js My goodness, what got into these guys! Dialeto has always been a talented, mostly instrumental prog rock band, and David Cross, likewise, has always had a solid reputation, but put these two together and all of a sudden you get crazy fireworks in a sure case of the sum is greater than the parts. On the new, “Live with David Cross”, the three members of Dialeto run through songs from their previous album, “Bartok in Rock”, with Cross joining them for several, and then to cap off the concert, the four take on classic songs from Cross’ old alma mater, King Crimson. “Bartok in Rock” was an interesting record, but on this new live album, these same songs just bristle with kinetic energy, and when Cross joins them for “Bulgarian Rhythm I”, the band literally explodes in a Deep Purple ‘Made in Japan’ kind of way. David’s fiddling has certainly grown over the years, and at this point, his fiery solos just about make him the Jimi Hendrix of the violin. He uses a lot of electronic processing sometimes, to the point where it is hard to tell the difference between him and guitarist Nelson Coelho, and when they both start flailing away at the same time, it gets pretty intense to say the least.

The Bartok tracks are really the cream of the crop on this concert CD, but the re-visits to the Crimson court have their moments too, most notably when Cross takes the solo on “Starless” in a fireball of frenzied notes that should have the soloists on the original version of the song more than a bit jealous. Prog rock is not dead, and it doesn’t even ‘smell funny’ in the hands of these guys who realize a big part of the progressive rock equation is the R.O.C.K. Oh yes, there are also moments of introspective sensitivity on here too, but the best comes when these guys set their instruments ablaze.