Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Todd Rundgren & Utopia: Live 1978 at The Old Waldorf

18

Todd Rundgren & Utopia: Live 1978 at The Old Waldorf

By

View read count
Todd Rundgren & Utopia: Live 1978 at The Old Waldorf
Live 1978 at The Old Waldorf San Francisco venue is a continuation of the Todd Rundgren archive series by UK- based Esoteric Recordings. Previously unreleased, the engineers' remastering effort seems to have paid off, as the overall sound is acceptable; although, the lower-end bass response is a bit weak. This concert was originally recorded for a broadcast by local radio station K-SAN and includes pieces culled from Rundgren's solo albums and Utopia's body of work.

Rundgren's pop legacy includes his artisanship as a multi-instrumentalist, producer and sound engineer. He was always at the forefront of technology, but is also a badass rock guitarist, highlighted on this live date along with keyboardist and pioneering analog synth wiz, Roger Powell. Essentially, the program boasts a vibrant mix of pop and prog rock with lots of pizzazz as Rundgren tears it up on guitar atop the pulsating grooves. However, there are spots where the musicians' vocal choruses are washed out against the thrusting motifs, but not necessarily a deal-breaker from a holistic perspective.

"The Last Ride" is a tender blues rock ballad, featuring Rundgren's soft and dreamy vocals. Elsewhere, Powell's inventive and multi-purposed use of synths augment some of the band's scintillating and aggressively exercised crash and burn episodes. Moreover, the prog element nicely complements many of the leader's good-natured and catchy vocal choruses, highly evident on the lovely "A Dream Goes On Forever," which is a ballad performed solely by Rundgren, accompanying himself on piano.

The group flexes muscle again on "Eastern Intrigue/Initiation," as the leader renders some downright blistering guitar licks and goes toe-to-toe with Powell's stinging synth lines. Rundgren closes the set with an obligatory performance of his timeless chart-topping classic "Hello Its Me." Here, the audience sings along, coinciding with its zealous reception throughout this enlivening set that is a jubilant blast from the past.

Track Listing

CD 1: It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference; Love of the Common Man; Trapped; Abandoned City; The Last Ride; The Seven Rays; Can We Still Be Friends; Back on the Street. CD 2: You Cried Wolf; Gangrene; A Dream Goes On Forever; Black and White; Eastern Intrigue/Initiation; Couldn’t I Just Tell You; Hello It’s Me; Just One Victory.

Personnel

Todd Rundgren: vocals, guitar; Kasim Sulton: vocals, bass; Roger Powell: vocals, keyboard; Willie Wilcox: vocals, drums.

Album information

Title: Live 1978 at The Old Waldorf | Year Released: 2016 | Record Label: Esoteric Recordings

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

Near

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.