JAZZ ROCK/FUSION

Josef Zawinul wrote the melody 'In a silent way' after visiting his Austrian family for Christmas. The tune became the title for a 1969 album that indicated perhaps the most far-reaching change of direction for that most restless of musicians, Miles Davis. Here we find not one but three fecund keyboard players (Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Jo Zawinul), the introduction of guitarist John McLaughlin, a bright young percussion star in drummer Tony Williams and probably the most daring use of studio editing on a jazz album ever. Much has been written about the successor to this LP - the sprawling double album Bitches Brew which was released a mere seven months later - but that will not concern us here. We will only note that the brouhaha around that album often overshadows the brilliance of vision embodied in 'In a silent way'. The playing is exemplary throughout. According to Chick Corea, the fact that tapes were running constantly relaxed the musicians and 'made' the quiet atmosphere that pervades the music. The music itself is warm, spacious and indeed 'Peaceful'; lovers of electric piano will have much to savour here. The way Teo Macero edits the sections together was startling to some listeners at the time, one critic complaining that he had erroneously re-used one section. But it is this editing which gives 'In a silent way' its magic and power. With its two side-long pieces, its repetition, its relentless soothing groove, its spacey keyboards and floating trumpet and reed solos, this is a profoundly important and influential album. Don't worry if 'Bitches Brew' horrifies you and 'Kind of Blue' is just too jazz, if you are a lover of progressive music, this is the Miles album you need (other than Jack Johnson, but that's another story). www.vinylconnection.com.au

— First review of this album —

Thoughtful and elegant.

Didier Malherbe came to my attention a long time ago as the excellent sax player of Gong. Apart from my preference of jazzy approaches, I must admit that the Daevid Allen era of Gong is not among my fave releases, hence Malherbe stood out and received my sole attention there. Later he completely disappeared from my radar, but never really forgotten,

Only in recent times (and thanks to his listing on PA!) I realized that he has released numerous solo projects, often under the name of HADOUK TRIO. I choose to listen to this album as to date, it has no rating/review.

My first impression is that Malherbe and Co. display a definite interest towards Arabic music without attempting to imitate such. The choice of instruments further enhances that atmosphere. There are no spirited blowing on saxes, no jamming here as Malherbe plays flutes almost exclusively and the percussive instruments are traditional, tribal drums. All this is complemented by a double-bass that adds the jazzy feel.

This band achieves a fine balance of styles, jazzy, ethnic feel with ease. The delivery is laid back and the compositions are pleasant, relatively simple without being minimalist. Anyone familiar with the German ECM label would relate to an album like this. The odd, lighthearted, funny piece thrown in wouldn't be missed, but equally not disturbing, either.

Very far from Jazz-Rock, the term "fusion" would be more appropriate, but not as a genre. Pleasant music that one could listen to all day, every day. Short of essential, part of a Desert Island" collection, nevertheless it's mature work.

The newly born band of Forgas promoted its first album through series of gigs around the Paris region, but unfortunately personel changes wasn't meant to be avoided.The recordings of the new album found only guitarist Mathias Desmier onboard from the previous core and Forgas was also surrounded by newcomers Juan Sebastian Himenez on bass, Gilles Pausanias on keyboards and Denis Guivarch on sax.''Extra-lucide'' was eventually released again on the Cosmos label at the fall of 1999.

This second album of Forgas Band Phenomena finds Forgas musically more mature and his new bandmates collaborating in a tighter way.The result is a trully enjoyable album with too many incredible moments, as the arrangements are characterized by constant shifts between richer and smoother passages in a balanced way, while there are plenty of shattering interplays, semi-loose solo deliveries and a fair amount of melody appearing in the album.The Canterbury influence is still apparent through the dreamy keyboard parts and the jazzy twists of the album, which is highlighted by the excellent work of Pausanias on synthesizers and electric piano.Saxes remain always in evidence with alternations between extended solos and more melodic interventions in a Jazz/Fusion style, while the guitars are added for good measure when needed.Forgas' drumming is again unmistakable and the whole amalgam sounds very attractive.The 19-min. long ''Pieuvre a la pluie'' is a fantastic example of varied Prog/Fusion with tremendous interplays and tons of changing textures, while ''Annie reglisse'' contains a beautiful combination of synthesizers and saxes, creating beautiful, dreamy, unmet soundscapes.These tracks are propably the picks of an otherwise very solid album.

This is some excellent Prog/Fusion, where both emotions and technique meet.One of the gems of the 90's regarding the genre, absolutely satisfying and highly recommended.

Temporarily lost in the Labyrinth.

NUCLEUS have been one of my fave bands for decades. Oddly, this album has escaped my attention for much of that time and I only managed to track it down in recent years. Perhaps there was a reason for that?

At this point, bandleader Ian Carr finds himself without a band as half of the previous members have defected to SOFT MACHINE. A leading British composer/musician. Carr had no problem with finding replacements. He is also very good at getting grants that help with getting over the odd glitch.

The release of this album was perhaps rushed as the end result appears to be somewhat underdeveloped. The musicianship is excellent - as always - but the compositions just don't stack up, lacking the collective input of a well established band.

It's more of a Carr solo project than NUCLEUS as we've known the band. The title "Labyrinth" is apt as the result appears to be directionless, A few steps this way, a few steps there, still searching for an exit.

Special mention is due to the featured singer, Norma Winstone, who has previously collaborated with Carr in 1969. Her beautiful and sensual voice is either overused here on a few tracks, or should have been a feature throughout the whole album.

Contrary to the talented musicians, this is the weakest album Carr has released. Thankfully, by the time he gets to the next work "Roots", we are back to more familiar territory that befits the band much more.

— First review of this album —

(According to the PA, Blackpool Cool was released on their own label Head Records)

Oh yeah, better than Red Dwarf. This time, Head returns in a different way, more zippy and active. I will highlight John Davies, the multi-instrumentalist, playing and destroying the trumpet and keyboards. Sometimes, it reminds me of early King Crimson stuff. The general performance is very creative and great. My favorite song here is Kick Me Quick, maybe because of the dissonant trumpet improvisated solo, and of course, it have a hot blooded crazy swing. Trust me, you will not get wrong with this.

An accomplished keyboardist,Finnish Jukka Gustavson was born in 1951 in Sipoo and was a founding member of Progressive/Jazz-Rock band Wigwam,with whom he recorded four studio and a live album from 1969 to 1974.By mid-70's Gustavson decided to leave the band and start a personal career.His solo debut with the long title ''...jaloa ylpeytt' ylet'n... ylev'' n'yryytt' nousen'' was quite ambitious with Gustavson collaborating with an orchestra and no less than 23 musicians,among them some famous names of the Finnish jazz and rock scene like Juhani Aaltonen and Juha Bj'rninen.This was released in 1978 on Love Records.

This is a modern Neo-Classical/Jazz symphony,split into 13 parts,creating a solid long piece with no actual empty holes.It starts off as a dissonant Classical piece with Gustavson's organ on the front,before transforming into a Symphonic/Jazz Rock opus with great work on flutes,horns and saxes,excellent guitar parts and Gustavson's jazzy piano performance.By the middle the album has already offered tons of light and accurate interplays,when Gustavson decides to make an almost KING CRIMSON-esque complex explosion.Unfortunately this great piece will lose much of what it really deserves,when entering the last part and the musicianship gets very funky and somewhat out of place.Soon though Juha Bjorninen will appear with an almost FOCUS jazzy soloing of high quality,Gustavson starts to dominate again with strong organ work and the wind section is back on fire for the nice ending,which features plenty of great breaks.

This modern symphony is actually a very good introduction to any fan of music to the progressive rock ideology.Additionally it comes as a great example of Jukka Gustavson's endless talent and strong composing skills,despite the few misplaced minutes.Warmly recommended...3.5 stars.

— First review of this album —

Describing this work in two words: overlooked and awesome.

When I first heard "Quasar" (track no. 1), an atmoshperical intro piece, I went totally absorbed by these jazzheads.Smooth and deep, here the instruments are free to express what they want at any time, this is the essence of the jazz rock / fusion. I've been interested in "Event Horizon", since I have a song with the same name, and I was not disappointed, the song is softly beautiful. But the higher points here are Red Dwarf and Earthsong Suite (the longer track). About Red Dwarf (the song), the disharmonic intro really got me!!! And the song slowly open doors to a masterpiece, and the masterpiece cames.

I will recc this one to Caunterbury scene fans.

— First review of this album —

This was my first solo album by the ex-member of WIGWAM, about twelve years ago. I used to enjoy it a lot, but later I began to see its faults more clearly. After listening to several other albums I believe this is one of the weakest. It's surely interesting and very personal, but it feels somehow half baked to me. First of all, Gustavson should have used more musicians.

Many tracks feature just his piano and/or synths and some vocals: 'Tervetuloa-rag' (Welcome Rag) is a lively jazz piece for solo piano with his wife Leena repeating "tervetuloa" in the beginning. 'Song of the Secret Person of the Heart' is Jukka and keyboards only. The playful song itself is charming at first, but it continues too long without much change, so it begins to bore after repeated listenings. 'Varo - ihminen!' (Beware - human!) continues - far too long - in the same vein. It doesn't help that he changes into English midway. The closing track 'Everyday' adds nothing new really. All these compositions have a feeling of rehearsal (don't get me wrong: the playing is very skilful and also the sound quality is clean) and they would have improved a lot with fuller arrangements.

Completely English-language 'A Frozen Tear' is a hazy, slow track featuring also Pekka Nylund on electric guitar and Tom Nekljudow on drums. At once you hear the difference: it's free of the rehearsal impression of the forementioned tracks even if it has a sort of a wandering/wondering spirit.

'In Search of a Blue Root in the Acid Rain and the Low of a Cliché Thicket' is the oddity here. It's a collache of endlessly repeated and overlapping spoken (or loudly whispered) words such as a thicket and a quagmire and strange sound effects evoking the impression depicted in the long title. 'Palokärjen lento yli vuonon' (Woodpecker's flight over a fjord) is a romantic lied for high soprano voice, very sentimental and a bit over the top actually. Later it adds a spoken narrative in Italian by Giuseppina Mäkelä and some sound effects, ie. flapping of the wings and the bird's scream.

Bluesion is very interesting and charming work in its own way, but for the negative sides (too sparse instrumentation etc) it falls below three full stars.

Formed by ex-Dream Theater keyboard player Derek Sherinian (who has also played with Kiss and Alice Cooper), this instrumental band's line-up also features guitarist Tony MacAlpine (who to date has released 11 solo albums) and drummer Virgil Donati, (there is also a guest bassist, Tom Kennedy). It is somewhat surprising that there is only one longish track, with "King Of The Universe" just cracking eight minutes, but there is no disputing the note density. This hard rocking technically brilliant album is going to impress many people. That being said, it is possible to dismiss this as an ego trip if the critic was so inclined. There is little in the way of passion or soul, but if the listener wants to stand there with their mouth open in awe, then this may just be the one for them.

It is sometimes reminiscent of Colosseum II when they delve slightly into jazz-rock, but by the end of it all I found that I was not only impressed but also bored. It is definitely a CD that can only be digested in small pieces; very much like a rich cake, they have over-egged it. Treat with care.

Originally appeared in Feedback #59

After Sonic Youth's Washing Machine, comes Ablution (cover art joke, laughter please).

Ahhh, the swedish music. From Ace of Base to Entombed, from ABBA to Dan Swano projects, I love it. This is Ablution first and last. This isn't a miss. Otherwise, a great jazz/fusion full filled with good solos and a variety of instruments. Mainly Peter Robinson (later in Brand X) keyboards, are very pleasent for me. The violent flutist is very remarkable. From the first song, they show what they got, with awesome keys riffage, percurssion, guitar solo, flute, trumpet, all fused into a stylish rhythm. There is some avant gardish presence at this album, and some dissonant chords. This is the kind of music that if you press "play" you won't stop until it reaches the end.