fbpx

Tag Archives: Yes

World News

An Evening with Yes: 1972 Set Captures the Band in Fine Form

Posted on by Jeff Wilson

The new Yes launch that got here out on Record Store Day presents a whole live performance the British progressive rock band carried out on November 15, 1972. A 3-LP set, Live at Knoxville Civic Coliseum, Knoxville, Tennessee captures a interval of transition for Yes. Right after the band spent months squeezing in recording periods through the Fragile tour as a way to file Close to the Edge, it was time to go on tour once more. However, there was one main complication: Bill Bruford, who had been the drummer for the group for the reason that first album (CTTE was the fifth), determined to hitch forces with King Crimson.

Replacing Bruford offered an fascinating problem for the brand new drummer, Alan White, who handed away on May 26, 2022. White needed to study, at warp pace, songs that had been extraordinarily advanced. Knoxville presents a present from early within the tour, and the band is in high-quality type. Bruford was a superb drummer, however White’s heavier sound and extra aggressive assault appeared to suit the bigger venues the band was beginning to play throughout this tour. Already an aggressive bass participant, Chris Squire grew to become that rather more animated, and the band as an entire rocked significantly more durable than earlier than whereas retaining their epic sweep.

Almost all the things on Knoxville stems from The Yes Album, Fragile, and Close to the Edge. With their excessive use of dynamics, songs like “Heart of the Sunrise,” “I’ve Seen All Good People,” “Roundabout,” “And You And I,” and “Yours Is No Disgrace” begged to be performed dwell, and what you hear on these tracks (and likewise heard on Yessongs, which was principally recorded later within the tour) is the sort of dwell power that’s can’t be captured in a studio. A particular spotlight is “And You and I.” On the CTTE model, Howe principally sticks to acoustic guitar (plus some metal guitar when issues get epic), however the ringing sound of his electrical guitar has its personal attraction right here. (Howe’s solo acoustic performances of “Clap” and “Mood for a Day” are additionally a deal with.) The dramatic use of dynamics in “Heart of the Sunrise” additionally packs a punch dwell—and total, the music from this era of Yes was a grasp class in dynamics.

My favourite efficiency right here is “Yours Is No Disgrace,” which is longer than the Yessongs model. For Yes, there are factors throughout this efficiency when the gamers really sound a bit unfastened, in case you can think about that, with Rick Wakeman sneaking in some honky-tonk riffs on acoustic piano whereas Steve Howe throws in a couple of twangs on electrical guitar. Eventually, although, the noodling offers technique to some huge, bombastic guitar chords from Steve Howe whereas Alan White kilos the skins aggressively. Suddenly the band is rocking in an unconventional method, as soon as making it clear that these progsters had been totally ready to tackle the arenas.

The publish An Evening with Yes: 1972 Set Captures the Band in Fine Form appeared first on The Absolute Sound.

World News

Rick Wakeman – The Six Wives Of Henry VIII

Posted on by Hans-Juergen Schaal

Rick Wakeman – The Six Wives Of Henry VIII

Die heutigen Skandale der „Royals“ sind nichts im Vergleich zu Heinrich dem Achten im 16. Jahrhundert. Dieser englische König struggle nicht weniger als sechs Mal verheiratet. Jahrhunderte später inspirierten die Ehefrauen Rick Wakeman zu einem bemerkenswerten Album.

Weil ihm kein Sohn geboren wurde, ließ Henry VIII zwei seiner Ehefrauen erbarmungslos hinrichten, von zwei weiteren ließ er sich scheiden. Um diese Scheidungen zu ermöglichen, gründete er auch noch eine eigene Kirche – die Anglikanische. Der junge Keyboarder Rick Wakeman hatte sich 1971 ein Buch über King Henry VIII. gekauft – in einem Airport-Shop vor einem langen Flug. Als er es zu lesen begann, fühlte sich Wakeman überraschenderweise musikalisch inspiriert: „Ich konzentrierte mich auf eine der Ehefrauen, und schon strömte Musik in meinen Kopf. Manchmal struggle ich da gerade im Flugzeug oder auf der Bühne oder zu Hause vor dem Klavier.“

Dieser Inspirationsfluss struggle sehr willkommen, denn Wakeman hatte eben einen Vertrag über fünf (!) Solo-Platten unterschrieben. Nachdem er ein paarmal bei David Bowie ausgeholfen hatte, galt er als kommender Rockstar. Das Angebot, bei Bowie fest einzusteigen, schlug er allerdings aus – er entschied sich stattdessen für die Rockband Yes, die gerade ohne Keyboarder dastand. Dass Wakeman als Solist bei einem anderen Label verpflichtet struggle, sollte jedoch zum Problem werden. Sein Vertrag verbot ihm nämlich, bei Yes eigene Stücke einzubringen. Eines, das er für die Band geschrieben hatte, wurde deshalb zum Startschuss für sein Soloalbum und hieß nun „Catherine Of Aragon“.

Wakemans Keyboard-Arsenal auf dem Debütalbum reicht von Piano, Cembalo und Kirchenorgel über E-Piano, Hammondorgel und Mellotron bis hin zu den damals neuesten Moog- und ARP-Synthesizern. Modell- und spieltechnisch struggle The Six Wives Of Henry VIII. eine Pioniertat des Keyboard-Rock. Doch als Wakemans Plattenfirma realisierte, dass er ein reines Instrumentalalbum gemacht hatte, fielen dort die Erwartungen in den Keller. Man beschloss eine vorsichtige Startauflage von 12 500 Stück. Dann half der Zufall nach. Kurz vor der Veröffentlichung präsentierte Wakeman Ausschnitte des Albums auf BBC 2. Millionen Zuschauer wollten an diesem Abend einen Andy-Warhol-Film auf BBC 1 sehen, aber der Film entfiel. Viele schalteten daher um auf BBC 2 und begegneten dort Wakemans Virtuosität, seinen vielen Gerätschaften und seinem „royalen“ Sujet. „Es schien, als hätte das ganze Land meine Musik entdeckt.“ Das Album verkaufte sich allein in den ersten zwei Jahren zwei Millionen Mal.

Rick Wakeman - The Six Wifes Of Henri VIII

Fakten

Aufnahme: Februar bis Oktober 1972
Veröffentlichung: Januar 1973
Label: A&M
Produktion: Rick Wakeman

Titel

1. Catherine Of Aragon 3:44
2. Anne Of Cleves 7:53
3. Catherine Howard 6:35
4. Jane Seymour 4:46
5. Anne Boleyn 6:32
6. Catherine Parr 7:06

Musiker

Rick Wakeman – jede Menge Keyboards
Mike Egan – Gitarre
Les Hurdle – Bass
Dave Winter – Bass
Alan White – Schlagzeug
Bill Bruford – Schlagzeug
Frank Riccotti – Percussion
Ray Cooper – Percussion
Liza Strike – Gesang
und 10 weitere Mitwirkende

  • Das Foto auf dem Plattencover ist keine Montage. Es wurde in Madame Tussauds Wachsfigurenkabinett in London aufgenommen.
  • Die Musikaufnahmen entstanden in mehreren Etappen – eingeklemmt zwischen Sessions und Tourneen mit der Band Yes. Wakeman holte sich jeweils die Musiker ins Studio, die gerade verfügbar waren, darunter Kollegen von Yes („Catherine Of Aragon“) und Ex-Kollegen von den Strawbs („Catherine Howard“).
  • Mit seinem Star-Renommee (Aufnahmen mit David Bowie, Elton John, Cat Stevens) und seinem Solovertrag bei einer anderen Plattenfirma hatte Wakeman bei Yes einen Sonderstatus. Er blieb immer ein wenig für sich – der Yes-Gitarrist Steve Howe nannte ihn „den alten Kneipenbewohner“.
  • Rick Wakeman struggle bekannt dafür, bei Bühnenauftritten einen Cape-Umhang zu tragen. Angeblich wollte er damit seine „spinnenartigen“ Armbewegungen an den Keyboards verbergen.
  • Jedes der sechs Stücke bietet ein Wechselbad an musikalischen Stimmungen – und an Keyboard-Farben: rockende Hammondorgel neben romantischem oder virtuosem Klavier – weird Synthesizer-Parts neben Cembalo-Boogie und Bach-Anklängen auf der Pfeifenorgel.
  • Ein siebentes Stück, das Henry VIII. porträtieren sollte, musste aus Platzgründen entfallen. Wakeman montierte aber Zitate daraus in die anderen Stücke.
  • Acht Monate nach Erscheinen des Albums wurde Rick Wakeman von den Lesern des Melody Maker zum besten Keyboarder gewählt.
  • Wakemans Vorbild struggle der amerikanische Keyboarder Michael Quatro, ein älterer Bruder von Suzi Quatro.
  • Das König-Heinrich-Sujet verfolgte Wakeman bis in seine nächtlichen Träume. Nachdem er Anne Boleyns Hinrichtung im Traum miterlebt hatte, ergänzte er das Stück „Anne Boleyn“ mit einem Kirchenlied aus dem 19. Jahrhundert („The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended“).
  • Auf den Konzerttourneen mit Yes spielte Wakeman häufig ein Solo-Medley aus den Six Wives. Im Mittelpunkt stand dabei das erste Stück („Catherine Of Aragon“).
  • Erstmals komplett aufgeführt wurde die Musik des Albums im Jahr 2009 – mit Chor und Orchester.

Rick Wakeman – The Six Wifes Of Henry VIII gibt’s hier.

Der Beitrag Rick Wakeman – The Six Wives Of Henry VIII erschien zuerst auf FIDELITY on-line.

World News

Tomita In Quadrophonic: Surround Sound Was Made For This Music

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

Back in the 1970s when I was a teenager just getting into music I remember hearing some recordings by Japanese synthesizer wizard, composer and arranger Isao Tomita and being simultaneously impressed and underwhelmed. The latter I attribute to my having been getting deeply into progressive rock and Frank Zappa in particular. I was already dipping my toes into the classical universe of artists who influenced Zappa such as Edgar Varese and Igor Stravinsky 

The first Tomita album I eventually picked up out of curiosity — this was before the days of being able to preview an album streamed on the Interwebs, folks… and this music wasn’t played on any radio stations I listened to — was indeed his interpretation of one of Stravinsky’s masterworks, The Firebird Suite. 

I love that piece of music and while it was on the surface impressive that he was able to perform the work, Tomita’s version left me kind of cold for some reason and I was never sure why. Wendy Carlos had already done some magical things combining classical music with synthesizers (her legendary Switched On Bach recordings).  And groups like Yes and Emerson Lake and Palmer (ELP) were taking synthesizers to wild extremes for the times, both incorporating touchstones of classical in their work. Yes legendarily opened its concerts with an excerpt from The Firebird and ELP even had even recorded an entire live album of a rock interpretation of Mussorgsky’s Pictures At An Exhibition. Renaissance brilliantly reinterpreted Rimsky Korsakov’s Scheherazade for a new generation to discover. 

So, while classical music was in the air for many of us back around this time, perhaps my expectations for a sizzling listening experience went beyond the scope of my teenage stereo system…

Fast forward and today I’m listening to a wonderful SACD from the Dutton-Vocalion label which contains the original 1970s quadrophonic mixes of Tomita’s Firebird and all I can think about are the phrases: “missed opportunity” and “ahead of his time.” 

The missed opportunity is that Tomita should have been touring with bands like Yes and ELP.  Apparently, Tomita performed live with a quadrophonic sound system which must have been a wonder to see and hear!  Groups like Pink Floyd had performed in quad even in the early 1970s. Note, there are recordings from Tomita’s live quad shows (click here  and here for a BBC transcription in Stereo which was apparently broadcast in quadrophonic sound back in the day, his first performance in England according to the website). 

Original Japanese LP cover art for Tomita’s Firebird

The ahead of his time part is that quadrophonic sound as a commercial medium back in the 70s simply wasn’t ready for prime time. Quad LPs and tapes were often available but getting those systems to work properly was apparently easier said than done. There were Quad broadcasts but you had to have one of the then new Quadrophonic receivers to be able to hear them. Not many had them yet, alas.

So, hearing Tomita’s original quad mixes of The Firebird today has been a revelation. This music which once left me cold now engages and excites me!

As an arranger, clearly he was in his sweet spot mixing for multi-channel, creating a wonderfully immersive mix which is not hung up on — and doesn’t pretend to try to — re-create a live soundstage. All his work was painstakingly programmed and performed. And here on The Firebird Suite he takes advantages of the otherworldly peaks and valleys in Stravinsky’s score and applies it to the design of the mix. The impact is wonderful.

It’s a little hard to describe this, especially if you don’t know this particular piece of music. Try to imagine in general a dramatic classical work or a movie soundtrack where the violins and cellos, horns and woodwinds that were percolating and soaring in those big epic sequences in monaural or stereo now swirled around, over and through you. That may give you an idea of what parts of this fine quadrophonic mix is like (especially when you sit in the “sweet spot” of your home theater or surround sound system listening area — that perfect zone for the listener to be seated in order to best appreciate a surround mix).

The other interesting thing about this fine version of Tomita’s Firebird is that when I compared the two channel Stereo mix on the hybrid SACD to a pristine conventional Stereo LP, they sound very much the same. This is a good thing and it seems to be a conscious effort on the part of the SACD’s producers as I have noticed this on several others of their releases which I have reviewed recently. They don’t try to modernize or brighten the recordings, so it feels true to the original.

Now if only there was some way to bring out more of these fun Tomita Quadrophonic mixes to  broader audience (ie. less expensive and more easily accessible, especially here in the United States), that would be a useful and wonderful occurrence.  

Perhaps with more impactful packaging (the liner notes here reproduce those from 1976 release and reveal nothing really about the four channel mixes) and a new push from domestic United States labels (Sony Classical owns this particular work apparently, even though it was originally on the RCA Records label), then there might be some stronger hope of bringing Tomita’s music to life again for new audiences to discover.  

Tomita’s music is ripe for rediscovery.

Select your currency
EUR Euro
USD United States (US) dollar