Jazz Articles
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Who Do You Think We Are?
by John Kelman
Trying to find a distinct definition of what has come to be known as The Canterbury Sound" is as elusive as attempting to describe what, in the jazz world, has become an overused epithet for the German ECM Records label and The ECM Sound." Attempts to do so usually fail short because, rather than being actual truths, their broad brushstrokes invariably miss the mark, even if they are sometimes not entirely incorrect. That said, Caravan has long been ...
read moreThe First Generation 1965-1974
by John Kelman
What do guitarists Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor, Jon Mark, Harvey Mandel and Freddy Robinson, reed/woodwind multi-instrumentalists John Almond, Ray Warleigh, Alan Skidmore, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Red Holloway and Ernie Watts, bassists John McVie, Jack Bruce, Andy Fraser, Tony Reeves, Stephen Thompson and Larry Taylor, drummers Mick Fleetwood, Keef Hartley, Aynsley Dunbar, Jon Hiseman and Collin Allen, trumpeters Henry Lowther and Blue Mitchell, and violinist Don Sugarcane" Harris all share in common? They are but a few of the notable ...
read moreUnburied Treasure
by John Kelman
Of all the so-called progressive rock bands that emerged in the late '60s/early '70s, Gentle Giant has, perhaps, been the most misunderstood, and the one which failed to reach the same deserved commercial heights of its creatively innovative brethren, like King Crimson, Yes, Genesis and Pink Floyd. Of the bigger names from that time, only Van der Graaf Generator could be considered in the same breath when it comes to missed commercial success opportunities, and even that group has fared ...
read moreThe Vintage Years 1970 - 1991
by John Kelman
There are bands that manage to carve out a place for themselves in the music world that lasts for decades; there are others who, while having created a name for themselves during their peak years and, while they continue to tour and, even, make the occasional studio album, are invariably best remembered for their seminal early years. Wishbone Ash first emerged on the cusp of the 1970s, a time when it seemed anything and everything was possible. While ...
read moreGong: Rejoice! I'm Dead!
by Glenn Astarita
Vocalist, guitarist and composer, Daevid Allen was perhaps progressive rock's favorite hippie, and in the 1960s co-founded pivotal and revered Euro outfits, Gong and Soft Machine. Since the late 60s, Allen embarked on a solo career and led various psych-rock ensembles amid resurgences of Gong, which is an entity that sports a manifold legacy, spanning disparate stylistic approaches. Up until his death from cancer in 2015 Allen was all over the map via his cosmic explorations and collaborations with like-minded ...
read moreON
by John Kelman
While it's true that, in the rock world, there are relatively few female guitarists, especially those leaning towards the heavier and more progressive side of the equation, that doesn't mean that those intrepid enough to enter what has traditionally been a man's world should be assessed on anything but their own merits. Good guitarists are good guitarists, regardless of gender; great guitarist, too, are great guitarists, irrespective of their hormonal dispositions. Guitar Player Magazine may have rightfully deemed Jane Getter ...
read moreOzric Tentacles: Paper Monkeys
by Glenn Astarita
A band that has endured the dips and spikes of the progressive-rock genre since its inception back in 1983, UK-based Ozric Tentacles has the beat on jam-based space-rock via its signature style of execution. With undulating synths, driving pulses and layered sculpting techniques, the quartet almost always bestows a sweeping plane, centered on lucid imagery and might. Ozric's ideology hearkens back to the imaginative persuasions witnessed during the psychedelic era, while keeping pace with modernization from a technical and sound ...
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