured more. I'm surprised at how "out there" this is at times with the reverb and style especially being a live record. It's been what almost 10 months of Jazz and related listening for me and this is the final add to my top 60 list that has come out of this.

The opener "Bengal" at 17 1/2 minutes and the fourth track "Seresta" would both be featured on his "Fusion" album that would be released the following year in 1974. "Lato" is from 1972's "Inactin" record, and what a record. Then we get two short 3 plus minute tracks that I wasn't aware of previously. That opener is such trip with Urszula's amazing vocal work bringing ZAO's Maurica to mind at times. Urszula's vocals are a higher pitch though and I like how she just sings over the music whenever. On the opener "Bengal" it takes some time to kick into a groove as sounds come and go up to around the 2 1/2 minute mark. Violin is ripping it up 6 minutes in, love the percussion too. It settles back before 7 minutes and man I could listen to this all day. These guys just seem to jam and I can just imagine this Polish audience at such a prestigious venue(haha). Almost silence 9 1/2 minutes in as the audience applauds. The Urszula starts to do her thing. Oh my! Psychedelia comes to mind with the echo and style, Krautrock even. She stops around 14 1/2 minutes as the drums start to solo to the 16 minute mark when the violin returns! More organ, drums and vocals to the end. What a song!

"Spoken" is trippy and short and again has that Psychedelic vibe as vocals echo after 2 minutes. Sparse with sounds coming and going. "Lato" is about the electric piano early on then the violin arrives a minute in. Sparse until after 1 1/2 minutes when it all kicks in including those crazy vocals. It's more powerful after 3 minutes. Again it's such a trip listening to this music. I really like "Seresta" as well with all the same things happening but maybe it's less out of this world. Vocals, violin and organ although the piano leads 5 1/2 minutes in. The closer is like a dress rehearsal, the band warming up as it were.

Just an adventerous, entertaining release that has some uniformity to the sound which I like.

An adequate album. The only standout track on the first side is Symphonic Revolution which I found somewhat memorable. The second side is mostly the sidelong plus one short ditty. The suite is fine in the first half but the last two movements have horrible vocals which make the track not particularly good. Finally the last track is actually quite nice, lovely flute and rhythm, however it lacks vocals which would could have made the song wonderful.

Overall track 1, 2, 4 are dull 3/5 songs

Symphonic Revolution is 3.5/5

Movement 3/5

Chutney 3.5/5

Some good moments, some boring tracks, some good parts and some vision = 3/5

One of the only progressive rock outfits from Central America and as of this review the only one from Nicaragua. The band runs a Hammond and percussion dominated style of Jazz Fusion.

Track 1 Is a solid instrumental with a nice percussion breakdown.

Track 2-5 are Cumbia (?) songs with vocals that aren't bad but are not my thing either.

Track 6 Is sung partially in English (pretty well surprisingly) and rather 👍

Track 7 Starts out strong but gives way to an excessive instrumental that becomes dull.

Overall an album with its own flavour, no terrible moments but few good moments. Solid 3/5, worth a listen since an album like this will probably never made again.

Another album filed under Jazz Fusion that should be under Canterbury Scene.

Since everyone is mentioning other bands to describe what these Americans sounds like I'll add my own two cents. These guys kind of sound like Fruupp and Egg.

The reference to Fruupp is because the vocalist on Maelstrom sounds exactly like the singer for them. The reference to Egg is because the music is in that vein of sorta jazzy, sorta not.

The tracks are all relatively short and flow together pretty well. The vocals are nice and soft, saxophone and others are good. Not a masterpiece, some of the vocal parts I'm not amazed by and I wish the songs were longer. A pretty good album still, definitely a must listen for fans of the Canterbury Scene.

My favourite band out of Hungary right here. KADA's debut remains one of my favourite Jazz related albums. That was from 1999 while this double live recording was released in 2001 with the actual live dates it was taken from taking place in August, September and November of 2000. A seven piece here with two percussionists, guitar, bass and three horn players. Man this band loves to improvize and play experimental music. The guitarist does bring David Torn to mind with his soundscapes and style. If I was reviewing disc one only it would be a solid 4 stars but man that second disc is like Free Jazz throughout and so hard for me to digest bringing this overall to a 3 star recording unfortunately. Disc one is over 56 minutes while that daunting disc two is almost 68 minutes. So much to like on disc one and I'm surprised that this is live at times because it can be so sparse and slow going and then bang they hit us with authority. Great musicians here all around and I might keep this one around because of that incredible first disc.