EntertheLemming - Now that's what I call patchy! (Volume One) -

Aside from the non-sequiter contained in the title (by this stage ELP patently did NOT Work) this has all the tell-tale signs of a patched up reconciliation, with Atlantic Records as mediators in a matrimonial battle to see who ultimately would get custody of the kids. Like most parents who undergo a messy, drawn out and acrimonious divorce, it is their creations that suffer the most, with low grades, truancy, and withdrawal into fantasy worlds very often an inevitable consequence of this trauma.

ELP's offspring, as represented by the tracks on this double album, certainly adopted many of these classic behavioural traits, but eventually came to be once again on speaking terms with their parents.

BUT IT TOOK UNTIL BLOODY SIDE FOUR !!!. (Sorry for yelling)

- Keith Emerson -

'Keith's baby grand gets expelled from Rock School'

'Piano Concerto # 1' - It took me a long, long time and countless plays to get a handle on any of this, but if you stick with it and persevere you will be rewarded by what is undoubtedly one of the most substantial compositions by a rock musician to date. What strikes the listener immediately is how conservative much of the writing is and a casual ear would be hard pressed to identify its creator as being that of Keith Emerson. With this in mind, I conducted a blindfold test on a budget (i.e by hiding the cover) on some house guests recently and they offered Copland, Gershwin, Delius ,Tchaikovsky and, somewhat unhelpfully, Glen Miller (from Stevie), as possible contenders for the composer. However, once the Concerto's author was revealed, all my guests without demur claimed that:

'Yeah ?... but you can tell though really..that it's by a rock muso I mean'

'Glen Miller ain't a rock muso'

'Shut up Stevie'

This reaction is probably one of the main hurdles that Emerson constantly faces in his quest to be taken seriously as a composer and I suspect the conciliatory and traditional aspects of the piece were a deliberate ploy to attract endorsement from within the larger classical community. The jury still appears to be out as to whether this has been successful or not, but there are a few distinguished concert pianists who have included the work in their repertoire, and it does appear from time to time on the playlists of classical music radio stations. Should Emo ever get a foot inside that forbidding door, I hope that he will employ both his ample size twelves to kick said barrier firmly down for the benefit of all who follow. We can but wait.

The first movement, although unequivocally diatonic in character, is actually based on a tone row as employed by the 2nd Viennese school of serialist composers eg Berg, Webern and Schoenberg. By all accounts the latter were not exactly hell raising party animals and their output is marked by a paucity of toe-tappers and a surfeit of very dry, academic and cerebral sterility. Emerson has pulled off quite a coup therefore, by illustrating that memorable and melodic themes can be realized by the use of a compositional technique that is traditionally seen as begetting cold or austere results.

The second movement is an unabashedly nostalgic wink in the direction of the baroque period and as much as Keith imparts his own strong personality into this brief homage, the effect is a rather self-consciously quaint daydream of Gershwin as the guest soloist at a Bach recital. As pleasant and diverting as this is, it reeks of the intermission music during the screening of the main feature.

The third movement is unrelentingly percussive and full of dramatic brio culminating in a very moving and effective main theme that lives long in the memory afterwards. Conductor John Maher bullies a very committed and aggressive performance from the London Philharmonic and Emerson's cadenza exhibits some startling and daring treatments of the motivic ideas used in the work. At times there is enacted an unflinching battle between the massed forces of orchestra and solo pianist with no quarter asked or given in a breathless and exciting 'slug fest' to see who's still standing at the end.

But you are reading this from a jazz music website, so how can we possibly rate the fish when it ain't even on the menu? (More on this later)

- Greg Lake -

'Macca junk food from Dad fails to appease the Lake brood after a 1 out of 5 report card'

'Lend Your Love to Me Tonight' - No Greg, I will not. Unless you provide a written receipt testifying that no more of this sub McCartney Hippy MOR will emanate from your esteemed orifice(s) ever again.

'C'est La Vie' - Apart from that redeeming fragment in the arrangement where the choir and orchestra brilliantly mimic the 'out of tune and out of time' refrain from the vocal, the sugar tanker that jettisoned its cargo into this Lake Inferior, makes immersion a distinctly dubious pleasure (Wet and in incredibly sickly sweet)

'Hallowed Be Thy Name' - Easily the best song on offer here with a clever and caustic lyric:

'The optimist asked for a taste of the pessimist's wine' - (Optimists need to drown their sorrows sometimes too, and a pithy metaphor for nihilism)

The arrangement is outstanding on this clumping piano driven and curmudgeonly snarl of a song that casts the habitual romantic lead in an unaccustomed role of that as the disaffected naysayer looking on at the chaos all around him caused by the stupidity of his fellow men:

'this planet of ours is a mess I bet heaven's the same'

Great use is made here of glissando strings to give the song a suitably neurotic and disquieting atmosphere. Unfailingly brilliant and a real diamond in the mire. Greg, welcome back my friend to the show that never....(Doh!)

'Nobody Loves You Like I Do' - Answers on a postcard to the author please. I must have listened to this song at least 50 times now and cannot for the life of me, recall a single note or phrase from it. Greg Lake's 4.00 answer to John Cage's '4.33'.

'Closer to Believing' - This suffers from the same malaise as Lake's orchestral version of 'I Believe in Father Christmas' in that what is a very fine song with eloquent and thought provoking lyrics, is suffocated under a huge fleecy pillow of an arrangement. Once more alas, Greg lapses into that irritating habit he is prone to of 'speaking' the tagline in some of his songs (eg 'we want....US') This latest example being capable of emptying a rhino's tummy back out through the in door.

- Carl Palmer -

'Absent fathers never get the chance to deliver six of the best to their offspring'

'The Enemy God Dances with the Black Spirits' - A very boisterous romp through Prokofiev's piece with Palmer's kit and Orchestra in perfect empathy with neither overpowering the other. Stirring.

'LA Nights' - The sort of west coast 'rawk' thumper that could perhaps have been put to better use in the advertising of sportscars. Very solid performances by all concerned with Joe Walsh wrapping his lips round some 'voicebox' guitar and his hands round some sterling 'Jack Daniels' bottleneck lead. They even drag Keith along on this 'cruise down Hollywood Boulevard in an open top Maserati' number where the latter thumps out some authentic 'rawk' piano.

'New Orleans' - Rather spartan and rudimentary funk tinged blues rock which seems to hang in the air like an unfinished chore.

'Two Part Invention in D Minor' - Carl's pedigree as a fully qualified orchestral percussionist has never been in doubt, but this smacks of an indecent haste in sourcing any old vehicle to illustrate his advanced driving skills.

'Food For Your Soul' - More than a nod (in fact a bow) in the direction of Palmer's drum heroes Krupa, Rich, Cobham et al in this exhilarating big band workout that is considerably more accomplished a composition than being merely a platform from which Carl can deliver a stunning and economically constructed solo. Almost visceral in its intensity. I'm full up.

'Tank' - ELP's rusting old warhorse is saved from the scrapyard with a jazzy lick of paint and some completely new bodywork from expert panel beater Carl on a skilfully arranged adaptation of this tune for Jazz Orchestra. Emerson revisits his famous Moog solo towards the end, and in this setting is revealed 'Tank's' jazz roots and vocabulary which certainly caused me to reappraise Keith's original creation in a whole new light.

- Emerson, Lake and Palmer -

'Atlantic Records get custody of the twins' (but they get to stay up really late)

'Fanfare for the Common Man' - Copland has already endorsed the band's version of his famous short piece and it is really not hard to see why. Apart from the sheer inflated scale of their interpretation, the trio remain pretty faithful to the composer's original intentions by ensuring that the lengthy improvisation at it's centre is framed by reproductions of the indelible main theme at either end. Emerson's new 'toy' at around this time was the triple manual Yamaha GX1 keyboard (an analogue synthesizer with elephantitis) and its very distinctive character was fundamental to the realization of this piece. Rather punningly, Keith employs that technology's replication of a very humble harmonica sound with which to embark on his brilliant improvisation. Greg and Carl have never sounded this 'tight' and buttress the track with one of the slinkiest of all wicked shuffle grooves in rock. The tonal palette becomes more and more sulphurous as the piece develops and at its peak there is an 'underpant filling' blare of resonating synthetic brass from Emerson that still startles 30 years later. (But that might just be me)

'Pirates' - If ELP had stayed together then this track may be indicative of where their future direction may have led. The fusion of rock instrumentation and orchestral resources was a long term project for Keith and he has voiced dissatisfaction with the results obtained previously on 'Ars Longa Vita Brevis' and 'Five Bridges' with the Nice.

There has always been a tendency for an electric band to overpower the orchestral players but the remedy of simply amplifying the latter has invariably led to a diminishing or loss of the rich and unique palette of tonal colours available from this source. In the controlled environment of the recording studio however, this elusive balance may be somewhat less hazardous to accomplish and on 'Pirates' ELP can be heard happily supping from the 'holy grail' that this piece embodies.

The lyrics first of all, which are something of a blindspot in prog's rear-view mirror, are superb and both Lake and the much maligned Sinfield deserve great praise for constructing what is no less than a fully plotted narrative poem which conjures up perfectly the appropriate atmosphere and accurate historical detail befitting Emerson's magnificent music. In addition, Greg does does not just 'sing' the notes with his habitual aplomb but interprets the lyrical content as though he were an actor in this most theatrical of creations ever attempted by ELP. This must be very close to the finest vocal performance of his life.

The allegorical aspects of a Pirate story are very apt. It's all here. The looting and pillaging, the riches beyond your wildest dreams, a license to act with impunity, debauchery without the consequences and roaming the world like an outlaw above and beyond the reach of the law. It's only rock'n'roll.

Therein lies the problem with this sprawling, schizophrenic and bloated train wreck of a record. For the vast legions of the band's followers, 'Works Volume 1'was simply a 'step too far' and expecting a fanbase drawn from a predominantly white rock demographic to embrace willingly some avant garde classical music was doomed to failure from the outset. We are even denied the opportunity to evaluate this document as a bona fide ELP album, as it is after all tantamount to three mini solo albums with a big wet group hug at the end.

EntertheLemming - Burning Bridges -

For me this album represents a pivotal moment in the rise of Keith Emerson as a serious composer and the inevitable demise of the Nice as a band.

This is perfectly exemplified by the (mostly) successful and highly ambitious suite that comprises the whole of side one. The 'rockier' and shorter band-only material that make up the remainder illustrate some of the technical limitations of his buddies that Emerson was labouring under at that time.

Given the keyboard player's vaunted ambition, it was very unlikely that either Jackson or Davison would have the requisite 'chops' to cope with the subsequent ELP adventure.

'The Five Bridges Suite' probably succeeds because Emerson correctly identified the group and orchestra as mutually antagonistic, and consequently used this to his advantage i.e orchestra and group play the sections sequentially and seldom in unison. Conductor Josef Eger manages to coax a spirited performance from the London Sinfonia and Emerson's music runs adroitly the whole gamut of rock, blues, jazz and classical. There is also, rest assured, his usual helping of Hammond inflicted torture with which to infuriate the 'penguins' from behind their music stands and at one deafening point in the proceedings we can only surmise that Keith had declared a 'fatwa' on stubborn earwax.

The piano fugue is particularly good and the same harmonic material is used to exquisite effect on a 'chorale' section featuring a heart-felt vocal from Lee Jackson about his formative years in Newcastle. The lyrics are often bitter-sweet and we cannot help but conclude that Jackson's relationship with his home-town is a complex affair:

'It's no good shouting about dirty air when there's nothing much else to breathe, it's no good shouting from 9 to 5 if don't have the guts to leave'

Two classical adaptations open up side two (remember vinyl?) being Sibelius 'Intermezzo from the Karelia Suite', which is so much better than the insipid studio version, and a rather perfunctory sprint through Tchaikovsky's 'Pathetique'. There is a tendency for the band and Orchestra to cancel each other out during the unison sections here but otherwise they are enjoyable and ground breaking attempts to merge what was hitherto considered an area where 'never the twain shall meet' .

'Country Pie/Brandenburger' is one of my all time favourite Nice tracks which illustrates that uncanny knack Emerson has for marrying disparate elements that in isolation, are less than mouth-watering. Here he welds an inconsequential little Dylan tune to Bach's stately 6th Brandenburger and the whole is way, way more than the sum of its parts. Jackson's rather limited range is not compromised by this tune and the bass and drum interplay, together with Emerson's incendiary organ performance is unrivalled in the band's output.

The last track 'One of Those People' is often dismissed as throwaway filler, but I think it vastly underrated and brings the (original) album to a very satisfying and upbeat conclusion. We also meet here, and not for the last time, Emerson's enduring wish to have his voice electronically manipulated to resemble a Klingon livestock auctioneer. (see the 'computer/robot' voice from 'Brain Salad Surgery')

The resistance Emerson (and his buddy Jon Lord) met when trying to merge rock and classical was reactionary in the extreme, and we cannot help but conclude with some irony, that those denizens of the 'rawk' world who pay lip service to libertarianism, experimentation and anti-establishment values can be, without fear of contradiction, some of the most conservative people on the planet.

Sean Trane During Cassol’s residence at Brussel’s Opera de La Monnaie (I think it lasted more or lass a small decade), he kept his Aka Moon relationship alive, not only by managing to have the band play three or fpour concerts in the opera house (it’s a first to my knowledge), but also involving the band in his first two “solo” ventures. Of these two Cassol-directed projects, the first is this VSPSR orchestra collaboration, an amalgam of the three Aka and a bunch of wind-players (anywhere between one and six, depending), a duet of string players and some three opera vocalists adapting (read modernizing) Monteverdi’s Vespro Della Beata Virgine, with the goal of mixing musicians from very different backgrounds: classical, gypsy and our jazz trio. While the Monteverdi work’s modernization passes through some jazzmen (Aka Moon), it’s hard to call/tag this type of work as “Third Stream”, though it wouldn’t be unreasonable either to do so.

Musically, the original work is sometimes totally turned upside down and outside in, as Aka’s rhythm section and the two gypsies are creating a minor revolution that would have most dusty old operaheads screaming for murder. Indeed, while some movements are still quite traditional classical, other pieces are mainly ethnically percussive (Dance Hyo Seung), others are close to a “jazz-rockier” sound, creating a constantly changing soundscape. It might seem a little strange to say that despite this being a Cassol project, on stage/studio/disc, it is more Hatzi and Galland that are more audible, but the trio soars like never before in Laetatus Sum.

Played live on stage, the music was also danced to, and believe me, this was not a tutu ballet thing. If the present project has found (no doubt) grace to your ears, you can indeed follow-up with Cassol’s next project (released two years later), which is a very similar project (this time on a Bach piece), albeit with a totally different cast of musicians, except for the three Aka. Really worth lending an ear to it.

Sean Trane During Cassol’s residence at Brussel’s La Monnaie opera, he kept his Aka Moon relationship alive, not only by managing to have the band play three or fpour concerts in the opera house (it’s a first to my knowledge), but also involving the band in his first two “solo” ventures. This project is based on Bach’s piece of St Matthew’s Passion, but while its modernization passes through some jazzmen (Aka Moon), it’s hard to call/tag this type of work as “Third Stream”, though it wouldn’t be unreasonable either to do so. It’s also not unreasonable to view Pitié as the logical follow-up of his previous work of VSPRS, thaty predates this by two or three years.

With a duet of soprano/mezzo singers up front (sometimes joined by a counter-tenor), the “band” seems to consist at most times of eight musicians, of which two are classical string players and two (sometimes three) are wind-players: Malik’s flute and Cassol’s sax. Strangely enough, while I dislike fairly strongly (should I say allergy?) the accordion, Thuriot’s presence on most tracks goes mainly unnoticed to my ears, probably because he’s playing more like a violin than a “bal-musette” thing.

Opening on a semi-jazzy Prelude, the project alternates between pure classic/operatic pieces (Heiland, Herzen Schenken) and much more experimental or mixed tracks (Buss Und Rau, Blute Nur; etc…), where the bass and drums are adding a dimension previously unheard of before (at least to me), that it gave me a whole new outlook on the previously-thought dusty and immutable medium. Not that I will fall into the operatic abyss at all, but Cassol’s work/adaptation does attract my attention and maintain it, where a normal/traditional rendition would’ve instantly driven me away or to sleep. Nowhere is this fascination of mine as strong as on the Gerne Will Ich Mich or the Sturm pieces, where the Aka rhythm section induce an energy previously impossible, and some wide avenues seems suddenly to break open. Having never heard Bach’s original version, I can only wonder if the few mid-eastern intonations in Cassol’s version (namely in Mensch’s vocals) might be a slight provocation or not.

My main gripe with Cassol’s updated Pitié, is that the overall length (80-mins) makes it unbearable and has me worn out by the 2/3-mark, if not sometimes sooner, and going to the end will create an overdose, with a serious risk of allergy… Sometimes, less is more.

darkshade This review is based on the 2012 reissue.

The Yellow Shark is such a great album. It's breathtaking at times, and doesn't get all tense, scary, and nervous like the London Symphony Orchestra album does (which is a totally different beast of an album anyway). Frank comes out and tells the audience to "get serious, folks", even though he says to throw any panties off to the side of the stage.

The Zappa classics that get a makeover here are outstanding, and rival their earlier versions. I'm especially keen on the Dog Breath Variations and the Uncle Meat theme, because they translate so well to an orchestra. The sound is also outstanding, not only one of the best sounding Frank Zappa albums, but also one of the best sounding albums from anyone that I've ever heard.

Most of the tunes get a HUGE applause from the crowd, especially the final G-Spot Tornado, which itself is a remarkable rendition of a tune Zappa originally wrote for the Synclavier machine on Jazz From Hell, never meant to be played by actual musicians, but the crowd roars with cheers and applause, and apparently went on for over 20 minutes, and the fade out with the crowd still going crazy is a testament to that. I don't know if I've ever heard a live recording from any band or artist where the applause lasted so long that they eventually had to fade it out, as we do get to hear a good chunk of it. Another synclavier song that made it here is The Girl In The Magnesium Dress, which sounds cool because I think Frank wrote it with just his hands going up and down the keys of the synclavier keyboard, yet it got transcribed and played by this wonderful orchestra.

As for the new songs, they are also excellent. Some of them are minimalistic, as that seems to be the direction Zappa was going, but I believe the direction he took in the early 90s was, in part, due to his diagnosis of having cancer. Still, songs like Food Gathering in Post-Industrial America, 1992 and Welcome To The United States are some of the coolest pieces of music Frank wrote. The former brings some humor which was missing from a few tracks prior. The latter is cool because a form given to people entering the U.S. is recited over the music, which itself is very dramatic, and in classic Zappa form, reacts to what is being said by the performer. It reminds me of something Captain Beefheart would do, like on The Grand Wazoo from The Lost Episodes (not to be confused with The Grand Wazoo from the album of the same name; The Lost Episodes one is a completely different song).

The case it comes in is beautiful, and the pictures in the giant booklet are great; some are funny, some are just plain cool, but there's one that makes me sad, it's the last one, with some of the guys Frank worked with around that time, like producers and mixers, and they're sitting around him and everyone is smiling, but Frank clearly hadn't shaved for months, meaning the pic was taken not too long before he passed. He knew his time was coming.

I always put The Yellow Shark off because I wasn't ready for it and other orchestral albums because I just wanted the rock and fusion stuff back when I first got into his music. And then when the reissues started coming out and I started collecting them, I still held off on getting The Yellow Shark (and Civilization Phaze III still), but now I realize that was a major error on my part, and I've been keeping myself from listening to one of Zappa's last great works, and it really is one of the best projects he ever put together. If only he had even a few more months to cherish it. He always said he made music for himself, and if others liked it, cool. But us fans have had more time to digest those last couple of releases than he ever did, even though he wrote the music. Point is, The Yellow Shark is magnificent, and I only wish I got it sooner, but now I can listen to it whenever I want.

Don't hold off on getting this album if you are a Zappa fan already, this is an essential piece of music. I wouldn't recommend this to a Zappa newbie, but maybe after you've got 10 or so albums, maybe this would be a good intro to his orchestral work, though I'd argue that any of them are good to start with. This one, however, does have the best sound, with the best intentions from the performers. Masterpiece of prog, classical, third stream, of music.