JAZZ ROCK/FUSION

Delightfully insane, eruptive violins are a hallmarks of Cross' solo albums. The former member from King Crimson tends to unleash surprising and very satisfying runs that are truly "one of a kind". Not sure about how he ended up in Jazz-Rock/Fusion as he rarely sounds anything jazzy, more like Eclectic with a very slight touch of Avant Rock.

Indeed, it is a rocking album with pretty good tunes well performed by all. The vocals are not so great, though. Echoes of Roger Waters, Greg Lake in an uninspired moment spring to mind, but there are some better bits on the side. But the highlight is firmly on those unique violin runs.

Suffice to say that Cross' works in general align well with the 1973-75 period of KC. Almost like a continuation of "Lark's Tongues In Aspic" - if only a bit wilder still. Highly recommended.

Because the bar for live albums from the electrified Miles Davis was set so high with the triple threat of 'Dark Magus', 'Agharta', and 'Pangaea', this (likewise) double-disc gets treated at times like a poor relation, the backwards cousin you're embarrassed to be seen in public with. But don't dismiss it too quickly: there's plenty of worthwhile music here, documenting yet another fascinating mutation in the ongoing evolution of a forward-thinking artist.

Davis was already miles away (so to speak) from anything resembling acoustic Jazz, and by late 1972 he was beginning to outpace even his own Jazz Rock Fusion innovations. This live set was recorded mere days before the release of his controversial avant-funk album 'On the Corner', and was likewise built on long, mesmerizing group improvisations, flowing like water around the unyielding rock of Michael Henderson's repetitive bass lines, with very little traditional soloing, even by Davis.

It may have been that his touring band at the time simply lacked a natural soloist like Chick Corea, or Wayne Shorter. The keyboards and saxophone (played by Cedric Lawson and Carlos Garnett: neither one a part of the Davis stock company for long) were just two more ingredients in a dense musical stew. And the album has attracted some criticism for not featuring ace guitarist Pete Cosey, who would join the live ensemble the following year. It's a valid complaint, but using the same logic the set deserves five stars because Phil Collins doesn't sing on it.

It's true the full nine-piece band resembles a work-in-progress, with tablas and electric sitar adding subtle ethnic undercurrents to the music. But the longer jams ('Black Satin', or the 28-minute 'Ife') often attain a lofty hypnotic plateau, thanks to the driving momentum of the Foster/Henderson rhythm section, with help from Mtume and his battery of African percussion. Of course the original LP had no information whatsoever about the band or the music. The untitled side-long medleys on each disc were identified only as 'Foot Fooler' and 'Slickaphonics', and illustrated in the sleeve art with amusing inner-city caricatures.

It was all part of the usual Miles Davis 'call it anything' ethos: an attempt to focus attention on the music, and nothing but the music. But that deliberate anonymity may have actually undermined the album's impact, and the somewhat two-dimensional production didn't help (a more dynamic live sound would have made it a near-essential experience). But even on its own somewhat compromised terms it's still a valuable addition to any electric Miles library.

What led me to try this album is the cover. It coulda been Michael Buble but because of the cover I'd have given it a shot. When my ears heard subdued fusion of the classic '70's variety I was hooked. Sax and keys seem to drive the music, however there is a lot of guitar and cello.

This record sounds like it exists in a universe a half octave out of tune with our own. It has aged like premium cheddar and sounds nothing like its contemporaries. The sound transcends jazzrock, fusion, and progressive fusion labels, establishing an undiscovered sonic template that remains largely unexplored.

The only other experience I've had like this is when I listened to Shuggie Otis' "Inspiration Information" the first 25 or so times. It's a record that is of it's time, but doesn't belong to it. It's groundbreaking without really breaking any new ground.

4.5 stars a real find for adventurous fusion fanatics - even house and fans of party music will find something to like. It's a fun album saddled with unfun labels.

Fans of electric Miles Davis might feel a warm glow of déjà vu while sampling this mammoth '05 boxed set. A lot of the material has been heard before, in the live parts of the 1971 "Live-Evil" album, albeit heavily edited by producer Teo Macero, who never saw a length of recording tape he didn't want to cut and rearrange. The earlier LP still works as an abridged sampler, but for over three decades has frustrated anyone expecting an undoctored performance.

Well, here it is at last, 35-years later but worth the long wait: six discs of embryonic Jazz-Funk fusion, "on the edge and off the rails", according to bass guitarist Michael Henderson. The box compiles six of eight complete, uncut sets from the eponymous Georgetown jazz club, closing out a watershed year for Davis. From the spring release of "Bitches Brew" through the summer acme of the Isle of Wight festival, and to his barnstorming of larger Rock 'n' Roll arenas, 1970 was truly an annus mirabilis in the career of the suddenly galvanized trumpet player.

The Cellar Door was a relatively small venue for Davis at the time, seating upwards of one hundred patrons, max. So the sound of these gigs is more intimate than the Fillmore East or West concerts. And the band was again slightly re-shuffled from the impressive talent mix of those earlier tours. Jack DeJohnette kept his spot behind the drum kit, but his long-time battery mate Dave Holland was replaced here by Michael Henderson, the first true rocker in an otherwise Jazz Rock ensemble. And Chick Corea had finally left for other, greener pastures (see: RETURN TO FOREVER), leaving Keith Jarrett as the band's only keyboard ace.

Jarrett has always been loud in his disdain for electric keyboards, and didn't change his tune when contributing to the notes in the extensive CD booklet. But his performances on each of these discs include some of the most vital, creative, and invigorating playing of the entire box, at times surpassing even Davis in energy and ingenuity. The trumpet player too was in peak form, his style already fragmenting into the sudden bursts and staccato interruptions that would characterize his sound at mid-decade.

The music wasn't yet the fully-formed funkathonic monster of the "Dark Magus" era, but it was starting to lean in that direction, cued by the use of a wah-wah trumpet pedal: a crutch for the increasingly ill Davis in years to come. And the final icing on an already colorful Fusion cake was a last-minute guest appearance by John McLaughlin on the final night of the residency (discs five and six here). The guitarist throws himself headfirst into some torrid solos, but the heavier guitar lines of Reggie Lucas and Pete Cosey were still below the horizon in late 1970.

So the question remains: how much live Miles Davis is too much of a good thing? There's a lot of repetition from set to set here, and although the details vary between each performance, I would challenge even the hardiest fan to sit through all six discs in one sitting. My advice is to play it like it was originally performed; one or two sets per evening over four separate days. The caliber of the music speaks for itself, but even the most brilliant troubadour will sound like a windbag without an occasional break.

This album was recorded at the same time as FLASH`s "Out of Our Hands" album in 1973. In interviews the late Peter Banks said that the record company wanted a solo album from him, so he recorded this album during the nightime while the "Out of Our Hands" album was recorded during the daytime. I think that for Banks this working schedule could have been a hard time having to complete two albums working on them almost all the time at the same time. So, in my opinion, this is reflected in the content of his solo album, an album which sometimes looks and sounds more like a collaboration with guitarist Jan Akkerman from Dutch band FOCUS, more than really being a solo album by Banks. At almost the same time, Banks was also playing some gigs with a part-time band called ZOX AND THE RADAR BOYS, a "jam band" which also included Phil Collins on drums, plus Ronnie Caryl on guitar and three other musicians whose names I don`t remember now. So, maybe this was the reason Collins appeared in this album during the time he was playing wiht Banks in that "jam band". Anyway, Banks said that he had great fun while recording this solo album.

This album sounds more like a collection of improvised instrumental musical pieces, or at least, some pre-composed musical ideas which were augmented in the studio with improvisations while recording the album. There are some very good guitar collaborations and interactions between Banks and Akkerman, sometimes using acoustic guitars playing some Classical Music arrangements. Banks also shows why he was considered as a very good guitar player with his very personal style of playing the heavy parts of the songs, also using some complicated chords in some parts and also playing some very good lead guitar parts.

This album also was like a "Progressive Rock Star Session" due to the appearances of John Wetton on bass, Steve Hacket on guitar (in a very brief and in an almost "cameo apperance"), Phil Collins on several tracks (with his drums playing being particularly very good and present), plus two of Banks` bandmates in FLASH Mike Hough and Ray Bennet.

I don`t know if this solo album was released before "Out of Our Hands", but it seems that FLASH was in their last days as a band anyway, so maybe the record label wanted to give more support to Banks as a solo musician, so they asked him to record this solo album, but it was not as successful as expected. Unfortunately, FLASH broke up as a band during a tour in the U.S. in 1973 and Banks` musical career was not very successful for the rest of the seventies, a time during which he tried to form another band called EMPIRE which could not get a recording contract. Fortunately, in the nineties he became more active with his solo career recording and releasing several solo albums and also playing some concerts with a band called HARMONY IN DIVERSITY. But he died a year ago being 65 years old.

— First review of this album —

I recently got this CD, having never heard of the Italian group before. But the music is naturally very familiar: they have adapted CAMEL's most succesful album and added an Italian language narrative (translated from Paul Gallico's novella from 1941) into it. Fabio Fantin who seems to be relatively young man acts as both the narrator and Rhayader, and occasionally there are dialogues. Fantin is quite a sugary and empathetic narrator, giving it a bit childish feel.

One should have some basic understanding of Italian, so that one could take it as a language course simultaneously, otherwise it gets quite frustrating to have these long narrative sequences on almost each track, boosting the total length to over 69 minutes. But frankly I don't think I'd enjoy English- language narration much better. Maybe even less, since Italian is such a beautiful language actually. But it can't be helped: that goddamn narration always spoils the musical enjoyment to some degree; I have never really enjoyed e.g. Rick Wakeman's or Jeff Wayne's works with narration either.

Musically speaking, this version is very fresh, airy and clean, giving a big role to the guesting player Anna Angelone's flute. I can't tell if I would enjoy it (imagining of course that the narration wasn't there!) more than the original Camel album - by the way, I haven't yet heard their remake version -, instead it makes me think how excellent the work itself is, how fine melodies and atmospheres. Also it makes me think that if I was a musician the Snow Goose album would be a pleasure to perform.

Music is absolutely great, and whatever differences there are to the original (others than the inevitable extensions to back up the narration) they mostly just increase the freshness. But I can't rate this more than three stars... A pity. But if the very idea of having The Snow Goose with Italian narration sounds good to you, this is surely worth having.

Between 83' and 85' Kenso appear to have gone through a transitional period.Very good news were that the band was eventually discovered by a major Japanese label, King Records, and signed a good contract.Moreover they seem to have started recording material for a third work with the line-up of ''Kenso II'', but the majority of it was executed by a fresh line-up, without flutist Shiro Yajima and keyboardist Atsushi Makiuchi and with two new member joining on keyboards, Kenichi Oguchi and Toshihiko Sahashi.''Kenso III'' was released in 1985 with guest members on keyboards, oboe, vocals and flute, most important figure among them was Namba Hiroyuki.

Music of Kenso starts seriously to be regarded as one of the most dominant and convincing Prog stylings during the 80's.They still deliver a hot, smoking Symphonic/Fusion with frenetic paces and incredible interplays, showered with nervous synthesizers and virtuosic guitar moves.What seems to be just amazing is that the group maintains a high level of quality music, no matter if it keeps constantly the foot on the gear.The music is basically all instrumental with links to compatriots MR. SIRIUS, AIN SOPH and KBB, featuring absolutely satisfying instrumentals with Jazz-Rock styled guitars, sudden tempo changes, shifting climates and complex arrangements.Their early Canterbury-inclined touches start to fade in the sake of a more powerful performance with a serious sense of melody among the complicated themes.Lots of symphonic keyboards and Classical-drenched textures along with a fair dose of melodic flute drives guarantee the deep symphonic content of the album.The jazzy and Fusion influences are more apparent during Shimizu's guitar pyrotechnics and the general structure of tracks, which are performed with technique.Good, classic reference points from the worldwide Prog scene are definitely FOCUS, CAMEL, THE ENID and ALLAN HOLDSWORTH.Stunning material.

Kenso are too talented of a band to simply fail.Another qualitive, adventuruous and totally intricate work, which lists them as a top-5 combo among 80's Japanese Prog acts.Highly recommended.

For years I wanted to listen to this album. Well, I did it yesterday. MOGUL TRASH was a short-lived band created by ex-Colosseum`s guitarist James Litherland with John Wetton and other very good musicians, and they played together for about eighteen months between late 1969 and early 1971. In an interview done some years ago with Wetton, he said that in this band there was a bit of conflict about the musical direction of the band, with him being more in favour for the Progressive Rock elements in the music and with Litherland more interested in playing Jazz and Rock arrangements, but the horn players were more interested in the Funk elements of the music. This things, along with very important problems with the manager, led to the split of the band. The horn players later joined the AVERAGE WHITE BAND while Wetton joined FAMILY for two albums. It seems that Wetton was somewhat impatient to be the front man and lead singer in a band, so he also didn`t last for a very long time with FAMILY and he became in 1972 the lead singer and bassist with KING CRIMSON, on which band he also became one of the main composers, a thing that he also wanted to do a lot. But in MOGUL TRASH he was mostly a backing singer and a very good and heavy bassist. In fact, in this album the lead singer and main composer was Litherland, but as a whole this band sounded very well, in my opinion, with some very heavy arrangements and playing, sounding like the album was really recorded "live in the studio" (with a few notable guitar overdubs), with a lot of freedom but fortunately no mistakes can be listened in the final product. Even if this happened, Litherland in another interview said that recording engineer Eddie Offord edited the tracks and that the band liked the results very well. It is similar in some ways to Colosseum in musical style, something that is very obvious due to Litherland`s presence. But I think that a line-up like this (a guitar-bass-drums trio plus a horn section but no keyboards) was a bit unusual combination of sounds. Producer Brian Auger played a bit of piano on one track and Litherland said in that interview that Auger gave to them a lot of freedom to record in this album. Well. The album as a whole sounds a bit dated, but it is very good anyway.Maybe there are some influences from bands like BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS and CHICAGO, but the music is heavier and more "raw", in my opinion. Litherland is a very good guitarist and lead singer.

The return of Miles Davis to the public spotlight in the early 1980s, after falling off the map for almost six years, saw the Fusion beast of the mid '70s finally tamed and on a tighter stylistic leash. The trumpet player who took the stage in the summer and autumn of 1981 was a more easy-on-the-ears bandleader compared to the "seriously brutal artist" of the earlier decade (quoting guitarist and fan Carlos Santana). History, failing health, and creative fatigue had finally caught up to the aging Davis, a trendsetting pioneer reduced to following in the footsteps of his own protégés, notably aping the milder Jazz Rock fusions of WEATHER REPORT.

And yet his playing seems oddly stronger here than it was in those frantic, drug-fueled gigs caught on the "Agharta / Pangaea" and "Dark Magus" albums. And his new back-up band was solid, if nowhere near as incandescent or experimental as the thermonuclear ensembles of the middle '70s. Drummer Al Foster was the only remaining musician in the reconfigured line-up, now paired with twenty-two year old bassist Marcus Miller, soon to become a fixture on Davis albums and a stabilizing factor in his mentor's professional life.

The set-list from these concerts, recorded in Tokyo and the eastern U.S. seaboard, was more pleasantly jam-oriented than the often pyrotechnic improvisations of earlier bands, the difference immediately apparent in the late-career signature melody "Jean-Pierre" (included twice in this set). Needless to say, the simple, childlike song is a long way from the elegant sophistication of "So What", but it's a catchy little tune, and oddly playful coming from such an uncompromising musical agitator.

Of course in 1982 we should have been grateful to hear anything at all from the aging and reclusive legend. So how come the album has never (to date) been released on CD in North America? Never mind the cultural insult; in purely commercial terms the oversight makes little sense, although it might explain why so many fans, this relative newbie included, were hardly aware the album even existed. Don't expect a masterpiece, but on its own terms it works surprisingly well, far better than some of the Miles Davis studio albums from the same period.

The shortest route across the electric metamorphosis of Miles Davis in the 1970s is through his many live albums from the era (the unedited concerts; not the scissor-mad hybrids of "Live-Evil" or "Live at Fillmore"). His studio output after "Bitches Brew" was often erratic, and released in too fitful a manner, with cuts recorded years apart forced onto belated albums or spread throughout different compilations.

Albums like "Big Fun", or its equally schizoid 1974 companion "Get Up With It", should rightly be considered compilations. But the former title in particular (both the original vinyl and the expanded compact disc edition) shows a remarkable uniformity in mood and emotion for a collection of music spanning three tumultuous years, and culled from sessions for albums as divergent as "Bitched Brew", "Jack Johnson", and "On the Corner". If you approach it with no awareness of the sporadic recording details (and there's really no reason why you need to be aware of them) "Big Fun" stands as one of the trumpet player's more haunting and mysterious efforts, making even the enigmatic grooves of "Bitches Brew" sound almost conventional by comparison.

The emphasis is often on mood and texture instead of rhythm or melody. And the straightjacket of time has even less meaning here than it did in the notoriously protracted "Brew" sessions. The original LP included only four tracks, each one filling an entire side of vinyl, and in two cases pushing the limits of analog storage toward the half-hour mark. A dreamlike weirdness abounds throughout, from the hypnotic minimalist funk of "Great Expectations" to the bizarre, misaligned double-tracking of drums and guitar in the propulsive "Go Ahead John" (the unedited tapes can be heard in "The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions", and sound even better when stripped of their razzle-dazzle studio camouflage). The soothing "Recollections" is a clear offspring of "In A Silent Way" (both were composed by pianist Joe Zawinul), and the addition of sitars, tablas and tambouras adds an exotic undercurrent to some already alien soundscapes.

It's too bad this album wasn't released immediately following the success of "Bitches Brew"; its influence might have been equally as profound, if a little more complex. The sessions for both were more or less contiguous, but some of the music here had to wait almost half a decade before seeing daylight. In a literal sense, this was an album ahead of its time.