tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21436213857230571552024-02-07T16:36:22.536-08:00A love of a musical journey This Blog is dedicated to the
notion that however old we are, we can keep on moving forward on our musical journey.Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-79162868934675374822023-12-01T22:41:00.000-08:002023-12-01T23:19:43.032-08:00Rio Trevor Rabin<h1 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"> </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: large;">There's a fire burning</span></h1><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">When you are fifty years in to your exploration of music, the same rules apply as they do to all the elements of your life, almost. It's not quite expand or die, more expand, circle or die. </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">From my first single, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, Dancing in The Street, to yesterday’s Radio 3 jewels, gems and mysteries and everywhere in between I have been trying to hear music better. I hear harmonics, progressions and melodic connections that I could not have begun to appreciate in 1968. The nuances are more apparent the structure clearer and yet ultimately like all art more than anything in 2023 I want to be moved and touched.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">What of the other side of the equation, the musician whose age I share. Trevor’s stated intent for his first solo vocal project since 1989 was to grow his musical vocabulary and try literally anything and see what happens.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">At an intellectual level my one burning question was, would he be able to deploy all the experience he had garnered from scoring into something more wide ranging, nuanced, grand and emotional.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">When I first became aware of Trevor, my bands had spent a decade creating from a standing start. For ten years they had no idea where they were going until it was no longer an adventure, it was a vested interest that had to be nourished, and along comes Trevor who was consciously trying to "break" in Europe and the United States. Here was a next generation musician who had all the knowledge and skills he just had to decide how to deploy them in a way that would, to be brutal, get him a recording contract and lead to success. He already had the girls, that box had been ticked!</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I have always considered Trevor a knowing musician who could always deploy superb session musician skills. Crucially though, however talented, what I wanted , which has some times felt lacking, is an emotional context to his music.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">At 68 he wants to communicate again and he wisely chose to do so on matters that are important to him so what we have is his most open and heartfelt project.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Rio achieves in a number of ways. It restates, circles, some of his musical tics. The entertaining Big Mistakes, the clever, mood swinging Push with its trail of quotes from the affirmatives, even finishing with the oh so quiet string surge chord of the ending of Arriving UFO, and the cinematic angst ridden, calling to prayer for our walled freedom (the perfectly perceived dichotomy) of Oklahoma. But there is more than restatement and updates, it also takes South African Jive, Country, Smooth Jazz and Rabinesque’s them. </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">With such an interesting musician you cannot take all the songs and drop them in to two categories (Expand and circles). Thandi, is an inverted musical statement about his trademark disruptive musical strategies. In this case the loud abrasive narrative is the core song, the disruption, that is nested, is, in this instance, the comfort music. The disruption begins with a four to the floor rock anthem and then the disruption is disrupted by a wonderful swaying reggae riff a celebration of the magnificent animal under the microscope of Trevor's attentions. This happens several times before the core song, the mad cap hell for leather work, is re established and takes the listener to the end of the piece, powered by a rather good impersonation of Animal on the drums. This is also true of the spirited energetic Goodbye which could have been a straight-ahead country song on speed but instead is interrupted by big rock choruses. Music like this is impressive, entertaining and, despite the hard-hitting lyrics of Thandi, is more to be admired and enjoyed rather than be emotionally transportive. They are intellectually stimulating rather than pull at the heart.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Oklahoma, Tumbleweed and These Tears (and Fragile) easier on the ear, allow you in, and do pull at the heart. They are not though in Diana Krall territory they are full of ideas (quotes from Chris Squire and John McLaughlin) both instrumentally and presentationally.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Note <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I mentioned Fragile, the most notable quality, other than missing Anderson’s bridge and Wakeman’s soloing is it is slightly slower, the original recording speed, with more lyrical guitar work. It comes over as more meditative than the version released to the radio. The performance is different and between the two other instrumentals fits well. </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Two pieces however which appeal to both the head and the heart are Paradise and Egoli, at their core is a message of the impact of greed, corruption and short term narrow self-advancement, which ultimately leads to decay, breakdown and a failure to address the real issues of Disunited Kingdom and South Africa. However, the musical landscape is highly evolved taking musical styles and presenting them in a new and dynamic way, dare I say offering a musical </span><i style="font-size: 13.5pt;">progression </i><span style="font-size: medium;">from Trevor. It is not taking an established "Prog Rock" way of doing things and repeating them, the musical catchment area for his inspiration is much broader. This music is not turning back on its origins and repeating itself, risking diminishing returns, its looking outwards gathering things in offering something fresh. That jive feel may have been hinted at on I’m Running but here it is given full bloom. Let’s look more closely at just these two pieces.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> </span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Paradise</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">It starts in typical rock bravado manner but quickly moves away with some processed vocals from which emerges the central lyrical message and using that evolving vocal approach adds an extra dynamic giving the exposed vocal with its impassioned narrative more weight. The rhythms are highly syncopated, a kind of world jive feel which is of course entirely on point as a counter to the vocal narrative. This is cross pollination music, stateless, broad in scope, where motives and musical ideas transcend their origins. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">After the verses a tremendous dobro sounding guitar solo, so musical, quite different from the clinical playing of Talk, before a wordless jive chorus propels the middle section and is joined by a guitar sounding very musical almost Hammond Organ like (could be a synth who cares its great). The wordless chorus plays out and then evolves into a curious jazz interlude leading the play down but it’s a false ending as the Hammond sound comes back in a delightful and on point conclusion.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The message is simple, the music represents a glorious cultural coming together, whereas the words show the politics of our lives shutting each other out.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Egoli </span></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Is much more bare faced S.A. Jive the wonderful pumping playful dancing bass, the tight rhythmic guitar playing, the rotation propelling the music. But like Paradise it has a broader foot print than mere SA jive. The choruses are joyous and uplifting and there is the same juxtaposition of music good, lyrical narrative bad. There is a lovely, exposed section where Trevor sings lead and the choir chants with great warmth whilst the guitar is reminiscent of so much African Music repetitive and intense never losing sight of the core rhythmic pulse.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">These pieces are joyous, full of a natural organic warmth and as far away from the pyrotechnic clever Trevor Rabin of Talk. Indeed, the one quality that characterises all of Rio is sonically it is the warmest and most musical of all his offerings and there is plenty at the bottom of the music and lots of air. </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The sonic conversation. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I can listen to my Digital download, CD and Blu ray on the same system and I prefer them in that order. The CD does not seem to add anything other than a slight sense of separation. Personally, I prefer the instruments to be close together out of which emerges choices rather than vaguely disembodied, a bit like Jazz. The music from the surrounds sound echoey and lost. </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">The Blu Ray however is unlistenable. The Cymbals sound thin and ugly there are some bizarre volume drops and the voice seems to be lost as if its in another room. But anytime the drums are important its sounds mirky, a kind of unpalatable wash of sound. </span></span><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: 13.5pt;">How strange the digital down load is the best.</span><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">But let’s not leave the work with that heartfelt and sincere criticism. I really do not expect anything from a musical family that has needed A Lister new blood for maybe forty years. But it’s great to see one of the two late entrant A Lister’s (Trevor H being the other) up together with all his musical genius intact and remembering that if he is going to make a “rock” project it needs to have flair, pace, energy and a ton of excitement. Thank you, Mr Rabin.</span></span><span style="text-align: start;"></span></p>Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-65874529964749786712022-09-06T07:29:00.011-07:002023-07-02T00:26:43.994-07:00John Holden - Sakusei no tayasu-sa (Ease of Creation).<h1 style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Kintsugi</span></h1><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">With John's fourth project he has moved into an area rarely inhabited by the kind of bands that he and I share an interest in. Bands become a victim of their own momentum and feed on themselves. John on the other hand has no other consideration than to make music. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">I have been thinking of artists that set aside naked ambition and just instinctively create. The Beatles "White Album" written in Rishikesh has that feel. Joni Mitchell's "Hijira" is more focused than "Hissing" it feels more naked, more to the point, as if you get a more clearly distilled vision of the artist. Perhaps Steve Winwood's "Arc of Diver." is an artist arriving at a destination rather than striving restlessly for more 'something.'</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Thats what I feel I am receiving with Kintsugi. Part of that is because John has taken more personal responsibility over the playing, part is due to his absolute determination to feed the songs rather than the arrangements and part of it is about experience and confidence. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Unlike the previous CD's, particularly the first two, where there was a desire to make a particular statement about ambition or achievement; Kintsugi emerges simply, organically; relying entirely on the inherent internal strength of the lyrics and the ability of the music to move you. There is, to coin a phrase, no window dressing. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">So the individual pieces</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><b>Achilles</b></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Starts with an aching peon from Achilles mother. The music communicates the pathos of trapped destiny, of hard choices. The first time I listened to this I was convinced John would opt for a prog rock decibal jump out of the simple piano, string accompaniment but this is a more experienced John and nothing of the sort happens. After all decibel jumps are at least fifty years old. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">What actually happens is the piece <i>evolves. </i>It begins with a charming guitar intro (with a deft key change) before That Joe Payne (TJP) enters, whose vocals are better than ever. John keeps the wick turned down but raises the emotional stakes. The piece then heads up into the heavens led by a delightful guitar solo from Mr Shankar which he keeps, oh so short. The music drops off again and the vocal verses return as we head on into the story. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The music is constantly understated and yet very emotional. The beautiful vocals are surrounded by a great sympathetic accompaniment and then a gentle ascension and only at the 6.30 mark, following some menacing strings, do we get a battle section out of which emerges guitar mayhem courtesy of Jake Lizzio. However within a minute and half TJP returns </span><span style="text-align: left;">with the plaintive main theme. John has used the guitar histrionics in the way Brian Wilson would do, to communicate a specific point in a pocket book manner. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">He unintentionally makes a musical point that the chaos of war, of battle, can be made in ninety seconds in an entirely coherent and fullfilled way. It does not need to take 15 minutes of chaos to represent chaos. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">So the dominant musical narrative used to capture the pathos, sadness and fatalism of the song is the TJP vocal narrative and when at the very end the beautiful acoustic work returns it is not in a, 'here is the taking care of the business quiet emotional ending' but as the central undertow of the entire piece. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Fantastic. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><b>Ringing the Changes. </b></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Serious purveyors of prog rock should not write songs about Bell Ringers but with this piece John is much closer to the story telling of the Folk Rock Band Fairport Convention, who might have written this piece. I love Sally Minnear's smiling vocal as she tells the tale of the various personalities involved (Henry's due a replacement knee.. dear marjorie has twenty cats). If your looking for the naked ambition of some of John's early work you will not find it here. It is replaced with rye observation par excellence.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><b>Kintusgi. </b></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">I am now a huge Peter Jones fan, a mix of Peter Gabriel, Michael Bubble and well any great tenor voice. Peter's reading of this piece is heart breaking. It is full of soul and the accompaniment exquisite. There is a lovely sub Japanese repeating motive with in the tune. There is also a shuffle with some great skittish drums. I love the drums on this project (only used when they are needed). Frank Van Essen plays some great violin and Michel St Pere, that big bold wonderful gothic rock guitar player for Mystery, adds some surprisingly atypical dribbling very tasteful subtle guitar. If Michel had come into the scene forty years ago he would be an axe hero. I love his beautiful warm thick solo. Towards the end he introduces some nice reversed moves on the fret as if the solo is moving backwards. Then Peter comes back in double tracked and sounds as attractive as the hoody Baritone of Mr Greg Lake at his peak, and then we are done.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Fabulous piece.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><b>Flying Train</b></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Everything about this piece is a surprise. Overhead railways in Germany in 1902. If the kind of engineering inventiveness had been given full rain in the first half of the 20th Century, history might look very different. Bombing cities with sacred cathedrals was never going to win the second world war. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">This is a glorious mid paced instrumental, where you really listen to the drums because they are not the obligatory playing of a band but NEEDED FOR THE PIECE and has that kind of remorseless logic that suggests Engineered parts moving seamlessly together. I am put in mind of the kind of communication that Brian Wilson achieved with the wordless "Who Ran the Iron Horse." </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Lovely synth solo towards the end not to long, very musical and simpatico; no fleet of fingers Wakemanism's and John provides great instrumental inserts as the piece fades out leaving us to think of this extra ordinary achievement.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><b>Xenos. </b></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Starts big with syncopated strings and then goes naked, almost Jim Croce, with scrubbed guitar with a great smokey vocal from Iain Hornal. Much will be made that he was linked to that well known solicitors firm, albeit briefly, Anderson, Rabin and Wakeman, experts in Litigation, Inheritance Planning and Patents, but that's irrelevant he played Bass for them and here he is a great lead singer. His performance has a</span><span style="text-align: left;"> darting restless quality, like the immigrants he is describing. This is a lovely dancing, syncopated track, with once again the lightest of touches from the drums. It also shows another of John's great writing qualities, his ability to write great choruses. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><b>Against the Tide</b></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">As John explains in his superb liner notes this track is a follow up to the excellent High Line. P. Jones is perfect to recapture a more laid back version of the original song, less New York more LA. Great saxophone playing, the drums and Peter shuffle, and the harmonies are GLORIOUS. In a phrase this is a wonderful grove song. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">John must have a very clear songwriting foot print because despite having such a wide range of musical approaches I never sense disconnect or 'lost pieces' on his projects, . Back to this one and like High Line it grows and grows and gets stronger as the forces coalesce. The vocals get stronger Peter double tracks against himself but again when there is a solo its short and sweet so momentum is never diverted and with an upward key change and Peter improvising over himself it ends joyfully.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">A great return.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><b>Peggy's Cove </b></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">To begin with it is all 'Braveheart', which is not a criticism but the echoing sounds of bag pipes from that film is burned into my psyche. It then breaks out into a a lovely syncopated piece of fun led by Sally. In some ways this is a more rhythmic cousin of "Ringing The Changes." Again the percussion is used to such great effect adding </span>atmosphere<span style="text-align: left;"> in the central spacey section before Sally returns and her double tracked vocal is a highlight. Sally carries on telling the story until a neat removal and we move to the final piece.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><b>Building Heaven</b></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The final offering starts with acoustic guitar, strings and programming which coalesce in a journey. David Bainbridge joins in on guitar and Jean Pageau on Flute both highly sympathetic to achieving that build to perfection, to heaven. Its a beautiful uplifting tune, the idea fixe for the entire work. Sally comes in offering the vocal narrative, which reminds us that the journey to heaven is founded on death and rebirth, echoing what is to come later, the destruction and rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Then the awful reality of the second world war intrudes. You sense the bombs raining down, their explosive force as they ignite, flames leap in the air, and this precious building, collapses, crumbles and turns to dust. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">In the aftermath of the raid by the Luftwaffe some try and salvage whilst others look on distraught. But mercifully the music takes us away from the hurt and pain, it becomes playful, hopeful and eventually that hope turns to action, and the music reflecting that, takes on an added sense of purpose, power and intent.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Finally we can move to refection and John's tune is lifted by a lofty guitar solo. The singers very cleverly echoing the reality of what happened, coming together to offer a choral message in unison, of forgiveness that frees all to rebuild heaven. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The musical narrative is modest, compact and focused as it supports the story of forgiveness, then hope and rebuilding. The final moments, as they should be, are quiet and intimate, the piece ending, bathed in sublime gentleness. It is not a prog rock drop off but entirely organic and appropriate, in the same way as everything that has gone before. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">There has been no bombast, power for its own sake, playing to prove a point. There has just been beautifully crafted heart felt moving music which I look forward to journeying with over and over again. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></p><p><br /></p><p> </p>Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-52645533341503762522022-05-27T06:41:00.008-07:002022-05-29T00:23:11.918-07:00Alan White - Lights Out <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> <span>Alan White</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">When Chris Welch commented on Bill Bruford leaving Yes in the summer of 1972 he said it was like Rolls quitting Royce. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Over the years since then all the talk has been about how complex Yes's music was by then and what a mammoth task it was for Alan to come in and learn all that stuff in a few days which he did in time for Dallas.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">That was only a small part of the story the reality was the way Bill and Chris worked was entirely atypical. To break into that required a complete rethink for the entire band. Chris towards the end, on the fortieth anniversary of the Yes Album acknowledged that. Rick in late '72 found the change unsettling. It was as if the foundations of a building had been completely remodelled and the upper floors didn't sit properly afterwards. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">When you sat in the Wembley Arena in 1977 and listened to Alan count in Starship Trooper you knew the journey had been made. Trooper, Siberian, Good People, And You and I, were BETTER than the originals. Alan and Chris made the band more majestic more spiritual more moving on these pieces. But it was a real exercise in patience and commitment to the band to get to that point.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">When Chris was interviewed in May 1973 when they were rehearsing for a new album, as we called them in those days, and asked how they were going. Chris said they would come away with something achieved every day whereas in the past arguments made the going slow, some days nothing got done. </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Maybe they should have argued more but Alan's approach was to vibe things up and Chris was still learning how to fit around the new drummer. He got a parking ticket the day of that interview. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Looking back Alan had to completely rethink his approach and having been a Beatle Drummer, with all the kudos and openings that brought, its amazing he stuck with it. It was not an easy gig.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">What really began back then was unswerving loyalty to the cause that was their right to the end. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Relayer showed how quickly he could learn and that sharp clean sound on the drums was back for Sound Chaser and To Be Over. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">The solo album showed what an intuitive drummer he was and somehow the mic'ing of the kit caught this wonderful three dimensional warm musical vibe that the band was not able to capture. Oddly much later capturing Alan at his best also came outside of the Band. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">if the live act of White/Squire was on the money by '77 three years later they were veritable monsters in the studio when what began at Redan with 10 pieces morphed into Trevor and Geoff joining them. Messiah and Lens had that hard edged playing with tons of space, this was a new forward looking rhythm section with the values of Bill/Chris in there. The sound was clean the playing energetic, certain, Offord was there along with Horn T. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Sadly it was not until Keys that freewheeling open ended approach returned where the music was both expansive and controlled and routed in the two of them. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">However with the accidental Yes of Rabin Alan showed yet again what a huge musician he was. He completely reinvented his style with only brief moments (Intro to Changes) where 70's Yes was on show and boy could he swing. No one got Rhythm of Love like Alan. Whatever else one thinks about those years, Alan always delivered what was needed.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Fast forward to 1995/6 and he showed with Keys, one of his greatest performances, how much he had developed something Rick acknowledged publicly. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Artistically Keys was really the follow up to Drama but with a different front line. Listen to criminally overlooked pieces like Footprints. Alan was spartan but powerful and Chris would nibble his way round the piece or just funk it out. This was the kind of understanding that made music making seem effortless but it gave such certainty to A.W.H. and they were much more playful and inventive in the way that Yes should always be with such a certain powerful foundation. </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">What a talent to play Owner, It Can Happen and this stuff. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">There was also something else which I learned through Alan, to hear the drummer playing the melody, listen to Bring Me To Power and at different times they are all playing the rhythm and they are all playing the melody, phenomenal stuff. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Whilst the top line was fractious coming and going and uncertain, Alan and Chris always turned up and when Yes tried a fourth wind with HSW W was there. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Personally I think those four years off the road were not helpful, these guys needed to work and stay on their game but from 2008 right through to 2014 Alan and Chris were the foundation stone of all that touring and then out of the blue came Levin Torn White. Like that project from the 70's it got so much more out of Alan than the contemporaneous work the band were undertaking and its difficult to get your head round the idea that the same man played drums on Heaven and Earth and LTW.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">He worked with others before Yes, you may have heard of them, and during, there was a really long piece a jam with the late Paul Kossoff I recall on Koss's own album. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Colston Hall under the Dean Canopy 1975, Starship the encore at Wembley'77, Colston Hall with Benoit, Oliver and Astral Traveller and the magic hat in Glasgow in 2015 with young William on the Bass. Thank you for such wonderful memories. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">At the end of every concert in the UK in 2011 Chris thanked us for our commitment. I reciprocate that to you.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">So its "Lights Out' Alan you have pushed the envelope, shot out across the horizon and disappeared "Onward" with the "Keys To Ascension." </span></p><div><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p>Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-6803194654059512382022-04-24T08:27:00.006-07:002022-04-24T08:33:13.728-07:00Tiger Moth Tales - Spring Fever.<p style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">Time Won't Wait For You and Me.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">I have to admit as the years role on for music to get passed my defences gets harder and harder.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">When I am becalmed somewhere in the world the sound track to my day is BBC Radio 3. Extra ordinary sonata's, symphonies, sacred music, jazz tumble out of my beloved Sonos. Today Janacek, Sibelius, Vaughn Williams all floated up into my loft. If I want to set the agenda it might be Holly Cole, Streisand, Sinatra as the sun falls out of the sky and supper beckons. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">Jan Garabek, Jaco Pastorious, Hilliard Ensemble one could go on. I left tons of my teenage music behind years ago but if the stars collide I would happily sit in the theatre in "Chippy" and revel in the warmth of Fairport or the Nettlebed Folk Club where I have seen Home Service. So scene set whats this TMT like.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">Peter Jones Tiger Moth Tales has got behind my defences and its utterly wonderful. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">When I listen to his bravura performances on "Spring Fever" words and phrases that come to mind are energy, intelligence, charismatic singing, focus, urgency, originality, mellifluous drumming, searing sophisticated block vocals, jazz inflections, bollywood and musical breadth. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">"Spring Fever" erupts out of the speakers, a little bit of prog rock bombast before he hits his stride. The first thing that makes me smile is the use of sax and block vocals which give it a smooth sophisticated feel but at speed. The drumming is not rock steady its jazz playfulness and swings and there is a mad cap lead run by the Bass its all very EXCITING.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">"Forester" starts off quite different chugging acoustics, injections of recorders but its the vocal performance that dominates. His voice is big and smoky a sort of Peter Gabriel meets Michael Bubble. The latter comparison comes out of the sophistication of his phrasing. He is not afraid to sing, you know, in a tradition rather than be clever and perverse. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">"Holi" the fourth track starts all mysterious with wonderful volume surges and then Indian flute playing evoking moments by the Ganges. The mood stays in tact with lovely pattering percussion but then erupts into an exciting chant, not pontificating pseudo religious just buying into the joyous tradition of Bollywood - there I have said it, and it does not go on and on. It leaves you wanting more. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">"Goddess and the Greenman" is just a huge love song important piano intro again lovely use of wind juxtaposed against stately acoustic guitar. But its Pete's performance that takes you higher and higher if you like that kind of bittersweet introspective I am happy I am crying feeling (I do).</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">"Mad March Hare" is quite different, jazzy, fun, great syncopation and again the vocal performance comes over as "big international performer." Big stomping chorus and then it dissolves into a quite plaintive run indeed Viv Stanshall comes to mind and the Bonzo Dog Band with its zany moves and its not just clever its ENTERTAINING.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">"Rapa Nui" is a MASSIVE CHANGE. Its the riff from Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song and I start singing ahahahaaaah. Then it resolves into a huge verse which Pete's voice is more than capable of carrying. But the otherworldly feel and changes dominate which is the perfect back drop to song that invokes crossing oceans to discovery's which retain their mystery .. and answers. Music and Subject in perfect symmetry. Then the huge chorus "We sailed on from Easter Isle a people left in doomed exile." and then a perfectly judged enigmatic large questioning ending.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">"Light" is a return to a beautifully propelled mid paced folky piece. It is vaguely torch a rallying call. This is just very emotional beautiful music wonderfully performed. It also has a false ending and after several moments of silence a super bit of funk starts up great urban synthesiser emerges, a bit David Sancious and with the introduction of horns taking the chorus it sounds very Steely Dan and fits perfectly with the use of Brass and Block Vocals earlier up the repertoire. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">Mr Peter Jones thank you for getting past my defences. I love your music and I cannot wait to sing this sat on a downed tree somewhere in a forest there or there with mountains and or fells as a back drop. Imitation being the best form of flattery.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-76734730755801246822021-04-09T10:34:00.003-07:002021-04-10T01:38:00.526-07:00John Holden - Casting the Net Wider<p style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: verdana;">Circles In Time </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">At 65 is music, indeed everything, nostalgia, merely a rerun of the familiar? Do we travel to the same location on holiday as we have for the last twenty years, do we simply listen to music that we did forty years ago? Is the objective simply to be reminded of the past?</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">If I listen to music from 1971 "John Barleycorn Must Die," my first LP, I am testing both Stevie and myself, do we still speak to each other? In that instance, the offering of blue eyed soul, jazz and folk does speak to me now we are still "in a relationship." The 'getting it together in the country,' walking the Berkshire Downs still happens it still means something.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As with everything I do not want more of the same, to simply go through the motions, I want to pass through an experience that says something unique, adds to the journey and then stays with me adding a layer or two.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">John Holden makes music for himself and on the evidence of this third project he has retained his sense of inquiry his desire to move forward. He has discovered different musical valleys and dipped his fingers in different rivers and streams and then challenged himself to see how "Holden Music" comes out out of this altered landscape.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">To the music then, we begin with something a little familiar, a move along from past glories.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Avalanche </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It begins with what sounds like a mellotron stab some fizzing electronics before a furiously fast technical guitar riff and then opens up into a mid paced anthem almost Trevor Rabin, all bare chests and macho posturing of yesteryear but that is a false trail and it quickly changes again an ascending descending solo which maybe echoes Brian May's calculated outbreaks of 'metal' on Queens most aggressive music.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The heart of the piece emerges and Jean Pageau, the perfect vocalist for a power song, offers a verse of sardonic observation before he storms in with the multi tracked chorus. The music is robust aggressive and the lyrics sound angry. Misunderstandings in amongst the more general onslaught but it finishes with a determination to hold on to not lose our head. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Is this about armchair warriors and there determination to brow beat one? Governments pretending to persuade one with fakery? Governments that make the autocrats who make no bones about it 'do as your told!' seem more honest and probably more successful in their brutal honesty.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Libby has stood back from being too personal so the lyrics can work on several levels. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Personally, although I have failed miserably to disengage on occasions in the last fifteen months, stories like the withdrawal of Rider Haggard's 'Ayesha' from Thebes to Kor for a life of contemplation seem very enticing so as to avoid the <b>avalanche</b> of noise and half truths spun in the recent past. I can see how the anger in this song works, if not for the same reasons. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A robust entertaining start well executed, John Holden cementing the approach he adopted for "Dark Arts." on his previous work.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">High Line</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So how do you follow a big aggressive track, an acoustic juxtaposition? No!</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The next piece moves into, well it presents the same problem as Steely Dan it cannot be pigeoned holed, it is full of soul, clever lyrics and gorgeous melodies and it extols that sense of style and sophistication that is particular, peculiar to New York. Glamorous, sexy and sophisticated. It's just great music which reflects its subject matter perfectly.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Towards the end it rides out with wonderful vibing from the Sax and Violin/Viola which are thrust along by the drums, you could be forgiven for believing they are all together in the studio it sounds so organic so connected. It is sophisticated, it's sexy and it's joyous. It is also a reminder John is a consummate mixer and producer. </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Secret of Chapel Field</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Once again we dive off in an entirely different direction. This is upmarket Fairport Convention indeed the story of murder and the uncertainties which John and Libby emphasise reminds me of the way "John Babbacbombe Lee" works lyrically. Fascinating story telling set inside an exquisite musical landscape. The forces are relaxed but on point, lovely acoustic guitar and the violin returns for this piece to conjure up pathos and beauty in equal measure. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The two vocalists are crackajack, Sally Minnear offers wide eyed respectful love (but of whom) and Marc Atkinson achingly misunderstood perfectly mines the male narrative. This music touches one and conjures up Chapel Field and the story perfectly. </span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Dreams of Cadiz</span></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And now wonderful Spanishry. Oliver Day shows what an accomplished guitarist he has become, getting inside the infectious spirit of the music. But I also love the use of piano with its slightly distant projection.As if we are sat in bar in Barcelona watching flamenco dancing accompanied by a duo.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A minute before the end there is a transition, which reminds me of Brian Wilson, and allows for a more traditional anglicised play out. "I am from the English tradition looking in on this beautiful music from Spain." We are the visitors soaking up the atmosphere. It takes me way back to a night of outdoor opera, not in Spain as I recall but Portugal, which elicited the same feeling.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Circles </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sally Minnear returns to offer the narrative which describes a recurring battle to fend off illness. The lyrics are auto biographical and remind me (my mother has been battling cancer and its affects for 36 years, winning half the battle and losing half the battle) of the constant ever present ebb and flow of joy and despair that goes with it. The rotating riff on which the vocal is built is the perfect musical metaphor in a sense you are trapped inside this narrow construction and occasionally John, through the arrangement, adds dark ominous stabs into the landscape interrupting that sense of being boxed in only to be threatened by dark uncontrollable forces. That is not entirely true at 3.04 an instrumental interlude that conjures up sublime precious heart felt love of its subject. Has there ever been a more beautiful synthesiser solo?</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Nevertheless the mood is uplifting and inspirational rather than melancholic and downcast. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I am sure its not deliberate but for Libby to write about her experiences when everyone is transfixed by the consequences of a contagious respiratory illness is timely. Since May 2020 800 excess deaths have occurred in England every week at home and only 2% are connected to the Virus. Life must go on but death certainly is, in all its various forms.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">KV62 </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I often say that the turning points in my musical listening journey had one simple commonality. "My god this is music I have been waiting for all my life." I will not burden these observations with examples but what is clear is John's view of what he wants to do with music as a creator is entirely the same view I take as a listener and none more so than KV62. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As soon as the stripped down libretto really gets underway I am reminded of Lloyd Webber's "Aspects of Love." Piano and voices telling a story. But before that we have a wonderful cinematic entrance narrated by Jeremy Irons. We are caste back in to the deep past of Egyptian mysticism two subjects which when entwined are of profound interest to me. It combines a feeling of Rider Haggard and Science Fiction perfectly. The adventurous aristocrats discovering/rediscovering ancient truths. The transition from past contemplation to present day exploring is beautifully executed by Nick Virgilio who offers perfectly judged percussive pattering. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Then Carter and Carnarvon begin their beautiful "Aspects of Insistence, of perseverance." You can feel their determination in the vocal delivery and the central tune is completely engaging. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The wordless orchestrated search takes us finally to the revelation of discovery but not before it offers all kinds of musical delights arabic motives, soulful searching and orchestral drum sounds before the next delightful tune which is presaged by a mysterious tension building cinematic entrance both musically and narratively . </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And we are in! "Wonderful, wonderful things" another big tune piano ascending climbing with guitar and then a highly original synth solo and its not a solo for a solo's sake its taking us somewhere. The musical forces retreat and then great playing on the vibes (nice and dry sounding, like BIll Bruford) leads us to the response to their find. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">We are now solidly in "Musical" Territory. A clever libretto, stripped down musical forces which mix vaudeville, ballad, orchestral, choral even church music flourishes, magnificent I have goosebumps,</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> eventually the music reduces to a prayer which rebuilds and then finally collapses tender, heartfelt and profoundly moving. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This piece is not a rockaphonic, nor a musical, indeed it cannot be pigeon holed it is its own thing. Its music which provides the listener with a new experience, a new landscape to cross, in two words, a progression. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p>Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-62133255390436418582021-03-06T20:25:00.008-08:002021-03-07T00:13:41.838-08:00Brave The Storm whilst your Apart. <p style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: verdana;">John Holden & Friends</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The matter we are least prepared for is death. Ours, someone we love how do you unbundle watching someone die and then deal without them. Modern life, state sponsored, is about avoiding death putting it off endlessly ... without considering whether the life we have the 'epilogue age' is of value. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Some find energy in knowing they are close to death, that life is especially precious that time is limited and when we have that sense of hurtling towards it a special kind of energy is produced.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This CD/project is intended to raise awareness of death from a particular condition but I suspect the personalities involved entire lives are propelled by the fragility of life of looking into the abyss of death and loss and setting it aside and climbing more 'mountains'. That seems to me a good reason why we would skip around our end. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This CD is a simple thing."I am not beaten I have more to say."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">When I put this collection 'on' I expected something like a sampler of one of those prog rock magazines. I was astonished.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This music is full of old fashioned passion, it exudes grace, heart felt sentiment, Tiger Moth Tales offering might be from a musical, "Love Not The Same" from "The Other Joe Payne." is reminiscent of Michael Bubble or George Michaels more sophisticated offerings. Mystery, a Band which holds a special place in my heart, because Benoit David graced them with his presence on a wonderful album ten years ago. Now Jean Pageau does the same on the utterly 'big', "How Do You Feel." Glorious big drum sound and lots of echo on the guitar which seers upwards through the heavens but its still tight and in control.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Mark Atkinson's "Brave The Storm," is one of a million responses to the human experiment, we are living through. He is right we must hold on and come through and when we do there must be CHANGE or the destruction we have wrought will be for nothing. But to weep and feel the pain of millions of children, of men and woman who have lost their livelihoods and business's, of the tens of millions waiting for life to come back normal so they can crawl out of the poverty they have been thrown into; to have a sound track for our emotions to all that, is RIGHT. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Oliver's (Oliver Day) contribution is charming subtle with those declining picked lines. He shows us life is about a restless search onward imbedded with humour. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Epilogue : Fly begins with some serious halting phrases from a piano before the voice comes in. One of many voices on thi CD that are a million miles away from that hairy rock tenor thing but controlled expressive thoughtful. "I need the strength to be alone." "to turn the darkness into light." "I will chose Life." The playing and arrangement on this piece are exquisite, the strings entirely right and the brass fits inside the music perfectly. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">But to return to the architect at the centre of this we circle around the next project from John Holden. John really is a wolf in sheeps clothing. Steady, unassuming, northern (whats with Lancashire and Cheshire et al Anderson, Emerson and Holden) and yet his offering here is PERFECTLY judged and oozes musical skill. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">After a big sound thundering around (death calling?) a rotating phrase, a beautiful female voice floats in, there is something vaguely Japanese in that repeating riff before it quietens down and then it returns again. "I am drawing circles in the sand with you." a beautiful image and the voice communicate the moment perfectly as well as a sense of determination to plough on when the darkness threatens to overwhelm. Then something musically extra ordinary happens a kind of bowed synthesiser or guitar improvises over that haunting Japanese vibe and its utterly BEAUTIFUL. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The haunting guitar comes back after a section with a nice loose drum accompaniment and then plays out. Utterly charming. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This is much more than a charity CD its a delightful collection of highly sympathetic music which emphasises grace, charm, beauty and the deft application of original and skilled talent. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">That it begins with "Northern Lights" by "Renaissance" is entirely right and fantastic fun with that high ascending Bass Figure but its the body of this project which I will return to again and again. Buy it anyway its GREAT! </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p>Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-39076956592228145242021-02-10T00:55:00.003-08:002021-02-10T00:55:36.357-08:00Gryphon - Get Out of My Father's Car. <blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The Spirit of the Bonzo Dog Do Dah Band Lives On...and others</span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Get Out of My Father's Car</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">After a furious intro, we settle into a wild zany piece which puts me in mind of Zappa's 'Mothers of Invention.' It's the wind instruments, in particular, that echo those offbeat sounds and shapes. But every so often the wistful elegance of Brian's <i>Horning</i> or is that <i>Crumming</i> emerge. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">However, its the madcap vocal which takes me back to those Mothers Albums of the late '60s. Great Fun.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">A Bit of Music By Me</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Is entirely different a beautiful piece of flute playing leads into some very musical acoustic guitar and lovely sympathetic shuffling drums. This is where the Bonzo Dog influence comes in one minute a piece is mad, offbeat with tons of unorthodoxy and the next minute respectful beautiful. As it moves on there is a little of that furious third album contrapuntal play but it is juxtaposed with humour and more bubbling from Brian. What always strikes me about Gryphon is there is so music in what they do and we finish with a real 'Lark Ascending' feel, exquisitely beautiful dense interesting music.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Percy the Defective Perspective Detective</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">This is classic Gryphon Riffing, punctuating with gone in the blink of eye aires. That <i>Mother's</i> feel returns with the staccato wind playing. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Christina's Song </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">This could almost be a 'Fairport' intro plaintive flute and violin. When the vocal from Clare comes in it reminds me of Simon Nicols folk voice of 1971 vaguely nasally. Charming 'old sounding.' The piece picks up the pace with a few minutes of piano riffing before falling away with some atypical flute. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Suite For '68</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Vaudeville, this really is in Viv Stanshall territory for me. Full of humour and curiosities. I could imagine this as a soundtrack for a silent movie. Once again it shows that special quality of Gryphon the ability to mix the unorthodox with straightforward charm as the melody is played out on an exotic wind before those rapid-fire staccato elements return. Some lovely organ stabs as it winds its way along to a conclusion which still manages to surprise.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The Brief History of A Bassoon</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Brian's amusing whimsical vocal style dominates. Constantly making fun of styles, accents. The central message it offers is offbeat humorous. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Forth Sahara </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Unsurprisingly we move to an entirely different mood elegiac gorgeous violin playing, other forces join in respectful more linear rather than the jumpy juxtaposition of the 'other' style of the project. If some of the work is offbeat zany this is beautiful in a more traditional way and by contrast, it shows up more easily. Toward the end, new accents, musical interruptions but the traditional approach dominates to the end. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Krum Dancing</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Fast-paced contrapuntal work then those classic Elizabethan accents and references (early G). I could imagine this as part of the soundtrack of "Shakespeare In Love." Everyone is playing the tune the wind (delightful). Up next I am reminded of Jethro Tull circa"Benefit" era. The intro is a dark moody bass line and more traditional playing and finally a fanfare some ROCK guitar followed by duelling. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">A Stranger Kiss. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Another mood change, communicating plaintive regret. Everyone quiet respectful and then Clare enters. I love her vocal on this and it's a beautiful tune. This highlights Gryphon's ability to give a fabulous tune the 'G' treatment in a highly sympathetic way. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Norman Wisdom from the Swamp</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Off we go with a rolling tin pan alley piano introduction but then it begins to surprise in its seriousness as if the arranger has put the humour on a leash always rolling it back in. Lovely soundscapes emerge before the vocal narrative emerges which itself is a revelation a kind of communal call and response across at least three singers and after that, we play out with the musical ideas of the fast-paced intro, a hilarious famous quote and then we are done.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">A Parting Shot</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">A beautiful ending a gorgeous heartfelt vocal with superb accompaniment. The vocal by Dave Oberle reminds me of Peggy in Fairport. The instrumental interludes completely on point. I am sure I heard Dave sing at the Stables in 2019 and somehow this piece has an air of familiarity to it, whatever it is a profoundly moving and satisfying end to a project that continues to see Gryphon growing, changing and evolving. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Most bands would not dare to move around styles idioms and approaches as much as Gryphon for fear of losing a part of their audience for part of the time. But this project which is more disparate and focused (if that's possible) reminds me if we put humour next to beauty, the linear progression against the staccato, the irreverent with the very serious all win out. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-74775803312204563902021-02-08T19:04:00.078-08:002021-02-15T14:39:54.176-08:00Downes Braide Association - Halcyon Hymns<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">A Paean To A Lost Life</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">21 years in to the new century, almost fifty years since "Close To The Edge." is it not ridiculous to expect new triumphs, envelopes to be genuinely pushed, great new dawns?</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">And yet "Skyscraper Souls," Downes Braide Association previous work emerged out of my lap top in amongst the sky scrapers of Abu Dhabi and did just that. The title track offered four beautiful impressions welded together into a glorious whole and took you on a journey and finally opened out into a beautiful elegiac finale. I really did feel we had some thing greater than the past and principally because it spoke to me then, now. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">So would Christopher and Geoffrey follow their suite length rockophonic with a double CD exploring the mysteries of life? Breath easy this music is progress but in its soundscapes, its performances and not merely ..longer.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Love Among The Ruins. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The spoken narrative sets the scene we are going to go backwards and find the myths and heroes that were the back cloth of the memories expressed here and gave those memories their colour, their patination. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Musically we have an uplifting strumming guitar, then some lesliefied keyboard sounds and someone plucks a string or two on the Bass. Oh Yes. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Then a nagging arpeggio aiding the statuesque triumphant march we have begun and Mr Braide comes sailing in over the top. This music is in no hurry, it's not edgy frenetic, their is a lovely slowed down section where he is waiting for his lover and she storms in with the most beautiful sky reaching guitar solo full of passion and emotion, one sheds a tear or two. To find love in amongst all this dysfunction what hope!</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The nagging riff the crooning guitar and the voice teasing the musical forces around it, beautiful. However as it fades away one realises in one sense it is deceptively simple.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">King of the Sunset</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">A curious percussive entry and then the scene setting of the physical beauty of the location. "Vast open sky, pink clouds hang heavily sun lays low..." Once established it celebrates echoes of the past, asks questions and Mr Braide is joined by what I thought to begin with was Marc Almond but its David Langdon, the latter's Baritone flirting with Chris's Tenor. Geoff's repeating chords here, using something which sounds like a violin, are gorgeous. This is the right side of mawkishness and in comes that man on the banjo great great emotional guitar solo not macho but full of passion. The piece eases back and then a massive surprise it sounds like Jimmy Page brought back from the "Battle of Evermore" a lovely Mandolin interlude and gorgeous strings from G.D. Now this is what I call music which progress's. Some one winds up a Who like smash on the guitar and again and then lots of exquisite screaming on an electric and then stop. Brilliant.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Your Heart Will Find The Way </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Typical DBA intro big open voice and then a great piece of funk emerges I dance to this across the Beach, up the Hillside over the mountains of Paradise. "Your heart will find away." Lovely rapid fire chorus's from the ladies. "Over the mountains and over the waves... then onwards great dancing bass and then the Guitarist, give the man a Oscar. "A Person of Guitar Greatness, colour unknown." Some lovely things shoot from one side of the mix to the other, a harpsichord tinkle and then we just get down and party. Someone hits the top of the kit (Tom Toms?) and then we slow down again and the ghost of Anthony Phillips on something which might be a 12 string. Wow DBA do early Genesis.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Holding the Heavens </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Starts where the previous song finished off lovely pastoral sub Genesis intro that Leslie Keyboard and then another switch to anthem mode. "Now we are here holding the heavens," indeed. I love Chris's nuanced performance here anthemic and big but also capable of controlling the upward flourishes. Again propelled by some nice rotating guitar. "So where will you go from here when your holding the heavens?" A good question. Again the return of that Genesis string feel before we ride through the march. Love the narrative as it emerges over the top giving context and then finally a gorgeous worldless chorus. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Beachcombers. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Less introspective more fun almost Manhattan Transfer with the block unison vocal and that Bass gets plucked in the grand tradition of random but not random at all. The ideas are repeated and then our guitarist sweeps in and ascends leaving the densely packed harmonies to play out. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Warm Summer Sun.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Begins full of pathos, On this piece Chris reminds me of Colin Blunstone. Lovely late Beach Boys call and response from his lead vocal. Then Marc comes in. I have never really appreciated how good a singer he is this is a great duet. This is a piece which also emphasis's another of Geoff's great attributes he is a wonderful orchestrator without having to offer any distractions. The consummate team player. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Today </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">A simple ballad and when the chorus comes in I am reminded of Reg Dwight. Indeed the guitar inserts are a dead ringer and then a narrative coda before a nice traditional guitar solo pushed by vocal flourishes. The ending giving it that extra gravitas and sense of band width and takes it away from being someone else song. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Hymn To Darkness </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">This piece is invested in so much emotion and even as I write I know its the perfect narrative for what the world is living through. "We'll sing a hymn to darkness and put the past to sleep." Beautiful Man Tran chorus which Chris works over. This is sophisticated late night music which very quickly fades, the message to me is this is unfinished business which indeed it is. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">She'll be Riding Horses.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">After the tentative questioning of the previous piece this is much more certain, up beat, celebratory lovely echoing vocal. Great repetition with all kinds of forces used to give it extra layers finishing with a tiny acoustic guitar cadenza.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Late Summer</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">"The sun descends with such cruel ease." "Why can't it last oh what a day don't let it end, promise you won't forget." A paean to love of place, of person, of experiences. Enchanting. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Remembrance </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">It opens with a summarising account of blessed summer and then musically shuffles, acoustic guitar playful spreading itself over the beat. Chris evoking the memory of all and wanting more, more than three score year and ten. Is that wise?</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">With the narrator constantly returning in one sense this is a Pop Tone Poem. The music languid drifting through time as the narrators, both spoken and sung, tell the story. The grown man sings about childhood distant lost. "We love we love, we love this dirty old ground and our hearts were racing." Musically the strummed string instrument begins to sound like a Balalaika/Bouzouki (ED apparently the Guitarist has played an Irish Bouzouki in the past). The piece becomes hypnotic almost a raga. The narration now digs deep, articulating and observing the quintessential English Summer and all it yields but one senses that within this is the remembrance of something more personal of someone who made these memories possible and will not be forgotten. I like "Remembrance" because this is not an attempt to offer a big prog rock track to end but more a dreamlike tone poem which mines a more subtle but equally powerful experience. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">For me though the central musical/vocal message of this wonderful work is "Hymn to Darkness." It begins with a plaintive cry to banish the past heads into a highly sophisticated late night feel which epitomises/celebrates all the wonderful qualities of civilisation of society. its sophisticated, exciting and aspirational but it withers, fades like so much sand passing through our fingers a distant memory of a past. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> </span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-73667218239291782452020-02-21T17:01:00.001-08:002020-02-22T23:13:32.288-08:00Rise and Fall - Making Deeper Connections<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">John Holden <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Capture Light" was one of those projects which were so complete so perfectly executed that like "Close To The Edge" when you played it, it deserved unadulterated attention. Each listen was an event I felt as if I needed to "dress up" to experience it. It was a summit moment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So how do you follow the perfectly executed, bring in an orchestra, jam more and write longer pieces? Fans of what was called progressive music in 1972 have experienced those choices from their bands down the years. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">John has the advantage of not being a precocious mid-twenties artist under pressure; instead, he can call on a lifetime of reflection and experience for the answer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Leap of Faith" begins with a nagging repeating piano figure evoking, mystery, questing all underpinned with a yearning emotionalism. You are drawn in immediately but to where? After this insistent beginning, there is no prog-rock transition instead there is beautiful maneuvering and mature musical repositioning and we receive our answer. The lyrical narrative reveals all, it is a quest of the spirit. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; text-align: left;">As the piece evolves and develops I am put in mind of Ken Follett's Kingsbridge saga a tale of religiosity spanning centuries into which Noblemen Monks, Abbotts, and ordinary folk are woven but the central metaphor like this piece is the Cathedral and the Monks. I am not listening to clever arrangements, a tasteful production, guest artists I am taking an emotional journey through revelation, hitting the highs before ending where such a journey has to end. “We can all fly until we hit the ground" The music is exquisitely judged always supporting the lyrical narrative solo's add color and take it higher and higher but they are never "breaks". Everything serves the journey.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Rise and Fall" John and Libby's lyrics are so well realized you cannot avoid having a view about them. So I understand the sentiment of this piece perfectly but do not agree with the third person! But that only goes to show how much is being communicated here. The vocal from Jean Pageau is "heartfelt" and a special mention for the wonderful sound capture of the guitar solo toward the end, a million miles from those L.A. guitar solos with their hackneyed balls to the wall attitude bravo!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"The Golden Thread" is the lyrical anthesis of "Rise and Fall." Every time I hear this song I well up. It's a beautiful tune, the piano-vocal entry is delicate and a charming dance. This is about love as graciousness as timelessness as everlasting. The string arrangements are gorgeous the performances perfectly judged, it's not maudlin or overwrought because it retains its dance and lightness of touch and the trick of bringing the two voices together works an absolute treat. As Chris Squire sang. "It's a perfect love song." or is it a song reflecting perfect love? So this is prog rock?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Dark Arts" When I realized Nick D"Virgilio was to drum on this piece I was intrigued would this be Mystery Nick or BBT Nick. The former is energized open and inside the music the latter because the drums are often recorded "last" can sound as if it has rather self consciously been added into an existing musical narrative. So what would we get? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Dark Arts is a departure for John. It is much more Mystery, robust ballsy and vaguely gothic and Nick knocks it out of the park. Musically it works perfectly the programming reminds me of "Kashmir" with its exotic eastern figures, the bass from B. Sherwood has that "playing the other notes" feel. The guitar is hard-hitting but given just the right amount of space. It's a more musical less hysterical "Machine Messiah." or "Achilles Last Stand." This hard-hitting ballsy music plays out against a vocal narrative that reflects the anger and disconnection felt by many that they are being 'taken' by the political establishment and those that support it. The music and the lyrics are entirely Sympatico. The perception that self-serving forces drive the world in which we live is perfectly communicated. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It shows John moving out of the comfort zone of "Capture Light' and adding to his repertoire of communication one should not underestimate such an achievement my bands from the seventies created some howlers trying to do the same thing. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Heretic" Of all the pieces on the project none communicate their subject matter better. The introduction communicates the alien, forbidding, uncomfortable, unknown terror of Jihadi's and extremism which is beyond the West's comprehension. But before we run for the hills a song of hope emerges that we (mankind) can regain our love of all that is righteous and worthy of retaining. The vocal is achingly prayerfully sombre and then switches to the chorus of hope utterly gorgeous. Back and forth the angst and release play out. "But there was a time when we lived here and loved here we sang our song" such hope!!! The playing here is perfectly apposite the strings, guitar, piano runs all entirely on point supporting the narrative. At 5.43 the song evokes its subject with perfect stylistic ingenuity your out there in the sand-colored desert towns and villages with the unforgiving sun beating down on you. By 7.41 the instrumental narrative is the theme of hope everyone chimes in some acoustic guitar and then the final vocal a delicate statement of the hope theme. Outstanding everything I could want in a piece of music as I move through my sixties but with my desire for challenges to make journeys intact! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In a sense, because John Holden is framed within the prog-rock universe it would seem entirely natural for me to wonder how it works compared to other prog-rock rather than Miles Davis, Sibelius or Holly Cole. I went back to some prog rock to see why John's music is such a joy and in one sense for me, it's not prog rock at all. It has none of that ersatz, ponderous mid-paced repetition that I listened to. Choruses and motifs don't beat you to death, there is none of that oh well we all have to be playing, one of the advantages of not being a band. Most importantly the music breathes and dances it communicates joy, grace, and charm. Oddly enough considering there is no "band" there is no wall of noise where instruments stream alongside each other without any real contrapuntal activity or connection instead it sounds like the players are really listening to each other working off each other. This witness's John's great skill as the director and pilot of the elements he is using. He has organized all the forces so that they are more than the sum of their parts and there is no fatigue whatsoever no sub Iron Butterfly intros with endless repeating staccato riffs. So this is prog rock? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; text-align: left;">"After the Storm" is this projects "No Mans Land" slightly atypical in style, more relaxed a gentle folk feel to it and lovely guitar strumming this reminds me of some of Mark Knopfler's work, it's not a million miles from some of Chris Leslie's modern compositions with Fairport. Lovely dribbling guitar figures contribute to an intelligent organic arrangement. It flows beautifully propelled naturally by unfussy momentum from the 'batterie' who is this guy? He is showing the most empathy I have ever heard. His swing is more relaxed and he doesn't sound like he is hitting the skins as self-consciously hard as with one of his other projects. When the keyboard solo comes in its highly complementary and like so much of the lead work fresh-sounding neither too short nor too long exactly the right length. It's the kind of song that could go on forever the perfect car song. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; text-align: left;">"Ancestors and Satellites" begins with Koto like sound reverberating 'out there.' Before a lovely questing vocal which moves into a 'coming home' chorus. It stops for some exquisite string sounds. I really love the accompaniment of the shuffling drums to this piece, which effortlessly propels a wonderful keyboard solo. It’s official I love Nick as much with John as Mystery. But we keep coming back to that chorus. "Light the fire words are spoken incantations stories..." and then step higher through superb vocals and 'important' piano accompaniment. What really strikes me over and over again as this piece crescendo is how perfectly judged the arrangements are. They are not histrionic, fatiguing they offer EXACTLY what is needed. From 5.08 the music steps down and the vocal reflects before the final assault. Nick gives us a brief calling to arms at 6.28, elegant long notes on the guitar and then we climb urged on by perfectly judged propulsion from the drums but the musical expansion doesn't come from the pace it's from the width, we have arrived all is before us. The perfect ending.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So John has found a way to ascend beyond perfection to fly higher, by being more emotionally communicative. Each piece tells us more takes us further and opens us to journeys that are more profound, sadder, joyous well more everything. Thank you, John and Libby thank you, everybody and a special mention to Nick D'virgilio who for whatever reason offers as satisfying performance as I have heard of his recorded performances.</span></div>
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Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-40992786740014511962019-09-28T03:25:00.001-07:002019-10-03T04:18:13.026-07:00New Frontier - Three of a Perfect Pair. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When the Trio toured in the UK in September 2013 it was clear the band were on the move. Their performance of Heart of Sunrise showed the band playing with more focus and attack and not afraid to pick up the more strident vibe of Steve's parent band rather than the shuffle employed previously. But what was most exciting is they played three new pieces which reflected a greater determination to move in on a more Progressive Rock feel and they showed the Trio coming into its own, developing its own musical personality. The titles of the pieces they played do not appear on this CD but I recognise the musical ideas and how they have blossomed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Hiatus</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A nagging insistent organ phrase opens proceedings and the first thing I noted was the superb way Dylan has captured Ross. Its a warm and full "old fashioned" organ sound rather than the thinner modern electronic facsimile that is now de rigour. The piece relies on the repeating nagging phrase, Dylan keeps time in that beautiful understated way which is his trademark and Steve weaves in and out improvising the melody with a Gibson Acoustic but also switches to electric to achieve some beautiful dream like "backward" statements, which remind me of Jan Ackerman and therefore Peter. Overall though the piece is the perfect opener building excitement in a very tight musical framework, a great atmospheric start. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Left To Chance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Opens up the mood, there are still intense moments of close unison work, playing off each other but then the music becomes more expansive with Steve playing more colourful solo's. At the five minute mark the music stops and restarts and for some reason the jaunty playfulness takes me back to 1971 and Traffic's excursions into Jazz on their greatest achievement Barcleycorn. Its Ross's funky playing and Steve big thick guitar phrases that provide the echo. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This feels more sophisticated, the playing more nuanced and the tune more involved as they grove against each other. The Co writer Mr William Bruford ! That explains it. Some wonderful drumming from Dylan shuffling the rolls forward without getting over excited or distracting. The main melody is lovely and Mr Howe obliges on the Fender bass. These little additions give the music more bandwidth. Then a signature rotation on guitar and we are finished. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Sounds like a piece that Kenny Burrell might have written and would have fitted in perfectly with the vibe of their first CD. It comes across as a musical statement about influences. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Gilded Splinter </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Is Back to the Future the wonderful intense opening unison playing which echoes in my mind as something they played live in 2013. After the intro it opens out and Steve begins playing some very elegant guitar work, then gone in the blink of an eye unison playing before more adventures. This again highlights how well integrated the Band have become offering a new sense of musical purpose and focus. With its "Classical Gas" construction is one of the highlights. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Showdown </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Echoes of Traffic again, shuffling Capaldi, nice sweet guitar licks and warm and punching Hammond Organ.This piece like the first reminds me of the excellent capture of Ross's instrument. Its particularly noticeable when there is a brief point when Ross is exposed before Dylan comes in and Steve has a lovely monologue. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Returns to that intensity I remember from the live shows. Steve plays an insistent rotating figure before the piece becomes more open. Indeed my sense when listening all of the music is it is very closely mic'd and the instruments sound "in the room"(that may not be the case as I am not a technician but thats how it feels, intimate). By the time we reach the seventh offering the band have built a very clear musical identity with their own signature sound. This I am sure is in part due to them writing all the material, to coin a phrase, they own it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Feels entirely Steve Howe Trio and yet some of the guitar work might suggest this could transfer to Yes and given Steve's dominate role here that shows how compartmentalised this music is. In reality, if it fits anywhere within the Lexicon of Yes it would be very early, the Unison Uplifting Rotating Riffs and Keys Studio with the clever and constantly evolving solo offerings. It is frankly the only time I am reminded of the association. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Western Sun. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In terms of colour with Fender Bass and Gibson Acoustic Western Sun is the most atmospheric and colourful track and Dylan is very sophisticated and on the money as he rides out the quiet parts and propels others. Ross on Organ and Steve on the Gibson Acoustic works really well as a combination. Nice change of pace on this piece which enables Ross to feature and build the music. A false ending gives the chance for the build to be repeated this is great music making, they are digging in and so am I. Voila!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The final number written with Bill has a blues feel to it, lovely lyrical guitar playing, a sort of latter day take on the area they mined with "He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother." As the music progress's you can hear more and more of Bill's tune which is very stately and grown up. Great atmospheric way to end the programme. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">After the excitement of 2013 I am pleased to say my patience has been rewarded and I can see this CD being a regular play in the years to come, part of my core listening experience. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Thanks to Steve, Ross and Dylan for what I am sure is for them a labour of love. Nice appropriate cover based on Dylan's photos. </span><br />
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Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-91730103360568428782019-01-11T14:05:00.000-08:002019-01-11T14:24:55.085-08:00Chris Squire Tribute - A conspiracy of love.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I was sat directly in front of Billy Sherwood on the opening night of their UK in 2016. I remember vividly his reaction to his first public performance of "The Fish." It was a clear demonstration of his love for the big man.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This collection though is not overwhelmed by sentiment it is a very interesting insight into Squire's contribution to Yes outside of the famous "pieces" which have been their staple 'go to' selection for the majority of the years since 1972. As Billy is intimately acquainted with the music he also has chosen to offer a fresh narrative almost a musical commentary on the pieces in question. For me the project divides between :-</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">1) The first seven pieces concluding with Parallels.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">2) The final five which are a mixture of extras and obligations with a further piece which fits the mould of the first seven. Track by Track then.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><b>On the Silent Wings of Freedom </b></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The performance is built around Billy's Bass Guitar which storms, caress's and then drives the music to a conclusion. Billy repositions the Bass firmly in the era of 71/72. High grinding churning sounds but 'clean' a strong presence full of power but never bloated something which Chris was concerned about when they were recording the piece in 1978. There is nothing stogy about Billy's playing it flies. Jay offers a powerful orthodoxy on the drums supporting the Lead Bass work and the guitar is also highly sympathetic seemingly finding more of the top line melody. This evokes more accurately the energised spirituality of the piece which brings me to the most interesting additions, Jon Davison and Patrick Moraz. Jon like the guitar work captures the mystical energised pulse of the piece and in the middle syncopated section and wordless vocal, retains gravitas better than the original recording. Pat shows precisely why no other keyboard player is better at Yes doing Jazz. His insertions early on add enormously to the atmosphere of the music and his solo at the play out is unsurprisingly far more serious than the original and surprisingly in no way trade mark Moraz. Its not a screeching bending solo much more naturally rhythmic. A great start. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Hold Out your Hand </i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The two pieces which start Chris's solo album are great lost Yes performances. So offering something meaningful was a real challenge but in Steve Hogarth's vocal delivery and Larry Fasts Keys one has the answer. Steve makes you listen carefully to the piece again because of that curious way in which he intones a lyric and Larry's Key's are not only special in themselves but are mixed much higher giving the music a broader feel. Oddly the Cathedral Organ intro is not missed. Billy offers a huge dose of love at the end with the Close to The Edge quote that finished Safe and became part of the Close To The Edge played on the three albums tour. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As someone who thoroughly enjoys classical and easy listening music I cannot relate to the angst in Prog Rock circles when non originals play or sing. Onward is a standard and it is perfectly suited to any good singer taking the piece and making it their own and Annie does just that. She reminds us this isn't a good piece of prog rock its a hugely communicative piece of music period and very moving. In the years ahead I can see all sorts of artists covering this and I am sure it would bring a smile to his face. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When I noted the inclusion of this piece from the "Big Three" I was initially disappointed this has gone from being much neglected to much played live. Most of the live performances in the cold light of day don't match the revival from 2004. However I was pleasantly surprised because after a very precise rendition of the opening rock section David Sancious steps in and gives an object lesson in how to grab a piece of music by the scruff of the neck and own it. You could argue he saves it from being 'by the numbers' but that doesn't matter its great and reminds us of how Yes could sound when they mix the orthodox with the off the wall without going off into orbit and losing the plot. Nice rock vocal from Mr Sherwood. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This is an endlessly fascinating piece of music which his Bassness played around with for years so its entirely right that Billy should do the same. I love Sonya Christina's opening vocal quote before Billy gets down to the Bass Guitar played a la 71/72 before a wonderful return of the vocal section. Billy has less three dimensional majesty in his playing than Chris but he has more playfulness in the shapes and figures. He sounds a little like the naughty boy playing with his favourite toy and bending it into odd but really clever shapes. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This was a great left field choice. It is a kind of new yes old yes that they could have become but wisely Billy avoided given their anchored tribal fan base but its great to hear Steve Porcaro move the Yes field just a little toward the centre with a really nice guitar contribution from Steve Hackett. This is a great addition and far better than yet more revivals from 71/72. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Parallels </i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Unlike 'Hold Out Your Hand' the organ intro sounds trivial compared to the magnificent intro played by Rick in Vevey but once thats out the way we get the characteristic Bass Sounds of 71/72 applied to this '77 piece, great simpatico playing from the Guitar leaving more space and less toppy than the original but there is also another interesting narrative here. We get to listen to Davison/Sherwood in a controlled setting on a Yes Song.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Billy's warmer voice shadows Jon's sweeter but narrow voice perfectly. I would not spill my coffee on the floor or have palpitations if these guys sang on new Yes music with this outcome. Technically the Unison Singing has a richer broader feel than the original. Please note that is not a comment about performance but production. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Summary to date.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For me this piece ends the interesting part of the CD before we move into obligations and extras. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Owner and Roundabout </i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This could have had me heading for the move on button but for two things.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">1) The completely bonkers mad cap performances from Nikki and Dweezil on Owner which remind us rock and roll should be fun. I just love Nikki's rasping energised delivery and Mr Zappa is as madly fluid and inventive as his father would have been.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">2) Roundabout is a studio recording of the live arrangement with the middle section in, so its a romp and Ricks trade mark rolling keyboard inserts are wisely....just left out. Listening to I can see Chris curling his finger in the air in that curious way he developed and fans mimicked during the acapella section.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><i>The Technical Divide and Comfortably Numb</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A couple of extras from Billy's library showcasing the late sometimes very late Chris Squire. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Don't Kill the Whale </i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">To be honest I hate this song and I have never understood any formation of the band playing it. However with Candice Night and Brian Auger involved its a nice exercise in a vaguely R & B feel but that Cetacei chant doesn't get any better for me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Summary. </i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Billy and the players take the music entirely seriously and offer many new insights so one can form a new relationship with the familiar and also one or two surprises. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The project also reminds us that after Relayer Chris, as he talked in interviews in 1976, wanted Yes to progress but not necessarily by making longer and longer pieces of music. Parallels, Freedom, Onward were potentially the beginning of a new kind of Yes more direct more rock and you could argue they did lead naturally to Drama and 90125 however odd that might sound.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So Billy has displayed his great affection for his mentor, the players have offered us fresh insights and in some cases improved on the originals, what more could one ask for? The fun of Owner took me by surprise but sends out an important message into the angst ridden community of Yes relax laugh a little more, we only come this way once as Chris and Peter would observe.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In listening terms if you are past Christmas and have put Swiss Choir away break out Fish Out of Water, A Day in the Life and this CD and remind yourself of an important part of Chris's legacy beyond Yes's most well known work. </span></div>
Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-17963120148152219662018-08-21T02:21:00.000-07:002018-09-01T06:29:13.166-07:00Gryphon - Reinvention<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When a Band records its first new collection of new music in 41 years it poses questions for both the musicians and the audience.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">To make it personal I am not the same person I was when I was 22 in 1977, when the Band last made what we used to call an album. I have similar thematic qualities but transactionally I am different. To keep it simple I still like music to be thought provoking and expansive but I do not need it to be precocious or clever. At our ages neither the musician or the listener has to make points to themselves about their extra ordinary wisdom and good taste as either player or listener. Cleverness was a big part of the 1970's post Beatles music and sometimes it paid off and sometimes it did not. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So what do I want from music now. Charm, grace, humour, intelligence, emotion rather than cleverness, the latter sated my precocious youth, </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">oh and something that clearly communicates a shared love of the band and its music rather than themselves. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Re invention begins with one of four compositions from Brian Guilland. "Pipeup..." opens with a beautiful airy motif played on a wind instrument and takes flight in a vaguely Andalusian way, the band come in and interject with chops and licks before a delightful Mandolin (Harp like) phrase, nothing overstays its welcome and words like delicate and subtle come to mind. Then a jaunty section which gives way to more picking and just when you think the music might just be a rather charming instrumental it stops and in comes a vocalisation which interestingly takes me back to the Bonzo Dog Do Dah Band, delightfully whimsical. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The next piece is by new comer Graham Preskett who has a furiously heavyweight pedigree in amongst other things film music. Bringing in Graham after Brian is very clever. His pieces are more straightforwardly memorable, still Gryphon but a more direct set of arrangements. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">These first two works are a blue print for the the rest of their music, both having clearly defined writing styles.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Graeme Taylor's first "tune" (Haddocks Eyes) is a kind of Gryphon signature piece. The longest work on the album but to these ears much more musical and atmospheric than several of the heavily convoluted pieces of "Red Queen." That's probably because its rooted in a simple literary device, its the Song the White Night sings in "Alice Through the Looking Glass" full of the quaintness of English Whimsy (sorry that word again) and the perfect antidote to the auto tuned cynicism of today's music, a minor masterpiece of music making and not because its clever but because of its charm and grace. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The Preskett/Guilland compositional story continues before we arrive at Rory McFarlane's one contribution." Bathsheba." This is the tune with its repeating nagging introduction that gets you immediately, very straight forward as all the bands forces join in then stops for a delightful violin statement, then the two weave together creating simple musical magic. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The final Prescott tune begins with the feel of a Scottish Aire, I go all "Braveheart" when I hear this piece and start walking the Munro's, and shed a tear or to. The piece evolves the tempo accelerates and the players all chip in. I love the sounds of all the medieval instruments. It is beautifully orchestrated and it has a different kind of momentum to Brian's work giving the project a stylistic bandwidth.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Graeme's second piece "Ashes" mines the kind of territory that Genesis did at their beginning, a piece like "For Absent Friends" springs to mind celebrating Englishness on a Sunday and from the point of 1971 not 2018.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The CD completes with Brian's best work. A wonderful plaintiff introduction a delightful wistful vocal and then gorgeous stately wind playing. The second section is much heavier and a bit like Big Big Train, but in moderation, before taking off in all sorts of sparklingly interesting directions. For the third theme everything is reduced to a completely exposed keyboard figure very slowly, very deliberately (Yes you Yes fans you got it I Get Up I Get down) as various players flirt round the edges of the stabbing keyboard before it disappears, into the far distance, the whole enterprise having charmed us for a precious hour. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The Gryphon returns to the cover and looks to the left its head held proudly and rightly so. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A perfectly judged re invention.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span>Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-89980494945301739982018-04-13T12:42:00.001-07:002018-04-14T01:36:49.635-07:00John Holden - Capture Light <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The Age of Enlightenment - Is not lost.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This project singlehandedly speaks of a simple truth, that if we seek something more, which speaks of beauty and intelligence in equal measure, that celebrates the questing spirit of mankind whilst celebrating its past, we are not alone. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Tears from the Sun" begins full of atmosphere with a nagging rotating pulse played on the piano. The tunes it will encompass are suggested and as the piece begins to evolve I am reminded of the care that Brian Wilson applies to his most ambitious work. Endless small additions are made to build a a gorgeous fabric in which the ideas can thrive. But music needs personalities as well as personality, the twin Oliver's (Wakeman and Day) are quite superb providing a sophisticated beautiful palette, in the case of Mr Day, and wonderful appropriate rhapsodic playing from Wakeman on the piano.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">One quality that this piece shares with half of the project is the tunes are strong enough to bring the music right down to a plaintive story telling vocal, Joe Payne is perfectly capable of carrying the piece, his vocal is vaguely Operatic Tenor and like everyone else exudes class. So rather than self conscious loud soft contrasts, where there is thunder and then quiet, the pieces evolve and add a sense of journey and attachment that one experiences with symphonic structures. There are verses and choruses but within a mosaic of an interlocking arrangement and the tunes are good enough for you to sing along to. But like "One Race" its a cohesive journey.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Note </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This music knows what it is, orchestrated rock and the arrangements match the ideas. There is no self conscious attempt here to grow the music beyond its natural potential. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Crimson Sky" begins with a beautiful figure repeated on guitar and then appears to enter a quite standard four to the floor back beat over which Julie Gater sings, she has a beautiful warm voice and a good range but just when you think this is where ambition ends the tune twists, a heavy guitar interjection (wah wah) and then the pace comes off and the music is allowed to breath before returning to the more traditional element and young William on Gee-tar. But once again twists and turns abound, a wordless vocal takes the interjection, then the wah wah again, then a ravishing drum fill before that chorus returns. In other words the arrangement is playful, indeed the one quality that has knocked me side ways with this "album" are the arrangements, their inventive and audacious but matched with such appropriate good taste.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Capture Light" opens with a plaintiff reading from Joe and the beautiful balladry, piano and quiet guitar choices (acoustic) perfectly channel the beauty and vulnerability of Venice. I have sat in St Mark's when the sun has leapt from behind the clouds and dazzled the nave with sun light, captured light indeed. One element which I really enjoy is what is euphemistically called programming, which means conjuring up string and orchestral arrangements and more vaguely soundscapes. It has always puzzled me why brilliant programmers will work in concert to the great benefit of say Barbara Streisand but are absent from Progressive Rock (in the main). This CD shines a light on the advantages of programming adding endless additional insights into the musical tableau, creating atmosphere, supporting the themes behind a ticking percussion or bass guitar figure or a flourishing of chordal organ. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Ancient of Days" is arguably a straight song with a chorus which immediately had me weeping " Speak to the mountain, talk to the forest, starlight and sunlight leading the way, call to the valley, sing to the heavens, The Ancient of days" This chorus is EVERYTHING I have been talking about on my winter sojourn and mines the same narrative . If I can wrench myself to think about this piece intellectually what I adore about it is the musical patience displayed. A wonderfully spacey section (programming, drum fills, easing off, ticking along percussively, the bass and then the guitar threading an intense rock chorus before finally after so much musical teasing, emerging in a glorious finale this piece is "RIGHT THERE" for me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And there is so much more !!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"One Race" is invested in all the qualities of the first piece the atmosphere of the instrumentals feed directly into the subject. The atmospheric athletic beginning, the exposed vocal reflecting the subjects emotional state and then we are off the starting gun is fired and the music goes with it this is pure Brian Wilson ("Who Ran The Iron Horse" or "Mrs O'Leary's Cow") where the music describes the lyrical narrative. Again this is preceded by a beautiful slowed section where the tune does not need noise to bury or shield it, its strong enough to shine unadulterated and after the "result" descends through the pathos of Jesse's Story.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">CD's need curved balls to offer variety and "Dream Catching" with its spoken media intervention (something Trevor Horn uses to great effect) is odd ball so when the gorgeous tune comes in (and out) it is so much more appreciated. Throughout the CD snippets spring to mind of how other bands operated in their glory days and some of the cinematic elements remind me of Mr E. O.</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Papathanassíou but on this track the uplifting acoustic guitar strumming reminds me of Gordon Giltrap. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">"No Man's Land" is attached to the ideas of "Ancient of Days" except we are in the City, an intense repeating echoed guitar sound starts this piece communicating an unsentimental environment from which the vocal narrative allows us to escape from. This like "Crimson Sky" is a sophisticated "song" rather than a piece like "Tears","One Race" and 'Dream Catching". It has an urban jazz feel to it and rather than an "arrangement" it feels vibed up and self propelled but halts for some left field interjections. Great smokey vocals and a very nice authentic jazz </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">feel on piano from a Wakeman (!!!) followed by some programmed brass hinting at Harry South territory.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Seaglass Hearts" is a beautiful lollipop to end with, twin lead vocals, we are now firmly in Brian Wilson territory circa "Imagination" or "Lucky Old Sun" The listener is relaxed we are saying good bye laying back and just listening to beautiful warm music. One senses this is not "Lets Pretend" its for real and it completes with a nice musical joke which reminds me of "The Old Master Painter" from "Smile". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Frankly I am stunned, join me in being stunned and make the journey. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-91563308255466817502017-11-29T04:20:00.002-08:002018-04-13T11:37:46.025-07:00Downes Braide Association - Skyscraper Souls <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When we are teenagers popular music is the narrative of our youth. I was a teenager when popular music was exploding, developing endless possibilities. As one grows older you realise it was THE time to be a teenager and the real wisdom is to see the 60's/70's and those possibilities as THE answers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">What can we honestly expect now, post scripts choreographed bucket listed unfinished business, for me that is the best we can expect, and yet this new offering does something else. It plays to a narrative with every bit as much power and connection as the narrative of youth. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">At the risk of not appearing to value the beautiful arrangements and playing, which are of the highest standard, I find myself riveted by the lyrical journey. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">From the searing emotional refections of prelude to the atmospheric ocean tide section of the long title track one is caught by something I feel very close to "Life is to be Lived Not Avoided" and if it is we will be buffeted by the kind of emotional insights reflected in these thoughtful beautiful lyrics which are delivered with a real emotional power. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>Prelude</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"This is a song for those who never stop believing", "even when life seems so unfair" </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>Skyscraper Souls </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"If we can't turn back the clock searching for a place called home". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Ocean child take me away from all the madness we are one we are one" </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Just keep turning on this rock" ... "with our Skyscraper Souls"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>Skin Deep </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">With a great vocal from Marc Almond.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"pulling you in better watch out" "it might spit you out again" "well you wanted love when you felt so alone" "I know whats behind this indestructible" </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The lyrics speak to those deep into there lives who hold on to the magic of the 1970's when demanding music was the thing and an 18 minute track like the title track was de rigour and where their personal lives are a metaphor for that yearning that searching for more than a 3 minute answer where dangers and disappointments abound as well as wonderful revelations. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When you consider the blurb and the inclusion of very idiosyncratic talents like Kate Pierson and Marc Almond you might think the music might display a slightly fragmented vision but their contributions simply strengthen a cohesive and clearly developed musical foot print. Andy Partridge's guitar support is just that and you do not find yourself thinking thats A P instead you simple feel the playing is highly sympathetic. Indeed on "Darker Times" the vocal arrangement puts me in mind of the work with Andy Paley on Brian's "Getting Over My Head".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Music journalists need labels "pop progressive", "80's pop" to steer people and reference. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For me this is just music, at 5.15 and at 6.40 the instrumental work on the title track becomes internalised and complex and shows a sophistication which adds to the growing sense of collective journey but I do not see it as a prog fix, just music. Did a few of AP's licks echo the late Peter Banks ...YES. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Like all really great music its not an exercise in instrumental gymnastics its making a point reprising building strengthening the sense of a special cohesive journey which takes twists and turns to reach its conclusion. The great strengthen of the title track is it has that twin effect of feeling over in a flash but whilst you are inside it, time stands still. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"We are mountain climbers you and I" as the music builds to a crescendo from about the 10 minute mark.before falling away at the 13.22 mark to Ocean Child achingly beautiful. Right now this piece is the best extended work the most satisfying the most emotionally engaged since .......whenever. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So great humanist lyrics which make you smile, cry, yearn and reflect offered in a highly sophisticated sound palette. </span>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Side B is not a retread of the first two albums because of the support from the players rather than machines it sounds warmer and packs more punch.For me the stand out piece from this section is "Skin Deep" with a magnificent contribution from Marc Almond a great tune and arrangement but it is the vocal narrative dripping in emotional resonance which lifts this piece to another level. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Pieces like "Tomorrow" remind you of Geoffs capacity for finding great melodies. It has a nagging echo of something off the second Asia album indeed the vocal progression echoes the more robust style of the late John Wetton, I am certain this is because David Langdon is singing unison vocals with Chris giving the vocal slightly more weight. David also plays some lovely baroque wind on this piece. Similarly "Lighthouse" sounds like a high quality offering from either of the first two albums except Tim Bowness produces some wonderful counter point and harmony vocals giving the music more character. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Dark Times", probably because of the spoken introduction, feels more akin to the title track and the lyrics have that melancholy quality that informs the latter. For me the vocal arrangement match the kind of thing that Brian W can find in his reservoir of genius.The "What energy" section with its squiggly sumptuous counterpoint horn playing is, if you want to make a comparison, pure "Smile" </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So to the finale reprising those key vocal themes "searching for a place called home with our skyscraper souls". </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Beautiful.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My heartfelt thanks to Chris and Geoff for investing so much passion and dedication to this project which for this listener is exactly what I need and is more than mere unfinished business or bucket listing it is for us now. </span><br />
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Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-76763158477062969082016-10-24T05:49:00.000-07:002016-10-27T13:37:09.979-07:00A Stellar Brew Steve Howe Civic Centre Trowbridge<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The first surprise was the venue, set on the edge of a park and next to an Odeon Cinema and ubiquitous eateries, it was modern and fresh. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The crowd, a very pleasing and probably 150, nearly filled the Centre and Mr Howe (D) Subterraneans, which was played over the PA, set the mood for the evening. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Dressed in a suit Mr Howe (S) launched without ceremony into "Classical Gas" a wonderful combination of an anchored strong repeating melody but with room for exploration and variations the true stuff of the original progressive rock, blending the accessible with the surprising in a communicative way. Ambition drove the musical choices as he played and sung the "Leaves of Green" section of the Ancient and this set up a recurring theme through out the recital. This was an evening by the Yes Guitarist in a solo setting always bringing the music and the conversation back to his dedication and love of the mothership. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"J's Theme", one of the strongest pieces from Natural Timbre, is played with a real sense of Invention music pushing the boundaries. He also played "Corkscrew" which for me is every bit as memorable as Clap and Mood and should have been a solo piece on Yes Tor rather than developed into the song Countryside. The classical set closed with "Mood For A Day" which the crowd appreciated. What <b>I really appreciated</b> was the reverential silence that Steve was accorded and the Holy of Holy's in 2016 not a smart phone in sight. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The more gritty metallic sound of the Steel String sets followed. The highlights were "Intersection Blues" and the one I played on the journey home both Timbre and Band version, the criminally neglected "To Be Over"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The pairing of the early verses from "The Remembering" and "It Was All We Know" made me smile because I see the latter as evoking the same semi folk style of the song section of Remembering. Steve sang and his voice was very anonymous and lacked attack and clear diction, the only time in the evening when I wished he had not sung. The piece though is a bona fide gem from Heaven and Earth and if wasn't for the politicisation that exists around Yes, people would see it as a great miniature with a nice curved ball in the middle.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The break and whether it was the glass of Merlot but the 175 section came over with its echo and effects in a dreamlike reflective way almost like his Sutin CD as he played Dorothy and a couple of trio pieces including Sweet Thunder. A sort of guitar tone poem of themes. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The concert is well paced and for a man on his own you never feel the result is to narrow but in this last quarter we get the man laid bare. A wired version of "Sketches of the Sun" another top ten Steve Howe solo piece. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">His homage to Chris "Last year was a shocker", where we were encouraged to sing along with him had me in tears during "Onward" and tapping away to "Good People"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The encore set the seal on this being a solo Yes concert and entirely connected, with a great "Roundabout" with all the elements included and because it is solo reminding us how great the arrangement with Bill and Chris was. Steve reminded us on number of occasions that Yes = arrangements and that may bode well for any new music. Thats the distinction between the Bruford Band and all the other eras, spurred on by Jon, the other four "Built" music. The closest they have come to that is with oddly enough Trevor Horn and his auteur production. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Clap and Yes we did. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It was great to see Pam for the first time since Malcolm's funeral. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am quite happy growing old in tandem with Steve he is a man of passions and those passions are existential rather than mirroring. He is not there to feel the love or show how clever he is, he is there to celebrate the things he loves and so was I and it was a great celebration. </span>Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-3400969822757555262016-09-16T22:38:00.004-07:002016-09-18T13:45:57.509-07:00Home Service - Tune in and enjoy <b>Background</b><br />
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So why would a blog site ostensibly about Yes include a review of the reborn Home Service's new project. The seed was planted in 1975 with Gryphon, a kind of renaissance progressive rock band, supporting Yes's 1975 Relayer Tour. My interest was peaked by the astonishing "Rising Up Like the Sun" LP from the Albion Band which had a breadth and audacity which took the term "folk rock" to a new level. Many of the members of the core band morphed into Home Service with an expectation that journey begun on "Rising" would continue.<br />
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Now 30 years after the excellent "All Right Jack"comes a reborn band with new players and a new CD.<br />
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<b>"New Ground" </b><br />
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Overall Impressions<br />
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The introduction of John Kirkpatrick as vocalist, replacing John Tams, reminds me how important it is to have a singer who has their own identifiable style. John sits snuggly inside the "Home Service" ethos but is entirely his own man with a solid purposeful tenor voice, rich but not manufactured, which gives the music a sense of self without being to plaintively "folky".<br />
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The sound has evolved from "Jack" and it is as if the wind and brass instruments have been promoted into the front-line. Graeme Tayor's playing is beautifully featured but concise, so the brass and wind sound gives Home Service their unique signature sound and as a result you notice a real broadening of styles and moods.<br />
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Detail<br />
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"Kellingley" starts proceedings with a classic restatement of HS's pre occupations with the nobility and sacrifice of the mining tradition. The brass sets up the riffs and the pace but there are some wonderful atypical flourishes wrapped around the verse sections, this is entirely in the tradition of the unorthodoxy of 1977.<br />
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"The Last Tommy" begins with a grungy echoing guitar figure and forms into a classic folk marching song the vocals are authentic and heartfelt but it is the trumpet interjections which gives the piece its specialness and adds greatly to the pathos.<br />
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So far you may feel your about to receive a programme of folk music but next up in the delightful "Papa Joe's Polka" striking up images of vaudeville and a parisian street band, gorgeous fun.<br />
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These three pieces set out the stall for the rest of the project heartfelt songs in the folk tradition laced with fascinating new ideas mixed with wonderfully left field contributions.<br />
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"New Ground" is a signature piece high point, whereas "Wallbreaker" has a distinctly "Harry South" feel, sophisticated drumming, beautiful playing from the reeds and horns creating some thing fresh and new and John keeps it nailed in the bands personality rather than sounding like a random experiment. This bandwidth of styles is what makes the CD such a captivating experience.<br />
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"Dirt, Dust, Lorries and Noise" is a chant song with some squiggly interjections from the flugelhorn giving the piece a strange and wonderful enchanting feel. No obvious musical answers here hurrah for that !<br />
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"Kings Hut" takes me back to Gryphon, with its formal renaissance dance feel, but unlike 1973 the arrangement is more about the piece and less about clever playing. A great tune and one of the quantities this piece highlights is Michael Gregory, like all the great Fairport drummers, drums for the piece, no more no less, he is there at the root offering propulsion, as Bill Bruford would say this is about expressing oneself for the greater good rather than drum magazines. <br />
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Next up is the beautiful evocative "Melting" a lovely plaintive introduction on the piano then the brass before a heartfelt but unsentimental reading from John. I hope one day to hear this played live it would be a great stage performance. How do you follow such a gorgeous ballad, well you do not the accordion lead "Ten Pound Lass" is a restatement stylistically of previous achievements. Strong wind and brass building to a strong marching vocal and then on to the lollipop "Cheeky Capers" vaudeville, dance fun and a chance for the horns and brass to stretch out offering long languid lines before a final howling solo from Mr Taylor.<br />
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There is a great deal to enjoy here and what is most precious to me is the notion that thinking knowledgable musicians still want to eschew the obvious, stretch themselves and communicate something emotional and real which stays with you just as "Jack" has over 30 years.<br />
Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-49437293108538393372016-06-23T04:28:00.000-07:002016-07-11T23:17:03.399-07:00Invention Of Knowledge<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The second part of
the Anderson Trilogy has now been released. It is an inter-net collaboration
between Jon Anderson and Roine Stolt the guitarist with the Flower Kings and
Transatlantic.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Jon sent Roine a
number of his music files of demo’s recorded with various collaborators and
Roine, with the help of band mates and musical accomplices, fleshed out those
demos and the results were traded back and forth until they were happy a final
result had been achieved. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Part 1<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">A Prog - Rock
Musical Soundtrack Olias comes to Hollywood. </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The first suite
of three movements begins evoking the spirit of the re introduced
beginning of Tales From Topographic Oceans, before a neat flurry from Tom
Brislin (Keyboards). The main melodic riff is a variation from Yes’s ”The
Ancient” which Roine Stolt constantly borrows quotes from as the
piece proceeds, indeed the quotes from The Ancient are passed baton like
between Jonas Reingold (Bass), Tom and Roine Stolt with a particularly
nice reference to Steve' Howe's Pedal Steel playing at one point. The
final refrain from the overture before Jon's verse singing is one of the
big riffs from Gates of Delirium overture. All of this I am sure is
intended both to entertain as well as set out the stall for the aspiration and
direction of the music.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">They have poured a
good deal of music into the first suite with many
ideas coalescing to create a totality which sounds like the
soundtrack to a rock musical, up lifting major key rather than minor key
tunes with lush orchestral inserts. There are neat brief runs from Roine the
odd fill and roll from the drums but it sounds orchestral rather than jazz influenced.
There is no tear arse playing or extensions; the dominant feature is Jon's</span><span lang="EN-US"> vocals. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">This lack of
instrumental development gives the playing a sense of homage making. Tom
Brislin offers exciting spirited flourishes avoiding stock “prog rock”
mannerisms but the dense claustrophobic arrangements extends to</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US">all of the playing so</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US">rather than each player expressing their own personality and giving the
music a sense of self it feels like a rather sophisticated homage. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The second
movement takes the vocal melody of "Unbroken Spirit of Mine" and moves
into a nice groove called "We are truth". Indeed low down in the mix
you can hear Jon’s customary rhythmic acoustic guitar playing. There is a real
sense of performance with this section and I feel the band is communicating the
music outward towards myself. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The piece moves
through some standard up lifting key changes and then it comes off its crescendo
and falls into a kind of mood music feel. This isn’t the cool mystery of
Sibelius but much more the obvious communication of John Williams. This is too
Holly wood for my taste but a great success. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The third movement
begins with a recapitulation of the main melody of the first movement but those
large scale crescendo's undermine the crescendos in the second movement; the
music rises falls back with a rather unconvincing ballad section and rises again
before that quiet intriguing Tales opening reappears and drops out via some
musical progressions from “Close To The Edge”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">If they really
wanted to evoke the spirit of Yes they should have taken several of the themes
and written some really strong instrumental passages to give more of a
sense of journey rather than the disengaged routine feel of the Musical
Soundtrack it sounds like. The music lacks a kind of compositional robustness
and tends to drift rather than develop which in part is due to Jon’s wordy
fussy delivery. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The piece also demonstrates
the towering importance of Chris Squire to Yes's functionality.
For many this will sound like Yes but on closer examination it is
quite different. Chris would often play the root of the</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US">note, the tonic, that Jon was singing, on the Bass, as
well as harmonize vocally so Jon was getting double support from Chris. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The
bass playing here is more atypical and will tend to trade the riffs with
the guitar or keyboard, that is why when Jon isn't multi track
chanting his voice tends to sound more organizationally lonely than when in
Yes. It also an issue here of sound. If you sing Counter Tenor there is no better way to give it context than to underpin it with a warm rounded Bass sound to create light and shade and give the Counter Tenor a musical "home". With that absent the voice is exposed and its lack of timbre and depth becomes clearer. In choral terms it is as if you are singing 4 part harmony with three parts with the root missing so it has no foundation. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">There are occasional moments when the backing vocals respond to Jon but
this is not the close harmony of Yes. In the</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US">second movement there is a rare example of the bass playing the tune and shadowing what Jon
is singing, which is why it is probably</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US">the best element of the suite. </span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Indeed I have listened to this first
suite with just Jonas and Jon’s playing and singing in focus and far to often
Jon’s vocal dance and phrasing is out of step with Jonas’s playing, indeed when
they come together the music becomes much stronger and more powerful. Listening to the second movement where
the playing and singing are in sync that sense of randomness disappears.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">After repeated
listens I realized I wasn’t really captured by this project and I did not quite
realize why. So I listened to “Love Devotion and Surrender” a very spiritually
fused project from John McLaughlin and Carlos Santana and Roine’s latest
project with Transatlantic “Kaleidoscope” again driven by a very spiritually
energized Band. What struck me forcibly were three qualities: -<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">A very real sense of performance with powerful crescendo’s and beautiful
diminuendo’s which communicate real emotion.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">The music is more organic, the core vocal contributions are powerful and
incisive allowing the instrumental players to really let go and express
themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3)<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">Whilst strongly spiritual, not every ones ‘cup of tea” the message in
the lyrics and the vocal performance was much more compelling.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4)<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">The songs all had much more personality and variety.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Part 2 </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The remaining six
"sections" operate quite differently from the first suite. Organized
into three separate pieces, two suites and an extended piece,
they are essentially 6 separate straight forward songs, mainly MOR
pop melodies, where an attempt is made to give them significance by
collecting them self-consciously into extended works. </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><u><span lang="EN-US">Mission
Praise Plus</span></u><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Everybody
Heals/Better By Far/Golden Light are three almost entirely disconnected
pieces (movement 1 and 3 share some musical verse ideas). The playing here is so much
better than the basic musical ideas and Jon’s dirge like vocals contrast with
the occasional skilled intervention by the team in Sweden. This feels like a
poor man’s ABWH channeling the feel of Brother Of Mine and Quartet which
contained much better “songs”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Everybody
Heals" is the low point of the project with its generic Christian Praise
vibe combined with a brief interlude at the end with some good work from the
band which feels tacked on and musically random, one is longing when Tom comes in and plays some spirited acoustic piano responding to Roine to really get down to some serious and communicative music making. Indeed the suite finishes with
two "Rock Musical" vignettes, Better By Far begins with the opening
musical riff from the Overture of Fly From Here and ends with some good acoustic piano work,
which feels like an after thought. This isn't Igor Khorshev's beautiful ending
to Home world, which was anticipated and brought in by Steve Howe's guitar, it
simply comes across as some late night playing of a couple of inversions of the
themes. Technically its right but it has no emotional gravitas whereas Wally
Minko rhapsodic introduction to Wondrous Stories, that he plays in the APB live
set feels real, fresh and emotional. The overall experience of this suite generates no sense of completion or real communication. Elements to admire within the overall musical arrangement for a Yes musicologist but nothing complete that you can form a relationship with. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">I am bound to say
the lack of real musical "trading" going on between Jon and the Stolt team
shows here with Roine working really hard to make a silk purse out of sows ear. The playing and musical arrangements flatter the routine ideas. </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span><u><span lang="EN-US">Delusions of Grandeur.</span></u><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">"The
Knowing" and "Chase and Harmony" include within them some
very attractive melodies and a vocal arrangement, which has real
personality and is genuinely memorable. If it had been shaped as a 6 1/2
minute pocket symphony with neat tight movements it would have been
very moving and a powerful musical moment. Instead the ideas lose their impact
by spreading them over 17 minutes, demonstrating the impact of too
self consciously trying to frame music beyond its natural life span. </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The overall
impact of this piece is further decimated by taking ideas, which
belong within the "Knowing" and placing them in the similarly
named "Know". The refrain is placed after a long Jazz Ballad instead
of being a 90 second piece of genius connected to the original
work. </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The refrain then
leads into a 6-minute section, which then reruns the main melody from
the Knowing all over again with endless variations. There is a
real sense of music overstaying its welcome, four beautiful
musical ideas which Brian Wilson would have encapsulated in 6 1/2
minutes are extended over 28 minutes and when the piano plays out the theme yet
again, it has no impact. This is no grand exit it feels like a computer being
shut down at the end of an over long day. </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The sense that
these six pieces are instrumentally more ambiguous and generic is
only half of the musical story. The other being that Jon utterly dominates the
music. This over inclusiveness spoiled elements of both Ladder
and Magnification where the instrumental part of the equation did not
breath properly. Without the Yes Harmonies this puts Jon's vocal arrangements
and lyrics even more in the spotlight. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">On the former
there is a real lack of imagination and variety, the core
arrangement of the vocal melody of the Knowing being an exception,
endless chanting and repeats come across as one dimensional and
uninteresting. What’s more the actual lyrics themselves are rigidly formulaic;
the dense imagery of yesteryear replaced by endless platitudes heard
so many times before. When his voice is another instrument it is less important,
the melody and the sound can carry</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US">it through but frankly his trite lyrics and restricted vocal
dance is not capable of carrying the music as is intended here. The
overall effect is tiresome and repetitive. </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">This is not so
much an Invention of Knowledge but an "Exercise in Indiscipline" and
getting to know this music, once you get past
the entertaining opening suite, is an exercise
in perseverance. </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Once again I
decided to listen to a Pop Album with a twist “Lucky Old Sun” from Brian
Wilson. It to is thematic and offers repeats and reprises as well as a
narrative, a dangerous approach for pop music. What I noted was: -<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 37.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -19.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US">The really outstanding melodies were showcased with the right kind of
brevity in concise well crafted modular disciplined arrangements. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 37.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -19.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; text-indent: -19pt;">Overall the music seemed to have a much greater sense of what it was so
when the themes are reprised it adds to the cohesion of the piece growing its
unity rather than sounding like endless variations. I suspect this is because
Knowing and Know fall between two stools. They are neither structured like a
Yes “Rockaphonic “with real tension and release and a sense of journey nor careful
orchestral musical. Instead a series of pop songs are treated almost like a jam
of melodic ideas, there is a distinct lack of compositional focus.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">There is a slight irony to these
remarks because there is a really advanced demo, which has been heard by
aficionados, which treats the Knowing musical ideas in the kind of self
disciplined format which like the best of music leaves you satisfied but
feeling you want more. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Jon has talked
about wanting to get back to longer works but the music has to justify
such aspirations and live up to such ambition. The basic ideas that
he sent to Roine to kick-start this project weren't all necessarily
intended to be included in 25-minute multi movement suites and
it shows. </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Roine the eager
foot soldier has added his insanely detailed music to the pieces at a tactical
level, what much of the music needs, even the successful first suite, is a
producer who would look at the music strategically, the overall quality of the
ideas and make changes so the good music is much more dynamic and exciting,
drop the routine pop songs and present the remaining "Know" ideas in
a self disciplined tighter format. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">One positive that
emerges from his project is Jon's voice has regained its brightness and color
that may bode well for the final element of the Trilogy, the up and coming
project with Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman. It will be interesting to see how
Trevor Rabin, who always leads his projects, harnesses Jon's current approach
to music making.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Sound </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I do not consider myself an audiophile but as regards those last six pieces two matters stand out about the mix.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">1) The Drums and Bass are very anonymous contributing to the generic sense of the music.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">2) Jon's voice on several occasions is far to loud. A particular example is when the "Know" theme is introduced midway through the final piece it sounds overloud, harsh and unattractive which is only made more obvious through the back up singers who sound melodious and sweet to listen to. As someone who listens to the very best vocal performances Streisand/Krall/Sinatra et al who dominate the sound spectrum there is a real difference of quality from the aforementioned when Jon is placed in a singular spotlight. Indeed I find after several moments, rather like the Ladder in parts, the performance sounds wearing and a trial rather than seducing me into the narrative. </span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Summary <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Who can deny the
man has energy and enthusiasm after recovering from challenging
illness, for me that energy and enthusiasm needs to be applied with
more self discipline and dare I say it so that all involved can
really express themselves and do something genuinely memorable which
flourishes. I sense Roine was to eager to please Jon rather than consider
objectively what was needed. However as the two men have only met twice, once
after the recording was completed, entering into a really powerful honest
dialogue was unrealistic, given the circumstances you could argue what has been
achieved represents a real achievement. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Roine and his guys
did their best and should be proud of what they managed to achieve but Jon
needs to be open to the kind of interaction that took place between 1968 and 1972. Then
we may get something really special.</span></span></div>
Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-2514480604319972392016-05-04T16:55:00.001-07:002016-05-05T06:14:53.353-07:00And The Word is - Time<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Yes UK Tour 2016 </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Glasgow - The Power and the Glory</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For the first concert on the UK tour in 2016 the band began in Glasgow. I was fortunate enough to attend the concert and my overwhelming impression was of the renewed energy and commitment of the band, which was given full reign on the first ever complete performance of Drama, an album which itself was an attempt to reconnect with a more direct and powerful vision for Yes. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This was the first UK date since the CEO of Yes Chris Squire had passed away and so the much loved Billy Sherwood, Chris's acolyte, had a number of challenges and not all purely musical ones. Billy played with gusto and drove the material he was charged with from Drama, like Does It Really Happen, which is lead by the Bass, with exactly the right amount of focus and pace. But Yes is not just about great instrumentals it is about great vocals and I was fascinated to see how they would build on both elements of the performance after the right kind of start on the first night. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Bristol - All of Us Waiting For Time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Great performers know one of the keys to the very best outcome is time giving ourselves time to stand outside of the moment and plan in a split second what comes next. If we are just a split second ahead we are ready and prepared. Tonight in Bristol I was not only struck by the equally committed performance but Jon and Billy seemed just that little bit more relaxed which gave them more time to prepare as the music evolved. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Jon sang several of the Drama pieces with more power and depth so the sweetness in his voice was complimented by a rounder fuller sound. Indeed all of the Drama music seems to benefit from the sense that he was just that little more in control. The power of the chant in "happen" was accompanied by authority across the whole song. The exposed moments in "Lens" were richer and bolder and "Run Through the light" wit its unusual staccato start was sung and played in Bristol as a full blown concert piece rather than an oddity. Billy, for I suspect different reasons, appeared more in control of his vocal duties, his pitch was great and the character of his voice began to emerge complementing Jon on the quiet parts of Messiah as well as the fast paced call and repeat "Friends make their way into systems of chance" </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">His beautiful vocal underpin of Jon on "Time and A Word" his Baritone to Jon's Tenor was gorgeous and each benefited the other. It sounded about a semi tone between them and could be the beginning of a new and different vocal sound. At the end of a highly energetic performance on the encore of trooper not only did he play a very unique and special bass solo which was more about creating sustained powerful block phrases, than the kind of runs which he carried off with such aplomb on Fish, but his wordless vocals, perfectly pitched, were bell like and very musical. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"We Have Heaven" celebrated four part harmony and was probably Steve's best vocal moment but next up with Southside the rocking section once again benefited from more power and attack from Jon, that to me as a singer suggests a modest change in approach more chest and less head singing. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Tonight with mental time on their hands to build on the power and the thrust, the vocals began to blossom and flourish. Yes - great instrumentals and great vocals with m.o.r. melodies and underground arrangements, sounds like a plan, and tonight it worked well. The slight change to the order in the second half, crescendoing with Fragile, worked a treat with Sunrise leading us to the summit of the evening.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The crowd, though remaining in their seats with no rush to the stage, gave the band a warm reception after both half's and my sense was the evening was thoroughly enjoyed. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">At Glasgow Geoff Downes was in the zone from the get go audacious and burning in equal measure. Tonight being on Steve's side of the stage you could see how tightly woven together they were providing arguably the most entwined and empathetic twin lead combination Yes have ever had. Not simply great technique past back and forth but like two halves of the orchestra welded together in a deadly embrace almost like one musical being offering rhythm and pulse, colouring, layering and then great defining musical statements of whatever melody was being extended and laid before us in dazzling solos with of course the guitarist in pole position from the first piece to the last, from the hugely prophetic statement of the power of machines, which have come to dominate all, to the wildly elegiac and poetic harnessing of the power of the sun. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My favourite memory from the concert was the magic hat. It played drums all night with real power, commitment and great timing and came out at the end of each half with Mr Alan White underneath it, perhaps he was responsible as well !</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span>Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-19251992540983659922015-09-27T10:06:00.000-07:002015-10-12T00:53:42.823-07:00Anderson Ponty Band - Les affinités ne sont plus un mirage<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Malcolm Birkett September
2014.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“I have to go to Aspen, this maybe my last chance to see Jon”</span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jean Luc Ponty August 2014</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“…. and will film our very first concert in Aspen. This way people can find out what to expect when we tour in 2015. It’s better than trying to explain with words”. </span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jon Anderson August
2014</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">”It’s going to be a live show, because that’s who we are. We’re a live band. Right away, we said, “I don’t want to go into the studio and make an album. I want to do a live show.” It’ll be a two-hour live CD/DVD. It’s what we are. We’re not trying to make a hit album. We want to make a damn good live show, and that will transform itself into a video and sound experience”</span></i><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">So
with Jean Luc’s and Jon’s remarks ringing in my ears it seemed only right to experience
the DVD first as it would explain what we can expect in the coming touring cycle
better than any words would do. It also helped to have read<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sean McKee’s sober assessment of the challenges
of producing the material shot at Aspen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Jon
spoke extensively about how he designed the show into sequences of
approximately 15 minutes, which would blend their heritage and showcase some
new ideas where the sum would be greater than its parts. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">After
the exciting intro which quotes from both principals work the first cycle
begins with “One in the Rhythms of Hope”, a jaunty staccato piece where the
logic of these two idiosyncratic performers coming together is immediately
apparent. Counter Tenor and classically trained Violinist backed by a highly
intelligent "top of their game" band. Cleverly the staccato motif is slowed down
and provides the backdrop as we move into a new composition written by Enrico Tomat,
a mood composer, who provides a soft soundscape, which Jon and then Jean Luc
ascend out of reaching beyond the lush backdrop. In concert this section was
completed by the refrain from “Yours Is No Disgrace” but instead the third
piece up is a swift change of pace and a version of “Owner of a Lonely Heart”
which swings thanks to the crisp pertinent “Bruford like” drumming of Rayford
Griffin. Indeed I am reminded of Bruford’s crisp incisive playing more than
once listening to this CD. Rayfords playing provides Jon with the kind of Jazz Swing and empathetic playing and support that seems to come more naturally from a Jazz background than Rock, he is crucial to the feel and atmosphere of the music. </span>Wally Minko re energizes the harmonics of the piece
and Jean Luc swaggers all over the solo section.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">So
15 minutes in and the calling card is laid out and now we can relax as the band
really gets into its stride and we enter a four song section of wonderful
grooves out of which emerges beautiful rhapsodic playing, gorgeous flights of
fancy in a riveting dream like manner. “Listening” with its vibes sounding
keyboard intro gives way to one of three superb vocalizations before a sublime
solo from Jean Luc with Jon switching to gentle ripples on the harp. This cool
jazz groove gives way to a different type of groove the reggae version of “Time
and A Word” which now makes sense in a full-blown band context. This piece
shows what clever musicians the Atlantic Years Band are as they offer an
authentic and authoritative reading and like “Listening” you wish this piece
would never end the playing is such a joy. In concert JIG with its roots in
Amharic music cleverly followed the reggae piece but we now move into another
double song section. It begins with the sophisticated jazz of “Mirage” with a
particularly comfortable insert from JA. It picks up on the same vibe as “Listening”,
before seguing into the next groove the calypso inspired piece, which has been
a staple on Sound Cloud for a year now. “Soul Eternal”. That early Sound Cloud
version from Azigza shows just how much these players can add to a piece it really
is lifted beyond its original groove by the additional dynamism of the playing as
it moves to a crescendo with great Violin and Guitar trading between Jean and
Jamie. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">These
four pieces are the core of the DVD sublime effortless music full of atmosphere,
hidden depths and great playing. The DVD program now switches to a more
reflective mood, an after hours smoky “<i>Smooth Jazz</i>” rendition of “Wondrous
Stories” and the magical beauty of “Renaissance Of the Sun”. These two pieces
bring out on the latter Jon’s most empathetic reading and on the former the most
uncertain. The tone and cadence of JA’s voice on WS works well particularly as
he clearly has an older voice these days but his syncopation and phrasing does
not move far enough away from the 77 version, so you have a sense that whereas
Wally and Jamie are nailing it Jon has not travelled the full distance toward
the reimagined spirit of the piece. In the hands of Diana Krall or Holly Cole
even Streisand they would bend the phrasing much more whereas Jon’s performance
is in limbo. What definitely breaks the mood is the wordless quotes from “Your
Move” a wrong one. But Renaissance is the highlight of the DVD serene beautiful
music making, more harp from Jon, and beautiful elegant music making from the leads Wally and Jean Luc. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">The formal part of the concert DVD over Baron returns
for a neat and clever Bass Solo that leads into a perfectly respectable but
unsurprising re arrangement of Roundabout. The hour over and the credits play
out over a roaring version of Egocentric Molecules entitled (Re Remembering Molecules) a perfectly fitting way to provide a balance of the two heritages. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">They
set out to offer a calling card to a touring cycle now a year later it is here -
Mission accomplished.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue";">Malcolm
once said to me if you cannot think of anything good to say about a piece of
music or a concert then I believe people should stay quiet. As I have dedicated
this review to his memory I will hold to this thought and simply say for me the
DVD works perfectly but the CD, which loses some music and gains other pieces,
covers ground on which I will “Stay Quiet”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-89775220828277541292015-07-03T23:35:00.000-07:002015-07-03T23:39:34.263-07:00Chris Squire The Route To Glory<br />
<b>The Bruford Years</b><br />
<br />
Chris and Bill made six albums together culminating in his solo album "Fish Out of Water", the latter was recorded three years after Bill had left Yes, an interesting statement about their artistic relationship.<br />
<br />
They both have said see they saw their relationship as one created out of musical differences. What I see is a substantial meeting of musical minds both determined not to be shackled by the orthodox principles of the rock rhythm section. Once they really got up a head of steam and found their own vocabulary on a piece like "Long Distance Runaround" they made Yes sound like an electric string quartet. The rhythm and momentum of the piece comes from all the players short runs, staccato bursts and melodic interjections were as likely to come from Chris's Bass as Ricks keyboards. It gave the music a lightness, warmth and colour and sense of joy that can often be missing from a more sexually driven, angst ridden rock and roll perspective.<br />
<br />
The great legacy of those first five albums from Yes is to take pleasure in the extra ordinary linear development of the bands music and none more so than the Bruford-Squire rhythm section. By the time they had arrived at the spring of 1972 they had reached that blessed place where restraint and space were as important as action. The outcome maybe highly sophisticated and demanding of the listener but the internal logic was as clear as a bell because fussy over complication had given way to highly sympathetic artistic choices. There final album together oozed a beautiful control, logic and symmetry which had a curious affect on their reputation in the long run. <br />
<br />
Chris's death has offered many of us with a surprising insight into the high regard in which Yes and Chris are held, having travelled for a very long time with the notion that Yes represents some kind of establishment anti rock and roll stance. The reality is and always was quite different "Close To The Edge" may look very polite and well behaved from a distance but it is highly unorthodox and all of the players including Chris made provocative and obnoxious choices and this was carried through to Chris and Bills final album together.<br />
<br />
"Fish Out of Water" may include flute, woodwind and a church organ but is mixed in with Chris's grinding churning unorthodox bass playing at turns pumping away giving momentum or offering a beautiful melodic figure. "Safe (Canon Song)" is haunting and cinematic but the three key set up runs from Chris where he takes the lead and stalks around like a giant four legged spider are audacious and a forerunner of so much playing from others in the years ahead.<br />
<br />
I for one have taken huge pleasure from Chris's advocacy of his relationship with Bill in recent years. At the time Chris Welch said it was like Rolls quoting Royce and they certainly were the rolls royce of rhythm sections.<br />
<br />
<b>The White Fish Years. </b><br />
<br />
Yes continued to expand with broad screen albums right up to the summer of 1977 but that clarity and punch of the earlier years was replaced with something more informal and warmer. Ironically as the band catapulted itself into the 80's with Geoff and Trevor the really noticeable quality of the Drama music was that Alan and Chris seemed at last to have developed their own form of clarity and controlled incisiveness that had characterised the first rhythm section. But the really glorious element of Chris's career from now on was his development into a much broader and rounded musician who was able to play with complete authority a huge range of styles and infuse whatever piece he was playing with his own musical personality. This I suspect is what is at the heart of his respect by his peers. The pop rock playing on "Owner of A Lonely Heart", "It Can Happen and "Big Generator" made you think he would have been quite capable of fitting in with "Duran Duran", "Rhythm of Love" a hard rock outfit. The ska influenced "Lightening Strikes', reggae of "The Messenger" and A.O.R. "The River" all work and largely because of the authentic playing of Chris. Through out this period from 1983 to 1999 there would always be something signature from Chris and I particularly liked the way his friend Billy Sherwood, with whom he made the Conspiracy albums, caught his playing on a piece like "New State of Mind"<br />
<br />
Driven by Jon Anderson "Zappaesque" desire for left field musical adventures Chris's final album with Jon highlighted the other crucial element he brought to Yes his vocals whether singing in unison or harmony. Chris's contribution to "We Agree" is sublime. Indeed his vocal talent underwent something of a renaissance in the first decade of the new century recording "Swiss Choir" which is at its best when Chris sings the beautiful solos on "In the Bleak Midwinter" and "The Three Kings".<br />
<br />
<b>A Route To Ones Self. </b><br />
<br />
Whilst the final years of his life will be remembered for his determination to bring the Yes experience to their fans without J. A. in attendance for me the most personal and interesting element was his belated decision to prepare a second solo album. The music was eventually used elsewhere but when you look at "The Man You Always Wanted Me To Be" and "Can't Stop The Rain Falling" these are highly personally statements from an older man capable of self awareness and self deprecation. I like to think that shows he had finally found happiness and some sort of groundedness within the crazy rock and roll lifestyle he inhabited. Certainly the vibe I picked up from my fellow travellers, whom new him much better than I, was that was the case.<br />
<br />
On the 2011 tour in the UK he finished every concert by thanking us for our loyalty. Thank you Chris for yours it is treasured. Onward On The Silent Wings Of Freedom. <br />
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Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-3767740485299323312015-04-25T15:40:00.002-07:002015-04-25T15:48:41.627-07:00Steve Howe Bristol Colston HallSmile its Steve Howe on Guitar<br />
<br />
Whenever I sit waiting for Steve to come on I do wonder how one man and his guitar can make for a special night.<br />
<br />
He began with the Martin M38 which gives a bright sound and in that first phase played a couple of Trio pieces including the Holly's cover. The Trio album is apparently now finished.<br />
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"Diary of A Man Who Disappeared" and then he brought this section to a conclusion with "To Be Over" I thought a good deal about Malcolm during this piece. The music making was fantastic and being able to sit and listen to this timeless piece of music in its naked form works perfectly. He switches to the Kohno for my favourite part of the concert. The sound is so warm and musical and pieces from the Steve Howe Album and Grand Scheme of Things and the re imagined piece Corkscrew sounded superb. Intersection Blues with that constant return to the rotating central motife was proceeded by Little Gilliard. I do love all of his music in concert including his country picking pieces but I adore the more formal European pieces. This wonderful segment ended with "Mood For A Day".<br />
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The crowd were great, quiet always listening, and then full of applause when pieces ended and it was the biggest audience I have been in for a Steve Howe solo concert. Steve continues to build on his more open and relaxed manner and was full of fun and down to earth humour and genuinely appreciative of our attendence. <br />
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The second set flew by "Sketches In The Sun", "Dorothy" but it began with Charlie Chaplins "Smile" a brilliant reinterpretation eking out, through different tempos and finger work, every last little bit of reinvention of the main melody.<br />
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Cactus Boogie on Electric and then we moved to the four Yes pieces on the Portuguese Guitar, `"Hour of Need" and "Nine Voices" only remind you how silly it is not to throw a couple of deep cuts in to the band sets. <br />
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All The Good People of Bristol gave him a robust thank you at the end and he was back for "Clap" <br />
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It truly is a Wondrous Story to return to the Colston Hall 40 years after my first ever Yes concert there for the Relayer Tour and sit down and experience a couple of hours of consummate music making from one of the architects of that amazing tour all those years ago. Thank you Malcolm for reminding me of the very real privilege it is. <br />
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<br />Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-5103482129722622272015-04-01T14:32:00.003-07:002015-04-09T08:03:26.167-07:00Malcolm Birkett 19th December 1950 - 21st March 2015<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There is a light halestone shower as we drive up out of Todmordon, birth place of Keith Emerson and move in to Lancashire 20 miles North is Accrington birth place of Jon Anderson and 20 miles south is St John The Divine Church Sale.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">No sign of spring on this grey overcast day as we all converge to say our good byes and come to understand a little more of the remarkable life of Malcolm Birkett.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Sale is an attractive leafy superb of Manchester and the church a wonderful piece of architecture built in the hey day of the first economic miracle to sweep the dales and valleys of the North of England.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Isn't life strange, I have a life long interest in an unorthodox rock band from the sixties and seventies and I am sat in a church listening to the bands music surrounded by some of the nicest people you could wish to meet with one of the great success stories of the current lineup immediately behind with his lovely wife come to pay tribute to a fellow traveller, surreal really. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><u>All of us are all Intertwined</u> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Malcolm's life stood for many things, but a common thread that runs through his personal and professional life is the desire to bring people together, to share precious joys, professional challenges and family. So his friends from his career as a teacher, his friends that shared the same musical passions and his family were all present. From Scotland, Wales the far South of England, Mancunians all where there, and whilst not physically present his great swathe of friends from around the world were all bending their thoughts toward this place and the special person we were about to say goodbye to. In honour of those unable to attend Yes's adaption of the Simon and Garfunkel tune "America" was played before the service. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The church doors swing open, you knew because the cool air passes into the church and "In the morning when you rise, do you open up your eyes … from a more innocent age is played as the funeral procession enters. The Reverend Bryan Hackett welcomes us to the funeral and the service begins with Jerusalem a quintessentially British Hymn, which curiously had been covered by Keith Emerson and his buddies in the seventies. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A reading of scripture which dealt with the promise in which faith is invested and the hymn "The Lord is My Shepherd". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><u>Remember A long the way </u></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Peter a friend who came into Malcolm's life at college then steered us from 1969 to 2015. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What struck me forcibly was that Malcolm the dapper, fun loving, music appreciating talented and successful individual set his stall out all those years ago and very little changed. He clearly knew whom he was from a very early age, was comfortable in his own skin and went with it. He made relationships and stuck with them taking people along with him through out his life. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">He decided Lyn was going to marry him and eventually she agreed that she was going to and that central relationship stayed with him through out his life. Not the couple with nothing left to say after all the years of their life but still friends still chatting and sharing and he never stopped being proud of his "Lads". Malcolm gathered people unto him and there they stayed always feeling they were special to him and made to feel unique and appreciated. The tributes on Facebook the emails from Scotty and Brian Chatton read out by Peter testify to this unique gathering up of a larger and larger extended family of friends beyond his precious core family as the years went on. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Tributes were read out by his teaching colleagues from his pupils who felt he turned them round and much emphasis was made of his skill at drawing various elements of the local education system together to work as one. The constant recurring theme of bringing people and ideas together.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After many amusing anecdotes in this loving, thoughtful and considerate address Peter took us through the final months weeks and days. Malcolm positive, determined, hospitable, to the end, making jokes of the awkwardness of his hoist and determined to get his hair immaculate and be neat in the most unglamorous of circumstances.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Peter received applause for his wonderful address, the Lords Prayer the Blessing and achingly appropriate "Soon" as we processed out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The family left for the interment we chatted and moved off to the hotel for a convivial afternoon Lyn with great composure and dignity moving graciously between the guests, and she looked after us royally. Whilst not an uber fan herself she knew they had played "Time and A Word" rather than "Wondrous Stories" as indicated in the programme. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It is of no help to those whom have to come to terms in the weeks and years ahead with the loss of a husband and father but there is energy in death. You can take it and live your own life with more gratitude and joy. You can be more positive in adversity and you can strive to be a greater enthusiast of your hobbies and completely grounded in your home life and professional life. We have been given the very best example of those qualities in one human being. We can pick up the baton and run with it just a little bit or a lot, that is the gift Malcolm has bestowed on us in life and death.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">God's Speed Malcolm </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">PS "All Intertwined" and "Remember Along The Way" are included on the Circa's second CD led by another musician Malcolm idolised Prof Billy Sherwood. It was the first CD Malcolm introduced to me. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span>Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-80490904552183185612014-12-01T14:02:00.003-08:002014-12-01T14:14:38.900-08:00Darkness Into Light - Relayer The Steve Wilson Remix.<br />
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For Yes aficionado's the music is rather well known, so the question is does Steve Wilson shine a different light on this music for us.<br />
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I have listened to the Blu Ray 5.1 DTS Surround Sound Mix and the Compact Disc Remaster (the latter offering is a refreshingly simple programme, a remix of the original LP with two encore singles).<br />
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Relayer and in particular "Gates Of Delirium" is challenging music in the way the final two sides of Topographic Oceans are challenging. Unconventional, angular, muscular and aggressive in an entirely different way to the Bruford Bands music. As a result clarity of transmission is crucial. The reality is the original production of Relayer was unhelpful and over the years has received highly critical remarks from the band themselves. The production was cold the drums did not breath, the bass lacked warmth and depth and Steve's switch of guitars to the Telecaster was over lit and produced a highly unsympathetic group performance. Patricks keys to often where not properly lit.<br />
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Well Mr Wilson seems to agree with all of this because his remix has transformed the listening experience. The drums still have that clarity of attack but there is "air" around them so they sound more organic with depth and warmth. Likewise Chris 's bass has more depth and therefore warmth so the mid range is much better represented. This is immediately apparent in the early verse sections of the suite after the glorious multi keyboard intro. However the White Squire rhythm section are still years away from capturing the immaculate accuracy of the Bruford Squire years, that was to come on Drama. This is still dense music.<br />
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There is a much better balance between the keys and guitars. By removing the echo and reverb from Steve it is as if during the battle we have night vision glasses and the detail of the battle emerges. The middle section is no longer difficult on the ear, or the mind, it progresses logically and the unhinged nature of war now communicates itself in a more immediate and emotional way. You are inside the battle, rather than witnessing it from the outside not quite clear about what is going on.<br />
<br />
When the huge Sibelian resolve emerges they are .. no longer huge. The keys and slide guitar are offered in a more focused and disciplined way so you can here the responses to the soloist properly with for instance some neat rhythm stabs from Steve answering Patricks swirling solo. As the war dissipates there is a gorgeous percussion effect which fades into Steve's wonderful slide work and then Jon's guitar emerges much more strongly.<br />
<br />
As with the instruments Jon's voice has more depth sounds more musical and the more passionate colloquial accent he adopts on the suite and Sound Chaser are perfectly captured.<br />
<br />
Side 2 was always easier to listen and now all the elements lift these two pieces alongside Starship Trooper and Siberian Khatrue as classic Yes music. The cha cha cha's have a wonderful earthy response now and instead of an impressive speed freak chase and a lot of showing off it sounds like a performance of an extraordinary piece of music which has life.<br />
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In 1974 I was nineteen and Relayer was another disappointment after Tales. Tales now has its place in my heart as a work of art but it is far from perfect. Relayer ending with the spiritually uplifting beauty of To Be Over now sits alongside Close To The Edge as a great set of music brimming with timeless ideas which I will play half a dozen times a year and love it unreservedly rather than see it as part brilliant part musical chore. Bravo Steve Wilson. <br />
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<br />Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-42803187959798360282014-10-04T04:27:00.003-07:002015-01-10T00:04:03.649-08:00Dylan Howe Live at The Stables, Milton Keynes 2nd October 2014 <h2>
Re Imaginings On New Designs </h2>
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Returning to the Stables for the second time reminded me what a fine venue this is for really listening to music.</div>
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Everyone has a good view the sound is superb and the vibe in the hospitality area is relaxed with easy access to the various refreshments.</div>
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I am a huge enthusiast of this project, Dylan has reached a point of maturity in his career where he has arrived as a musician, so all the energy is focussed on fulfilling the inherent potential of the music rather than making points from a position of insecurity and a restless desire to succeed.</div>
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I have described the music elsewhere on the blog so lets look at what the live performance adds. </div>
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The additional media, the film footage of a broken Berlin, played through out above the band, was eerily appropriate. Reminding us of the sense of disconnection of an artificially broken community where the natural energy and life of the city is replaced by a sense of empty listlessness. Indeed so powerful were the images that I see them again as I listen to the music in the comfort of my own home!</div>
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The charming elegiac spiritual pieces like Subterraneans and Moss Gardens where played with a great intuitive feel adding to the communication on the CD. It was fun to hear Steve Lodder sample Mr S Howe's mesmerising Koto parts. Art Decade, ballad like, was even more charming and engaging.</div>
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Where the real extensions came were in the pieces which really blow on the CD. Weeping Wall, All Saints, Some Are and Warszawa were tour de forces of rhapsodic fiery playing. Dylan is a ridiculously mature drummer never fancy or overcomplicated urging the players forward and like all the greats the notes not played were as important as the ones chosen. When he did offer the full La Batterie it was done sparingly and to even greater effect. </div>
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I have been brought up on the 16/32 Keyboards of Rick and Patrick so to see Steve and Ross with an instrument a piece maximise the keyboard returns, reminds me that less can be more. Steve pulled out all the effects that Dylan and Ross had painstakingly put together over 5 years and when he did come to fore the sound was entirely right for the mood of the project hard, gritty and unsentimental full of the cold darkness of Berlin in the 60's and 70's.</div>
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I am a great fan of Ross's contribution to the Steve Howe Trio and his work through out the evening was of the highest standard. Sometimes supporting the original melody or the harmonics of the arrangements but it was his heated jazz solos that were so powerful. He spent the entire night at the piano and played for two hours with a focus, fire and a passion and his solos in particular were informed with a steely commitment.</div>
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The two other new boys Andy and Percy were superb and twice Dylan reminded us how fortunate he feels having such a great band. Andy played with real authority carrying off the brass sounds with real charisma against the other 4 players and when called upon to play those anchor melodic riffs he was rich and powerful. Only once when he picked up the Clarinet and carried on a second rotating solo did the notion of "cut" come into my mind.</div>
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Percy was playfulness personified and really came in to his own in the second set, wonderful exposed complex runs across the bass (thanks to DH empathetic minimalist accompaniment) and then those single note thwacks perfectly judged adding a rock music dynamic.</div>
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It was the new players additions displaying their own brand of virtuosity that added that extra dimension to the evening. Yes it was wonderful to have Dylan & Ross actually play this stuff in front of you but those extensions in the blowing pieces took it to another level. </div>
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They received a standing ovation from the crowd and delighted us with a further piece they had been working up which had at its heart one of those nagging familiar tunes and then we finished after over two hours of powerful corporate artistry.</div>
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I offered one minor criticism and the other is myself I was very tired after a long day and only managed a quick thank you as Dylan left the hall, but it was a wonderful evening and I for one certainly dug it and deeply! </div>
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<br />Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2143621385723057155.post-15298889926593370162014-09-25T23:18:00.003-07:002015-10-31T22:22:56.617-07:00The Anderson Ponty Band Project<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Jon, with a wonderful band backing him, played the
Wheeler Opera House, Aspen, Colorado on 20th September 2014. The set list was as follows. </span></span></div>
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<h2>
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hand Written Set List Provided By Jamie Dunlap to Two attendees</span></b></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Part One </span><br />
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></b>
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Intro leads into One Is Everything </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- KS demo entitled" One", on which JA has introduced a vocal arrangement to a rearranged version of JLP's "Rhythms of Hope". Jamie Glaser confirmed on the 6th January he had been working on this piece and it is now named "One In The Rhythms of Hope". </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>A for Aria </b>- a new piece by JA which is being worked on for the CD release and appears on Jamie Glaser's (JG) snippet video and the official montage from the Band. A snippet is now available to pledgers. Credited to Anderson/Tomat (Enrico Tomat is a television producer and writes generic music soundscapes, he was given a thank you credit on JA's Survival as a "musical friend" )</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>Yours Is No Disgrace -</b> (described as ballad like by one attendee)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>Listening</b> - KS demo on which JA vocalised the melody of JLP's "Stay With Me" from "</span><span lang="EN-US">Taste
of</span><span lang="EN-US"> Passion" which is included in the official montage and which Jamie Glaser has referred to as working on. Confirmed for inclusion on the CD.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>Time and A Word -</b> (Reggae Version).</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>Jig </b>- JLP (JA plays harp).</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>Infinity </b>- KS demo which references a JA vocalised melody from JLP's Mirage (The keyboard feature toward the end). Now available as an official audio sample for the CD release on the new APB Facebook site. Confirmed for inclusion on CD.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>Soul Internal </b>- a Boom Crash song with JA, which appeared on U Tube and Sound cloud sometime ago and is included toward the end of the Infinity kickstarter demo and JG's video snippet for the CD and the official montage. Confirmed for inclusion on CD. Although originally credited to Boom Crash with Azigza featuring Jon Anderson, now credited to Anderson/Ponty.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>I See You</b> - A KS demo prepared by Jamie
Dunlap (Jon has confirmed this was written by Damian Anderson his son and Damian's Cousin Sean), a new song unrelated to the Yes cover which Jamie Glaser has begun working on and will have an entirely new arrangement with other band members re recording their parts now renamed "I See You -Messenger".</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>Owner of A Lonely Heart - </b>Included on the video snippet for the CD.Confirmed for inclusion on the CD.In the UK the DVD performance is available (20/09/2015) on U Tube as part of the official marketing campaign in Europe.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Part 2</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>Ever Country</b> - JLP has
a very similar title "New Country" that has a feel of a jig. (it is now clear that the acoustic set began with "New Country" and "Never Ever" a re named "Under Heavens Door"). </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>Wondrous Stories - </b>Is now available to backers as a snippet.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>Long Distance Runaround.</b> </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>Sky Vista (Renaissance)</b> - JLP's "Renaissance". Confirmed for inclusion on the CD and renamed "Renaissance of The Sun".</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>Enigmatic </b>- JLP's Enigmatic
Ocean.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>New New World</b> - JA written by
Jamie Dunlap. JG & JA are currently working on this piece. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>And You and I - </b>(The Anderson Wakeman version). JG has confirmed he has been working on this </span>piece.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>Starship Trooper - </b>(Described as stripped down by one attendee)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>Bass - a solo introduces Roundabout. </b>JG is currently working on guitars and vocals. Confirmed for inclusion on the CD.<b> </b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Time and A Word - </b>The final piece played at the concert was Remembering Molecules but may have included lyrics scatted from Time and A Word. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">One piece included a drum solo which received favourable comments from a number of attendees.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The commentary for each piece is based on my
analysis of the Kick-starter campaign material, Jean Luc's
extensive repertoire and updates from the Jamie Glaser APB Facebook site.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<h4>
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Summary of songs/pieces played at Aspen.</b></h4>
<div>
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></b></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">8 Yes, many of which were described as JLP band arrangements of JA's solo versions.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> 1 JA. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">7 </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jean Luc Ponty, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3 of which were incentive demos on Kick-starter, where JA has taken
the melody line from a JLP piece and added a lyrical narrative.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">1 Kick-starter demo, written specifically for the
project </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"I See You".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 New piece entitled "Aria". </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Piece by Boom Crash "Soul Internal".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: small;"><b>New Songs</b></span></span></h3>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">One member of Yes Fans who attended has indicated that pieces described as new songs included pre existing lyrics. The musical idea for the chant from Don't Kill The Whale was included with in "I See You" and another fan described their being a different version of "Under Heavens Door" played. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Other pieces not played in concert</b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are two pieces which have appeared within the Kick-Starter marketing that are worthy of mention.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">True Messenger - Cosmic </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This demo is arguably the strongest instrumental offering which includes a discrete performance of chants from JA. This follows the pattern of other pieces in that its origins lie in a similarly named JLP piece the title track from Cosmic Messenger. JG confirmed 18/01/15 that he is not currently working on this piece. The repeating melodic motif is played much faster as a light intro to I See You - Messenger and then related vocally in a slowed down form in the final refrain. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Better Late Than Never </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A very late demo which relates to Jon's feelings about working with JLP. I suspect this is a diary piece rather than a serious part of the collaboration.</span><br />
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></b>
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Note </b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Updated September with a commentary on each individual piece. Please see my most recent blog entry for my review of the DVD.</span></i><br />
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></b>
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">CD or DVD Tracks Confirmed (9)</b><br />
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></b>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Intro. 1.17</span> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">An overture from the band minus JLP and JA which quotes from amongst other pieces JLP's Infinite Pursuit.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A for Aria. 3.22 </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A reflective reaching out performance by Jon of a new stately slow piece.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Infinity Mirage. 3.48 <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Very much the JLP tune with a vocal narrative taking the keyboard melody.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Owner of A Lonely Heart. 5.04 <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">A more funky warmer version of the original.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Renaissance of The Sun. 6.36 <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Once again very much the JLP original with a vocal narrative from Jon on which he also plays Harp.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Roundabout. 5.27 <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>An energised warm version where the drums really swing. </i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Soul Eternal. 4.58 <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">A mid tempo grove with nice block vocal support. Having heard earlier versions this shows what the Atlantic Years Band brings to the table.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Listening </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With Me. 5.39 <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Very close to the original instrumentally.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And You And I. 3.00 <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">The opening segment is close to the original.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wondrous Stories. 4.01 <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">A jazzy smokey accompaniment underpinning Jon's original interpretation. </span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Tracks Confirmed As Work In Progress (3)</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Egocentric Molecules (Though not on the set list under this title but was confirmed by Jamie Glaser as played as the final song). <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">The ascending exciting section from this piece does not appear in the samples it may have been incorporated into a new ending for Roundabout or discarded. <b>Note This piece is played over the closing credits to the DVD and is the "bonus track" on the Japanese only release and renamed Re-Remembering Molecules and is credited to Anderson/Ponty.</b></span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I See You - Messenger.3.50 <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">A sophisticated studio version of the KS demo with quotes from Cosmic Messenger, Don't Kill The Whale and Your move. </span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">New New World. 3.46 <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">It almost sounds like a speeded up remix of the version on Survival with more up front guitar riffing and additional vocal sections, very much a studio track feel to it</span></i>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One in the Rhythms of Hope. 4.34 <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Some nice vocal and instrumental additions to the original musical ideas.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Tracks confirmed following release of download (1)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Time and Word 5.30 <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>an empathetic reggae arrangement from the instrumentalists.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Overall a warm engaging set of performances with great playing particularly from Jean Luc. Jon's voice is captured better than on any recordings of recent years and he is singing with a cleaner clearer vocal sound than Living Tree, Survival and Open. </i></span></span><br />
<br />
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Live Snippets Shown of the Video </b><br />
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Infinity (Mirage)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Soul Eternal.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Update 23rd July 2015</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A list of tracks has now been released to Investors which will be available in different combinations depending on whether vinyl/CD or DVD. The total number 13 corresponds with previously released remarks. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So five Yes pieces and four vocalised Jean Luc Ponty make up the bulk of the programme together with a couple of new pieces and a couple of J.A. solo tracks. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Update 13th August 2015 </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Amazon UK are now offering 'Better Late Than Never" due on 25th September. Other sites have a commentary which refer to an accompanying one hour 10 track DVD. The DVD performance is shorter than the CD performance and several pieces are CD only. "Intro" is not defined as a track in the marketing kit and the CD contains three pieces which are CD only. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The DVD does not include 'I See You Messenger', 'New New World' or slightly surprising "And You and I". </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Following on from the Liaison's release commentary and considering, Billy James press kit and Jamie Glaser's comment that "he isn't on the DVD" it would appear the carefully constructed CD is the premium "finished" offer and the "bonus DVD" is an interesting artefact which provides a step along the way to the final product which is the CD. The one hour DVD running time includes artists interviews so I expect it to have a "rockumentary" feel to it rather than be a highly sophisticated thorough going presentation of the "Aspen Concert". </span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>Note</i><i> The DVD is offered as a bonus (free in Europe) and whilst the 10 performances are anchored in the Aspen performance they like the CD benefit from the substantial post concert work so as the director of the video suggest one should not look for synchronisation between the Audio and Visual track and instead just seek an impression from the DVD and on that basis the DVD works well. </i> </b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At £13.99p for the CD and DVD it looks like very good value for money. </span><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Note </span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Amazon have reduced the price post release to £9.99p and I have received a refund of £4.00p as part of their guaranteed best price arrangements. </i></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Update 8th September 2015</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With the welcome release to the Investors of the digital download a number of recurring themes are emerging around the internet. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am not familiar with Jean Luc's work is it still available ? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Much of it is on U Tube but last year in the wake of the concert I purchased all of the JLP based material performed at Aspen, or included in demos, on I Tunes and it makes for a great selection in anticipation of the CD release.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>My I Pod listing which I played around with is sequenced as follows :-</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Rhythms of Hope - CD</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Stay With Me - CD</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Jig - Concert</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Mirage</i></span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> - CD</i><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>New Country - Concert </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Cosmic Messenger - Demo</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Renaissance - CD</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Infinite Pursuit - CD (Theme included in Intro)</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Enigmatic Oceans Part 1, 2, 3 and 4 - Concert</i></span><br />
<i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Egocentric Molecules. CD (Japanese Bonus Track)</i><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>As Jean Luc said there is great synergy between himself and JA several of these uplifting highly disciplined complex pieces echo the feel of much from Fragile. Other pieces broaden the palette, JIG moves into a Calypso feel and New Country into an Irish Jig but at a very sophisticated and evolved level. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Update 14th September</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In one exchange Jamie Glaser indicated the re imaginings were so unique musically that the copy right of the new versions went beyond the original copy right. Details of the credits are beginning to emerge and to date the Yes pieces quote the original writing combinations and Jon receives a credit for his lyric writing on Jean Luc's pieces. Because 11 of the 13 pieces are "covers" whilst I am looking to engage with the music as a unified and complete project inevitably one will be looking for a payoff from the new verses the original. </span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Update 23rd September</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sean McKee who produced the DVD has confirmed that the sound track includes Jamie Glaser's performance but the concert footage Jamie Dunlap. He has confirmed there are work arounds for the disconnect but detailed analysis by enthusiastic fans would still reveal some in consistencies and lack of co-ordination between the visual and the audio. In addition as he did not film the concert he took the raw material and produced it and in particular he had to work around some non functioning back projection on certain pieces. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Quite separately Sound Cloud includes a full length version of the single "I See You - Messenger" which whilst it sounds like a very studio bound piece, closely follows Jamie Dunlap's string arrangements from the original demo. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Update 25th September CD/DVD received !</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Full review to follow now at the head of my blog. However given Jean Luc's remarks in the late summer of 2014 to the Herald De Paris that the rehearsing and concert at Aspen was to generate a calling card for a world tour I watched the DVD this afternoon. For me they have achieved what they set out to with the DVD, it is indeed the perfect encouragement to buy tickets to an Anderson/Ponty concert. The highlights for me were "Soul Eternal" a piece that has been on Sound Cloud in its original form for many months, which the band have transformed into a major concert piece and "Renaissance of the Sun" quite beautiful with wonderful piano playing from Wally Minko. <b> </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Update 16th October </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jamie Glaser is providing a stream of information from rehearsals and some super pictures. He has not been provided with the go ahead to release the set list, probably because it is a moving target, however all of the CD will be played and they have been rehearsing "Jig" and "Yours Is No Disgrace" so they could follow the format of the Aspen concert begin with two blocks of three pieces One/Aria/Disgrace then Listening/Word and Jig. The twofer of Mirage/Eternal and finish with Messenger/Owner. Then an intermission the acoustic set (Wondrous/Distance/Renaissance) and then rousing finish of NNW/Roundabout/Molecules. Given the reflective mid tempo feel and ability to stretch out on Independence that may make it into the the first set and there is the never identified "Ever Country" from Aspen to consider which I suspect opened up the acoustic set and Enigmatic and Trooper. We will soon find out ! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Update 23rd October First Report of the Set List</b></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">01 Intro<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">02 One In the Rhythms of
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">03 A For Aria<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">04 Owner of a Lonely Heart<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">05 Listening With Me<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">06 Time and A Word<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">07 Infinity<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">08 Soul Eternal<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">09 Jig<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">10 I See You Messenger
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">11 New New World<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">12 New Country <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">13 Under Heaven’s Door entitled Never Ever<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">14 Wondrous Stories<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">15 Long Distance Runaround<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">16 Renaissance of the Sun<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">17 State of Independence<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">18 Enigmatic Ocean Part 1 and 2 including drum solo <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">19 And You and I<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">20 Violin/Keyboard Duet (Eulogy To Oscar Romero)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">21 Bass solo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">22 Roundabout<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">23 Remembering Molecules which includes lyrical quotes from Time and A Word and Yours Is No Disgrace.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They have retained the flow in the first set of the DVD. Interesting that "Under Heavens Door", uncredited at Aspen, was played in the acoustic set. "State of Independence" is nicely moved in after Renaissance as they transition from an acoustic set and they have wisely kept the barn storming Remembering as an Encore. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The early concerts show the band is on the move with embellishments on the Aspen material. Long Distance Runaround has a wonderful groove from the rhythm section, it starts in the same key as the 1975 acoustic version with the band riffing the main melody before Jon enters. And You and I goes into a new section where Wally introduces the Bruford/Squire written crescendo which they play out with, it took the audience by surprise as they gave the song applause after Jon's vocal section. New New World begins with an opening salvo from Rayford on the gong and is paced better than the CD recording. We now know for certain Jon's son and his cousin wrote I See You Messenger which explains the atypical verse structure after the various Yes song quotes. Under Heavens Door has some nice banjo picking and a simple rhythmic shuffle from Rayford which gives it more personality. All in all this is a band with a wide stylistic bandwidth who can playing anything with authority and are growing the music as the touring gets going. The high light for me is a stunning performance of Renaissance.</span></div>
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Michelle Johnstonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08544876508441166613noreply@blogger.com0