At first glance, there were several jazz-rock ensembles like NUCLEUS in England back in the ’70s; but then, there weren’t, and NUCLEUS, led by trumpeter Ian Carr, seemed to be one of the most intrepid fusion collectives ever. And if there’s a single point to see this, it would be the band’s concert album from 1976 – first released three decades down the line from the time the group’s performance had been preserved for posterity, and now ready to appear reissued in a newly remastered form.
It would seem easy to assume that for Rick Wakeman conceptual ideas come with the territory if all his works were as earthbound as a certain dilogy was, yet, fortunately, they’re not. With the ivories wizard’s link to other part of the Solar System initiated when he laid memorable parts for “Space Oddity” and “Life On Mars” more than five decades ago, fans still felt pleasantly surprised by the veteran’s delivery of "The Red Planet" in 2020 – and they should be more surprised by its sequel, which will see the light of day on October 16th.
It might sound stupid to call a guitar solo iconic – but how else could one describe the series of Jim Cregan acoustic vignettes on “Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)” by COCKNEY REBEL, one of many classics by quite a few bands the British guitarist was part of, including also FAMILY and BLOSSOM TOES – and one must not forget his long stint as a sidekick to Rod Stewart. The veteran’s not been as prolific on a solo, or quasi-solo, front, however, with CREGAN & CO.’s discography numbering only one studio platter, “Spreading Rumours” from 2021, yet now there’s a new collective he’s leading, JIM CREGAN & THE NEW ACOUSTIC BAND, and a new record in the pipeline.
Blues can assume many forms and accept many arrangements, but they don’t get applied too naturally to symphonic sway – or so it seemed until Warren Haynes took to the stage of the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium on his hometurf in Asheville, North Carolina, on March 17th, 2019 accompanied by a local orchestra. He would reprise this experience further on down the road too, yet that concert still stands out for the veteran, which was why he decided to issue the show’s recording as a live album.
Despite having quite a few outstanding albums, STRAWBS were very much aware, when they wrapped up the recording of their 1972 work, that “Grave New World” would be special, as proven by the film the ensemble created to accompany this platter. Which is why when the veterans celebrated the band’s semicentennial anniversary back in 2019, they made the first-ever concert delivery of the classic in its entirety a central event of the weekend of April 26th to 28th spent in Strand Theater in Lakewood, NJ, where the Brits played many of fans’ favorites, most notably on the 27th, when they performed a sort of three sets. And now one of those is prepared for release on October 9th as an initial offering from the jubilee tour.
