Update and Coming Strong

I know I've been out lately due to family emergencies that had been going on this whole year.
I want to offer a sincere apology to everyone that I'd been trying to get back on my feet, but
keep going back. I've made the decision to come back strong in 2020. So no reviews throughout the rest of December of this year. But my family has to come first. So I will be back in January, 2020.

So I will see you on the flip side. And one more thing, I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a Happy New Year. And let's see what 2020 will have in store for us for some incredible music in the progressive, hard rock, and jazz genre.

Zach

King Crimson - In The Court of the Crimson King (50th Anniversary Edition)

“Cat’s foot Iron claw/Neuro surgeons scream for more/at paranoia’s poison door/21^st Century Schizoid Man!” The moment you hear a line like that from the opening track of King Crimson’s debut release in 1969, it sounds almost like a cannon blast that was waiting to happen at the right moment, at the right time. For me, that’s how I felt when I first heard this album nearly 20 years ago.

Since 2000, In The Court of the Crimson King was a complete game changer for me when I first bought this album back at Soundwaves in the Montrose area here in Houston while delving my toes into the water hearing the music of King Crimson when I was 15 years old. During the beginning of the 21^st century, parts of the music scene with both the Nu-Metal and Boy Band genre was nothing but more but a bunch of absolute pretentious horseshit.

It was dreadful to hear that pillocky crap from bands/artists like Britney Spears, Korn, Limp Bizkit, N’Sync, Staind, Christina Aguilera, and all that Backstreet Boys/Godsmack nonsense. Would make want to vomit hearing that shitty music. Not to mention the dreadful TV show of MTV’s TRL hosted by that smiley-face, scum-sucking moron, Carson Daly. As I’ve mentioned, hearing that god-awful fucking horseshit made me want to vomit.

But it wasn’t until after hearing King Crimson’s debut, In The Court of the Crimson King made me understand that this was real good music right here from start to finish. It was almost as if they blew the doors down to destroy both the genres of Nu-Metal and Boy Band music with a gigantic battering ram that needed to put them away for good. For 50 years and despite the various line-up changes, King Crimson are still growing stronger than ever.

Now in a 3-CD/1 Blu-Ray set with a 2019 updated mix by Steven Wilson, who originally started the remix back 10 years ago with the 40^th anniversary releases, you know that it’s time to get the grinding wheels turned again once more. Originally released on Chris Blackwell’s label of Island Records, In The Court of the Crimson King features the sounds of; Hard Rock, Jazz, Classical, storytelling lyrics, Avant-Garde, and Folk rolled into one.

It is all here and it just goes to show that this music will never, ever go away for a long, long time. Greg Lake’s moving vocals along with his incredible bass playing, Pete Sinfield’s lyrical structures, Michael Giles’ intensive drum work, Ian McDonald’s usage of woodwind that have a militant and jazz background along with the usage of the Mellotron, and Robert Fripp’s challenging structures on his guitar, they were a perfect combination, and a perfect team.

And back to where it all started from the cramped basements of the Fulham Palace Café which would become their operation base for the next two and a half years. And in the words of Robert Fripp from the Morgan Studio Recording sessions, “Let’s make a hit waxing….”

Originally the album was going to be recording in that same studio that in June of 1969 with Moody Blues producer Tony Clarke and engineer Andy Johns (Glyns brother). Listening to those two tracks on disc 2 (21^st Century Schizoid Man and The Court of the Crimson King) was quite an ear-listening experience. The second track on the second disc is raw, snarling, intensive, and energetic.

From Giles’ rapid gunfire introduction on his drum kit, you could tell that despite the aborted attempt to record the album, they were running the gauntlet with a sonic-like structure that pulls no punches. Now what I found out was that the Morgan version of 21^st Century Schizoid Man originally appeared on the 2002 release for the King Crimson Collectors Club series on their performance in Hyde Park on July 5, 1969.

But hearing the overdubs between Mel Collins’ sax and Jakko Jakszyk’s guitar along with the Wessex version of Greg Lake’s vocals, it really kicks plenty of ass around that track. Now one of the reasons why the Morgan Studio sessions were aborted because Andy Johns was so exhausted during the recordings, he collapsed. Tony and the band knew that the sessions weren’t going to work, so they abandoned the recordings.

This along with the raw version of The Court of the Crimson King in which they used an acoustic guitar, drums, and bass, are worth exploring. You also have instrumental mixes, alternate versions, Greg Lake’s isolated vocals on Epitaph that will send a shiver down my spine, a heavier trio version of 21^st Century Schizoid Man, the original master edition of the album, and a 2-part mono single version release of the A & B side of The Court of the Crimson King.

Now onto the 2019 updated mix of the album on disc one. Hearing Steven’s mix on what he’s done to the album, there aren’t any echoing reverb effects from Greg’s dalek-like voice from the 2009 version of the opening song. But there are some incredible drums that come to the front of the stage as Giles pounds those kits in the midsection like a grenade that is about to go off at any second.

The mellotron shines brightly throughout Fripp’s electric and acoustic guitar intro on Epitaph. But when you listen to the instrumental mixes from disc one, you can hear the bass, mellotron, pounding piano chords, and the haunting organ sounds very clearly that works brilliantly. But the lyrical structures that Sinfield writes, details of the nightmare that is about to come with the dangers of nuclear war that is about to happen at any second.

The closing title-track still sounds fresh as the keyboards come right in my earbuds to reveal the master himself while Greg’s haunting vocalization fills up the sounds between the mellotron, Ian McDonald’s flute, and the midsection between the two of them and Fripp’s clean jazzy guitar improvisation before the grey clouds come in to fill up the halls of the dancing puppets to the court of the Crimson King.

Now with this set, it contains two different forms of artwork. The first set contains the original gatefold sleeve by the late Barry Godber featuring the 2019 and Alternate album mixes. And the second set features the image of the original multi-track tapes from Wessex sound studios. The blu-ray itself features the 5.1 mix along with the footage of the band performing at Hyde Park doing 21^st Century Schizoid Man as they were the opening act for the Rolling Stones on July 5^th.

The 24-page booklet contains never before seen photos of the band recording their debut album, an image of a 1968 recording from Bel Cleer that contains Giles, Giles, Fripp, McDonald, and Judy Dyble of Fairport Convention. Managers John Gaydon and David Enthoven on their motorbikes, and pictures of King Crimson’s performance between Hyde Park and at the Marquee.

Featuring Sid Smith’s incredible liner notes that details the history about the band and the making of the album, it just goes to show you how much this album was ahead of its time. Now when you think of 1969, you think of Woodstock, The Beatles Abbey Road, Led Zeppelin’s first two studio albums, The Rolling Stones Let It Bleed, and The Who’s landmark rock opera, Tommy. But for King Crimson’s debut, which Pete Townshend described it as “an uncanny masterpiece”, is the flaming fire that will never, ever burn out.

Stick Men - Panamerica

This 5-CD set consists of Stick Men’s live recording that the band did last year between August and September of last year during their Latin American tour in ten countries from Guatemala, Mexico, Costa Rico, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil to name a few. And to allow to bring King Crimson alumni David Cross who appears on this set along with the Roppongi release back four years ago, it shows that David is still lending a helping hand once more.

Listening to this incredible set, you can just close your eyes and imagine yourself being at those performances that they did in Latin America last year. Tony, David, Markus, and Pat give the audiences a gig they’ll never forget. And from those recordings, it will keep their memories going on forever and ever.

The sets include improvisations, soundscapes, suites, and their full-length gig in Costa Rica. There are so many highlighted moments throughout this incredible set that Iapetus and MoonJune have unleashed this year to get your Crimson blood pumping out.

Hide the Trees has this moment where you can feel the heat gauge growing higher and higher as the band goes into the flaming fires that have grown bigger and deeper than ever before as the tackle through the danger that awaits them. I can imagine the audience are mesmerized between Reuter, Cross, and Mastelotto entering this intensive dungeon that can be very challenging.

David’s Improv gives Cross a chance to come to do these incredible arrangements on his violin while Levin’s chapman walks into the jungle by walking on a big gigantic scale. And Cross is glowing brighter and brighter by the second as the scenery becomes this huge puzzle piece as the plot thickens unexpectedly while the Montevideo Suite sees Stick Men’s atmospheric voyages that walk into a journey that awaits for our bandmates to enter.

It’s almost as if they’re walking on this tightrope that can be unexpectedly dangerous and never knowing who is going to cut the rope or not. But at times it can be sinister, electronica, jazz grooves, and very Lynch-ian. Now when I say “Lynch-ian”, I mean the nod to the filmmaker himself as if he gave Stick Men some creative ideas for the mystery and disappearance of Philip Jefferies from the Twin Peaks series.

The next section becomes this Chapman improvisation as Tony and Markus do this dueling nightmare to see both instruments collide in a thunderous hay-wiring effect that can go into some insane bat-shit modules while Pat’s drumming pounds like a powder keg that is waiting to explode with some extreme measures. Now onto the soundscapes on Disc 5.

For me, it’s one my favorite moments from the Panamerica set. It gives both Markus and David to move away from their incredible compositions with Tony and Pat by honoring the legacy between the classic Tangerine Dream line-up of Edgar Froese, Peter Baumann, and Christopher Franke and the Red-era of King Crimson.

The compositions on the fifth disc are very mysterious, surreal, and experimental. But for Markus, there’s a lot of those improvisations by honoring the genre from the realms of Popol Vuh, Klaus Schulze, and Cluster. It shows that Reuter himself is keeping that spirit alive by making his own alternate soundtrack scores between two film classics by Werner Herzog, Fitzcarraldo and Aguirre: The Wrath of God.

But as I’ve mentioned before of the nods towards King Crimson, they have to make sure they haven’t forgotten their roots of where they started between Tony, David and Pat. From the pieces including Red, Larks’ Tongues in Aspic Part II, Level Five, The Talking Drum, and an incredible performance from the Costa Rica set of a soundwaving version on Shades of Starless.

They’ve also performed three tracks from the Prog Noir album including the title-track, Mantra, and the mysterious twist of Plutonium by honoring the masters of Carl Orr, Yes, and Tchaikovsky. Not only that, but they have a surreal sense of humor throughout those tracks they performed in Costa Rica.

Panamerica is one of their best recordings that Stick Men has unleashed this year. If you think that Roppongi was the best, this one takes the cake. And while it’s been three years since they released another studio album after the release of Prog Noir, let’s hope that in 2020, Stick Men releases another follow-up. But Panamerica is quite a journey throughout another roller-coaster ride with them.

The Top 25 Albums of 2019

Now originally I was planning to post this on the first day of November. But since Halloween is right around the corner this Thursday, I decided to have a change of heart. I know you're ready to have your Christmas and Hanukkah wish lists ready for this December after finishing up for Thanksgiving in November, but here's my top 25 albums of 2019.

1. Rosalie Cunningham - Rosalie Cunningham (Esoteric Antenna)
2. Bent Knee - You Know What They Mean (InsideOut)
3. Islidurs Bane & Peter Hammill - In Amazonia (Atraxia)
4. In These Murky Waters - In These Murky Waters (Apollon Records)
5. Sara Loera - The Undiscovered Country (Raellic)
6. IZZ - Don't Panic (Doone Music)
7. Crystal Beth - Push Thru (7D Media)
8. The Far Meadow - Foreign Land (Bad Elephant Music)
9. Magma - Zess (Seventh Records)
10. Tim Bowness - Flowers at the Scene (InsideOut)
11. Mark Wingfield & Gary Husband - Tor & Vale (MoonJune)
12. Jamie Saft, Steve Swallow, & Bobby Previte - You Don't Know the Life (RareNoise)
13. Roland Buchmann - Crucial (Self-Released)
14. Tony Patterson & Doug Melbourne - The Divide (Esoteric Antenna)
15. Marilyn Mazur - Shamania (RareNoise)
16. Jerry Marotta, Phil Keaggy, & Tony Levin - The Bucket List (Self-Released)
17. Flying Colors - Third Degree (InsideOut)
18. Stratus Luna - Stratus Luna (MusicMagick/MoonJune)
19. Stephan Thelen - Fractal Guitar (MoonJune)
20. Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso - Transiberiana (InsideOut)
21. Berlin - Transcendance (Cleopatra Records)
22. AKKU Quintet - Depart (7D Media)
23. Chat Noir - Hyperuranion (RareNoise)
24. Joost Maglev - Alter Ego (Bad Elephant Music)
25. Lost Crowns - Every Night Something Happens (Bad Elephant Music)

Guarino Savoldelli Quintet - Core 'ngrato

Italy has been home to the masters of pop, progressive and jazz. From the minds of; Franco Baggiani, Arti + Mestieri, Le Orme, Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso, Metamorfosi, and Franco Battiato. But it’s more than just Federico Fellini, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Antonio Vivaldi. Now I have some mixed feelings over the music of Boris Savodelli when I reviewed The Great Jazz Gig in the Sky, three years ago.

I gave it a very interesting review of his take of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon during that time frame. But looking back on it, I was very disappointed with the way on the way it was handled. I have some very strong opinions about covering some of the masterpieces which I won’t go into. However, listening to Core ‘ngrato which translates to Ungrateful Heart, is the album that the Guarino Savodelli Quintet have unleashed by finding their nieche.

This is real good jazz at its finest. Released on the Data Zero label and distributed by MoonJune Records, Core ‘ngrato is a return to those roots at the heart of the genre that has never heard before. From the realms of Classical, Free, and Bebop, this is an album that has been brought to the table for not just Savodelli, but for saxophonist and clarinet player Guido Bombardieri, pianist Corrado Guarino, contrabassist Tito Mangialajo Rantzer, and drummer Stefano Bertoli.

They bring these six magical moments on Core ‘ngrato. And whatever kind of special brew they were cooking in the kitchen, it must have included some incredible spices to add the flavors filled with both Tabasco and Wasabi sauce. So ‘le sorbe e le Nespole Amare has this incredible waltz with an intensive rhythm section that the sets the quinet up with some punching grooves.

As Boris sings into the sounds of the late ‘40s/early ‘50s, Tito plays into these strong melodies on his string bass in the midsection while Malafemmena sees Boris channeling his inner version of Tom Waits as Corrado and Tito go into this walking rhythm by following Boris into the heart of Central Park as Corrado channels the styles of Thelonious Monk and Tito honoring Charles Mingus.

When you listen to Tammurriata nera, the quintet have unleashed their weapons as they travel to the hearts of Brazilian Jazz with a Samba twist. I could imagine Boris is having a blast singing this song by having this bullhorn-sque sound by getting the tempo’s going for this midsection honoring George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.  

Cicerenella is where Boris gives Tito and Guido a chance to go into this dueling match between their instruments as they have some creative force with some intensity before Stefano’s drums take center stage by pounding them by sweating bullets all fired up in his machine gun. He knows what he wants to do throughout his drumkit by tipping his hat two of his masters, Buddy Rich and Elvin Jones.

La Nova Gelosia sees Corrado’s piano setting up these minor chords inside an old abandoned house that used to be beautiful, has now become a thing of the past, and turned into the loss of innocence. It gives Guido to set up this mournful scenario on his sax that will hopefully give the house a chance to be rebuild by starting off a new chapter in its life.

Sto Core Mio brings Tito to the forefront once more to do this dance-walk on his bass that gives Boris a chance to sing and walk before the clarinet flies up through the air while going up to the blue wide wonder with different time changes throughout the ballad. Core ‘ngrato took me a couple of listens throughout the entire album from start to finish.

And while the quintet have brought their meals to us with their unbelievable compositions, there is some specialty to the sound of Jazz that had been missing for a long, long time. And it’s opening those doors to reveal its true power and glory on Core ‘ngrato.

Nicolas Meier World Group - Peaceful

The music of Nicolas Meier’s guitar playing has never let me down. My introduction to him was four years ago with the releases of his collaboration with Pete Oxley on Chasing Tales and Infinity. Now we are here in the latter part of 2019. Nicolas is full swing with the release of his new album called, Peaceful. He has his own World Group that features bassist Kevin Glasgow, violinist Richard Jones, and percussionist Demi Garcia.

Released on the MGP label and distributed by MoonJune Records, Peaceful gives Meier an opportunity to go beyond the genre of Flamenco music. He and the World Group takes you to the heart of the sound throughout the different guitars that he plays on the album.

And it isn’t just the journey that he takes you to, but going through the outskirts into the European countryside across the sea with some middle-eastern textures. The percussions that Demi does on here, gives some aspects of the romantic side of the Tango while Richard’s violin gives Nicolas a chance to pull the handles of going back to those wonderous landscapes with some melodic textures that they would do together.

What I love about this album is that how the group have this amazing chemistry together and they would bring these delicious ingredients they brought from the grocery store and cook up a delicious meal together. Not only that, but they would bring up these structures to add more of these intensity levels to increase the challenge even more.

The music can make those challenging dances by tackling the traditional styles between the hearts of both Mexico and Brazil with some unexpected twists and turns. And with Peaceful, it can really capture you to see and hear on what not just the world group would do, but what would Nicolas Meier think of next.

Annie Haslam - Annie in Wonderland

In 1977 at the time Punk and Disco were ruling the waves by bashing both the Progressive and Hard Rock genre with a mighty fist, Annie Haslam of Renaissance released her first solo album that same year entitled Annie in Wonderland. By this time period keyboardist John Tout was ill. So it gave Renaissance a chance to take a break from that 3 month gap by giving Annie recording her debut solo release with a little help from Roy Wood of The Move and Wizzard.

Recorded at De Lane Music Centre in Wembley, Annie in Wonderland sees Annie not just showing her roots in the classical genre, but carrying the essence of Pop, Surf, Flamenco, Tribal, and a nod to Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. It isn’t just progressive, but with a little twist of lemon inside the red velvet cake. Both Hunioco and Nature Boy are Annie’s tip of the hat to the great masters of pop, ABBA.

She takes the listener through the hottest weathers across the Atlantic ocean while she sings the melodic lines that Roy’s electric sitar gives her some warmth to see the sun move to the west and going back into the dance halls. Roy’s sitar and percussion work on those two tracks come up with unexpected twists.

What Annie would do is give Roy free rein on the fourth track by setting up this African tribe on the percussion with an unexpected twist. The last minute and 51 seconds on the song, they go into this chant to free the gods once more for a call-and-response mode as Roy tips his hat to Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Listening to Annie’s take of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s If I Loved You from the 1945 musical Carousel, it sounds like a flamenco lullaby that brings similarities to the golden-era of Disney between the 1940s and into re-awakening from the mid ‘80s to the early ‘90s.

I Never Believed in Love features some acoustic-beatlesque voyages with some saxophone sections featuring sliding guitars, and Jon’s bass lines to give the lushful beauty to enjoy the driving throughout the countryside as Rockalise is a song dedicated the Nightbird herself, Alison Steele. She was the top Radio DJ in New York’s WNEW-FM station.

You may have heard her voice on the 2-CD set of Nektar’s live performance in New York in 1974. She was also a friend of Renaissance. For this instrumental piece, it a different variety of sorts. There are moments that go from classical, ‘50s rock, to surf music of The Beach Boys. It shows that how much Roy’s arrangements were way ahead of its time.

Going Home which was inspired by a 1973 TV ad for Hovis Bread and directed by Ridley Scott, this gives a chance to close the curtains for Annie to sing this beautiful song with the choir by giving it a suitable chance to make it a composition for the Christmas carolers to sing in December each year. And it is a wonderful finale that Annie could have written for Frank Capra’s 1946 classic, It’s a Wonderful Life.

The album was released both in the UK on the Warner Bros label and on the Sire label in the States. It reached no. 167 on the Billboard’s pop albums charts. With an amazing reissue by Esoteric Recordings, it is released as a digipack featuring the original artwork by Roy Wood himself.

It contains a 16-page booklet with liner notes by Malcolm Dome about the making of the album with an interview by Annie Haslam. It includes photos of the band members, Roy, Annie’s parents, and the gatefold of her wearing this beautiful white dress looking at the sky. Now this was a very interesting experience for me to listen to Annie in Wonderland.

Some like it, some don’t. But when I heard Esoteric were going to reissue this back in late September, I decided to check it out. And it’s not bad. It’s different, but pretty good. And I hope they continue with more of the Renaissance catalog for 2020. I’m crossing my fingers for Scheherazade and Other Stories, Azure D’or, and Turn of the Cards.