Record Reviews

JACK BRUCE ~ THE 50TH BIRTHDAY CONCERTS MIG 90610 (Barcode: 885513906106) ~ UK ~ Classic Rock Recorded: 1993 Released: 2014 This Box Set is a document of the two concerts organized in order to celebrate the 50th Birthday of British vocalist / bassist / composer Jack BruceFind albums by this artist, one of the greatest figures of Rock / Blues-Rock / Prog-Rock and Jazz-Rock. These concerts took place on November 2nd and 3rd of 1993 and were recorded and videoed for posterity. The Box Sets includes two DVDs which present the music played during the two nights (totaling in almost four hours of unadulterated Jack Bruce genius) and in addition it also includes a third DVD with an extensive collection of interviews with Bruce and his guests recorded at the time and a CD with another hour of music, which is not included on the two concert DVDs. In short about six hours of Jack Bruce, his music and his unique personality, which made his one of the most respected and admired musicians of the 20th Century. Bruce invited a formidable stable of musicians / friends to come and play with him during these two days, a list of which reads like the who´s who of British Rock and includes: guitarists Clem ClempsonFind albums by this artist and Gary MooreFind albums by this artist, drummers Ginger BakerFind albums by this artist and Simon PhillipsFind albums by this artist, pianist / drummer Gary HusbandFind albums by this artist, organist Bernie WorrellFind albums by this artist, saxophonists Dick Heckstall-SmithFind albums by this artist and Art ThemenFind albums by this artist, trumpeter Henry LowtherFind albums by this artist, trombonist John MumfordFind albums by this artist and vocalists Gary "Mudbone" CooperFind albums by this artist and Maggie ReillyFind albums by this artist. Poet / lyricist / vocalist and a lifetime friend of Bruce, the incredible Pete BrownFind albums by this artist also makes an appearance. With such lineup the music is simply exploding with talent and incredible performances. The music includes a selection of mostly Bruce originals, spanning from the glorious CreamFind albums by this artist days and through all the solo albums Bruce recorded after Cream disbanded. His brilliant compositions prove again that they are completely resistant to the passing of time, and present a fabulous legacy that will stay with us forever. My personal favorite part of the concert is the last hour on the second DVD, which presents just the trio of Baker, Bruce and Moore, playing a series of Cream favorites, which is simply breathtaking and presents an "alternative" Cream vision, which is in every respect as exciting as the original group with Eric ClaptonFind albums by this artist. The absence of Clapton is in fact a great disappointment and might have been a momentous occasion, but it was corrected twelve years later during the Cream reunion concerts in 2005. Overall this is a package no lover of Classic Rock will consider to miss, especially in view of the fact that some of the people captured here are no longer with us (Heckstall-Smith, Moore and of course Bruce himself). Since nobody makes music like this any more, this stuff is even more important today for the sake of the new generation, in case it´s not completely lost yet.

Updated: 26/01/2019Posted: 03/05/2016

3DVD+CD 4 Digipak Box Set Remastered Recommend To A Friend

NEW JAZZ ORCHESTRA ~ LE DEJEUNER SUR L`HERBE DUSK FIRE 110 (Barcode: 5065001032981) ~ UK ~ Jazz Recorded: 1968 Released: 2014 This is the second and also the last formal album by the seminal British Jazz Orchestra called New Jazz OrchestraFind albums by this artist or NJOFind albums by this artist for short. Directed by the legendary composer / arranger / bandleader Neil ArdleyFind albums by this artist the NJO was probably the most important singular British Jazz ensemble, which shaped the way British and European Jazz developed in the late 1960s. Despite the fact that the number of people, who are familiar with this epic recording, will hardly fill up an average British pub, it is still one of the best and more importantly revolutionary Jazz albums of all times, certainly as far as British Jazz is concerned. The fact that the album, which was released on LP in 1969 and almost immediately after disappeared from the shelves, had to wait for 45 years for its debut CD reissue confirms its anonymity and obscurity. And yet for the handful of British Jazz enthusiasts it always was the magnum opus of the British Jazz resurgence, when the music emerged for the first time as a truly new Art form, related to but fully independent from the American Jazz tradition. Why "new"? The origin of the name is not entirely clear but NJO was new indeed; it included a new generation of British Jazz musicians, which arrived on the scene mostly in the 1960s and had very little in common with the older "swing" generation, which completely dominated the British scene up to that period, and which was entirely immersed in the American tradition, strengthened by the presence of American bands in Britain during the WWII period. Several Jazz Big Bands and orchestras were active on the British scene since the 1920s and well into the 1960s, some quite excellent and even extraordinary, but those limited the artistic scope to imitating the trends originating across the big pond. The list of British composers / bandleaders includes Ted HeathFind albums by this artist, Syd LawrenceFind albums by this artist, John DankworthFind albums by this artist and numerous others. By the time this album was recorded the NJO was about five years old. In 1965 it recorded its debut album called "Western Reunion London 1965Find albums with this title", which beautifully sums up the first phase of its activity, when the orchestra performed mostly new arrangements of American standards, but the overall sound of the band was already quite unique and stunning. This album was recorded by the second incarnation of the NJO, which included Jack BruceFind albums by this artist on bass (who was already a member of CreamFind albums by this artist at the time), with the regular bassist Tony ReevesFind albums by this artist taking the position of the album´s producer. The rest of the band included: trumpeters Derek WatkinsFind albums by this artist, Harry LowtherFind albums by this artist, Harry BeckettFind albums by this artist and Ian CarrFind albums by this artist, trombonists John MumfordFind albums by this artist, Michael GibbsFind albums by this artist, Derek WadsworthFind albums by this artist and Tony RussellFind albums by this artist, tuba player George SmithFind albums by this artist, saxophonists Barbara ThompsonFind albums by this artist, Dave GellyFind albums by this artist, Jim PhilipFind albums by this artist and Dick Heckstall-SmithFind albums by this artist, vibraphonist Frank RicottiFind albums by this artist and drummer Jon HisemanFind albums by this artist. The album presents eight compositions, five of which are originals composed by NJO members or other British Jazz musicians / composers of the new generation; those are Neil Ardley, Howard RileyFind albums by this artist, Mike TaylorFind albums by this artist, Michael GarrickFind albums by this artist and Michael Gibbs. Two modern American Jazz standards, one by John ColtraneFind albums by this artist and another one by Miles DavisFind albums by this artist are also present, but their arrangements are stunningly removed from the original versions known to most Jazz listeners. The remaining composition is by the French composer of Polish / Jewish origin Alexandre TansmanFind albums by this artist, whose composition receives another highly unusual treatment. The album emerges triumphantly as a masterpiece of composition, arrangement, performance and intelligent music making, all those on top of its being a first of its kind and a beacon for generations to come. Many other superb Big Band / Orchestral British Jazz recordings will follow (Michael Gibbs, Mike WestbrookFind albums by this artist and others), but as great as they were, none of them achieved the same primordial perfection, which marked the birth of British Jazz as documented herein. If anybody wanders about the album´s title (and the title of the opening track) and its humorous sleeve design, Google it up, oh ye ignoramuses, or preferably visit the Musée d´Orsay in Paris and look for the original ;) With the recent parting of Jack Bruce, whom I was honored and lucky to know in person, the reissue of this album is a small solace in his memory and in memory of a generation almost gone…

CD 1 Digipak Remastered Essential Recommend To A Friend