Sean Trane By the time of this album, Nucleus was no more, as commercial success was elusive and offers abounded - especially from Soft Machine that will have a field day plundering electrons from this Nucleus - I know, that was a little tooooo easy ;-) . And Ian Carr was having severe lung problems (for a trumpet player......) and so when he got better (he was writing music from a cheap piano), he decided that this album would not use the Nucleus name, but everything here spells the group, at least songwriting-wise and sonic department; since only Brian Smith is still around from the original line-up. McRae (see Matching Mole), Tomkins (from the Rendell-Carr Quintet), Holdsworth (future everything), Thacker (Auger’s Trinity) and Gordon Beck are the essential guests.

Belladona (the 13 min+ opening track) opened up on some atonal sounds but turns into that typical Nucleus funky jazz-rock, but closing on a lengthy solo trumpet, only accompanied by steel percussions. Summer Rain starts off with great el piano (which is a welcome change since the KB was fairly absent in the previous album Solar Plexus) soon accompanied by a heavy bass, and the track sounds a bit like summer dog day’s rain. Remadione is a really slow 5AM jazz piece (Dexter Gordon-style in Round About Midnight) but picks up around the end with a guitar-Rhodes duet.

On the flipside, Mayday is one of the better tracks as the Rhodes piano layers intro veers off to superb rhythm guitar, played by Allan Holdsworth in one of his first appearance, underlining Smith’s excellent sax. The highlight of this album is Suspension (recorded in one sole take) with bamboo flutes building up to a mid-tempo fusion that brings small spine chills. The last track is a showcase for Allan Holdsworth searing guitar solo, a reward given to him as he had been reduced mostly (however brilliantly) to a rhythm role up to now.

Not the best Nucleus or Nucleus-related album, but still much worthy a spin!! And if you’re into Solar Plexus, you might not have a choice either, since it’s the second disc of this 2 on 2 BGO release.

darkprinceofjazz Years ago, I did a google search for, Albums that are influenced by Bitches Brew, The Miles Davis Jazz Rock Classic, Aside from the obvious choices, All the offshoots that were created by Those who Participated in the album, Hancock, Shorter, Zawinul, McLaughlin and the like, This album Belladonna From Ian Carr and all of his Nucleus Bands albums, I have just about everything in this style From Ian Carr, and it's Fantastic, The music is Heavily Influenced by Bitches Brew, Especially the Funkier Tracks, Like "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" and "Spanish Key" This album is probably overlooked, because it's not A nucleus album. But really it sound identical to me, When I hear this music, I am left feeling as if this is the way Miles would have sounded had he settled into a comfortable groove, and just expanded on Bitches Brew, Miles went on to Jack Johnson and then On the Corner, Totally different sound on the latter, If you like Milesy Voodoo Trumpet, Noodling Guitar and Fender electric piano, with a an atmospheric funky vibe this is for you, any of these albums From Ian Carr or Ian Carr's Nucleus are very enjoyable, The vinyl is mega expensive, The CD's aren't cheap either. but easily worth the price.

Sean Trane With the final landing of the Nucleus project in the mis_80’s, Ian Carr finally took care of a few envies he’d thought about a while back, but never got around to before. Indeed, Old Heartland was only the second album under his own name proper (no link with Nucleus) after 1971’s Belladonna, but if his first try was much in the group’s soundscapes, OH steps away from it. The album is broken down in two parts, the Third Stream suite and the shorter tracks on the flipside, which still features some Nucleus pillars like Geoff Castle and John Marshall and has Colosseum’s Hiseman engineering it on the Abbey Road studios.

The sidelong Northumbrian Sketches suite features a philharmonic orchestra (the 17-musicians Kreisler String Orchestra) lead by Michael Thomas, for which its commission dated from late 86, but it was finally committed to studio in the summer of 88 and released the following year. Yes, we’re definitely within the definition of the Third Stream realm, but to me, outside a few sax and trumpet and electric bass (Disjunctive Boogie movement) interventions, we’re more in the classical realm than in the jazz one. And to be honest, Ian is a better jazz composer than a classical one, but let’s also give him a break: it was his (almost) first shot at it as well. Apparently, this was his second shot, as he’d been commissioned by the German WDR radio broadcast for a work (still un-published on Cd, I believe) of the same genre.

On the flipside, the 5-mins Full Fathom Five opens on some acoustic guitar (courtesy of bassist Katz), before veering slow ECM-type of uneventful soundscape, if it wasn’t for Ian’s muffled trumpet. While the 7-mins title track is also a soft-sounding fusion ala ECM, it does resemble some of the later Nucleus tracks and is clearly my fave from the album. As for the closing Things Past, it is pretty well in the same realm as its two sisters.

Unlike his 71’s Belladonna album, Ian Carr’s second solo album is really sounding like a non-Nucleus thing, but if the Ian presence is instantly recognisable it clearly has the Carr paw on the flipside. Now the BGO 2on2 reissue links it with a late 70’s Nucleus album is somewhat a mistake, because I’d have coupled it with his first solo album, but then again, there were probably chronology issues in the reissues program