Asia Live in NYC Oct 27th

Thirty years ago Asia’s “Heat of the Moment” conquered the FM airwaves and the group’s debut album sold an estimated 14 million copies.  However, the band’s follow-up album, “Alpha” failed to live up to commercial or artistic expectations.  As a result, the original line-up disbanded for nearly a quarter century.

In 2007, the original members decided to reform Asia.  Musical tastes have certainly changed since the days when Asia’s power ballads, sprinkled with progressive-rock instrumental flourishes, captivated audiences.  However, in the past five years the band has released three solid albums while touring extensively.  In musical terms, today’s Asia is arguably better than ever.

The musical vitality of today’s Asia is was on display October 27^th at the Best Buy Theatre in NYC.  At its heart, Asia has always been a band that blends instrumental firepower with concise songwriting featuring killer musical hooks.   Asia’s music is accessible, even formulaic, but the group is also capable of spell-binding musical flights that completely push the envelope.   On Saturday night, Asia showed these four exemplary musicians still know a thing or two about putting on a riveting show.  Whether it’s a scorching rocker like “Soul Survivor,” or a gentle ballad like “I Know How You Feel” from their latest album “XXX,” Asia can still deliver the goods, and then some.   Indeed, it is rare to hear a band that is as crisp, energetic, and also telepathic as Asia is playing right now.

As a unit, Asia is in top form.  As for the individual performers themselves:  John Wetton husky voice sounds like it’s been preserved in a time-capsule;  Steve Howe’s guitar solos are as inventive, idiosyncratic, and combustible  as ever;  Carl Palmer’s percussion is peerless; and Geoff Downes’ keyboard textures always seem to suit the music and his fellow band mates perfectly.

Asia’s current set list was ideal too.  Songs from the debut album were most prominent, but the concert featured choice tracks from Alpha, three cuts from the new album, and at least one song from their other two post-reunion albums.  It has been three decades since Asia burst onto the scene as a super group.  Their fall from grace was every bit as stunning as their meteoric rise.  But they have risen from the ashes to become a hardworking band that is in the process of creating a legacy that is finally worthy of the hype that surrounded the original Asia.  The chemistry of the original Asia was there from the beginning.  The latest album and tour are an indication that their magical X-factor has only improved with age. 

Renaissance Concert Reviewed

Annie Haslam has a voice like an exotic bird; it can soar, inspire wonder, and put earthbound mortals in touch with the heavens.  When I first heard Renaissance, the progressive rock outfit Annie has been associated with for more than forty years, I was quite literally blown away by the astounding vocal agility and of artistry of this gifted singer.  But there has always been far more to Renaissance than Annie’s hauntingly beautiful voice; Renaissance is also a band given to grand concepts, poetic imagery, and exemplary musicianship.  Annie’s voice is attention-getting, no doubt, but there are many other elements that made Renaissance rather unique in the world of rock. 

Renaissance seemed like a rarity when I first heard songs like “Trip to the Fair” on the late-night FM airwaves back in the 1970s, and they may be even more of a rarity today.  But as a recent performance at the Ridgefield Playhouse in Connecticut demonstrated, Renaissance is both special and more than the sum of its parts.  To begin with, Renaissance is a band that eschews electric guitar pyrotechnics.  Instead, acoustic guitarist Michael Dunford tasteful fretwork provides the group with a textural element that highlights the group’s folk, classical, and jazz roots.  His style suits the band and the music, adding crucial atmospheric aspects, but also allowing plenty of breathing room for Annie’s voice and the dual keyboards, which are also part of Renaissance’s sound signature.  Here, relative newcomers Rave Tesar and Jason Hart excel with exemplary solos and instrumental interplay.  The rhythm section is top notch too.  David Keyes bass work is very much front and center, which is a very good thing given how exceptionally inventive and imaginative his playing is.  Likewise, drummer Frank Pagano supplies percussion that is technically impressive but also spirited and soulful.  Virtually every instrumentalist contributes vocals too, which really gives the music cohesiveness.

Renaissance performed a wealth of selections from their long career, including a complete performance of their album “Novella.”  But the highlight of the evening may have been the world premier of two new songs from their forthcoming album, “Grandine Il Vento.”  Listening to the new music was every bit as soul stirring as hearing classics like “Carpet of the Sun” and “Mother Russia,”  which were also superbly rendered and enthusiastically received.  The ovations were numerous and well-deserved.

The enthusiasm of Renaissance’s audience was palpable.   Health problems have hampered Annie’s touring schedule, but her voice is as beautiful and radiant as ever.  The audience clearly appreciated Renaissance’s commitment to their music, their art, and their dedicated fan base.  The feeling here was of mutual love.  Not many bands create that kind of bond with an audience, but it certainly makes for memorable music and a magical evening.  If you have a chance to see and hear this amazing band, don’t miss it.  Renaissance is a band that can transport you to a special place. 

Yes 2012 Fly From Here Tour

It was a steamy night Sunday at the Bergen County Performing Arts Center in New Jersey, but not just because the AC in the building was out of order.  Yes was on stage and they were smoking hot.  Musically speaking, this was one the best performances I’ve seen in ages.  There is no question the band has taken heat from fans over the last couple of tours for slower tempos, inconsistent vocals, and what some perceived as tepid performances.  However, the Yes I saw on Sunday was tight, cohesive, energetic, well-rehearsed, and practically combustible.

Musical sparks were apparent from the start.  Steve Howe smoldering solo in Yours is No Disgrace was a model of tension-building and pyrotechnical fretwork.  It is hard to think of a more dexterous, inventive, or spontaneous-sounding guitarist.   Howe lit the match, but the rest of the band was just as explosive.

Newcomer vocalist Jon Davison is going to impress most Yes fans.  His appearance and stage presence conjure up images of a younger Jon Anderson.  Comparisons to a legend like Anderson would be unfair, but Davison has a terrific voice and an ability to handle high notes with ease.   With Davison at the helm, this line-up sounds very much like the Yes of yore.

The set list was well-chosen and satisfying.  With Geoff Downes back in the fold it makes sense to revisit the Drama era, which the band did with a blistering version of Tempus Fugit.  This is a song that requires a heart-pounding pace and pinpoint instrumental precision, but Yes managed to find the right balance between finesse and firepower.

It was great to hear Yes perform the quirky Paul Simon song, America.  The song first appeared on the compilation album, Yesterdays, way back in the mid seventies.  The tune has always been something of an oddity in Yes’ catalogue; it is not quite an epic, but it is fascinating to hear Yes take someone else’s folk song and use it as the basis for an extended progressive rock workout.  By this time, it was clear the band was firing on all cylinders.

Fly From Here is the band’s is longest epic ever.  To my mind, Fly From Here does what Yes’ best music has always done: it takes listeners on a musical journey.  The production on the studio album is terrific, but hearing the piece performed live in its entirety made me appreciate the band’s achievement even more.  There were many shining moments in the set (Steve Howe’s sublime steel pedal work near the end of Sad Night at the Airfield comes to mind).  But none were more satisfying than Chris Squire’s understated bass interlude, which seemed to me to perfectly convey the feeling of repose Squire must feel at having steered the band through stormy seas to create such a truly fine musical work at this stage of their career.

The magic continued with Wondrous Stories, one of Yes’ most concise and beautiful songs.  Once again, Davison shined on vocals, particularly during an effortless high note during the coda.  Heart of the Sunrise followed and it gave drummer Alan White and Squire a chance to show that they are one of the most dynamic, creative, and accomplished rhythm sections in rock music.  However, the highlight of the evening was the spellbinding version of Awaken.  Here, the pagan ferocity of Howe’s fretwork was perfectly matched by Downes’ celestial keyboard work.  Suffice it to say, the standing ovation Yes received was well-deserved. 

New Asia Album XXX Review

Thirty years ago, Asia streaked across the sonic horizon like brilliant meteor. The progressive-pop supergroup’s first album seemed full of portent, but Asia’s career fizzled when egos collided and the band’s follow-up LP, “Alpha,” failed to generate the same impact.

The original Asia reformed in 2007. Since that time they have reignited their career with an impressive trio of studio albums, which come close to recapturing the musical sparks and lightning that abounded on their debut. The group’s first comeback album, “Phoenix,” featured exceptionally well-crafted ballads, like “An Extraordinary Life,” which reflected a mellower, more reflective, but still highly melodic approach by the band. The group followed with “Omega,” which once again melded strong melodic hooks with a pensive outlook.

By any standard, “Phoenix” and “Omega” represent strong efforts by seasoned pros. But the new album, “XXX” is the one that does the most to rekindle the musical fury and scintillating energy of the first album. The album gets off to a rousing start with “Tomorrow the World,” a scorching rocker than manages to be both gritty and sublime at the same time. The instrumental introduction sounds like it belongs on a Yes album, which is not surprising given that guitarist Steve Howe and keyboardist Geoff Downes are involved. The interplay between Downes’ haunting piano and Howe’s wraithlike guitar creates an atmosphere as exotic and magical as the lush landscape depicted by Roger Dean’s cover art.

John Wetton is a singer who can grab the reigns of a song like few others. His husky baritone sounds better that it did thirty years ago, which is amazing. Carl Palmer’s kinetic chops are still second to none. The forward momentum and propulsive energy these four musicians create on the opening track is truly astounding. Crank up the volume and it is 1982 all over again. There is very little let up on the rest of the album. “Ghost of a Chance” seems to borrow melodic ideas from “The Last to Know” from Asia’s 1983 album, “Alpha,” but the new entry far outshines its predecessor. “Bury Me in Willow” is graceful pop, which features Wetton’s lyrics at their best; which is to say breezy, slightly philosophical, but disarmingly charming.

A song like “Faithful” could easily have come across as cloying, but somehow Wetton and the band manage to sound beguilingly sincere without coming across as saccharine. I especially like the acoustic version of “I Know How You Feel” (bonus version), where Howe’s acoustic guitar and Wetton’s vocals complement one another so well. Only “Reno” (bonus track), which sounds like it could become the theme song for the Nevada State Gaming Commission, and “Judas,” an up tempo song about betrayal, fall short. Otherwise, “XXX” represent an exceptional effort and a true return to form for a band that has the musical firepower to astound. Shooting stars like this don’t come around very often, but you don’t want to miss them when they do.

New Asia Single -- Face on the Bridge

In 1982, Asia created a musical tidal wave with its self-titled debut album. Songs like “Heat of the Moment,” “Wildest Dreams,” and “Soul Survivor,” were as colorful, taut, and energetic as the pearl-chasing dragon that graced the cover of that chart topping record. Today, two open heart surgeries and thirty years later the pearl-chasing dragon is back and so are the four original members of Asia. The new single from their forthcoming album, “Face on the Bridge,” captures the band sounding fresh and relevant. John Wetton’s huskily melodic voice seems like it has been preserved in a time capsule. He’s still singing about romantic angst just as well as he did decades ago, which is a wonder. Guitarist Steve Howe brings a touch of class to everything he does. His guitar lines here bear his unique stamp; they are succinct, catchy, tasteful and non-obvious. Drummer Carl Palmer is in great form too; his percussion is crisp, energetic, yet spacious. Geoff Downes textural keyboard style compliments both the music and his fellow musicians perfectly. “Face on the Bridge” is pop music sprinkled with a progressive flavor. It’s hummable and delectably melodic tune that somehow seems infused with the elixir of eternal youth. In some ways, Asia is like the Peter Pan of music; they’ve never quite grown up, but they’ve never grown old either. Asia is still riding the dragon that chases the pearl. The musical perfection the group achieved in 1982 is probably out of reach, but I’m very glad the quest continues.

New Tull Album Reviewed -- TAAB2

In 1972, the band Jethro Tull released their only true masterpiece, Thick as a Brick, a nominal concept album, which in a post-modern twist poked fun at the entire idea of concept albums.

According conventional interpretations, Thick as a Brick was a complete lark, a send-up of the pretentiousness of art rock groups like Yes, ELP, and King Crimson, who devoted entire albums to highfalutin and often half-baked concepts.

Fans and critics have generally accepted that Thick as a Brick was an entirely tongue-in-cheek affair; that Gerald Bostock, the 8-year old child prodigy who supposedly supplied the poem that Thick as Brick was based upon, was nothing more than the fictional alter-ego of that mad-cap musical genius, Ian Anderson, the driving force of Tull.

Now, some 42 years later, the truth behind Thick as Brick can be told. This truth might never have surfaced, but for the fact that Ian Anderson has recently released the follow-up to Thick as a Brick, TAAB2, which allegedly imagines the possible life trajectories of Gerald Bostock, had he been real and was now grown up. In fact, Gerald Bostock was and is the real inspiration behind the Thick as Brick trilogy (the third installment is scheduled to be released on the occasion of Ian Anderson 96th birthday in 2043, shortly before the commencement of a Tull reunion tour). Let me explain.

In the 1970s, record companies routinely employed creative child prodigies to concoct concepts which dim-witted and often drug-addled rock groups could claim as their own. The concept behind Tales from Topographic Oceans, for instance, was dreamt up by one very precocious 3-year old, who also supplied the lyrics. This practice was later outlawed, on the grounds that it amounted to an exploitation of child labor, which may go a long way to explaining why there has been such a dearth of substantive music since the mid 70s.

To make a long story short, an eight-year old named Gerald Bostock really did supply Ian Anderson with the Thick as Brick concept, which he envisioned as a three-part trilogy. However, rather than split the royalties with young Master Bostock as agreed, Mr. Anderson did what many rock stars of his era did; he bought himself a private island where he is lord and master. Gerald Bostock, feeling swindled and betrayed, had a nervous breakdown at the age of nine.

Gerald Bostock suffers from what clinical psychologists refer to as multiple-personality disorder. In the intervening years, Mr. Bostock has drifted and wandered aimlessly in life; he has been a televangelist, a stockbroker, and music executive. In each of these careers, he has skirted the law and ignored morality. In this regard, he is not unlike many of his successful peers. However, despite outward success, Mr Bostock lacks the one true ingredient necessary for a good life; a solid psychological core. As a result, Mr. Bostock has subsequently gone into the one field where a stable mind is not essential: literary criticism.

Many of Mr. Bostock’s parallel lives are depicted in TAAB2. It is a shame that he is written off as a fictional character when the truth is that his life – or multiple life paths – are the real inspiration for the Thick as a Brick concept pilfered by Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull.

All this said, the music on the new album is quite good. Indeed, I would describe it as fresh, exciting, but also very much in the proud tradition of Jethro Tull. It’s a worthy successor to the original Thick as Brick album. Tull fans should be pleased, but the music deserves to win new converts too. Ian Anderson may not be the genius behind the Thick as a Brick concept; that distinction lies with Gerald Bostock, who currently resides in an asylum of sorts somewhere outside of London. However, there little doubt that Anderson is the only front man both zany and talented enough to sell the Thick as Brick concept to a public that is quite literally as thick as a brick.

4/3/2012 Professor G.B

Steve Howe -- Time -- Review

Guitarist Steve Howe has a world of sounds at his fingertips. His eclectic career includes chart-topping success with Asia, ambitious art rock with Yes, new age adventurism with Paul Sutin, and about twenty solo albums displaying his classy and nimble fretwork. For my money, Steve Howe has to rank as one of the most consistently interesting and versatile six-stringers of our times.

You might say, there is something very timeless about Steve. He has a signature sound. His playing is very precise, but very fluid. He sounds like what the archetypal guitarist should sound like, but he sounds like no one else. Dexterous, inventive, tasteful; these are some of the adjectives I’d use to describe Steve’s style.

Steve’s musical career is now in its fifth decade, but he gives the impression – as he so often does – of being at the peak of his powers. Steve’s new solo effort, Time, is a case in point. From a guitar purist’s point of view, this has to be one of the most delectable collections of music imaginable. This is not to say that that the guitar is the only instrument featured on this record. Indeed, orchestra and keyboards figure prominently and importantly too. But each and every composition – be it original or an interpretation – seems sculpted in such a way as to reveal the haunting beauty and magic potential of the guitar.

It is hard to pick a standout track from Time. Both the arrangements and the playing are understated, but this creates the musical space for some rather sublime moments to shine through. This is particularly true with The 3rd of March, a composition written by Steve’s keyboardist collaborator Paul K. Joyce, where every note seem imbued with a rapturous beauty. The color, intonation, and phrasing Steve provides in the final bars of this gorgeous piece exemplify what artistry is all about, putting technique in the service of transcendence.

Time contains a mixture of original compositions by Steve, his son Virgil, and Paul K. Joyce; some collaborations (most notably with Paul Sutin); and a few chestnuts from the classical repertory (including pieces by Bach, Villa-Lobos, and Vivaldi). Each and every song is rewarding. Incidentally, Steve is one of the few performers from the rock genre who can convincingly cover classical pieces where notable classical guitarists like John Williams or Julian Bream have already set the standard. Steve Howe performing Bach, Villa-Lobos, or Vivaldi should delight anyone with a musical ear, as the selections on this disc demonstrate.

The music on Time seems a hybrid of classical, new age, and cinematic styles. There is a wonderfully but modest and unassuming air about the approach Steve and his collaborators take with this set. The pleasures here are subtle, but also exquisite. Steve Howe not only has a world of sound at his fingertips; he is in touch with a heavenly realm too.

40th Anniversary of Roundabout

The year is 1972. An ominous backward piano chord emanates from the FM radio airwaves. Suddenly, an eerie mood is punctuated by a melancholic classical guitar. A sense of anticipation quickly begins to build. A baroque-sounding guitar fill is leading somewhere . . . A slight pause, then, a hypnotically serpentine bass line kicks the music into high gear. “I’ll be the Roundabout . . . the words will make you out and out.”

Catchy, cryptic, and instantly classic, Roundabout leapt out of the airwaves like panther pouncing on its prey. The instrumentation and arrangement seemed partly classical, but the music really rocked. Natural harmonics, a counterpart chorus coda, newfangled synthesizers, exotic multilayered percussion, and a rock singer who sounded like he belonged in a choir, these were just some of the striking elements that swept listeners off their feet some 40 true summers ago.

“I will remember you. Your silhouette will charge the view of distant atmosphere.” Roundabout dazzled lyrically as well as musically. But most of all, this was music that seemed to paint pictures with sound. Yes – composed from Chris Squire’s volcanic bass, Steve Howe’s angular fretwork, Bill Bruford’s deft percussion, Rick Wakeman’s incredibly florid keyboards, and Jon Anderson’s ethereal vocals -- marked a new development in rock. Yes was a rock band that aimed to have the same aesthetic impact as classical composers and symphony orchestras.

Roundabout conjured up imagery with sound. The tempestuous middle section (“Along the drifting cloud the eagle searching down on the land”) is as intense and imagistic as anything in rock. Chris Squire’s thunderous bass, Rick Wakeman’s lightning fast keyboards, Bill Bruford’s mesmerizing percussion, and Steve Howe’s tightly-coiled guitar work are woven together to create an atmospheric tapestry of sound, which listeners can embroider with their own imaginations.

Roundabout seems tailor-made for imaginative interpretations. Bassist Chris Squire has always been reluctant to discuss the meaning of Roundabout because he believes listeners should approach the song with their own perspectives. To paraphrase the novelist Umberto Eco, art should be inexhaustible. That is, good art, poetry, and music will always yield fresh new interpretations and sources of meaning.

In a recent interview, Anderson and Wakeman relate how they wanted to create music that would be of interest and relevance decades hence. Well, it has been forty years since Roundabout hit the airwaves, but in many ways the song still seems timeless. In fact, the Times of London once wagered that Yes was the one rock band that people would be listening to centuries from now. It’s an astonishing thought, but then phase that began with Roundabout, and which includes Close to the Edge, The Gates of Delirium, and Tales from Topographic Oceans constitutes some pretty astonishing music.

Roundabout and the Uroboros Motif

Yes is a musical supernova. For more than forty years the British progressive rock stars that constitute Yes have brightened the musical horizons with their eclectic compositions. Yes music can be explosive, heavenly, really far-out, but Yes music is also like the North Star which guides wayward travelers home.

Why rhapsodize about Yes music? Compositions like Close to the Edge, Ritual, Machine Messiah, The Gates of Delirium, Fly From Here, and Roundabout are ambitious pieces of music which exhibit “structure and vision” in the words of the philosopher Bill Martin.

Martin was the first philosopher to grapple with Yes music in a serious way. He recognized what many fans intuited; namely, that Yes music deals with some weighty issues, often in a profound way.

Yes’ lyrics are renowned for being cryptic and mystical, which has led many critics to dismiss the band’s work as pretentious and rationally unintelligible. What exactly is a Roundabout, after all?

Anderson has claimed that lyrics to the band’s signature track were inspired by a traffic roundabout he encountered on the way the recording studio. But Jon is too much of a poet for this rather pedestrian interpretation to suffice. As it happens, there is a lot going on in the song to suggest that the term “roundabout” refers to a cosmic process symbolized by the mythical Uroboros, the snake that consumes its own tail.

The Uroboros is one of the most potent images in the mythic imagination. Artwork and jewelry depicting the Uroboros date to earliest antiquity. Descriptions of the Uroboros appear in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Plato’s philosophy, and in the Hindu Upanishads. The Uroboros was a frequently used motif in alchemy; the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung believed the Uroboros symbolically represented the psyche; and the chemist Kekule dreamt of a Uroboros shortly before discovering that the structure of the benzene molecule resembled a snake eating its own tail!

Yes fans, of course, are familiar with the Uroboros motif; Roger Dean’s Yes logo endlessly feeds into itself just as the mythical Uroboros does. You can see this most explicitly with Dean’s Yes logo on the inner booklet on the Fly From Here album, where the Yes logo is depicted as a snake consuming itself. But the motif actually crops up a lot in Yes’ work. For instance, Chris Squire’s phase-delayed bass in Roundabout seems to double back on itself, like a snake eating it own tail. And Roundabout is a song that explicitly comes full circle: the ending recapitulates with the same acoustic guitar motif that began the song.

What is the significance of the Uroboros motif and the song Roundabout? To learn more check out my e-book “Yes and Philosophy: the Spiritual and Philosophical Dimensions of Yes Music.”

The Art of Roger Dean

Roger Dean’s visionary artwork kindles the human spirit. Through his brushstrokes, boulders levitate, dwellings sprout from the earth, and pathways beckon into landscapes where the physical and the spiritual become one.

Roger’s art has a paradoxical affect; it transports us into an imaginative realm but it can also make us feel at home in the physical world we inhabit. Like many Yes fans, I became enchanted by Roger’s work as a teen growing up in the 1970’s. Roger’s fantastical landscapes were the perfect complement to the ethereal soundscapes Yes were creating in their heyday.

Yes is a band that paints pictures with sound, but their music is undoubtedly enhanced by Roger’s often sublimely serendipitous artwork. The music on albums like Fragile, Close to the Edge, Relayer, and Tales from Topographic Oceans can stand alone, but there is no doubt that Roger’s cover art for these albums fuses with the music to create a more total and encompassing aesthetic experience.

There is a timeless quality to Roger’s art, but in many ways his art seems way ahead of our times. The world of Pandora depicted in James Cameron’s sci-fi blockbuster, Avatar, seems like it was lifted directly from Roger’s imagination. The characters on Pandora tame winged dragons, which fly amidst gravity-defying island boulders sprouting trees. Images like these are familiar to Dean’s fans.

The inhabitants of Pandora exhibit a theme which permeates Roger’s artwork: namely, they are a people that live in close harmony with their natural environment. This motif has always made Roger’s artwork very attractive to me. The idea that homes and buildings could be an extension of the environment and blend in with it has always seemed to me an ideal worth realizing. Today, many architects are pursuing something along the lines of Dean’s visionary approach to architecture. For instance, the Metropol Parasol in Seville (Spain) and the Mediatheque Library in Tokyo (Japan) both utilizes tree like patterns to create environments that are as habitable psychologically as they are physically.

Much of modern architecture and our suburban and urban landscapes are alienating. Architects who utilize patterns and motifs from natural phenomenon like trees may be onto something, in so far as they create buildings that remind us of and reconnect us with the natural world. Roger has long voiced his belief that “journeying through a physical landscape can be a spiritual experience.” In a way, I believe that is the goal of art; to fuse the physical and the spiritual.

Roger’s artwork points in the direction of mankind living in harmony with the natural environment. His landscapes invite our imaginations to participate in worlds that are ideal, something more than real, but not quite impossible. Roger’s work is timeless because it can transport us into a future where art and reality become one.