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30.3.14

Joe Jackson Trio


Joe Jackson Trio - Live Music Europe 2010 - 2011 - Ear Music

There have been no shortage of Joe Jackson concert albums over the years;this is somewhere around his fifth, not counting 1986’s Big World live-in-the-studio set of original material. There’s good reason for that though since Jackson seems to thrive on stage, infusing energy and often sharp improvisation to his own material while unveiling some nifty covers stamped with his unique style. What that style is has tended to change radically over the decades from punk to ska/reggae, classical to big band, singer/songwriter and, perhaps most importantly, jazz. It’s the latter that informs this electric set. He rearranges older gems such as “Sunday Papers” and “Got The Time,” rejiggering tempos and the approach to make them, if not quite jazz, certainly jazzier than you’d thought possible. “Steppin’ Out,” “Chinatown” and “Cancer” are more likely candidates for the stripped down, bass-drums-piano treatment, yet even they are altered to leave room for Jackson’s increasingly creative, often edgy keyboard solos. A mid-album trio of covers shows how inventive Jackson is as he morphs the Beatles’ “Girl” into a solo piano tour de force that makes the song seem even more venomous and bitter. David Bowie’s artsy “Scary Monsters” and Ian Dury’s slyly sexual “Inbetweenies” are inspired, relatively obscure and unusual choices that exude fresh life and vitality in this format. He also rescues “Tomorrow’s World” from 1989’s nearly forgotten Blaze of Glory and includes a little-known selection from 2003’s Volume 4. Interestingly music from 2008’s Rain, his newest release at the time of this 2010 tour that featured the same backing musicians (his original drummer and bassist minus guitarist Gary Sanford), is MIA. The guitar-free ensemble leaves space for Jackson to fill with his well honed piano chops and, along with the crackling performances and tight, imaginative reworkings of both well known and under-the-radar material, gives this live release a leg up on his previous ones. - Written by & © Hal Horowitz May 31st, 2011 at 11:19 am © 2014 American Songwriter, LLC http://www.americansongwriter.com/2011/05/joe-jackson-live-music-europe-2010/

Jackson approaches the live setting with a very different mindset than he does his studio recordings. For that reason, his tours are always must-see events as the songs take new shape and evolve over time. His writing leaves much room for re-interpretation and he derives great pleasure from bursting the boundaries and exploring new avenues and readings of his own work. The 2008/09 tours were no different, as it featured a piano-based trio without guitar. Jackson always enjoys the energy that an audience brings to the creative process and he often likes to authenticate the experience by releasing a live record as a historical document of his ideas. Live Music will be the sixth live record in his career. His first was the groundbreaking Big World in 1986, which was all new songs recorded in front of an audience. The second was Live 1980 1986, which was a double album featuring songs from every phase of his career up to that point. The third was 2000 s Summer in the City: Live in New York, which was also a trio record, though that one featured more recent alum Gary Burke on drums. Next was 2001 s Two Rainy Nights, released after the Night and Day II tour, and the most recent was 2004 s Afterlife, which documented the Volume 4 performances. Live Music features nine Jackson classics and three covers: The Beatles Girl, David Bowie s Scary Monsters and Ian Dury s Inbetweenies. The tracks are heard as they were performed. There aren’t any fixes, overdubs or corrections. © Editorial Reviews © 1996-2014, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates http://www.amazon.com/Live-Music-Joe-Jackson-Trio/dp/B004X1M3K2

In the late '70s, Joe Jackson was part of England's holy trinity of angry young men, which also included Elvis Costello and Graham Parker. However, Jackson quickly branched out from new wave. Proving to be an incredibly eclectic artist, the ridiculously talented Joe Jackson has recorded everything from jump blues (predating the '90s swing revival by a good 15 years) to orchestral compositions. He has had huge success worldwide with his wonderful albums, in which he has incorporated every conceivable musical genre. At heart, Joe is a jazzman, but he has covered classical, rock, pop, new wave, rock, and.......the list goes on! Some of his great songs include " Steppin' Out", "Fools In Love", "Is She Really Going Out With Him? ", and " It's Different For Girls". Some of his albums are pure classics, and include "Look Sharp!", "I'm The Man", "Jumpin' Jive", "Night and Day", and "Summer in the City: Live in New York". Every single one of these albums are musical diamonds, and incorporate Joe's amazing range of musical styles. The songs are superbly written, and every lyric and note written by Joe Jackson should be heard by all lovers of great modern music. "Live Music Europe 2010" was recorded throughout October/November 2010 in La Luciole, Allencon, France: La Carenne, Brest, France: Paradiso, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Avo Sessions, Basel, Switzerland: Gloria Theatre, Cologne, Germany: Postbanhof, Berlin, Germany and features many of the British singer/songwriter's finest songs. The album is HR by A.O.O.F.C. Joe has released over 80 official albums, many of them being compilations. He is without a doubt one of the greatest eclectic New Wave/Rock stars ever to emerge from England. Buy Joe's classic "Laughter & Lust" album [All tracks @ 320 kbps: File size = 144 mb]

STEELY DAN TRIVIA: Joe recorded "King Of The World" on his 2000 live "Summer in the City" album. He played Walter Becker's great "Junkie Girl" on his 1999 Just-for-the-Hell-of-It Shows. He played "Any Major Dude Will Tell You" on his 1999 Just-for-the-Hell-of-It Shows, and also on his 2000/2001 Night And Day II Tour. He played "Reelin' In The Years" on his 2000/2001 Night And Day II Tour, and "Rose Darling" on his 2006 Joe Jackson Trio Tour

TRACKS

1 Tomorrow's World 5:37
2 Another World 4:23
3 Still Alive 4:18
4 Chinatown 5:41
5 Sunday Papers 4:36
6 Cancer 5:36
7 Girl 5:19
8 Inbetweenies 5:14
9 Scary Monsters 3:23
10 Got The Time 3:27
11 Steppin' Out 4:51
12 A Slow Song 6:41

All tracks composed by Joe Jackson except Track 7 by Lennon/McCartney, Track 8 by Ian Dury & Chas Jankel, and Track 9 by David Bowie

MUSICIANS

Joe Jackson - Piano, Synthesizer, Melodica, Shaker, Vocals
Graham Maby - Bass, Vocals
Dave Houghton - Drums, Loops, Vocals

BIO

In his 1999 memoir, A Cure for Gravity: A Musical Pilgrimage, Joe Jackson writes approvingly of George Gershwin as a musician who kept one foot in the popular and one in the classical realms of music. Like Gershwin, Jackson possesses a restless musical imagination that has found him straddling musical genres unapologetically, disinclined to pick one style and stick to it. The word "chameleon" often crops up in descriptions of him, but Jackson prefers to be thought of as "eclectic." Is he the Joe Jackson he appeared to be upon his popular emergence in 1979, a new wave singer/songwriter with a belligerent attitude derisively asking, "Is She Really Going Out with Him?" The reggae-influenced Joe Jackson of 1980's Beat Crazy? The jump blues revivalist of 1981's Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive? The New York salsa-styled singer of 1982's "Steppin' Out"? The R&B/jazz-inflected Jackson of 1984's Body & Soul? Or is he David Ian Jackson, L.R.A.M. (Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music), who composes and conducts instrumental albums of contemporary classical music such as 1987's Will Power and 1999's Grammy-winning Symphony No. 1? He is all of these, Jackson himself no doubt would reply, and a few others besides. The roots of that eclecticism lie in the conflicts of his youth. He was born David Ian Jackson on August 11, 1954 (not 1955, as some references mistakenly state) in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, England. His parents had met when his father was in the Navy and his mother was working in her family's pub in Portsmouth on the south coast of England. They initially settled in his father's hometown, Swadlincote, on the border of Staffordshire and Derbyshire, but when Jackson was a year old, they moved back to his mother's hometown, and he was raised in Portsmouth and nearby Gosport. His father, Ronald Jackson, became a plasterer. Growing up in working-class poverty, Jackson was a sickly child, afflicted with asthma, first diagnosed when he was three and producing attacks that lasted into his twenties. Prevented from playing sports, he turned to books and eventually music. At 11, he began taking violin lessons, later studying timpani and oboe at school. His parents got him a secondhand piano when he was in his early teens, and he began taking lessons, soon deciding that he wanted to be a composer when he grew up. He played percussion in a citywide student orchestra. But his social milieu was more accepting of different forms of popular music than it was of the classics, and he developed a taste for that, too. Becoming interested in jazz, he formed a trio and, at the age of 16, began playing piano in a pub, his first professional gig. By the early '70s, Jackson, who had paid little attention to rock before, became a fan of progressive rock, notably such British groups as Soft Machine. Meanwhile, in 1972, he passed an advanced "S" level exam in music that entitled him to a grant to study music, and he was accepted at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Rather than moving to the city, he spent his grant money on equipment and commuted several days a week to attend classes while continuing to live at home and play pop music locally. He switched from writing classical compositions to pop songs. Invited to join an established band called the Misty Set, he sang his first lead vocal on-stage. He moved to another established band called Edward Bear (the name taken from a character in Winnie the Pooh, not to be confused with the Canadian band of the same name that recorded for Capitol Records in the early '70s). Deciding that he resembled the title character on a television puppet show called Joe 90, his bandmates began calling him "Joe," and it stuck. After six months, the two principals in Edward Bear decided to retire from music, and with their permission he took over the name and the group's bookings and brought in a couple of his friends, lead singer/guitarist Mark Andrews (later of Mark Andrews & the Gents) and bassist Graham Maby. Jackson continued to attend the Royal Academy, where he studied composition, orchestration, and piano while majoring in percussion. He also occasionally played piano in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. He graduated from the academy after three years in 1975. By then, Edward Bear (forced to change its name to Edwin Bear because of the more successful Canadian band, and then to Arms & Legs) were attracting more attention and acquired management, which in turn signed the band to MAM Records. In April 1976, MAM released the first Arms & Legs single, with Andrews' "Janie" on the A-side and Jackson's "She'll Surprise You" on the B-side. Second and third singles followed in August and February 1977, but the records did not sell. Meanwhile, in October 1976, Jackson quit the band to become pianist and musical director at the Playboy Club in Portsmouth. He was determined to save enough money to record his own album and release it himself. In August 1977, he played his first gigs as the leader of the Joe Jackson Band, singing and playing keyboards, backed by Andrews (sitting in temporarily and soon replaced by Gary Sanford), Maby, and drummer Dave Houghton. At the same time, he quit the Playboy Club job to become pianist/musical director for a cabaret act, Koffee 'n' Kream, that was beginning a national tour in the wake of their triumph on the TV amateur show Opportunity Knocks. Jackson toured with Koffee 'n' Kream from the fall of 1977 to the spring of 1978, and the money he made enabled him to move to London in January 1978 and continue recording his album in a Portsmouth studio. He began shopping demo tapes to record labels in London without success until he was heard by American producer David Kershenbaum. Kershenbaum was scouting for talent on behalf of A&M Records, and he arranged for Jackson to be signed to A&M on August 9, 1978, after which they immediately re-recorded Jackson's album. They completed it quickly, and at the end of the month the Joe Jackson Band embarked on an extensive national tour. Despite his classical education and background playing many types of pop music in pubs and clubs, Jackson had become genuinely enamored of the punk/new wave movement of the late '70s in England, especially attracted by the energy and simplicity of the music and the angry, aggressive tone of the lyrics. He had no trouble incorporating these elements into his own music, and if he was, to an extent, using the new wave label as a flag of convenience, the style nevertheless was a valid vehicle of expression for him. Of course, first impressions can be lasting, and to many people he would, ever after, be an angry new wave singer/songwriter, no matter what else he did. In October 1978, A&M released the first Joe Jackson single, "Is She Really Going Out with Him?," a rhythmic ballad in which the singer ponders why "pretty women" are attracted to "gorillas" and worries about his own inadequacy. The record failed to chart, but Jackson and his band continued to tour around the U.K. and began to attract press attention. Look Sharp!, his debut album, followed in January 1979, again, to no significant sales at first. The LP contained more songs in the vein of "Is She Really Going Out with Him?," many of them uptempo rockers with strong melodies and lyrics full of romantic disappointment and social criticism, bitterly expressed and with more than a touch of self-deprecation. (One, "Got the Time," was sufficiently raucous to be covered by heavy metal band Anthrax in essentially the same arrangement on their Persistence of Time album in 1990.) A&M released "Sunday Papers," an attack on the salaciousness of tabloid newspapers, as a single in February, again without reaction. But in March, Look Sharp! finally broke into the charts, eventually peaking at the bottom of the Top 40. The same month, A&M released the album in the U.S., and it quickly charted, reaching the Top 20 after "Is She Really Going Out with Him?" was released as a single in May (while Jackson toured North America) and became a Top 40 hit; in September, the LP was certified gold in the U.S. In the U.K., "Is She Really Going Out with Him?" was re-released in July and charted in August, making the Top 20. Jackson was nominated for a 1979 Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, for the single. Meanwhile, Jackson toured more or less continually, playing dates in Continental Europe in June and then back in the U.K. through August before returning to North America. But he had found the time and inspiration to craft a quick follow-up to Look Sharp!, and his second LP, I'm the Man, was released on October 5. That was a little too soon for the U.S. market, where Look Sharp! had not yet exhausted its run, and while the album made the Top 40, it was a relative sales disappointment, with the single "It's Different for Girls" failing to enter the Hot 100. The story was different in the U.K., however, where I'm the Man made the Top 20 and "It's Different for Girls" reached the Top Five. Critically, the album was considered a continuation of Look Sharp!, an opinion shared by Jackson himself. The first blush of his emergence fading, Jackson was beginning to be viewed by critics as the third in a line of angry British singer/songwriters starting with Graham Parker and continuing with Elvis Costello, and his commercial success created resentment, especially because he was not as forthcoming with the media as the garrulous Costello. The U.S. tour ran into November, followed by more shows in the U.K. in November and December. Jackson went back on the road in February 1980 with a few U.S. dates, followed by some U.K. shows and a European tour that ran from March to May. Like other punk/new wave acts, he had used reggae rhythms on occasion, notably on "Fools in Love" on Look Sharp! and "Geraldine and John" on I'm the Man. In May, he released an EP in the U.K. including a cover of Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come." In acknowledgment of his group's importance to his sound, the disc was billed to the Joe Jackson Band. After dates in the U.K. in May and June, the Joe Jackson Band returned to North America for a tour that lasted into August; they finally took a break after a few more shows at the end of the month. Beat Crazy, released in October, also was billed to the Joe Jackson Band. The album featured less of the frantic punk sound of its predecessors, instead absorbing the dub-reggae and ska influences that were topping the British charts just then in the music of bands like the Specials and the English Beat. But it was a relative disappointment commercially, peaking in the 40s in both the U.S. and U.K., with its singles failing to chart. One reason for the reduced sales in America may have been that the group did not tour to support it there. The Joe Jackson Band played a monthlong tour from October to November in the U.K., followed by a month in Europe from November to December, after which it split up, according to Jackson because Houghton no longer wanted to tour. Sanford became a session musician, while Maby stuck with Jackson. Jackson, in ill health following more than two years of continual touring, retreated to his family home, where he became increasingly immersed in the jump blues of 1940s star Louis Jordan. He organized a new band in the style of Jordan's Tympany 5 featuring three horn players (Pete Thomas on alto saxophone, Raul Oliveria on trumpet, and David Bitelli on tenor saxophone and clarinet) along with pianist Nick Weldon and drummer Larry Tolfree, plus Maby and Jackson himself, who played vibes and sang. The group, dubbed Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive, played a collection of swing and jump blues standards such as "Jumpin' with Symphony Sid," "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby," and "Tuxedo Junction." The resulting Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive LP, released in June 1981, was a hit in Britain, where it reached the Top 20. In the U.S., the album was not so much 35 years behind the times as 15 years ahead of them; had it appeared in the mid-'90s, it would have fit right in with releases by the Brian Setzer Orchestra and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy as part of the neo-swing movement. As it was, America circa 1981 was baffled, but Jackson's core audience was sufficiently curious to push the album into the Top 50 while he toured the country with the band in July in between British dates in June and from August to September. Jackson went through more personal changes over the next year. He and his wife divorced, and he moved to New York City, where, true to form, he began to immerse himself in new musical genres, particularly attracted to salsa and the classic songwriting styles of Gershwin and Cole Porter. The result was Night and Day, released in June 1982, Jackson's first album to put his keyboard playing at the center of his music, with percussionist Sue Hadjopoulas also given prominence. Jackson seemed to have abandoned new wave rock for a catchy pop-jazz-salsa-dance hybrid, and he backed the release with a yearlong world tour as A&M put considerable promotional muscle behind the LP. "Steppin' Out" became a multi-format hit, earning airplay on album-oriented rock (AOR) radio before spreading to the pop and adult contemporary charts, placing in the Top Ten all around and eventually earning Grammy nominations for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male. With that stimulus, the album reached the Top Ten and went gold, spawning a second Top 20 single in "Breaking Us in Two." Jackson finished the Night and Day tour in May 1983. He had been asked to contribute a song to Mike's Murder, a film written and directed by James Bridges (The China Syndrome, Urban Cowboy) and starring Debra Winger (Urban Cowboy, An Officer and a Gentleman). He ended up writing both a handful of songs and a few instrumental pieces that were released on a soundtrack album in September. Unfortunately, the film itself was not ready for release then, since it was the subject of a dispute between Bridges and the movie studio that had financed it, the result being reshooting and re-editing, such that the film did not open until March 1984, by which time it had a score by John Barry and only a little of Jackson's music remaining, and then it earned only one million dollars during a few weeks of theatrical showings, making it a disastrous flop. The orphaned soundtrack album, however, managed to get into the Top 100 and even spawned a chart single in the Jackson composition "Memphis," while "Breakdown" earned a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. Jackson returned to the studio and emerged in March 1984 with Body & Soul, an album with a cover photograph showing him clutching a saxophone in the style of the 1950s LP covers of Blue Note Records. The disc inside was a follow-up to Night and Day in style, however, with a bit more of an R&B tilt, and it was another commercial success, if a more modest one, reaching the Top 20 and spawning a Top 20 single in "You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)." After the four-month Body & Soul world tour concluded in July 1984, Jackson retreated. The tour had been, he later wrote, "the hardest I ever did; it came too soon after the last one, and by the end of it I was so burned out I swore I'd never tour again." He re-emerged after 18 months in January 1986 for a series of live recording sessions at the Roundabout Theatre in New York conducted for his next album. Audiences were invited to attend, but instructed to hold their applause as the performances were cut direct to a two-track tape recorder. The resulting album, Big World, released in March, had a one-hour running time, making it an ideal length for the new CD format, though it had to be pressed on two LPs with the second side of the second LP left blank. Press reaction to these two aspects of the album tended to overshadow consideration of the material, which ranged from politically charged rockers like "Right or Wrong," a direct challenge to the Reagan administration, to heartfelt ballads like "Home Town," a reflection on memory and loss. Jackson undertook another extensive tour lasting from May to December (one he reported enjoying much more than the last one), and the album spent six months in the charts, but only peaked in the Top 40. In the winter of 1985, Jackson had been commissioned to write a 20-minute score for a Japanese film, Shijin No Ie (House of the Poet), and the orchestral piece was recorded with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. He adapted it into "Symphony in One Movement" and added a few other instrumental pieces to create his next album, Will Power, his first disc to reflect his classical background. A&M gave the LP a surprising promotional push that included releasing the title track as a single, and Jackson fans were sufficiently intrigued to push the album into the lower reaches of the pop chart upon its release in April 1987. But his increasing desire to include classical elements in his popular work and to issue outright "serious" compositions tended to put him in a no man's land where reviewers were concerned, since rock critics were for the most part incapable of judging such works and preferred that he stick to rock-based music, while classical critics simply ignored him. Had they been paying attention, however, they might not have approved of what they heard, anyway. An unrepentant Beethoven fan, Jackson had disliked his exposure to serial music and other contemporary trends in classical music when he encountered them in college; his serious compositions tended to reflect his taste for conventional concert music of the romantic and classical periods. While staying off the road, Jackson had two albums in release in 1988. In May, he issued the double-disc set Live 1980/86, chronicling his tours over the years. It reached the Top 100. In August came his swing-styled soundtrack to the Francis Ford Coppola film Tucker: The Man and His Dream, an effort that probably would have attracted more attention if the film had been more successful (it grossed less than $20 million). Nevertheless, the album earned a Grammy nomination for Best Album of Original Instrumental Background Score Written for a Motion Picture or TV. His next LP, released in April 1989, was Blaze of Glory, another modest seller with a peak only in the Top 100 despite radio play for the single "Nineteen Forever." Jackson, who felt the album was one of his best efforts and toured to support it with an 11-piece band in the U.S. and Europe from June to November, was disappointed with both the commercial reaction and his record company's lack of support. He parted ways with A&M, which promptly released the 1990 compilation Steppin' Out: The Very Best of Joe Jackson, a Top Ten hit in the U.K. Jackson wrote his third movie score for 1991's Queens Logic; no soundtrack album was issued. Signing to Virgin Records, he released his next album, Laughter & Lust, in April 1991. Here, he expressed some of his frustration with the record business in the appropriately catchy, '60s-styled "Hit Single," while the socially conscious "Obvious Song" and a percussion-filled cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Oh Well" attracted radio attention. But the album continued his gradual sales decline, failing to reach the Top 100 in the U.S. Another world tour stretched from May to September, after which Jackson was not heard from on record for three years. In the interim, he wrote music for two movies, the interactive film I'm Your Man (1992) and the feature Three of Hearts (1993), neither of which produced soundtrack albums featuring his music. He reappeared in record stores in October 1994 with Night Music, a low-key album that attempted to fuse his pop and classical styles, including instrumentals and guest vocals by Máire Brennan of Clannad. The album, which did not chart, was supported with a world tour that ran from November to May 1995. After it, Jackson left Virgin and signed to Sony Classical, a label more accepting of his musical ambitions. In September 1997, it released Heaven & Hell, a song cycle depicting the seven deadly sins, billed to Joe Jackson & Friends; the friends included such guest vocalists as folk-pop singers Jane Siberry and Suzanne Vega and opera singer Dawn Upshaw. The album reached number three in Billboard's Classical Crossover chart. A tour ran from November to April 1998. Jackson worked on two projects in the late '90s, both of which appeared in October 1999. Sony Classical issued his Symphony No. 1, which was played not by an orchestra, but by a band of jazz and rock musicians including guitarist Steve Vai and trumpeter Terence Blanchard, and it won the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album. And publishers PublicAffairs came out with Jackson's book, A Cure for Gravity: A Musical Pilgrimage, in which he wrote about his love of all kinds of music and recounted his life from his birth up to the point of his emergence as a public figure in the late '70s. Bringing his story up to date, he wrote, "So I'm still making music, no longer a pop star -- if I ever really was -- but just a composer, which is what I wanted to be in the first place." Having released only semi-classical works on his last three recordings, Jackson was thought to have abandoned pop/rock music completely, but that proved not to be true. The early years of the 21st century found him in a flurry of activity, much of it returning him to the pop music realm. In June 2000, Sony Classical, through Jackson's imprint, Manticore, issued Summer in the City: Live in New York, an album drawn from an August 1999 concert that featured him playing piano and singing, backed only by Maby and drummer Gary Burke, performing some of his old songs along with covers of tunes by the Lovin' Spoonful, Duke Ellington, and the Beatles, among others. Four months later came Night and Day II, a new set of songs in the spirit of his most popular recording. Touring to promote the album in Europe and North America from November to April 2001, Jackson recorded the concert CD Two Rainy Nights: Live in the Northwest (The Official Bootleg), released in January 2002 on his own Great Big Island label through his website, www.joejackson.com. (The album was reissued to retail by Koch in 2004.) Later in 2002, Jackson surprised longtime fans by reuniting with the original members of the Joe Jackson Band, Graham Maby, Gary Sanford, and Dave Houghton, to record a new studio album, Volume 4 (the first three volumes having been Look Sharp!, I'm the Man, and Beat Crazy), released by Restless/Rykodisc in March 2003, and to embark on a world tour running through September 2003 that resulted in the live album Afterlife, issued in March 2004. As he made television appearances to promote the latter, he insisted that the reunion had been a one-time thing. Meanwhile, his recording of "Steppin' Out" was being used in a television commercial for Lincoln Mercury automobiles, and he was preparing to score his next film, The Greatest Game Ever Played, for a 2005 release. Jackson released a new studio album, Rain, in 2008, followed by 2011's Live Music: Europe 2010, which was recorded live in Europe during his 2010 Joe Jackson Trio tour with Dave Houghton and Graham Maby. © William Ruhlmann © 2012 Rovi Corporation. All Rights Reserved. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/joe-jackson-p4574/biography

29.3.14

Jake E. Lee


Jake E. Lee - Retraced - 2005 - Mascot Music

When Shrapnel Records headman Mike Varney coaxed Lee back into the studio in 2005, the guitarist literally had not picked up his instrument in over a year. When Varney promised him a backing band that included legendary bassist Tim Bogart (Vanilla Fudge, Cactus) and journeyman drummer Aynsley Dunbar (John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Jeff Beck Group), Lee was convinced to sign on the dotted line. Along with vocalist Chris Logan (Michael Schenker Band), a big-lunged bluesy shouter in the vein of Whitesnake's David Coverdale, the foursome recorded the spirited covers album Retraced. Reaching back in time to revisit some of the songs that he originally performed as a L.A. street rat in the late 1970s and early '80s, Lee and crew breathe new life and fire into eleven blues-rock and classic rock gems. Retraced kicks off with a particularly raucous rendition of Pat Travers' "Whiskey Train," Lee embroidering a wiry riff behind Logan's whiskey-soaked vocals and atop the Bogart/Dunbar rhythmic axis. The performance choogles along nicely, teetering near madness but stopping just short of jumping the tracks as Lee's spectacular solo anchors the song: Getting Evil With Willie Dixon: Every blues-rock band worth its salt has covered Willie Dixon's Chicago blues classic "Evil," with barnstormers as diverse as Howlin' Wolf, Canned Heat, Eric Clapton, and even Cactus putting their individual stank on the song. Lee et al accepted the challenge with aplomb, Logan's vocal howl matched by explosive bass lines and drumbeats; Lee's screaming six-string sounds like a hungry beast on the hunt. It's a fine cover of a classic song that too often falls short of the mark in lesser hands, but Lee and his merry pranksters nail it with just the right balance of energy and malevolence. British blues-rockers Free are represented by an inspired take of their "I'll Be Creepin'," Logan displaying a greater vocal nuance than previous while Lee delivers a glorious din rocked high in the mix. Blues guitarist Johnny Winter is another blues-rock touchstone, and Lee delivers a blistering performance on the Texas legend's "Guess I'll Go Away." While Logan spits out a vocal performance that echoes Cream-era Jack Bruce, Lee's fretwork rolls throughout the song like a runaway train, channeling both Clapton and Jimi Hendrix while the rhythm gang bangs and crashes like colliding meteorites. The Bruce-penned "Love Is Worth The Blues" is an overlooked gem from the West, Bruce & Laing era (1972), sounding like that band crossed with Leslie West's Mountain and, again, Cream as Lee outmuscles the big man with flaming, flaying six-string shred. While Logan's vocals don't quite display the bluesy elegance of James Dewar's original on Robin Trower's "I Can't Stand It," they're nonetheless adequate, assisted by Lee's fleet-fingered and multi-textured fretwork. - The Reverend's Bottom Line: Jake E. Lee is a talented and often-overlooked guitarist who far too often has been overshadowed by his frequently more flamboyant or outrageous musical collaborators. With Retraced, however, the guitarist is the undisputed ringmaster, working with a savvy bunch of blues-rock veterans that can play this stuff in their sleep, and play it well. Unencumbered by band politics or label pressure, Lee revisits his roots with an inspired setlist that, aside from the aforementioned songs, also includes covers of material from the James Gang, Montrose, Glenn Hughes and Trapeze, and Grand Funk Railroad. While Lee is seldom thought of as a blues-rock guitarist, his performances on Retraced are spectacular and often incendiary, the instrumentalist obviously relishing the opportunity to try his hand at these well-worn but rocking songs. Fans of blues-rock guitar will find it worth their while to dig up a copy of Lee's Retraced. (Shrapnel Records, released April 26, 2005) By & © Reverend Keith A. Gordon ****/5 © 2014 About.com. All rights reserved. http://blues.about.com/od/cddvdreviews/fr/Jake-E-Lee-Retraced-2005.htm

When most fans recall Jake E. Lee's playing, it is his stellar, heavy metal-esque style featured on such mid-'80s Ozzy classics as Bark at the Moon and The Ultimate Sin. But aside from hardcore fans, Leeis a bluesy, classic rocker at heart, as evidenced by his work with his post-Ozzy band, Badlands, and especially on his latest solo album, Retraced. Comprised entirely of covers, Lee doesn't go the usual Stones/Zeppelin route, but instead, picks lesser-known songs from his days as a teen playing in bands -- including selections from such outfits as Robin Trower, Johnny Winter, and Trapeze, among others. Reading Lee's notes in the CD booklet, it's surprising to learn that he hadn't picked up his instrument for a year before Shrapnel head Mike Varney convinced him to do the project. The deciding factor for Lee was the rhythm section -- Vanilla Fudge's Tim Bogert on bass and session ace Aynsley Dunbar on drums -- who supports Lee throughout. Ex-Michael Schenker singer Chris Logan handles vocals, and as evidenced by such cuts as "Evil" and "Guess I'll Go Away," Logan gets quite David Coverdale-esque at times. Despite the long fretboard layoff, Lee can still wail away with the best of them, especially on "Way Back to the Bone." For fans of modern-day blues-rock (with, obviously, a classic rock edge), Retraced is definitely recommended. © Greg Prato © 2014 AllMusic, a division of All Media Network, LLC. | All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/album/release/retraced-mr0000481132

For someone that claims he hasn't picked up a guitar in over a year, Jake E. Lee sure hasn't lost any skills. In fact I've always toutedJake as Ozzy Osbourne's best guitarist (or at least the most unheralded) - sure Randy Rhoads and Zakk Wylde may be more influential and have larger fan bases, but Jake has always had a more roots oriented sound. With guitarists it isn't always how fast you can play or how flashy one is, in my opinion it all comes down to feel and knowing when and why certain notes need to be played. Jake E. Lee is one of the shredders that understand this simple concept. This is a covers album and in the liner notes Jake himself states that he finds such albums to be a "waste of time" unless one is able to add something to the songs or introduce some music to a new audience - and that is what is being done on Retraced. The blues rock standards found on this release aren't songs that would usually appear on some bargain bin best of collection. With that in mind, and the chance to work with the legendary Tim Bogert and Aynsley Dunbar, Jake E. Lee decided that a covers album would be worthwhile after all - and I agree. Right from the opening riffs of the incredible "Whiskey Train" you know that Jake is in fine form and still has the chops - that song also features enough cowbell to make everyone happy. But the magic doesn't end on that first track; just listen to Jake's precision picking on "Way Back To The Bone" or him unleashing a killer solo at near the end of "Love Is Worth The Blues". In fact you can close your eyes and pick any song on this disc and hear some incredible guitar licks, this is the type of solo album I was wishing Mark Kendall would have released. Badlands used to do some covers on their albums and live shows, and each of these songs would have fit in nicely with their catalog. If you could compare this to one contemporary artist I would say Retraced is in the same vein as Kenny Wayne Shepard due in part to the bluesy wail of vocalist Chris Logan. This really is an incredible album and lets hope it doesn't take another year for Jake to pick up the guitar again. www.jakeelee.com. Reviewed by & © Skid for Sleaze Roxx, May 2005. © http://www.sleazeroxx.com/bands/leejakee/retraced.shtml

Retraced is the second studio album released by the great underrated American former Ratt, Rough Cutt, Badlands and Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Jake E. Lee. The album contains ten terrific covers of various artists bands from Jake’s youth. Some of these tracks are rarely given a workout by modern artists, but Jake helped by legends like Tim Bogert of Vanilla Fudge, Cactus and Beck, Bogert & Appice fame, Aynsley Dunbar formerly of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, David Bowie's backing band and Whitesnake, and former Michael Schenker Group frontman and great vocalist Chris Logando really do these songs justice. Some of the covers were originally recorded by Procul Harum, Howlin’ Wolf, Free, Johnny Winter, and Grand Funk Railroad. This is a brilliant rock and blues album and HR by A.O.O.F.C. Rock ‘n’ Roll will never die with albums like this to savour. Try and give Jake E. Lee’s “A Fine Pink Mist” album a listen [All tracks @ 320 Kbps: File size = 117 Mb]

TRACKS / COMPOSERS / ORIGINAL ARTIST

1 Whiskey Train - Robin Trower & Keith Reid - Procol Harum 4:39
2 Evil - Willie Dixon - Howlin' Wolf - (based on the version by Cactus) 3:18
3 Way Back to the Bone - Glenn Hughes -Trapeze 5:34
4 I'll Be Creepin' - Andy Fraser & Paul Rodgers - Free 5:18
5 Guess I'll Go Away - Johnny Winter - Johnny Winter 3:54
6 Love Is Worth the Blues - Leslie West, Jack Bruce & Corky Laing - West, Bruce and Laing 4:26
7 I Come Tumblin' - Mark Farner - Grand Funk Railroad 5:10
8 Woman - Jim Fox, Dale Peters, & Joe Walsh - James Gang 4:44
9 A Hard Way to Go - Chris Youlden - Savoy Brown 3:49
10 I Can't Stand It - James Dewar & Robin Trower - Robin Trower 4:28
11 Rock Candy - Denny Carmassi, Bill Church, Sammy Hagar, & Ronnie Montrose - Montrose 5:11

MUSICIANS

Jake E. Lee - Lead & Rhythm Guitars
Tim Bogert - Bass
Aynsley Dunbar - Drums, Percussion
Chris Logan - Lead & Backing Vocals

BIO

He may have appeared on only a pair of albums with Ozzy Osbourne, but guitarist Jake E. Lee helped Osbourne score two of the most commercially successful releases of his long and illustrious career. Born Jake Lou Williams on February 15, 1957, to American and Japanese parents, Lee and his family eventually settled down in the San Diego, California, area. After taking classical piano lessons as a child, Williams was introduced to rock via his older sister's record collection (Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, etc.). By his teenage years, Williams had picked up the guitar himself, influenced by such fiery and technically proficient players as Tommy Bolin, Jeff Beck, and Ritchie Blackmore. During the late '70s, Williams began playing in bands around the Hollywood area, including Mickey Ratt, which would eventually evolve into '80s pretty-boy rockers Ratt. After jumping ship to briefly join the obscure outfit the Greg Leon Invasion, Williams wound up laying down guitar for Rough Cutt during a short spell (like Ratt, Rough Cutt would go on to issue albums during the '80s, only long after Lee had left). But Williams didn't have to wait long for his next band opportunity -- local bassist Dana Strum was asked to help recruit the next guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne's solo band (Strum had recruited Randy Rhoads for Osbourne a few years prior), who in turn set up a tryout for Lee. Future Dokken guitarist George Lynch was initially given the nod but ultimately didn't work out, resulting in Williams being welcomed aboard. After changing his name to Jake E. Lee, he joined Osbourne for his first U.S. performance at the 1983 U.S. Festival (in front of an estimated 350,000 metalheads). In the fall of that same year, Lee's first album with Osbourne was issued, Bark at the Moon, a platinum hit that was followed by a mammoth tour (with then-unknowns Mötley Crüe serving as support) -- promptly making Lee one of rock's most exciting new guitarists. After an appearance at another immense festival in January of 1985, Rock in Rio, Lee and Osbourne took a break and eventually began working on their second album together. Osbourne's most commercial-sounding album of his solo career, The Ultimate Sin, was issued in early 1986. Although the more glossed-up sound caused some consternation among longtime Osbourne fans, the album became another platinum hit, while the ensuing tour (which included another opening group that would soon hit the big time, Metallica) was a sold-out success. But not all was fine and dandy behind the scenes between Lee and Osbourne. Osbourne's behavior was at its most unpredictable during this point due to alcohol and drug abuse, leading to Lee's departure in 1987. After a period of reassessment (it was speculated that Lee declined an invitation to join Whitesnake around this time), Lee joined up with another former Black Sabbath singer (albeit briefly), Ray Gillen, and formed the Led Zeppelin/classic rock-esque outfit Badlands. The group's self-titled debut was issued in June of 1989 -- an inspired set of rough-and-ready rock that performed respectfully on the charts and received favorable reviews. Yet only one more album would be issued from the band, 1991's Voodoo Highway, before the members of Badlands went their separate ways (an unreleased album, Dusk, would be issued later in the decade). Subsequently, Lee played briefly with a band called World War III before setting off on his own, issuing his solo debut, A Fine Pink Mist, in August of 1996 (supposedly, Osbourne was unsuccessful at convincing Lee to reunite once more during the mid-'90s). In later years, Lee appeared more interested in contributing guitar work to other artist's albums and tribute albums than launching another full-time band or focusing on a proper solo career. Lee has played on albums released only in Japan by such artists as Ann Lewis, Air Pavillion, and Rob Rock, plus tribute albums for Jeff Beck (Jeffology: A Guitar Chronicle), Rush (Working Man), AC/DC (Thunderbolt), Randy Rhoads (Randy Rhoads Tribute), Van Halen ('80s Metal Tribute to Van Halen), Metallica (Metallic Assault), Ted Nugent (Bulletproof Fever), the Cult (Fire Woman), and a pair for Queen (Dragon Attack and Stone Cold Queen). In 2013 Lee announced the formation of his first official post Badlands group, Red Dragon Cartel. The band released an eponymous debut album the following year. © Greg Prato © 2014 AllMusic, a division of All Media Network, LLC. | All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/artist/jake-e-lee-mn0000782563/biography

28.3.14

Joe Jackson Band


Joe Jackson Band - Volume 4 - 2003 - Rykodisc

Volume 4 was an album released in 2003 by British musician Joe Jackson. It was the first album to feature the Joe Jackson Band since the 1980 release, Beat Crazy, and it was Jackson's first rock 'n' roll album since Laughter and Lust, which was released in 1991. As before, the Joe Jackson Band consisted of Jackson, Graham Maby, David Houghton and Gary Sanford. It was released to moderately positive reviews. Rolling Stone rated it 3/5, stating that it was less visceral than his early-1980s music, but that "when it comes to edgy, sensitive-guy rock, he proves on Volume 4 that he still is the man." AllMusic rated it 3.5/5, stating that "Volume 4 isn't as lively or vital as his first five albums, but it's also more satisfying as a pop record than anything he's done since Body & Soul, which is more than enough to make it a worthy comeback.” The album was followed by a lengthy tour. - Wikipedia

Twenty-five years after his pissed-off debut, Look Sharp!, Joe Jackson has reassembled his original band and put aside his jazz-composer aspirations, for the moment. Emotionally, not much has changed for Jackson: He is still disgusted by the world and still standing around watching the pretty women pass by him with the gorillas, as in "Awkward Age," when he complains that now "I get into the parties/But I hate them 'cause I'm shy."Volume 4 is certainly more crafty and less visceral than Jackson's early-Eighties music, but that doesn't mean it is less rewarding. On songs such as "Bright Grey" and the poignant "Chrome," Jackson's added sophistication pays off by replacing adolescent self-pity with nuance. Only on the petty "Thugs 'r' Us" -- a too obvious dig at suburban wanna-be's who irritate old Joe with their dang "Snoop and Dre" -- does Jackson misfire completely and come off as merely cranky. Jackson may have gone from angry young man to bitter old man, but when it comes to edgy, sensitive-guy rock, he proves on Volume 4 that he still is the man. © RICHARD ABOWITZ (From RS 920, April 17, 2003) © 2009 Rolling Stone http://web.archive.org/web/20090715045353/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/joejackson/albums/album/272398/review/5944847/volume_4

It only took two albums before Joe Jackson got restless, pushing away from the nervy, high-octane, well-crafted punk-pop of Look Sharp! and I'm the Man toward the ska leanings of Beat Crazy, before abandoning the Joe Jackson Bandaltogether. Without them, he roamed wild, laying the groundwork for neo-swing with Jumpin' Jive and etching out sophisti-pop on his Cole Porter/George Gershwin-flavored Night and Day, before expanding into symphonic compositions and other increasingly esoteric stylistic exercises, whittling his audience down to just the dedicated in the process. Even among those dedicated fans, the first two Jackson albums were cherished, and Jackson acknowledged that on occasion by appropriating the sound, as on 1991's Laughter & Lust. Still, it took him a full 23 years to reunite his original band, an event celebrated by the release of Volume 4 (the title indicating that this is the fourth go-round for this band, kind of like how Van Halen III kicked off the third incarnation of the band). It would be inaccurate to say that this captures the bristling energy or spitting vitriol of the first two records, though Volume 4 certainly follows a similar template and often feels similar in form, if not in substance, to that pair. It also recalls Night and Day in parts (ironically, moreso than the explicit 2000 sequel Night and Day II), which means it winds up being a revival of the classic Joe Jackson sound instead of the Joe Jackson Band. Frankly, that's not a problem; if this is going to be a nostalgia exercise, at least in part, it should be about the overarching idea of Jackson as much as the particulars. Plus, it's a good record -- his best pure pop in at least a decade. It's a little front-loaded and, at times, it may seem a little labored or self-conscious, but usually it sounds relaxed and tuneful, as if Jackson is relieved to just be cutting a record of pop tunes instead of worrying about a grand concept or symphonic movements. And while the band certainly has mellowed with age, they still bring his music to life better than any other outfit he's worked with, giving it definition and muscle. It may be true that Volume 4 isn't as lively or vital as his first five albums, but it's also more satisfying as a pop record than anything he's done since Body & Soul, which is more than enough to make it a worthy comeback. © Stephen Thomas Erlewine © 2014 AllMusic, a division of All Media Network, LLC. | All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/album/volume-4-mw0000022950

What could have been a colossal self-indulgence proves a startlingly vital album. Volume IV is faithful to the ethos of early Joe Jackson hits like "One More Time" and "Is She Really Going Out with Him?" Built around clattering drums, jarring guitar, hyperactive keyboards, snarling vocals, and lyrics riddled with puns and double-entendres, it harkens back to the early 1970s and late ‘80s, when Jackson peddled a wordy and venomous strain of new wave pop. But Jackson is too clever to get suckered by nostalgia. Here he wryly contemplates his middle-aged present from inside his old clothes. The best of the resulting songs, "Blue Flame" and "Still Alive," are as good as anything he’s done. Volume IV is where Jackson completes his circuit, reuniting with his original band and reacquainting himself with his original live-to-tape recording methods. © Andrew Mueller © 1996-2014, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates http://www.amazon.com/Volume-4-Joe-Band-Jackson/dp/B00008J2F7

The ridiculously talented songwriter and musician Joe Jackson has a reputation for being a grumpy and difficult artist. However, any musician who can write and play like Joe can easily be forgiven for their idiosyncrasies . Yours truly forgave Don Fagen many moons ago! LOL. This double CD album is an excellent mix of old favourites and new songs played by a musical genius backed by three very accomplished musicians. Listen to the superb bass work of Graham Maby. This limited edition CD includes a bonus live CD recorded at the Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth, England on the 23rd/24th September and the Marquee, London on Sept 26th 2002. The album is HR by A.O.O.F.C. Listen to Joe’s classic “Night And Day” album [All tracks @ 320 Kbps: File size = 161 Mb]

TRACKS CD 1

Take It Like a Man – 3:24
Still Alive – 3:42
Awkward Age – 3:22
Chrome – 4:21
Love at First Light – 4:08
Fairy Dust – 3:47
Little Bit Stupid – 3:28
Blue Flame – 5:23
Dirty Martini – 4:51
Thugz 'R' Us – 3:23
Bright Grey – 4:17

TRACKS CD 2

One More Time [live] – 3:15
Is She Really Going Out with Him? [live] – 4:12
On Your Radio [live] – 5:15
Got the Time [live] – 3:47
It's Different for Girls [live] – 4:15
I'm the Man [live] – 4:21

All songs composed by Joe Jackson

MUSICIANS

Joe Jackson – Organ, Piano, Electric Piano, Melodica, Vocals
Gary Sanford – Guitar, Backing Vocals
Graham Maby – Bass, Backing Vocals
David Houghton – Drums, Backing Vocals

BIO

In his 1999 memoir, A Cure for Gravity: A Musical Pilgrimage, Joe Jackson writes approvingly of George Gershwin as a musician who kept one foot in the popular and one in the classical realms of music. Like Gershwin, Jackson possesses a restless musical imagination that has found him straddling musical genres unapologetically, disinclined to pick one style and stick to it. The word "chameleon" often crops up in descriptions of him, but Jackson prefers to be thought of as "eclectic." Is he the Joe Jackson he appeared to be upon his popular emergence in 1979, a new wave singer/songwriter with a belligerent attitude derisively asking, "Is She Really Going Out with Him?" The reggae-influenced Joe Jackson of 1980's Beat Crazy? The jump blues revivalist of 1981's Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive? The New York salsa-styled singer of 1982's "Steppin' Out"? The R&B/jazz-inflected Jackson of 1984's Body & Soul? Or is he David Ian Jackson, L.R.A.M. (Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music), who composes and conducts instrumental albums of contemporary classical music such as 1987's Will Power and 1999's Grammy-winning Symphony No. 1? He is all of these, Jackson himself no doubt would reply, and a few others besides. The roots of that eclecticism lie in the conflicts of his youth. He was born David Ian Jackson on August 11, 1954 (not 1955, as some references mistakenly state) in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, England. His parents had met when his father was in the Navy and his mother was working in her family's pub in Portsmouth on the south coast of England. They initially settled in his father's hometown, Swadlincote, on the border of Staffordshire and Derbyshire, but when Jackson was a year old, they moved back to his mother's hometown, and he was raised in Portsmouth and nearby Gosport. His father, Ronald Jackson, became a plasterer. Growing up in working-class poverty, Jackson was a sickly child, afflicted with asthma, first diagnosed when he was three and producing attacks that lasted into his twenties. Prevented from playing sports, he turned to books and eventually music. At 11, he began taking violin lessons, later studying timpani and oboe at school. His parents got him a secondhand piano when he was in his early teens, and he began taking lessons, soon deciding that he wanted to be a composer when he grew up. He played percussion in a citywide student orchestra. But his social milieu was more accepting of different forms of popular music than it was of the classics, and he developed a taste for that, too. Becoming interested in jazz, he formed a trio and, at the age of 16, began playing piano in a pub, his first professional gig. By the early '70s, Jackson, who had paid little attention to rock before, became a fan of progressive rock, notably such British groups as Soft Machine. Meanwhile, in 1972, he passed an advanced "S" level exam in music that entitled him to a grant to study music, and he was accepted at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Rather than moving to the city, he spent his grant money on equipment and commuted several days a week to attend classes while continuing to live at home and play pop music locally. He switched from writing classical compositions to pop songs. Invited to join an established band called the Misty Set, he sang his first lead vocal on-stage. He moved to another established band called Edward Bear (the name taken from a character in Winnie the Pooh, not to be confused with the Canadian band of the same name that recorded for Capitol Records in the early '70s). Deciding that he resembled the title character on a television puppet show called Joe 90, his bandmates began calling him "Joe," and it stuck. After six months, the two principals in Edward Bear decided to retire from music, and with their permission he took over the name and the group's bookings and brought in a couple of his friends, lead singer/guitarist Mark Andrews (later of Mark Andrews & the Gents) and bassist Graham Maby. Jackson continued to attend the Royal Academy, where he studied composition, orchestration, and piano while majoring in percussion. He also occasionally played piano in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. He graduated from the academy after three years in 1975. By then, Edward Bear (forced to change its name to Edwin Bear because of the more successful Canadian band, and then to Arms & Legs) were attracting more attention and acquired management, which in turn signed the band to MAM Records. In April 1976, MAM released the first Arms & Legs single, with Andrews' "Janie" on the A-side and Jackson's "She'll Surprise You" on the B-side. Second and third singles followed in August and February 1977, but the records did not sell. Meanwhile, in October 1976, Jackson quit the band to become pianist and musical director at the Playboy Club in Portsmouth. He was determined to save enough money to record his own album and release it himself. In August 1977, he played his first gigs as the leader of the Joe Jackson Band, singing and playing keyboards, backed by Andrews (sitting in temporarily and soon replaced by Gary Sanford), Maby, and drummer Dave Houghton. At the same time, he quit the Playboy Club job to become pianist/musical director for a cabaret act, Koffee 'n' Kream, that was beginning a national tour in the wake of their triumph on the TV amateur show Opportunity Knocks. Jackson toured with Koffee 'n' Kream from the fall of 1977 to the spring of 1978, and the money he made enabled him to move to London in January 1978 and continue recording his album in a Portsmouth studio. He began shopping demo tapes to record labels in London without success until he was heard by American producer David Kershenbaum. Kershenbaum was scouting for talent on behalf of A&M Records, and he arranged for Jackson to be signed to A&M on August 9, 1978, after which they immediately re-recorded Jackson's album. They completed it quickly, and at the end of the month the Joe Jackson Band embarked on an extensive national tour. Despite his classical education and background playing many types of pop music in pubs and clubs, Jackson had become genuinely enamored of the punk/new wave movement of the late '70s in England, especially attracted by the energy and simplicity of the music and the angry, aggressive tone of the lyrics. He had no trouble incorporating these elements into his own music, and if he was, to an extent, using the new wave label as a flag of convenience, the style nevertheless was a valid vehicle of expression for him. Of course, first impressions can be lasting, and to many people he would, ever after, be an angry new wave singer/songwriter, no matter what else he did. In October 1978, A&M released the first Joe Jackson single, "Is She Really Going Out with Him?," a rhythmic ballad in which the singer ponders why "pretty women" are attracted to "gorillas" and worries about his own inadequacy. The record failed to chart, but Jackson and his band continued to tour around the U.K. and began to attract press attention. Look Sharp!, his debut album, followed in January 1979, again, to no significant sales at first. The LP contained more songs in the vein of "Is She Really Going Out with Him?," many of them uptempo rockers with strong melodies and lyrics full of romantic disappointment and social criticism, bitterly expressed and with more than a touch of self-deprecation. (One, "Got the Time," was sufficiently raucous to be covered by heavy metal band Anthrax in essentially the same arrangement on their Persistence of Time album in 1990.) A&M released "Sunday Papers," an attack on the salaciousness of tabloid newspapers, as a single in February, again without reaction. But in March, Look Sharp! finally broke into the charts, eventually peaking at the bottom of the Top 40. The same month, A&M released the album in the U.S., and it quickly charted, reaching the Top 20 after "Is She Really Going Out with Him?" was released as a single in May (while Jackson toured North America) and became a Top 40 hit; in September, the LP was certified gold in the U.S. In the U.K., "Is She Really Going Out with Him?" was re-released in July and charted in August, making the Top 20. Jackson was nominated for a 1979 Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, for the single. Meanwhile, Jackson toured more or less continually, playing dates in Continental Europe in June and then back in the U.K. through August before returning to North America. But he had found the time and inspiration to craft a quick follow-up to Look Sharp!, and his second LP, I'm the Man, was released on October 5. That was a little too soon for the U.S. market, where Look Sharp! had not yet exhausted its run, and while the album made the Top 40, it was a relative sales disappointment, with the single "It's Different for Girls" failing to enter the Hot 100. The story was different in the U.K., however, where I'm the Man made the Top 20 and "It's Different for Girls" reached the Top Five. Critically, the album was considered a continuation of Look Sharp!, an opinion shared by Jackson himself. The first blush of his emergence fading, Jackson was beginning to be viewed by critics as the third in a line of angry British singer/songwriters starting with Graham Parker and continuing with Elvis Costello, and his commercial success created resentment, especially because he was not as forthcoming with the media as the garrulous Costello. The U.S. tour ran into November, followed by more shows in the U.K. in November and December. Jackson went back on the road in February 1980 with a few U.S. dates, followed by some U.K. shows and a European tour that ran from March to May. Like other punk/new wave acts, he had used reggae rhythms on occasion, notably on "Fools in Love" on Look Sharp! and "Geraldine and John" on I'm the Man. In May, he released an EP in the U.K. including a cover of Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come." In acknowledgment of his group's importance to his sound, the disc was billed to the Joe Jackson Band. After dates in the U.K. in May and June, the Joe Jackson Band returned to North America for a tour that lasted into August; they finally took a break after a few more shows at the end of the month. Beat Crazy, released in October, also was billed to the Joe Jackson Band. The album featured less of the frantic punk sound of its predecessors, instead absorbing the dub-reggae and ska influences that were topping the British charts just then in the music of bands like the Specials and the English Beat. But it was a relative disappointment commercially, peaking in the 40s in both the U.S. and U.K., with its singles failing to chart. One reason for the reduced sales in America may have been that the group did not tour to support it there. the Joe Jackson Band played a monthlong tour from October to November in the U.K., followed by a month in Europe from November to December, after which it split up, according to Jackson because Houghton no longer wanted to tour. Sanford became a session musician, while Maby stuck with Jackson. Jackson, in ill health following more than two years of continual touring, retreated to his family home, where he became increasingly immersed in the jump blues of 1940s star Louis Jordan. He organized a new band in the style of Jordan's Tympany 5 featuring three horn players (Pete Thomas on alto saxophone, Raul Oliveria on trumpet, and David Bitelli on tenor saxophone and clarinet) along with pianist Nick Weldon and drummer Larry Tolfree, plus Maby and Jackson himself, who played vibes and sang. The group, dubbed Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive, played a collection of swing and jump blues standards such as "Jumpin' with Symphony Sid," "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby," and "Tuxedo Junction." The resulting Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive LP, released in June 1981, was a hit in Britain, where it reached the Top 20. In the U.S., the album was not so much 35 years behind the times as 15 years ahead of them; had it appeared in the mid-'90s, it would have fit right in with releases by the Brian Setzer Orchestra and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy as part of the neo-swing movement. As it was, America circa 1981 was baffled, but Jackson's core audience was sufficiently curious to push the album into the Top 50 while he toured the country with the band in July in between British dates in June and from August to September. Jackson went through more personal changes over the next year. He and his wife divorced, and he moved to New York City, where, true to form, he began to immerse himself in new musical genres, particularly attracted to salsa and the classic songwriting styles of Gershwin and Cole Porter. The result was Night and Day, released in June 1982, Jackson's first album to put his keyboard playing at the center of his music, with percussionist Sue Hadjopoulas also given prominence. Jackson seemed to have abandoned new wave rock for a catchy pop-jazz-salsa-dance hybrid, and he backed the release with a yearlong world tour as A&M put considerable promotional muscle behind the LP. "Steppin' Out" became a multi-format hit, earning airplay on album-oriented rock (AOR) radio before spreading to the pop and adult contemporary charts, placing in the Top Ten all around and eventually earning Grammy nominations for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male. With that stimulus, the album reached the Top Ten and went gold, spawning a second Top 20 single in "Breaking Us in Two." Jackson finished the Night and Day tour in May 1983. He had been asked to contribute a song to Mike's Murder, a film written and directed by James Bridges (The China Syndrome, Urban Cowboy) and starring Debra Winger (Urban Cowboy, An Officer and a Gentleman). He ended up writing both a handful of songs and a few instrumental pieces that were released on a soundtrack album in September. Unfortunately, the film itself was not ready for release then, since it was the subject of a dispute between Bridges and the movie studio that had financed it, the result being reshooting and re-editing, such that the film did not open until March 1984, by which time it had a score by John Barry and only a little of Jackson's music remaining, and then it earned only one million dollars during a few weeks of theatrical showings, making it a disastrous flop. The orphaned soundtrack album, however, managed to get into the Top 100 and even spawned a chart single in the Jackson composition "Memphis," while "Breakdown" earned a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. Jackson returned to the studio and emerged in March 1984 with Body & Soul, an album with a cover photograph showing him clutching a saxophone in the style of the 1950s LP covers of Blue Note Records. The disc inside was a follow-up to Night and Day in style, however, with a bit more of an R&B tilt, and it was another commercial success, if a more modest one, reaching the Top 20 and spawning a Top 20 single in "You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)." After the four-month Body & Soul world tour concluded in July 1984, Jackson retreated. The tour had been, he later wrote, "the hardest I ever did; it came too soon after the last one, and by the end of it I was so burned out I swore I'd never tour again." He re-emerged after 18 months in January 1986 for a series of live recording sessions at the Roundabout Theatre in New York conducted for his next album. Audiences were invited to attend, but instructed to hold their applause as the performances were cut direct to a two-track tape recorder. The resulting album, Big World, released in March, had a one-hour running time, making it an ideal length for the new CD format, though it had to be pressed on two LPs with the second side of the second LP left blank. Press reaction to these two aspects of the album tended to overshadow consideration of the material, which ranged from politically charged rockers like "Right or Wrong," a direct challenge to the Reagan administration, to heartfelt ballads like "Home Town," a reflection on memory and loss. Jackson undertook another extensive tour lasting from May to December (one he reported enjoying much more than the last one), and the album spent six months in the charts, but only peaked in the Top 40. In the winter of 1985, Jackson had been commissioned to write a 20-minute score for a Japanese film, Shijin No Ie (House of the Poet), and the orchestral piece was recorded with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. He adapted it into "Symphony in One Movement" and added a few other instrumental pieces to create his next album, Will Power, his first disc to reflect his classical background. A&M gave the LP a surprising promotional push that included releasing the title track as a single, and Jackson fans were sufficiently intrigued to push the album into the lower reaches of the pop chart upon its release in April 1987. But his increasing desire to include classical elements in his popular work and to issue outright "serious" compositions tended to put him in a no man's land where reviewers were concerned, since rock critics were for the most part incapable of judging such works and preferred that he stick to rock-based music, while classical critics simply ignored him. Had they been paying attention, however, they might not have approved of what they heard, anyway. An unrepentant Beethoven fan, Jackson had disliked his exposure to serial music and other contemporary trends in classical music when he encountered them in college; his serious compositions tended to reflect his taste for conventional concert music of the romantic and classical periods. While staying off the road, Jackson had two albums in release in 1988. In May, he issued the double-disc set Live 1980/86, chronicling his tours over the years. It reached the Top 100. In August came his swing-styled soundtrack to the Francis Ford Coppola film Tucker: The Man and His Dream, an effort that probably would have attracted more attention if the film had been more successful (it grossed less than $20 million). Nevertheless, the album earned a Grammy nomination for Best Album of Original Instrumental Background Score Written for a Motion Picture or TV. His next LP, released in April 1989, was Blaze of Glory, another modest seller with a peak only in the Top 100 despite radio play for the single "Nineteen Forever." Jackson, who felt the album was one of his best efforts and toured to support it with an 11-piece band in the U.S. and Europe from June to November, was disappointed with both the commercial reaction and his record company's lack of support. He parted ways with A&M, which promptly released the 1990 compilation Steppin' Out: The Very Best of Joe Jackson, a Top Ten hit in the U.K. Jackson wrote his third movie score for 1991's Queens Logic; no soundtrack album was issued. Signing to Virgin Records, he released his next album, Laughter & Lust, in April 1991. Here, he expressed some of his frustration with the record business in the appropriately catchy, '60s-styled "Hit Single," while the socially conscious "Obvious Song" and a percussion-filled cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Oh Well" attracted radio attention. But the album continued his gradual sales decline, failing to reach the Top 100 in the U.S. Another world tour stretched from May to September, after which Jackson was not heard from on record for three years. In the interim, he wrote music for two movies, the interactive film I'm Your Man (1992) and the feature Three of Hearts (1993), neither of which produced soundtrack albums featuring his music. He reappeared in record stores in October 1994 with Night Music, a low-key album that attempted to fuse his pop and classical styles, including instrumentals and guest vocals by Máire Brennan of Clannad. The album, which did not chart, was supported with a world tour that ran from November to May 1995. After it, Jackson left Virgin and signed to Sony Classical, a label more accepting of his musical ambitions. In September 1997, it released Heaven & Hell, a song cycle depicting the seven deadly sins, billed to Joe Jackson & Friends; the friends included such guest vocalists as folk-pop singers Jane Siberry and Suzanne Vega and opera singer Dawn Upshaw. The album reached number three in Billboard's Classical Crossover chart. A tour ran from November to April 1998. Jackson worked on two projects in the late '90s, both of which appeared in October 1999. Sony Classical issued his Symphony No. 1, which was played not by an orchestra, but by a band of jazz and rock musicians including guitarist Steve Vai and trumpeter Terence Blanchard, and it won the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album. And publishers PublicAffairs came out with Jackson's book, A Cure for Gravity: A Musical Pilgrimage, in which he wrote about his love of all kinds of music and recounted his life from his birth up to the point of his emergence as a public figure in the late '70s. Bringing his story up to date, he wrote, "So I'm still making music, no longer a pop star -- if I ever really was -- but just a composer, which is what I wanted to be in the first place." Having released only semi-classical works on his last three recordings, Jackson was thought to have abandoned pop/rock music completely, but that proved not to be true. The early years of the 21st century found him in a flurry of activity, much of it returning him to the pop music realm. In June 2000, Sony Classical, through Jackson's imprint, Manticore, issued Summer in the City: Live in New York, an album drawn from an August 1999 concert that featured him playing piano and singing, backed only by Maby and drummer Gary Burke, performing some of his old songs along with covers of tunes by the Lovin' Spoonful, Duke Ellington, and the Beatles, among others. Four months later came Night and Day II, a new set of songs in the spirit of his most popular recording. Touring to promote the album in Europe and North America from November to April 2001, Jackson recorded the concert CD Two Rainy Nights: Live in the Northwest (The Official Bootleg), released in January 2002 on his own Great Big Island label through his website, www.joejackson.com. (The album was reissued to retail by Koch in 2004.) Later in 2002, Jackson surprised longtime fans by reuniting with the original members of the Joe Jackson Band, Graham Maby, Gary Sanford, and Dave Houghton, to record a new studio album, Volume 4 © Stephen Thomas Erlewine © 2013 Rovi Corp | All Rights Reserved

Wilding / Bonus


Wilding / Bonus - Pleasure Signals - 1978 - Visa Records

Flautist Danny Wilding and the enigmatic guitarist Pete Bonus came out of nowhere, made this one all instrumental album, which was quite widely distributed, and disappeared again. “Pleasure Signals” main selling point is that the backing band is essentially the nucleus of fusion band Brand X on most of the tracks: John Goodsall, John Giblin, Phil Collins, Robin Lumley, Morris Pert, as well as other musicians like Rebop, Phil Chen, Bayette, Andy Clarke, Mike Shrieve, and more. In truth, the album is reminiscent of Brand X’s “Product” or “Do They Hurt?” albums. Also, occasionally the sound is a bit like bands like Pierre Morlen's Gong, Isotope and Ian Carr’s Nucleus, although less complex. There is a nice mix of styles and moods, from heavy 70's funk/fusion to more mellow light jazz rock. Danny Wilding’s superb playing is always reminiscent of Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. This is not an exceptional album but it is pretty decent instrumental jazz rock/fusion very well played and well worth listening to. Try and listen to the “Danny Wilding So Far” album and John Parr’s “Running the Endless Mile” featuring Pete Bonus on guitar. N.B: SQ on this CD issue sounds a bit “harsh” and “thin” at times, but it’s not a major problem [All tracks @ 320 Kbps: File size = 88.1 Mb]

TRACKS / COMPOSERS / MUSICIANS

1 Race For Space - Wilding, Bonus 3:26
Bass – Phil Chen
Congas – Rebop Kwaku Baah
Drums – Phil Collins
Flute – Danny Wilding
Guitar – Pete Bonus
Horns – Ashton Tootle, Phil Todd
Keyboards – Kiki Gyane

2 G. Storm - Wilding, Bonus 3:15
Bass – John Giblin
Drums – Phil Collins
Flute – Danny Wilding
Guitar – John Goodsall

3 Oddysey - Wilding, Bonus 3:10
Bass – John Goodsall
Drums – Gregg Sheehan
Flute – Danny Wilding
Guitar – Pete Bonus
Keyboards – Bayette

4 Earth Hymn - Giblin 4:32
Acoustic Guitar – John Goodsall
Bass, Acoustic Guitar – John Giblin
Drums – Preston Heyman
Flute – Danny Wilding
Guitar – Pete Bonus
Keyboards – Andy Clarke, Robin Lumley
Oboe – Kate St. John

5 Rampage - Giblin 4:43
Bass – John Giblin
Drums – Mike Shrieve, Phil Collins
Flute [Electric, Acoustic] – Danny Wilding
Guitar – Pete Bonus
Horns – Ashton Tootle, Phil Todd
Percussion – Preston Heyman

6 Theme From Alma - Bonus 4:27
Bass – John Goodsall
Drums – Gregg Sheehan
Flute [Wah, Acoustic] – Danny Wilding
Guitar – Pete Bonus
Horns – Ashton Tootle, Phil Todd
Keyboards – Bayette
Percussion – Preston Heyman

7 Son Of Alma - Bonus 4:34
Bass – John Giblin
Congas – Morris Pert
Flute – Danny Wilding
Guitar – Pete Bonus
Keyboards – Chris Parren
Percussion [Hi-hat] – Preston Heyman

8 Initiation Into The Nagual - Wilding, Goodsall, Bonus 4:25
Bass – Pete Bonus
Drums – Gregg Sheehan
Flute – Danny Wilding
Guitar, Performer [Arklong] – John Goodsall
Horns – Ashton Tootle, Phil Todd
Keyboards – Bayette

9 Ranchtown Tango - Wilding, Bonus 4:25
Bass – John Goodsall
Drums – Gregg Sheehan
Flute – Danny Wilding
Guitar – Pete Bonus
Keyboards – Bayette

SHORT BIO

Wilding-Bonus was short lived jazz fusion project, founded by Danny Wilding (flute) and Pete Bonus (guitar). Other band's musicians all were well-known on progressive scene : Phil Collins (drums), John Goodsall (guitars, bass), Robin Lumley(keyboards) were Brand-X members, whenever Bayeté (keyb.) played in Automatic Man, Michael Shrieve (dr.) - with Santana in Woodstock, percussionist Rebop Kwaku Baah was member of Traffic and Can both. Band recorded just one album in Island Studios, London in 1978, and then disappeared. Album was released on LP by Visa Records in USA ( picture-disc version existed as well), and for a first time re-released on CD in 1993 ( by Ozone Records, US). Very rare and almost forgotten release. © Slava (Snobb) © Prog Archives, All rights reserved http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=5452

26.3.14

Todd Wolfe & Under the Radar


Todd Wolfe & Under the Radar - Borrowed Time - 2008 - Blues Leaf Records

Todd Wolfe is a heavy blues guitar slinger. He was the lead guitarist in Sheryl Crow's band 1993-1998, and then he led the Todd Wolfe Blues Project, and here is a solo disc. There are a lot of things to like about this disc--some of it seems to echo Santana, some of it echoes Leslie West circa Mountain, some of it sounds like Cream. In tone and style of guitar, this disc also reminds me a little of Albert Castiglia's latest, "These Are The Days." (see my review of Albert's disc on this blog in 2007.) Both discs feature good fretwork, lots of original songs, good backing bands. They are both well worth buying. The drumming by Dave Hollingsworth III here is a highlight throughout. Suavek Zaniesienko plays bass, keeping things full in the bottom, and Michael Fossa plays keyboards with taste and restraint. There are guest appearances on "Borrowed Time" by Leslie West, Susan Cowsill, Mary Hawkins. Susan Cowsill adds distinctive backing vocals on "California," a song co-written by Sheryl Crow. Mary Hawkins sings on "If This is Love," which is terrific--one of the best songs here. Wolfe's slide guitar work had me smiling and thinking of Ronnie Earl. "Baby I'm Down" has a southern rock, Allman Brothers Band feel. "You're Not The Only One" has a Cream vibe, with heavy echo on the vocals and very sweet guitar work. Wolfe tackles the Peter Green Fleetwood Mac tune "Oh Well" and does it quite well, with a train-pulling-into-the-station ending. The other cover here is Howling Wolf's song "Who's Been Talking," and I think the master would approve of this take.Taken all together, this is a very good disc. If I gave stars, this one would be a 5 star disc. I'm excited about Todd Wolfe. He can play guitar great and he sings really well, and the future looks bright. This disc is on Blues Leaf Records. - By & © Bruce Edwards - Posted By Bruce to The Sunday Night Blues Project at 9/15/2008 03:58:00 PM © 2003–2009 PunBB. http://forum.jbonamassa.com/viewtopic.php?id=7762

Todd Wolfe is a true triple threat. His jaw-dropping guitar skills are well known, but he's also a soulful singer who writes a great song. Case in point: the frenetic title track to Borrowed Time. With the help of his talented bandmates (check out Michael Fossa's wild piano), Wolfe draws you in with a groovy riff, catchy lyrics,and high-flying guitar. Other fine Wolfe originals include the somber "Cold Black Night," where Fossa weaves a spooky organ backdrop as Wolfe moans the lyrics and wails on guitar, and the cheerfully funky "Ready for Love," capped by one of Wolfe's soaring guitar flights. The slow-rocking "California," which Wolfe co-wrote with his former boss, Sheryl Crow, tells a tale of the cold reality behind the West Coast's warm seductiveness. (The backup singer sounds a bit like Crow, but it's fellow pop veteran Susan Cowsill.) "If This Is Love" features a stunning vocal by Mary Hawkins as Wolfe's stately guitar sings along. Howlin' Wolf's "Who's Been Talkin" receives a samba beat, the groove anchored by drummer Dave Hollingsworth and bassist Sauvek Zaniesienko. Felix Pappalardi's "Baby I'm Down" features Pappalardi's old Mountain bandmate, Leslie West, on lead guitar and vocals. Frequent collaborators, Wolfe and West sound great singing together. Military drums, Ed Canova's understated bass, and Wolfe's slide set up the track and take it home perfectly.Equally effective are Wolfe's mournful slide and vocal and Rich Frikkers' heartbeat drumming on "You're Not The Only One." © Kay Cordtz - Blues Revue Issue 117 APR/MAY 2009 © 2014 http://www.livebluesworld.com/forum/topics/todd-wolfe-cd-review

The Queens, New York guitarist Todd Wolfe’s music has been described as “bluesadelic rock”, and Todd explains that, “I penned “Bluesadelic” and would sometimes add the word “rock” or “jam” in essence we play rock the way it was played or established from approximately 1966 to 1972.We called it “rock” back then whether it was Cream, Grateful Dead, Cactus, Jimi Hendrix, Hot tuna, etc. Ya know, there were different ways of jamming as the bands mentioned above along with others such as Allman Brothers, Mountain, The Who, The Rolling Stones and many others, having their own style of jamming. Unfortunately now it seems that “jam” is more Dead or Phish and the style we play is thought of as more “blues” and naturally, the blues guys will hear us and say, “that’s rock”! There seems to be more of a compartmentalization or rigid categorization of music these days then there was back in the 60’s and 70’s so, I gave it that name to state that we have a blues foundation, can jam and rock in a way similar to sixties bands”. When asked, “what aspect of the music industry appeals to you most? What would you most like to see changed?”, Todd said “Hmm, I reckon the community of musicians/writers appeals to me most and definitely not the business of music! Better conditions and pay for the musicians out in the trenches, the larger body of less successful musicians scratching and scraping to just to get by and pay bills!” Since leaving Sheryl Crow's band, Todd has been gaining popularity as a solo artist and guitarist in North America and Europe, especially in Germany where he has toured extensively since 2001. Over the years he has opened for some of the biggest names in music including, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Peter Frampton, Johnny Winter, Allman Brothers, Buddy Guy, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. There’s a lot of bands out with far less talent who should be opening for him! “Borrowed Time” is packed full of great guitar playing and vocals and the songs are really well composed. Todd wrote or co-wrote six of the albums ten tracks with covers of Peter Green’s classic ”Oh! Well”, and Chester Burnett’s “Who's Been Talking”. He also plays a cover of Felix Pappalardi & Gail Collins Pappalardi’s “Baby I’m Down” which can be heard on Leslie West’s 1969 “Mountain” album. A great album and HR by A.O.O.F.C. Read more @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Wolfe Buy his “Delaware Crossing” album and support blues rock at it’s best [All tracks @ 320 Kbps: File size = 119 Mb]

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

1 Tears Of Rage - T.Wolfe & S.Bryan 6:38
2 Ready For Love - T.Wolfe 4:31
3 Cold Black Night - T.Wolfe 5:43
4 Baby I'm Down - F. Pappalardi & G.Collins 5:19
5 You're Not The Only One - M.Lawrence & J.J.McGean 3:45
6 California - S. Crow & T. Wolfe 4:23
7 Oh Well - P.A. Green 5:23
8 Who's Been Talking - C. Burnett 5:50
9 If This Is Love - T.Wolfe & J.Stark 6:04
10 Big Nose Kate (Borrowed Time) - T.Wolfe 5:12

MUSICIANS

Todd Wolfe - Electric, Acoustic, & Slide Guitar, Vocals
Leslie West - Guitar, Vocals
Rob Fraser, Suavek Zaniesienko - Bass
Tad Wadhams - Bass, Vocals
Michael Fossa - Organ, Piano, Wurlitzer
Rich Frikkers, Dave Hollingsworth - Drums
Susan Cowsill, Mary Hawkins, Nick Pierone, Michelle Glass - Vocals

BIO

Todd began playing on the New York scene back in 1979 with his band Nitetrain, a trio that clearly reflected Todd's influences-60s bands like Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac and other bluesy-rocking-jamming bands. The wave of guitar players that included Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Jimi Hendrix, Michael Bloomfield were and are influential and evident in Todd's style and approach to guitar-playing. His next venture was Troy & the Tornados, a band based in the New York metro area. Todd met two women in this time period that would eventually play a part in his guitar-playing and song-writing experience: Carla Olson of the Textones and Sheryl Crow, at the time an unknown back-up singer. By the late '80s, Sheryl had sat in several times with the Tornados in New York City. Eventually Todd decided to fly to Los Angeles and write with Sheryl and showcase their new band in hopes of a record deal. Nothing came of this particular venture, but these two would find each other again on the same stage just a few years up the road! After relocating to Los Angeles with a revamped line-up, Todd began to perform in clubs in southern California, while also scoring music for the Playboy Channel and connecting with old friend Carla Olson and her latest band. But it wasn't long before Todd was back with Sheryl Crow, who had just completed her about-to-be-released debut album, the multi-platinum Tuesday Night Music Club. Crow needed a touring band, including a lead guitarist that could add some extra excitement to the live shows, and Todd filled that role from 1993 until 1998. Todd eventually went on to form several bands, including a talented bunch dubbed MojoSon that were signed to A & M Records and included alumni of Sheryl's band along with alumni of Sun 60 and Five for Fighting. With parent companies swapping ownership of A & M Records, the MojoSon album sadly was never released. Always active, always playing, Todd has never slowed down. Todd has had many excellent partnerships with fine musicians from coast to coast. Todd has also worked as a duet with famed Mountain guitarist Leslie West, touring and recording on two of Leslie's solo albums as well as recording on Mountain's tribute to Bob Dylan, "Masters of War" album! Todd is especially proud of his current lineup with Roger Voss on drums and Justine Gardner on bass. Roger is a powerful pocket drummer. The young Ms. Gardner plays a deep groove. And they both back Todd on soulful vocals. This lineup recorded Todd's upcoming summer release “Miles to Go,” his eighth album since departing Sheryl's band. The new album is mostly originals that range from swampy grooves to all-out rockers and even a wistful ballad from which the title of the album was derived called, I Stand Alone. The band was joined by John Ginty (keyboards), Steve Guyger (harmonica) and Sweet Suzi (backing vocals). The Todd Wolfe Band is keeping busy with tours criss-crossing North America and Europe through 2013! The Todd Wolfe Band recall the days when "Men were men and amps were amps," real tubes crackling with a bluesadelic sound reminiscent of the best rock and roll bands of the '60s. This band jams and rocks, but their music is deeply soaked in blues. Todd Wolfe, Roger Voss and newcomer, bassist Justine Gardner have established themselves as one of top power trios by relentless touring and spreading their legend from coast to coast and beyond. Hittin' the Note magazine, “Imagine some power trio mixed into a Texas blues foundation and overlaid with trippy psychedelia ... that’s the essence of Wolfe’s music.” And the essence of the Todd Wolfe Band. © http://www.toddwolfe.com/todd.html#bio

25.3.14

The Blue Nile


The Blue Nile - High - 2004 - Sanctuary

High is the fourth and most recent album from Glaswegian adult contemporary band The Blue Nile, released on 30 August 2004 on Sanctuary Records. A single, "I Would Never", was released one week prior to the album: a second song, "She Saw the World", was made available as a promotional single, but never released officially. "Soul Boy" had already been recorded by former Spice Girl Melanie C for her album Reason the previous year. The album received generally favourable reviews, with many critics considering High to be a stronger album than their previous effort Peace at Last. AllMusic said "the Blue Nile have returned with a more balanced album than Peace at Last] and Buchanan is broken-hearted again, thank the stars. He's been struggling with fatigue and illness and as selfish and inconsiderate as it sounds, it's brought the spark back to his writing... given the time to sink in, the album fits well in their canon."The Guardian believed that with High "the emotional commitment of Peace at Last is combined with the observational detachment of the earlier work... In pop, most people do their best work within five or six years. How extraordinary, then, that after more than two decades of activity, the Blue Nile remain on course, their range expanded, their focus more refined, unshaken in their determination to proceed at their own measured pace." MusicOMH said "High is proof that they may have been away for a while, but they certainly haven't lost their touch... Although some may call this album bland, that is to miss the point... Buchanan's vocals are what raises most of the songs to another level—sometimes a gentle whisper, at other times an anguished cry, it's one of the great, if less celebrated voices in modern music. They may only appear at around the same frequency as Halley's Comet but it's records like High that remind you why The Blue Nile are so highly regarded." BBC Music said "High manages to maintain the Blue Nile's impeccably tasteful standards while soaring blissfully over the rattle and hum of most contemporary music. Paul Buchanan still sings his songs of faded love affairs, broken dreams and squandered ambitions with almost painful emotional candor, while the musical backings are as lush and flowing as ever... There are many recognizable Blue Nile motifs throughout—the imagery of rain, railway stations, traffic and rooftops will certainly be familiar—and the tempo barely rises above a stately shuffle, which for some might seem a missed opportunity for stylistic innovation. However, for those of us who've cherished the band's previous albums, High is like meeting a new friend, albeit one possessing a reassuring familiarity." Other reviewers were less enthusiastic: Stylus said, "If you were hoping for something to stand above Hats as a late-night, solitary classic, then High will only get halfway there, because it sounds exactly as you would expect a fourth Blue Nile album to sound. Perhaps their best music has long since been made, but The Blue Nile still do what they do exquisitely well." The Observer was disappointed, saying "the empty streets of provincial towns are the stock-in-trade landscapes of the Blue Nile, and it's one of the saddening facts about High that those landscapes have become a little predictable", while Uncut said that "Paul Buchanan revisits the same spot on the hillside overlooking the evening city lights, is still filled with the same surging, oblique melancholy and longing that has sustained The Blue Nile since 1984, is still crafting singularly mature MOR in a darker shade of turquoise all his own. This time, however, the overall return feels diminished in effect." - Wiki

If you've read anything else about the Blue Nile, you already know it takes them eight to ten years between albums, they're elegant sad sacks, and they're critically adored for the most part. Their last album, 1996's Peace at Last, was their first stumble, with main man Paul Buchanan yammering wistfully about family and domestication instead of giving listeners the skeletal poems and studio magic of their first two albums. If you weren't staring at your newborn, Peace at Last could grow tiresome, but the Blue Nile have returned with a more balanced album and Buchanan is broken-hearted again, thank the stars. He's been struggling with fatigue and illness and as selfish and inconsiderate as it sounds, it's brought the spark back to his writing. Mood over narrative has always worked to the Blue Nile's benefit and that's what the excellent "Broken Loves" is all about, giving the listener a better chance to relate than Peace at Last's postcard from home. "I Would Never" is the sweet single, but album tracks like "Because of Toledo" and "She Saw the World" are where the album gets meaty and intricately structured, recalling the glory days. Getting more obscure and atmospheric toward the end, High follows the arc of their classic, Walk Across the Rooftops, and given the time to sink in, the album fits well in their canon. The closing "Stay Close" is one of those "raw emotion over urbanite aesthetic" tracks that fans crave. It makes the eyes well up, and like the better part of High, justifies the next eight- to ten-year wait. © David Jeffries, allmusic.com, http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:difyxqwsldje

The Blue Nile have released four studio albums in thirty years. Even Steely Dan has a more prolific album output, but as Cathy Ilani said, “It's about quality, not quantity". And William A. Foster said, “Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.” These two quotes could apply to TBN's music. "High" is intricate, delicate "rock" music, full of "urban solitude", and "melancholic romanticism”. TBN's music has been called "Folk Ambient". This may sound boring, but it's really engrossing stuff. Despite the songs' subject matter, the music is moody and atmospheric, and never descends into "corniness" or "lovey doviness". Amazingly, the songs' subject matter is injected with skilful melodic structure, and the band's low key/slow tempo execution of their songs is masterful. The Blue Nile's music is tough to describe, but it just has to be heard. "High" is VHR by A.O.O.F.C. Listen to the band's masterpiece, "Hats", and their stellar "Walk Across the Rooftops" albums. Check out more info on The Blue Nile @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Nile and "Hats" off to Scotland, again! [All tracks @ 320 Kbps: File size = 93.7 Mb]

TRACKS

1 The Days of Our Lives
2 I Would Never
3 Broken Loves
4 Because of Toledo
5 She Saw the World
6 High
7 Soul Boy
8 Everybody Else
9 Stay Close

All songs composed by Paul Buchanan

BAND

Paul Buchanan - Guitar, Synthesizer, Vocals
Robert Bell - Bass, Synthesizer
Paul Joseph Moore - Keyboards, Synthesizer

REVIEWS

Blue Nile go on creative splurge - 4th album in 20 years. Less is more... The CLUAS Verdict? 9.9 out of 10. There's a lot of old toffee written and spoken about Blue Nile's almost torturous recording process, their suffering for their art and their shared obsession with getting everything aurally just so. Reportedly they had an entire album of new material just before "High", their new collection, and "High" is of course their fourth album in 20 years. I love this band to bits but I sometimes wonder if the whole longevity thing is a smokescreen - I reckon that in and around the early 1980s the Blue Nile lads worked flat out and recorded five or six bodies of work. They then sat back and vegged. Whenever their stock rose and the crowd yelled out for more they release another masterpiece, tour, do some obtuse press interviews and then return to their bath chairs for another five years. It's a funny hypothesis of course but even though it was recorded in the last couple of years "High" makes you wonder if it's the second disc of a double, coupled up with their debut, "Walk across the rooftops". The latter is a masterpiece, brilliantly structured, painstakingly arranged and beautifully played - check out "Tinseltown in the rain" - it's a true measure of frontman Paul Buchanan's phrasing that he can sing a line like "hey, there's a red car in the fountain" and make it sound like the most romantic thing in the world. "Walk across the rooftops" was an exercise in setting down different shades of darkness but while "High" is built along the same sombre tones it's full of colour and movement. You wonder how they make it work - the synth settings are stuck around 1983, Buchanan sounds like disappointment on legs, the lyrics are sometimes a bit drippy, all mid-life crises and lovelorn longings. But it does work for Blue Nile, and "High" really is a stunning return to form after the pretty awful "Peace at last". For all that, High's track 3, "Broken loves" is a turkey, by the band's exalted standards - the song itself is up to scratch but they deck it out with a keyboard motif that is more irritating than edgy. It's the only blemish on the entire album - everything else on "High" is far above and beyond nearly everything else recorded this and many a year in terms of its sheer musical class. "Because of Toledo", a dustbowl ballad, could become an absolute classic but I hope it does not - no one could ever hope to top Buchanan's vocal and the song's tear-soaked arrangement. "Turn my back" is their "Every breath you take", a bona fide masterpiece and a possible single, the album's title track sails perilously close to the Lighthouse Family's wretched "Ocean Drive" but manages to avoid an ugly collision, and "Everybody else" is a jaunty little thing, Buchanan sounding almost playful. Check out the fade on the improbably titled "Soul Boy"- it's the softest sound ever recorded. "High" - a serious must-buy. © Anthony Morrissey, © 1999-2009 www.CLUAS.com & individual writers as indicated per byline. http://www.cluas.com/music/albums/blue_nile.htm

In his original sleeve note to Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, the pianist Bill Evans compared the method by which that album was made to the procedure followed by a certain kind of Japanese calligraphic artist: an inordinate amount of care over the selection and preparation of materials followed by a fleeting moment of creation in which nothing can be repeated and nothing erased. Sometimes simplicity is the hardest thing of all to bring off. The songs on High, the fourth album from the Blue Nile, give no clue that they took eight years to create. So exquisite as to be almost transparent, they sound like the result of a few quick brush-strokes. Eight years, however, is the gap between the new recording and its predecessor, Peace At Last. In turn, Peace At Last came seven years after Hats. And Hats followed A Walk Across the Rooftops, their debut, by six years. This time, at least, there is a practical reason for the lengthy period of gestation: an ME-type illness kept Paul Buchanan, their singer and guitarist, out of action for a couple of years. Nevertheless, there is something magnificent about the sheer doggedness of the Blue Nile's adherence to the unorthodox trajectory of their singular career. The group's three members - Buchanan, Robert Bell and PJ Moore - have produced for public consumption a mere 33 songs in just over 20 years. But their impact has far exceeded that of many more productive outfits, and by distilling such limited quantities of a particular emotional essence, they have encouraged a loyal following. Existential melancholy is the mode they explored in A Walk Across the Rooftops and Hats. In songs such as Tinseltown in the Rain and The Downtown Lights, Buchanan evoked urban solitude with greater precision than any singer since the mid-1950s Sinatra. The Blue Nile made torch songs for the Thatcher years, and they turned the lean, floppy-haired Buchanan into an enigmatic archetype. Such an image tends to persist, particularly when time passes and the subject remains lean and floppy-haired. "It probably comes across like I'm the man in the car advert," Buchanan admits in an interview in the current issue of Uncut magazine, "with the big raincoat, walking in the rain, and all of that." But there is more to him, and to the Blue Nile, than a particular strain of stylish gloom, and those prepared to hang around after the popular success of Hats discovered that its successor marked a considerable change of tone. While making Peace At Last, they downplayed the neon-lit synth washes and the robotic drum machines with which they had evoked the alienation and the relentless beat of modern city life. More open and organic sounds, including finger-picked acoustic guitar and a choir, were matched to a set of unashamedly optimistic lyrics celebrating family, community, peace, faith and love. What made the new combination work, even for those besotted by the earlier headlights-in-the-rain ballads, was that while he celebrated the consolations of life, Buchanan still sounded like a man on the edge of an emotional precipice. The sound of his voice - mostly a murmur in the listener's ear, occasionally vaulting up to a heart-aching upper register - told his listeners that this was the same guy who had gazed through the window of the late-night train and seen only the emptiness of his own existence. "Now that I've found peace at last," he sang, "tell me, Jesus, will it last?" He was waiting for an answer, knowing that a false step might mean a plunge into the abyss. Although High marks another shift of mood, its ingredients are familiar enough. Now, however, the emotional commitment of Peace At Last is combined with the observational detachment of the earlier work. So while Buchanan is still watching the world through a window - in the opening song, The Days of Our Lives, the window belongs to someone else - his eye has grown more compassionate. Almost all of these nine songs are so well turned as to validate his claim that the group discarded "hundreds" more while preparing the material for High. The exception is Everybody Else, a curious, uneventful trifle. Otherwise the Blue Nile's gift for an impassioned chord change is frequently in evidence, along with the instrumental economy that was such a telling feature of the previous album. With three songs in particular they touch their peak. The glorious descending melody of Because of Toledo carries a western narrative full of fractured, inconclusive images: "Girl leans on a jukebox/ In a pair of old blue jeans/ Says, 'I don't live here/ But I don't really live anywhere'..." The urgent She Saw the World is propelled by the kind of mid-tempo 4/4 that pushes ahead of the beat (think of the Beatles' Things We Said Today or the Stones' Honky Tonk Woman) under pensive, hovering strings - a magical contrast. The closing track, Stay Close, emerges from a shimmer of what sound like Mellotron strings and woodwind (but are probably something far more expensive), turning a momentary thought and a snatch of melody into a quiet hymn that concludes with a stately diminuendo. In pop, most people do their best work within five or six years. How extraordinary, then, that after more than two decades of activity, the Blue Nile remain on course, their range expanded, their focus more refined, unshaken in their determination to proceed at their own measured pace. © Richard Williams The Guardian, Friday 13 August 2004, guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2004/aug/13/popandrock.shopping

The first album for eight years, and only the fourth in 21 years, High manages to maintain the Blue Nile's impeccably tasteful standards while soaring blissfully over the rattle and hum of most contemporary music. Paul Buchanan still sings his songs of faded love affairs, broken dreams and squandered ambitions with almost painful emotional candor, while the musical backings are as lush and flowing as ever. Opening track "The Days of Our Lives" returns to the sparse sound of 1984's debut, A Walk Across the Rooftops, although the flush of youthful romantic exuberance has now been replaced by a world weary housewife who "sits around in her dressing gown". Buchanan's lyrics deal in the kind of details which can wrench the most telling of emotional responses from the seemingly mundane. On "Broken Loves" he sings, "Nothing I can say or do/will make you turn off the tv/and look up", perfectly evoking the heartbreaking frustration of knowing things are going wrong but not quite knowing why, and stalking similar territory to 1989's classic "Lets Go Out Tonight". Elsewhere, "I Would Never" is as perfect a love song as you will ever hear, all the more striking for it's unashamed romanticism -as close as Buchanan ever gets to cliché. While most pop songs seem content to bask in the glow of eternal youth, The Blue Nile are resolutely adult in their concerns - 1996's Peace At Last dealt with the pressures and the joys of family and commitment, while High seems to deal with a re-affirmation of those same things, but with an occasionally ambiguous and fearful tone. There are many recognizable Blue Nile motifs throughout - the imagery of rain, railway stations, traffic and rooftops will certainly be familiar - and the tempo barely rises above a stately shuffle, which for some might seem a missed opportunity for stylistic innovation. However, for those of us who've cherished the band's previous albums, High is like meeting a new friend, albeit one possessing a reassuring familiarity. See you in ten years then, lads? © Michael Fitzsimmons 2004-09-08, http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/g2hj

"Sometimes, the Good Times Don't Last" : - Productivity is overrated. Being productive is just a matter of willpower, a parlor trick. True creativity comes with a certain amount of restraint. The Blue Nile has managed to build an unassailable career by being selective about what they record, and even more selective about what they eventually release. The band, which formed and released its first single in 1981, has just gotten around to releasing High, their fourth album, eight full years since the previous one. I fear that the words "eight years" do not do justice for this inconceivable gap. To give the reader some perspective, a 14-year-old who was just beginning high school when Peace at Last was released, would now be fresh out of college in time for High. Most bands with such long gaps between albums would gradually fade away in the public memory, but the Blue Nile has built a sizable legend thanks to their extended absences. With the band's limited output, group leader Paul Buchanan throws away far more songs than he keeps, insuring that there is very little in their output that is anything less than revelatory. Then, these songs are given the best possible studio treatment, regardless of how long the process takes. The Blue Nile is, in just about every sense, the antithesis of artists like Lou Barlow or Robert Pollard. For the diehard fan, every Blue Nile album is an event, with the only two possible disappointments being that there are too few songs and too long of a wait for the next one. These two disappointments are the only major charges that could be held against the band's latest, High. From the opening repeating piano dirge that opens the heartbreaking "Days of Our Lives" to Buchanan's last exhortations on the eight-minute plea "Stay Close", there is not a single wasted moment on the entire album. Often when bands spend too much time refining their material in the studio, the results are drained of emotional immediacy. This will never be a danger for the Blue Nile as the band carefully composes and produces their songs for maximum emotional impact, using the studio to enhance rather than smother the painful core of Buchanan's songs. If anything, High is a little too emotional, with some of its songs striking chords of despair and emptiness that popular music, particularly well-produced adult pop, rarely addresses. It is this delicate balance between professionalism, there is a smoothness to their songs that rivals Steely Dan, and the sheer emotional appeal of the songs that makes each Blue Nile album "event listening". The Blue Nile has been able to survive three decades in a constantly evolving musical landscape without seeming dated by latching onto the most basic, and most often ignored, aspects of the synth-pop scene from which they emerged: the lack of warmth inherent in digital music and synthesizers and the fact that this new form of music was perfectly suited to reflect emotions of alienation and despair. Certainly New Order and Depeche Mode at their peak would use this coldness in a way to directly appeal to a listener's emotions, but the Blue Nile has been able to escape the "'80s" ghetto by explicitly appealing to these often uncomfortable emotions. "Days of Our Lives" opens right with a bleak tale of the boredom and emptiness of life. Most pop music explores the high points of life: love, betrayal, murder, death, redemption, moments of joy, moments of sadness, decadence, celebration, etc. "Days of Our Lives", and much of the rest of High, focuses on the other ninety percent of life. The 90 percent of life that we will not remember on our deathbeds, the 90 percent of life that we barely notice as it is going on around us. "Days of Our Lives" is about the times when life consists of nothing but going to work and coming back nine hours later and maybe turning on the television but maybe not, and finally going to sleep without really accomplishing anything until waking up to face the next uninspiring day. It is a bitter song to take, only barely redeemed by the next song, the oddly sorrowful love song "I Would Never". The album gets even bleaker, and, not coincidentally, more beautiful as it progresses. On "High", Buchanan wonders why we bother to live at all, when, after all, we could take the coward's way out and "get high" to escape all of this. There is something in the way the band strips life of its many illusions that is powerfully cathartic, with Buchanan's soulful untrained voice fighting against the impersonal but beautifully skeletal arrangements provided by the band (bassist Robert Bell and keyboardist Paul Joseph Moore). It is as if Buchanan's vocals are attempting to find something human and beautiful in a seemingly sterile world. Perhaps the madness in Blue Nile's method is more than quality control. Both the spaces between albums and the band's minimalist sound reflect the emptiness of the lives that Buchanan describes. This explains why the fullest production is given to the closing "Stay Close", which attempts some sort of redemption. On this final track, Buchanan howls for an unnamed figure to "stay close" to him for almost eight minutes in an ambiguous final statement. Has Buchanan found love, or something real and substantive, in this otherwise empty world, or is "Stay Close" a rallying cry of co-dependence? Buchanan's almost tearful exhortations last far too long to be reassuring that the song's subject will actually stay. In my view, "Stay Close" is a triumph because the singer is at least able to yearn for something. He is still able to feel. In a world where so much music is aimed to anesthetize, the equivalent of Buchanan's appeal to "get high" and forget about real life on the album's title track, High reminds the listener that it is a rare gift just to be able to feel anything. Heck, even better, it manages to deliver this message through a series of catchy and well-produced songs that will reward decades of replay value. Of course, considering the band's output, they pretty much better withstand some series replay value. Here's hoping the band is just as good on the follow-up, circa 2012. — 29 October 2004, © 1999-2009 PopMatters.com. All rights reserved. http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/b/bluenile-high.shtml

BIO

The Scottish folk-ambient band the Blue Nile has enjoyed a mystique contrived by its inaccessibility and the infrequency of its recordings, but it has also made a series of critically acclaimed discs. The group was formed by three Glasgow natives who had graduated from university there: singer/songwriter/guitarist Paul Buchanan, bassist Robert Bell, and keyboardist Paul Joseph Moore. (Engineer Callum Malcolm and drummer Nigel Thomas have worked with the trio consistently, to the point of being considered secondary bandmembers.) (The Blue Nile is the title of Alan Moorehead's 1962 sequel to The White Nile, the two books making up a history of the Nile River.) They recorded their own single, "I Love This Life," which was distributed by Robert Stigwood's RSO Records just before the company closed its doors. They were then signed by Linn Products, which released their debut album, A Walk Across the Rooftops, in 1984. (A&M handled it in the U.S.) Since the company was small and the band did not tour, the album took some time to find its audience, though it briefly reached the U.K. charts and led to high expectations for a second album. This came in 1989 with Hats, which reached the British Top 20, throwing off three chart singles, "The Downtown Lights," "Headlights on the Parade," and "Saturday Night." The album also made the lower reaches of the American charts as the Blue Nile embarked on its first tour, a 30-date journey taking place in the British Isles and the U.S. In the ensuing years, the band members switched record labels, signing to Warner Bros., and contributed to recordings by Robbie Robertson and Julian Lennon. They finally emerged with their third album, Peace at Last, in June 1996. Another critically acclaimed release, it placed in the U.K. Top 20, but failed to chart in the U.S. © William Ruhlmann, allmusic.com, http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:kifqxqw5ldde~T1