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YES Fragile Album Cover Fragile
YES
4.73 | 28 ratings
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PARLIAMENT Mothership Connection Album Cover Mothership Connection
PARLIAMENT
4.81 | 11 ratings
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SOFT MACHINE Third Album Cover Third
SOFT MACHINE
4.65 | 66 ratings
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FRANK ZAPPA The Grand Wazoo (The Mothers) Album Cover The Grand Wazoo (The Mothers)
FRANK ZAPPA
4.64 | 54 ratings
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YES Relayer Album Cover Relayer
YES
4.67 | 25 ratings
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CURTIS MAYFIELD Superfly Album Cover Superfly
CURTIS MAYFIELD
4.85 | 7 ratings
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MAGMA Félicité Thösz Album Cover Félicité Thösz
MAGMA
4.90 | 6 ratings
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JIMI HENDRIX Are You Experienced (Jimi Hendrix Experience) Album Cover Are You Experienced (Jimi Hendrix Experience)
JIMI HENDRIX
4.62 | 40 ratings
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NATIONAL HEALTH Of Queues and Cures Album Cover Of Queues and Cures
NATIONAL HEALTH
4.66 | 20 ratings
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YES Close To The Edge Album Cover Close To The Edge
YES
4.65 | 23 ratings
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MILTON NASCIMENTO Clube da Esquina Album Cover Clube da Esquina
MILTON NASCIMENTO
4.81 | 7 ratings
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SBB Memento Z Banalnym Tryptykiem Album Cover Memento Z Banalnym Tryptykiem
SBB
4.91 | 5 ratings
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jazz related Music Reviews

COLOSSEUM/COLOSSEUM II The Grass Is Greener

Album · 1970 · Jazz Related Rock
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FunkFreak75
This album is apparently quite the anomaly in that most of these songs have appeared on previous Colosseum albums but here they employ a different lineup of musicians. Plus, this was an album that was released only in North America- -which seems to indicate that the band (or record company) was trying to gain a foothold across The Pond--one that they had obviously failed to gain with their previous releases. The offerings here are jazz-tinged psychedelic rock album that predicts the music of GENTLE GIANT while reaching back to familiar West Coast psychedelic power rock bands like like The Doors, Spirit, as well as taking advantage of the way paved by more successful British Invaders like The SPENDER DAVIS GROUP, PROCUL HARUM, and LED ZEPPELIN. 1. "Jumping Off the Sun" (3:00) psych rock in a GENTLE GIANT vocal form. The music is a bit closer to the psych rock bands of the late 1960s--like SPIRIT but those vocals sound just Derek Shulman. The musicianship is very high, very tight. (8.75/10)

2. "Lost Angeles" (5:30) this one sounds like a sophisticated THE WHO song with Paul Weller singing the vocal. Drummer Jon Hiseman is so good that you can tell that the rest of the band feeds off of (or is driven by) his powerful skill. Great Jimmy Page-like guitar solo from David Clempson in the third minute. The rest of the band around him (including a second guitar track) are equally great: all focused on delivering the unmitigated CREAM-like power that Hiseman and the spirit of this song seem to demand/require. I can finally hear Dick Heckstall-Smith's sax in the final minutes of this one. Excellent song. (9.3333/10)

3. "Elegy" (3:26) a famous song that brings to mind both SPENCER DAVIS and BRIAN AUGER. Guest vocalist James Litherland has a great, soulful voice. The song's basic chord progression and melodic hooks work very well: a very memorable song. The role of the soprano sax and Neil Ardley's strings is noticeable but not a major contributor. (9.66667/10)

4. "Butty's Blues" (6:45) yes, full on organ-lead blues: the first song on which Dave Greenslade gets to really shine. He's very good--with an excellent horn arrangement behind him from Neil Ardley and excellent bass and drum play from Tony Reeves and Jon Hiseman. Once the amazing "big band" intro is over at 1:28, the song turns into a very typical blues/blues-rock tune--like something JOHN MAYALL or ROBIN TROWER would do. But then the horns return to remind us of the modern juxtaposition and Dick's tenor sax takes a solo in place of the second vocal verse. The dynamic whole-band finish is awesome! I normally don't like blues/blues rock but the participation of the horns makes this very dynamic and exciting. (13.5/15)

5. "Rope Ladder to the Moon" (3:42) an outlier in that this song had not appeared on any previous Colosseum releases, the song was picked up Jack Bruce and made more famous as one of his anthemic concert favorites. It is a very cool song with great vocal, lyrics, melodies, and full-band support music. Rated up purely on the vocal performance & clever lyrics (and delivery). I have the feeling that this song may also have been influential to Derek Shulman and his brothers. (9/10)

6. "Bolero" (5:28) one might laugh upon seeing this title on the page but the band actually do Ravel's original quite some justice with this heavy, full power-rock version. Nice keyboard and sax play over Jon's impeccable drumming, but it's David Clempson's fiery, bold-like-TERRY KATH electric guitar solo that really gives it its unique identity. It is one of those great, truly original and, therefore, iconic guitar solos. As a matter of fact, it's so good (and the rest of the bands' performance on his coattails) that you are actually transported into forgetting that this is Ravel's "Bolero"!! (9.125/10)

7. "The Machine Demands a Sacrifice" (2:48) another song lifted off of the previous year's Valentyne Suite album, this one has a psychedelic feel not unlike that of Iron Butterfly's "In-a-gadda-da-vida"--especially in the drum-and-bass- centered music. (8.75/10)

8. "The Grass Is Greener" (7:31) one of the pieces lifted from the actual "Valentyne Suite," this one is gentler and more prog-tempered than the album's other tunes--probably because it's an instrumental on which the band hope to show off their skills as musicians. I'm surprised at the uncredited full-horn ensemble opening as well as the slower TRAFFIC/Southern Rock tempo. It seems as if all of the band's instruments gain some showing here with full-spotlight solos from Hammond organ, bass, volume-pedal-controlled electric guitar, even sax and drums. The tempo shift into high speed for final three minutes (as well as the long, protracted dénouement at the end) will become such a template for so many Southern Rock bands like LYNYRD SKYNYRD, MOLLY HATCHET, CHARLIE DANIELS, and THE OUTLAWS. (The Allman Brothers were already doing it--so maybe Colosseum picked up the idea from them.) (13.125/15)

Total Time 38:10

I very much like this album: it has great musicianship--feeling as if each member of the band is fully committed to and engaged with each song. At the same time, despite the presence of horn sections on several songs and despite the excellent (probably virtuosic) musicianship, I could probably never be convinced that this music is Jazz-Rock Fusion. It's just progressive blues-rock psychedelia dressed up in some jazz fittings.

B/four stars; though I find the skillful and tight musicianship on this album to be exceptional, the songs are not always aligned with my own personal preferences. At the same time, I can definitely imagine the success and popularity that an album like this would have created in 1970/71.

MONOBODY Monobody

Album · 2015 · Jazz Related Rock
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FunkFreak75
Precisely performed jazzy Math Rock from some youth from Chicago. Gutsy, intelligent, complex and intricate yet delivered tight and with great melodic sense.

1. "Lifeguard of a Helpless Body" (4:15) with the same fast pace and upbeat nature of a TOE (Japan) jam, this sets the tone for the album with some fast-picking (and tapping) guitar work. Such a refreshing sound! (10/10)

2. "I Heard them on the Harbor" (5:56) takes its time in establishing patterns as it opens with several instruments taking turns appearing and disappearing. It is only into the third minute that a rhythm and structure is established and played over--but then is challenged and discarded in lieu of some spacey and then jazzy keyboard. The spacey, spacious soundscape reappears for a while until at 4:18 an entirely new and soft-beat rhythmicity is established and built around. And exquisitely so, I might add! Cool and unusual song. (9/10)

3. "Curry Courier Career" (8:11) opens sounding like an intricate, upbeat WES MONTGOMERY song. It then diverts into I kind of étude in sharp time changes and collective band discipline. Things shift and progress in this song so quickly and suddenly--totally unpredictably. There is, however, a pattern to the song structure here (as opposed to song #2). A song that displays some seriously talented and skilled musicians and some seriously well-rehearsed execution of some seriously well-thought out song composition. Definitely the most jazzy song on the album. (13.5/15)

4. "Exformation" (5:21) opens with some intricate and frenetic guitar tapping leading the band into a stop-and-go kind of rush hour traffic pace. The guitarists melody lines here are seriously (and continuously) fast! Even in the mid-song lull the keyboard and guitar lines are intricate and speedy. STANLEY JORDAN would be impressed! (9/10)

5. "Gilgamesh (R-Texas)" (6:18) lots of interplay between instruments off doing their own thing: staccato rhtymic hits from drums and rhythm instruments, polyrhythmic arpeggi from piano, guitars and synths. It is an amazing display of artistry, vision, discipline and restraint. There's even quite a liteel MUFFINS-like Canterbury play in the chord and melody structures of the third and fourth minutes (and the horns in the fifth minute). Everything drops off at the end of the fifth minute save for an electric piano chord sequence--over which the delicate play of other instruments is added to the end. Another outstanding gem of a song! (10/10)

6. "Country Doctor" (5:25) opens with a simple little piano arpeggio repeated over before countrified big band joins in. The pace is atypically slow for this band until the one minute mark when a wall of KAYO DOT-like electrified sound enters and swallows us. The music vacillates back and forth for a while between the MAUDLIN OF THE WELL like beauty of intricately woven soft-picked instruments and the occasional wake-up call of a blast of heavy metal dynamo then settles into a long section of soft but intricately woven multiple instruments. The final 35 seconds allows instruments final flourishes over a fast piano arpeggio. Beautiful song! My favorite on the album. (10/10)

Every once in a while an album comes out of nowhere to shock and surprise me--and this is one of those. I only wish I had heard it in the year it was released so that I could have had more say in helping to bring attention to it. This is an AMAZING album that is truly worth the while of any prog lover's time and attention. Check it out!

A veritable five star album; a true masterpiece of progressive rock music! But what is it? Post Rock/Math Rock like TOE or ALGERNON? Eclectic Jazz Rock à la FROGG CAFE or UNAKA PRONG? Canterbury jazz like MANNA/MIRAGE/THE MUFFINS? It's a mystery! They're chameleon's! I can't wait to watch their future unfold for the skies are not too high for these talented musicians!

MONOBODY Raytracing

Album · 2018 · Jazz Related Rock
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FunkFreak75
The boys from Chicago are back! As you may recall, their 2015 self-titled debut crashed onto the Post Rock scene with quite a splash! In fact, I rated it as a five-star masterpiece and included it among my list of favorite Post Rock albums of all-time. As good as that album was, this is better. The startlingly quick tempo variations and melodic maturity displayed here shows that these guys have been working hard over the past three years.

1. "Ilha Verde" (10:44) opens with slow, delicate playing from heavily distorted and lightly-flanged electric instruments while drums play clear and pure somewhat sub rosa. Things ramp up into a tight jazz weave in the third minute and then get crazy-cruisin' by the fourth--a little avant with tight stop-and-starts and a very tightly woven weave. By the middle of the fourth minute things are bass-slappin' Primal, if you know what I mean! Then, just as suddenly, at the four minute mark things break down and we glide into a section of gorgeous Lyle-Mays-like melodic jazz. Guitar and piano here are so tight! This is such a diverse odyssey--like a jazz master class! Intricate staccato work returns, followed by the heavier King Crimson-like stuff to the mid-eight minute. Another break as we enter a new dreamy patch. Wow! What a ride! It is truly like experiencing all of the emotional and spatial shifts of Homer's Odyssey--in just under eleven minutes! Great multiple-layered pacing in the final section as drums go frenetic beneath gentler keys and floating guitars on top. (9.5/10)

2. "Raytracing" (4:47) complex, fast-paced weave with, at times, a bassa nova kind of beat structure and some really funky guitar and vibe sounds woven into some gorgeous passages. Incredibly impressive cohesion and synchrony from all band members. Incredibly impressive song! (10/10)

3. "Former Islands" (5:26) the song most like their debut album. It opens fast-paced, intricately woven as Post Rock with a TOE. (Japanese Post Rock band) feel to it. Solid, impressive song with solid, impressive instrumental performances over the course of two movements in an A-B-A-B structure. The melodies in the B section are gorgeous. (10/10)

4. "Echophrasia" (9:59) a gentle, spacey opening section with floating synths and keys over which percussives and guitar noodle their rapidly traveling passages. When things pick up and become jazzier in the third minute, the feel becomes all intricately constructed, well-rehearsed timed rapidly arpeggiated chord progressions--jazz! A spacey interlude in the fifth minute lets everyone catch their breath before guitar arpeggi, cymbol play support trombone and slide guitar work. The intricate weave of guitar, keys, and bass and drums rises and intensifies before a guitar scream introduces a heavy" technical-metal section. This is so impressive the way the whole-band's timing has to be so perfect in order to pull off the realization of these crazy-complex compositions! (9/10)

5. "The Shortest Way" (1:03) a cross between John Martyn's echoplex guitar and Mark Isham's synth work to give the listener a little respite from this stunning album. Thank you! (4.5/5)

6. "Opalescent Edges" (8:08) speaking of Mark Isham, this one opens like a Minimalist Isham-Bill Bruford EARTHWORKS piece. Chunky bass and psuedo-power chords give the third section a little STEELY DAN feel to it. (What?!) But then Conor Mackay just has to show off his amazing speed for a few before we fall into another classic jazz gentle bridge leading to a Stick and vibes weave with keys and bass and drums rockin' out to drown out the band! This sixth minute would have been the perfect finale, but no, the band has to keep going in order to let some individual steam off--here the guitar and synth get some solo time before they weave back into whole before decaying into the sedating final minute of space sounds. Wow! What did I just experience? How does one define this music? "Prog Perfection!" (10/10)

Throw away the Post Rock/Math Rock label, boys, this is Jazz-Rock Fusion at it's most intricately KonstruKted King Crimsonianness.

Five stars; a certifiable masterpiece of modern progressive rock music--and album that would make Señors Fripp, Bruford, Levin, Belew, Gunn, Mastelotto, Harrison, Jakszyk, and Rieflin proud. My new leader for Album of The Year honors.

SONAR Tranceportation (Volume 2) (with David Torn)

Album · 2020 · Jazz Related Rock
Cover art Buy this album from MMA partners
FunkFreak75
Switzerland's precision masters are back with yet another impeccably formed and produced album of Math Rock--still in union with American guitar legend David Torn as they have been for the past two albums. Leader and principle composer Stephan Thelen is in the process of stepping away (to pursue a solo career), here showing his expanding skillset with a turn on the tuned percussion instruments on song three, "Slowburn," yet the band sounds as good as ever. Maybe better!

1. "Triskaidekaphilia" (9:43) a fairly thin and surprisingly simple weave over which David Torn shreds and shrieks while the other guitarists pick and pluck their way in their own delicately staccato fashions. It goes by so fast that I find myself a bit underwhelmed by the little and infrequent high points. (16.75/20)

2. "Tranceportation" (12:39) deep bass notes fill the bottom end from the start while syncopated snare and hi-hat hits and pin-dropping guitar notes slowly join in and populate the starry aural field. Interesting how for the first three minutes the bass of Christian Kuntner and drums of Manuel Pasquinelli really get top billing; it's only in the fourth minute that David Torn's note-bending Southern-fried guitar takes the lead. Meanwhile, Christian's bass moves more and more and the other guitars' pin-droppings become more prominent. Unfortunately, I really am not a fan of the style and sound David is projecting with this performance, yet the bass and drums really make this one different and interesting. I love the ninth and tenth minutes when the pin-pricking guitars get more lead time: it's like the sound of stars twinkling in the sky. Finally, in the tenth minute, David's guitar sound and soloing style become interesting and enjoyable to me. And then, for the final two minutes, everybody individually begins to experiment with slow decay into chaotic "death." Quite interesting! (22/25)

3. "Slowburn" (10:01) A nice, full polyrhythmic fabric is established over the first three minutes before David begins his display of pyrotechnics--a quite wonderful one, in fact. Then the music softens for a bit during a return to the opening weave, but all stops are unleashed at the five-minute mark with another foray into the thicker, "B" motif. Great guitar "conversation" in the seventh minute. Drums begin to make themselves known around the eight-minute mark, seemingly goading the others into more aggressive and dynamic expressions--and boy does it work. My favorite section on the album! David Torn really unleashes. But then there is a sudden shutdown at the nine-minute mark and a long, slow decay into silence. Too bad! I wish that aggressive section would have/could have continued. Definitely the most interesting and dynamic composition on the album. (18.25/20)

4. "Cloud Chamber" (9:37) steady bass, rim hits, and sparse polyrhythmic guitar picks open this one before spacey electronics and more guitar lines enter and begin to further shape and re-shape this one. The regular stop and re-start every six, seven, or eight measures (it seems to vary) is a bit too formulaic for me--or rather, a bit too reminiscent of rudimentary bluesy rock'n'roll for my tastes. The intersting stuff in the sonic field is really only subtle and nuanced until about the sixth minute when David's soaring wails and screeches become more prominent and insistent. Again we are treated to a long, slow, spacey decay into silence. (17.5/20)

Total Time 42:00

David is "on" again with some truly remarkable solo displays of shredding, I just wish his lead contributions filled a greater percentage of the songs' lengths. To my ears, bassist Christian Kuntner comes out as the surprise star of this show.

B+/4.5 stars; a wonderful addition to any prog lover's music collection.

SONAR Tranceportation (Volume 1) (with David Torn)

Album · 2019 · Jazz Related Rock
Cover art Buy this album from MMA partners
FunkFreak75
The union of Switzerland's Math Rock masters, Sonar, with David Torn was so successful, so meaningful to all involved, that they did it again--one year after releasing the stunning, ground-breaking, Vortex.

1. "Labyrinth" (14:26) the tension presented in this song is sublime! The low bass-dominated primary weave is incredibly engaging (engulfing!) In the fifth, eighth, eleventh, and thirteeth-into-fourteenth minutes David Torn reaches new heights with his guitar's creative, primal, animalistic screams. And the other guitarists take a more aggressive, attention-grabbing approach than is typical of their performances (they usually stay in the underground, hidden within the foundational weaves that David solos over). Even the drumming somehow reaches out to grab you and suck you in. Probably my favorite Sonar song ever. (28.5/30)

2. "Partitions" (5:37) opening with a wonderful spacey aural field--one that stays in the song's bottom end throughout. The star-spangling guitar interplay is absolutely wonderful--both with individual notes and, later, beneath David Torn's swooning guitar play, with staccato chord strums and then ascending chord arpeggi. (10/10)

3. "Red Sky" (11:14) percussion noises from the drum coupled with spacey guitar loops are soon joined with the lead blues-bending notes of David Torn's southern-infused guitar. Very cool. At 1:53 another guitar approach is introduced. Christian Kuntner's thick, heavy, low-end dominating bass does not enter until 2:19, over which David's bayou-bluesy guitar returns--all over some intricately-played quick note staccato guitar interplay. The rolling bass line only contributes further to the bayou-bluesy feel of this one. I'm not usually into bluesy rock soundscapes but this one is intriguing, at times mesmerizing. An interesting rhythmic shift occurs at the end of the sixth minute--one that ushers in a change in the expression of all the band members--as if all are suddenly pointed in a march toward a fixed point on the horizon. The progress they make--both as individuals and a collective unit--is quite exciting--especially in the drums' and David Torn's contributions. I like the second half much more than the first. (17.5/20)

4. "Tunnel Drive" (7:42) the band very quickly establish a very unusual, syncopated rhythm over which to create their weave. David Torn's indvidualistic contributions really don't begin to emerge to the forefront until the second half, making this much more of an "old" Sonar Math Rock song than the others. (13/15)

Total Time 38:59

A-/five stars; a masterpiece of spacey Math Rock and an essential addition to any prog lover's music collection.

jazz related movie reviews

KING CRIMSON Neal And Jack And Me

Movie · 2004 · Jazz Related Rock
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Sean Trane
This DVD will please many of the third Crimson phase fans combines two tours: the Beat tour and the Three Of A Perfect pair. Oddly enough, they are presented in a non- chronological order, but this is a very minor point. One of the things I was particularly uneasy about was Bruford's use of electronic percussions and drums and we get a load of those "things" and like all technology novelty, the risk is that it ages poorly and sadly here, it is the case. Another point I had not appreciated is the stage presence of Adrian Belew, which is clearly copied from David Byrne from his collaborations with The Talking Heads - I love the T Heads, but Belew's stage antics are too derivative and ill fitted for Crimson. There are a few tracks present twice and most notably the boring Mate Kusadai.

Strictly on the visual front, Crimson was clearly making efforts to look hip and appeal to a more new-wave-ish public. Those were the days! But I never said that they were good, either!

Among the bonuses, are a video clip and a few titbits, but sadly still missing is that mini- concert footage filmed for the Discipline release and them playing four tracks in front of a red curtain. I may be severe with my rating of this DVD but I am not a real fan of that era.

GONG Classic Rock Legends

Movie · 2000 · Jazz Related Rock
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seyo
This video contains live performances from 1990 Live on TV album. Four original members of GonG are present: Pip Pyle, Didier Malherbe, Gilli Smyth and an oddball-harlequin persona of the spiritus movens, Daevid Allen.

Performance is focused on their legendary Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, with 3 starters from Camembert Electrique. Since I have no idea what GonG looked like on scene back in the early 1970s (that is, before I took a peek at several Youtube clips recently), I guess this DVD makes up a lot for that, the age of the performers notwithstanding.

In fact, seeing these unique art-performers in their senior age can just assure you how the music and art in general can surpass generations, years and ages if you wish. Musicianship is great, movie direction very good with several cameras shooting from different angles, while only the engagement of the dancers to invoke the mystical gnomey creatures may be seen as too over-stressed.

The finale presents perhaps too long goodbye with the extended "I Am You" jam, but when Daevid jumps down into the audience you can actually see the highly emotional and spiritual connection between the band and the people, done in an almost religious-like chanting. This is excellent video and should be seen by all those who have at least some knowledge of the Planet GonG trilogy repertoire!

BILL BRUFORD Bbc Rock Goes To College: Live 1979

Movie · 2006 · Jazz Related Rock
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Dick Heath
I remember seeing this originally on BBC 2 a few weeks after it was recorded in one of the canteens of Oxford Poly, and getting a mix of intense pleasure. In particular pleasure from the tour de force that Holdsworth had developed into (and screamed out at me on Feels Good To Me)and the unknown bass-wiz Jeff Berlin. But there was disappointment over Annette's contribution to the set - when her husky voice breathed sex at me on the album.

Now here from the Beeb's archives is the original 70's video quality footage as originally shown on 625 lines. The pleasure points remain, with some details emphasised. However the disappointment is worse, in particular there is a promise of something special as Peacock flounces on part way through the set, dressed as the fashion queen,(thereby drawing the contrast with the blokes in the band). However,again the expectation of something special evaporates quickly - the diva can't 'deave' live in sympathy with the music, the band i.e. her vocals are poor. Fortunately we don't have to suffer this for long and thank goodness for the skip button.

Yes this is a short recording*, and isn't there a missed opportunity here? One DVD burn (of a copy of a copy, etc.) of this gig I saw some years ago and suffering horribly from colour dropout, had the addition of two extra numbers by Bruford recorded off from the Old Grey Whistle Test - here with I think Neil Murray deputing for Jeff Berlin. Surely the Beeb could had offered these as well?

*Interesting to see another Rock Goes To College recording of Herbie Hancock & the Headhunters recorded at the now defuncted Chelsea College, that had resurfaced on BBC 4 2 years ago, was an hour long.

STING Bring On The Night

Movie · 2005 · Pop/Art Song/Folk
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Slartibartfast
The concept here is a documentary of a band forming, The Blue Turtles Band, rather than a band at their peak or breaking up. Fortunately it is heavier on the music than the documentary.

The first half takes place in a French countryside chateaux and consists of presentable songs from nine days of practice sessions for what was to be their first show. Everyone in the band seems to be having a good time. The chateaux provides nice a nice backdrop to the sessions. The second half is the show itself.

Since this was Sting's first post Police effort, there's a lot of reworked Police songs mixed in with tracks from the first album. It's sort of like the Police meets jazz with Andy Summers ejected so Sting could play guitar. The band line up is primarily younger jazz musicians that already had a good reputation for work they had done before hooking up with Sting.

There are interview excerpts between the songs. One of the more interesting ones was Miles Copeland, Sting's manager and Stewart's brother going on about negotiations with the rest of the band. He was extremely dismissive of the band in relation to Sting when it came to monetary compensation. I suspect that was more about himself getting a bigger piece of the pie than a reflection on Sting, although I do recall him guest appearing on a Saturday Night Live show with Steve Marting and Steve introducing him as Stin-gy.

I originally saw this one in a theater and was really pleased to see it released being reworked with "high definition digital anamorphic picture transfer and digitally remastered surround audio." It actually does look a little sharper than I recall and I think the orginal sound was just stereo.

BILL BRUFORD Bbc Rock Goes To College: Live 1979

Movie · 2006 · Jazz Related Rock
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Slartibartfast
This is incredible. I had the good fortune of seeing Bruford, unfortunately post Holdsworth, at the now defunct Atlanta Agora. I did get to catch Holdsworth touring for his I.O.U. album, but that's another story. My first pass through this concert really gave me the goosebumps.

It is unfortunate that this DVD is only 41 minutes, but the set list is excellent. Four tracks from Bruford's best album, One of a Kind. Annette Peacock even shows up for a couple of songs. I always thought that she didn't fit in well with this kind of music, but it's nice to see her all the same. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think there's any live video out there of Alan Holdsworth, so seeing him in action is a special treat. One of the things I remember most from seeing Bruford was that at times Jeff Berlin's picking fingers were a blur and seeing him again live, I know I wasn't imagining it. Dave Stewart, or as I like to call him, The Dave Stewart, not that Eurythmics guy, is also a lot of fun to see in action. I noticed he had a music stand with no sheet music, but a synthesizer diagram, interesting. And then of course there's Bill. Those of you who may dislike his electronic drum work, I'm not one, will be happy to him playing strictly acoustic. What can I say? He's really one of best drummers around. The audio quality is excellent and sometimes the camera man crop off Holdsworth's left hand when I'd like to see it, but other than that, this is really nice for a concert captured in 1979.

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