BAM Magazine Review of The Adrian Belew Power Trio at The Chapel

ADRIAN BELEW POWER TRIO AT THE CHAPEL
NOVEMBER 15, 2014 | STEVE ROBY

Adrian Belew Power Trio w/ Saul Zonana

Nov. 12, 2014

The Chapel, San Francisco

When The Chapel’s doors opened at 7pm, about 30 faithful Belew followers promptly made their way to the stage, and stayed glued there for the rest of the evening. While fans shared stories of past King Crimson and Zappa tours, an MC welcomed the crowd and pointed out that the club would be playing a wide selection of tunes from Belew’s vast career during breaks between the sets. Several hardcore devotees quickly picked out the obscure Porcupine Tree track. Tom Tom Club and David Bowie songs satisfied the rest of the anxious group.

Opener Saul Zonana took the stage, and The Chapel’s main floor reached standing room capacity. Zonana’s solo performance was limited to a tiny 4 feet by 3 feet section at stage right due to Belew’s massive display of pedals, effects, and the rest the Power Trio’s equipment. He managed to pull it off quite well.

During Zonana’s set, he spotted a fan waving a mint copy of King Crimson’s Three of a Perfect Pair, which prompted him to tell the crowd how that progressive rock record, and listening to The Beatles, convinced him to become a musician. Zonana has recorded and toured with 2000 shows under his belt, and was spotted singing harmonies (via a wireless mic) tonight in a tiny room visible from the stage when Belew was performing.

For the rest of the review, please visit the BAM Magazine website!

BAM Magazine Review of An Evening with Terry Bozzio

TERRY BOZZIO photo by Terunobu Ohata

AN EVENING WITH DRUM LEGEND TERRY BOZZIO
OCTOBER 25, 2014 | STEVE ROBY

Terry Bozzio

October 23, 2014

Yoshi’s, Oakland

Terry Bozzio has worked with world-class artists such as Frank Zappa, Jeff Beck, and Steve Vai, and Rolling Stone listed him as the fifth greatest drummer in rock. On Thursday, he stopped by Yoshi’s at the tail end of this tour which celebrates the 50th anniversary of his first drum lesson.

Bozzio, 63, has been traveling across North America for nearly three months now with his wife, Mayumi; and drum tech, Ben, who has the tedious job of assembling the “sculpture” (as Bozzio likes to call his behemoth melodic drum kit), at every show. The enormous structure virtually encases him with only a tiny three-foot opening to view the audience.

The “sculpture” features 26 toms, two snares, eight bass drums, 53 cymbals, 22 pedals, and a whole lot more. Bozzio plays on two-and-a-half octaves of tuned tom-toms and eight notes of bass drum. There are 22 pedals that have to be fine-tuned every day so they don’t interfere with each other. If you’d like a more accurate accounting of his kit, click this link.

As the show began, Bozzio climbed into his kit while playing several mini shakers that set the tone for the first song, “Africa.” The first set ran an hour and included “Flute Loops,” and a composition called “Debussy,” a piece inspired by one of his classical music heroes, Claude Debussy.

For the rest of the review, please visit the BAM Magazine website!

Orlando Weekly Review of Terry Bozzio at the Plaza Live

Terry Bozzio at the Plaza Live (photo by James Dechert)

ORLANDO MUSIC NEWS
This Little Underground: Terry Bozzio at the Plaza Live
September 8, 2014
By Bao Le-Huu

Beyond a string of credits alongside people like Frank Zappa, Jeff Beck, Missing Persons and U.K., Terry Bozzio (Sept. 5, Plaza Live) has built a legacy of his own as a percussion pioneer. On his first North American solo drum performance, he rode into town on what’s billed as the “world’s largest tuned drum and percussion set.” Just look at this thing…

Like an instrumental array from some H.R. Giger dream, this one-of-a-kind behemoth is more evocative and beautiful than most big-city urban art. It’s maybe the only solo kit out there that could break Neil Peart’s heart.

For the rest of the review, please visit the Orlando Weekly website!

Goldmine Review of Getting the Holy Ghost Across by Bill Nelson

Bill Nelson – not Be Bop, but still Deluxe

March 12, 2014 | Dave Thompson

Be Bop Deluxe were an interesting band. Regardless of whether or not you actually liked them (and a lot of people didn’t, which is why they remained a defiantly second division act in terms of rock history), they never failed to fascinate; and, in so doing, erected an aura around themselves that defied you to ever reject them out of hand.

They certainly traced a fascinating musical trajectory, from the studied-chic glam of their debut Axe Victim, to the icicle new wave of their farewell Drastic Plastic, Be Bop essentially delineated the course that British rock’s most potent obsessions would trace through the decade, and did so with just enough of a head start that only David Bowie could really claim to have topped them as an influence.

“Ships In The Night,” their sole major hit single, remains a pristine moment of pomp amid the drudgery of 1976, and Modern Music, their best-selling album (#12, fact fans) prefigured punk with a potency that only Zig’s Low could otherwise reach for. And that came out a few months later.

As Brian Eno probably didn’t really say about the Velvet Underground, but that hasn’t stopped people repeating it, not many people listened to Be Bop Deluxe. But everyone who did formed a synthipop band – and, in so doing, translated the angular cool of their role model into something that even your gran could tap toes to.

They split in 1978, which was both the right time and the wrong. Right, because it meant frontman Bill Nelson could move on to something else, something more in tune with the demands of the time… Red Noise. And wrong, because Be Bop surely had more to offer, if only because their albums-so-far had skirted across so many crucial issues that who knows what they might have posited next?

For the rest of the review, please visit the Goldmine website!

Bop-N-Jazz Review of Getting the Holy Ghost Across by Bill Nelson

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Bill Nelson Getting The Holy Ghost Across Esoteric 2014

Bill Nelson was and continues to remain a lyrical visionary just slightly ahead of his time.
Brent Black / http://www.criticaljazz.com

In the late 1970’s Bill Nelson was heralded as one of the finest guitarists in England. A member of the legendary British art rock pioneers Be Bop Deluxe, Nelson was unknowingly charting a lyrical course of influence for progressive rock with his technical precision on the fret board and a lyrically inventive course of imagery that continues to inspire today. Quirky, eclectic, at times experimental all fall short in attempting to place this proverbial musical square peg in a round hole. The 1986 release Getting The Holy Ghost Across” has been a rare and coveted gem among collectors and is now getting a second chance at life as a stellar reissue.

For the full review, please visit the Bop-N-Jazz website!

Vintagerock Review of Jon Anderson Concert in Manchester

Jon Anderson Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre August 4th 2013
A special solo performance with the frontman of YES – Jon Anderson

Last night I went to see Jon Anderson in solo concert at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. The show was billed thus: “Frontman of one of the biggest bands of all time, Jon Anderson brings his stunning voice and exquisite songs to Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre for this very special solo performance. Expect a magical night that draws from the YES songbook and includes all-time classics such as Owner Of A Lonely Heart, Wonderous Stories, Long Distance Runaround, and Yours Is no Disgrace.” The venue sounded interesting and lived up to its description on the Royal Exchange site: “The Royal Exchange Theatre is a seven-sided, glass-walled capsule, literally suspended from huge marble pillars situated in The Great Hall of the historic Victorian Cotton Exchange Buildings in Manchester city centre. The unique design means all seats are less than nine metres from the circular stage giving views from all angles.” I arrived around 7pm after a uneventful drive down the A1 and across the M62.

For the full review, please visit the Vintagerock website!

Something Else! Reviews – Exclusive stream of “Look into the Future” from Gregg Rolie – Live at the Iridium

Exclusive stream: Journey’s Gregg Rolie, “Look Into the Future” from Live at the Iridium (2013)
by Nick DeRiso

“I haven’t heard this in 35 years,” Gregg Rolie allows, as he and guitarist Alan Haynes launch into a searching version of the title track from Journey’s 1976 album Look Into the Future. It’s never sounded better.

Rolie co-founded Journey after both he and Neal Schon left Santana, releasing a self-titled LP in 1975. The band eventually fashioned a trio of proggy, jam-band-ish fusion albums through ’77 — all of them recorded with Ross Valory and Aynsley Dunbar on bass and drums — in those heady pre-Steve Perry days. When none reached higher than No. 85 on the album charts, however, the band added Perry — and began a steady ascent to the very top of the pop charts.

For the rest of the article and the stream, please visit the Something Else! Reviews website!

Musoscribe Review of Pure Electric Honey

Album Review: Ant-Bee — Pure Electric Honey

Though it far too often is the case, avant garde music need not be chilly and foreboding. Sometimes it can be warm and inviting, while still maintaining its outré, weird-and-wonderful characteristics. That’s the case with Pure Electric Honey, the 1988 debut album fromAnt-Bee, reissued on CD in 2013.
Pure Electric Honeycertainly bears few sonic hallmarks of the late 1980s. Some sonic touchstones include Frank Zappa‘s late-sixties music; the legendary SMiLE sessions from Brian Wilson; and (relatively) more modern artists such as The Residents and – most notably, I think – Elephant 6 Collective artists Olivia Tremor Control. Now, Ant-Bee (essentially Billy James and a large cast of other musicians) recorded Pure Electric Honey long before OTC cut their debut long player Music From the Unrealized Film Script, Dusk at Cubist Castle, but the two acts are clearly kindred spirits, even if they arrive at sonically related destinations via different pathways.

For the full review, please visit the Musoscribe website!

Tone Deaf Review of Jon Anderson Concert

Jon Anderson
April 10th 2013 @ Corner Hotel
Reviewed by Neil Evans on 12 April 2013

Solo acoustic blues guitarist Harry Healy greeted the arriving sold-out crowd, consisting primarily of diehard Yes fans, the band of which headliner Jon Anderson was the frontman back in the 70s.
While a decent enough player and singer, Healy was somewhat repetitive with his music, and the banter onstage felt a bit forced and affected. There seems to be something of a saturation of solo artists, both male and female, with acoustic guitars similar to Harry at the moment. A decent but undistinguished opener.
After a fun game of ‘spot the under 40-year-old in the crowd’, it was time for Jon Anderson to take to the stage.
Performing solo, switching between guitar, piano, and dulcimer, tonight was a massive surprise. As much as the music of Yes has compelled and enthralled listeners throughout the past four decades, the band are also held up as one of the reasons why punk, or something like it, had to happen.

For the rest of the review, please visit the Tone Deaf website!

Examiner.com Review of Greg Lake – Songs of a Lifetime

Greg Lake releases new live CD, ‘Songs of a Lifetime’
BY: Dawn Lee Wakefield

One thing that music lovers and record collectors of music from the 1960s and 1970s have in common are stacks and stacks of favorite 33 LPs collected through the years, the vinyl well played and the liner notes well read. Doubtlessly those stacks include the works of Greg Lake from his former bands, King Crimson and the iconic Emerson Lake and Palmer. On Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, legendary singer/songwriter Greg Lake released his new live CD, “Songs of a Lifetime” for all Greg Lake fans to enjoy. Lake made his Texas Tour in Houston and Austin last summer, 2012. Audiences were then fortunate enough to hear live previews of the songs that are part of Lake’s new CD.

“Songs of a Lifetime” features live recordings from selected shows performed on his 2012 tour. Lake said, “This is not one of those boring shows sitting on a stool strumming folk songs, I purposely set out to make this show dynamic and entertaining with lots of drama and pathos, even some humour at times as well. Everyone feels part of the performance because we all bonded by the shared memories of our musical journeys together.”

The much-anticipated new CD is available from the United Kingdom via the Internet on the lable Esoteric Antenna, distributed through Cherry Red Records. Have you ever wanted to just sit down with one of your favorite artists and have a one-on-one discussion to learn more about them, their lives, and what drove them to pick music as a career?

Fortunately, Greg Lake fans can put this CD on and get the sense of being one-on-one with their favorite singer. Lake will soon be releasing his autobiography, “Lucky Man,” which is an audio narrative of Greg’s favorite memories and experiences throughout his career, from childhood to present day. Both a print edition and audio book read by Lake are expected by the end of 2013.

Not content to rest on his laurels, Greg Lake is on the road, and planning tours in the United States, Canada, Japan, Europe, and South America. His new “Songs of a Lifetime” concert show puts the audience one-on-one with Lake in intimate settings that have a comfortable living-room feel. He’s funny, engaging, reflective, and in perfect voice after many years of perfecting his style, a songwriter’s songwriter, in fact.

So many Baby Boomer hits were those of Lake’s days with King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. So the concert CD, the biography is a natural next step. Lake said, “Behind these songs there were often stories to be told and it occurred to me that the same must be true for the audience as well. It was then that I thought of the idea of doing a series of very small intimate concerts where I could perform these songs and exchange stories with the audience, in a way reliving the time when the music we shared together really became part of our identity and in a way became the backdrop to our lives, a sort of tapestry I suppose.”

A montage of the new Greg Lake concert series is seen in the YouTube video that accompanies this story. On the CD you’ll hear “21st Century Schizoid Man,” “Tribute to the King” (Lake actually go to hear Elvis in concert and a version of “Heartbreak Hotel” is equally poignant), “Epitaph/The Court of the Crimson King,” “I Talk to the Wind,” “C’est La Vie,” “My Very First Guitar,” (a story that will bring tears to your eyes), and of course, “Lucky Man.”

Greg Lake’s new CD is a perfect salvo if you’re kicking yourself for missing his tour last year in person. Put “Songs of a Lifetime” in your CD player and make sure you don’t miss his 2013 live tour when he comes to Texas. Oh, and turn up the CD for the song-opener “21st Century Schizoid Man.” Wake the neighbors if you have to; like everything else Greg Lake does, it’s first rate, and best enjoyed by many.

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