JET LAG

After their "Chocolate Kings" album violinist and flute player Mauro Pagani left the band, and was replaced by Gregory Bloch on violin. The band was still living in the U.S., and maybe they were feeling a bit nostalgic about returning to their country (Italy), maybe being a bit tired of living in the U.S. Anyway, before returning to their country to live and to concentrate in their next albums in music more influenced by Pop Rock with Italian lyrics, they still recorded this "Jet Lag" album, their last real "International studio album" (still released by ELP's Manticore Records label in the U.K.) with most lyrics written in the English language (with the exception of "Cerco la Lingua", which has Iyrics written in the Italian language).

By 1977 Progressive Rock bands were still releasing some very good albums, but it was clear that the popularity of this syle of music was less than in previous years. So maybe some bands were having doubts on how to procede with their next albums. This can be listened in this "Jet Lag" album by PFM. There is no doubt that they were and stil are very good musicians. But in "Jet Lag" the music of the band became less influenced by Progressive Rock music and more influenced by Jazz- Rock Fusion music and even in some parts by Funky music. While all the then new musical influences sound well, there is the perception that the band was maybe having some problems in how to develop their new music. Maybe they were a bit tired of Progressive Rock music, or maybe some people related to the "musical corporations" of those days were saying to them that maybe they could record a Jazz-Rock Fusion Funky album to try to bring new things to their music. So this album sounds very different to their previous album, "Chocolate Kings", and even more distant to their other previous albums. The music is still very complex, showing their very good musical skills, but maybe the absence of Pagani made the band lose a bit the very melodic characteristics of their music. Anyway, they tried a new approach in this album, still sounding very well, but different.

Maybe the most Progressive Rock song in this album is "Traveller", and "Peninsula" is a very good acoustic guitar solo musical piece played by Franco Mussida (a bit "nostalgic" and maybe inspired by Italy). But the rest of the songs are very influenced by Jazz-Rock Fusion music, with a lot of use of the Fender Rhodes electric piano (a very popular musical instrument in the seventies and more associated to the Jazz and Jazz-Rock Fusion artists and their albums in the seventies). There is also the use of a lot of fretless bass by Patrick Djivas, who really shines in this album as a very good bassist using that instrument. Other Jazz-Rock Fusion influences are clear with the use of Moog synthesiser sounds and solos which sound a bit influenced by JAN HAMMER. This "Jet Lag" album also makes me remember a bit some other Jazz-Rock Fusion artists like JEFF BECK, JEAN-LUC PONTY, RETURN TO FOREVER, etc. Gregory Bloch's musical style was also more related to the Jazz-Rock Fusion musical style than to the Progressive Rock musical style. It is not a bad album, but also it is not a very "typical" album from PFM. So, if you listen to this album not really expecting to listen to the "old" PFM, you still can listen to some very good music played very well by very good musicians.