THE BEST OF JON & VANGELIS

"The Best Of Jon & Vangelis" is the debut compilation album of Jon & Vangelis and was released in 1984. As we know, Jon & Vangelis was a musical project between the front man and the founder member of Yes, Jon Anderson and the ex-member of Aphrodite's Child, Vangelis Papathanassiou, in the 80's. They had already collaborated with Anderson's vocals on Vangelis "Heaven And Hell", harp on "Opera Sauvage" and vocals on "See You Later". This compilation has songs from Jon & Vangelis first three albums, "Short Stories", "The Friends Of Mr. Cairo" and "Private Collection".

As we all know, Jon Anderson left Yes in 1979 and was absent of the band between 1979 and 1983. During this hiatus of time, the musical collaboration between him and Vangelis reached its maximum peak. Both recorded together three studio albums between 1980 and 1983, "Short Stories" released in 1980, "The Friends Of Mr. Cairo" released in 1981 and "Private Collection" released in 1983. In 1991 the duo released another third and last studio album, "Page Of Life".

"The Best Of Jon & Vangelis" has nine tracks. The first track "Italian Song" is a song originally released on their third studio album "Private Collection". "Italian Song" is a beautiful and celestial song, and represents an absolutely perfect and majestic combination, between Jon Anderson's magical voice and the beautiful and floating Vangelis' keyboard sound. This is really a good and relaxing song. The second track "I'll Find My Way Home" is a song originally released on their second studio album "The Friends Of Mr. Cairo". "I'll Find My Way Home" is clearly a commercial song, but however, it's a great song, melodic and beautiful and it has also fantastic musical performances by both artists. This is, in my opinion, one of the highest points on "The Friends Of Mr. Cairo". The third track "State Of Independence" is also a song originally released on their second studio album "The Friends Of Mr. Cairo". "State Of Independence" contains good digital rhythms and percussions and a nice saxophone work. It's a song influenced by the World Music and has a nice but short jazz rhythm introduction. The song ends to be a little bit repetitive and vulgar and it hasn't anything more than that to show to us. The song on this compilation is the single edited version. The fourth track "One More Time" is a song originally released on their debut studio album "Short Stories". "One More Time" is a simple song with beautiful and charming atmosphere created by Jon Anderson's voice. It's the type of the song that in the future would be adopted by the duo. The fifth track "A Play Within A Play" is also a song originally released on their debut studio album "Short Stories". "A Play Within A Play" is a sublime and dreamy song that represents with "Curious Electric" and "Far Away In Baagad" the three highest moments on "Short Stories". It's a song that starts slowly, it grows until reaches the climax and in the end it returns and dissipate slowly again. The sixth track "The Friends Of Mr. Cairo" is the title track song that was originally released on their second studio album "The Friends Of Mr. Cairo". "The Friends Of Mr. Cairo" represents a great moment on "The Friends Of Mr. Cairo". It's a funny and fine piece of music too, worthy of being part of a soundtrack for a "B" class American film noir of the 30's and 40's. Despite be a commercial song and surely isn't a masterpiece, it has enough to can be considered a good musical piece. The seventh track "Outside Of This (Inside Of That)" is also another song originally released on their second studio album "The Friends Of Mr. Cairo". "Outside Of This (Inside Of That)" has soft vocals and calm music. It's a bit repetitive and vulgar song that doesn't represents one the best moments on "The Friends Of Mr. Cairo". The eighth track "He Is Sailing" is also a song originally released on their third studio album "Private Collection". "He Is Sailing" is a good song with good rhythm, more in the vein of their album "Short Stories". Here we can see some effort and some complexity on the structure of the composition of this song, made by Vangelis. The song on this compilation album it's the single edited version. The ninth and last track "I Hear You Now" is also another song originally released on their debut studio album "Short Stories". "I Hear You Now" is a love song, beautiful and melodic and it's also delicate and vibrant at the same time. This is a song that represents the perfect harmony between the two musicians which is, in my point of view, the main hallmark of all "Short Stories".

Conclusion: "The Best Of Jon & Vangelis" is a good compilation album with songs from their three albums released in the 80's. It's representative enough with three songs from "Short Stories", four songs from "The Friends Of Mr. Cairo" and two songs from "Private Collection". About those albums, "Short Stories" is definitely in another dimension. While "The Friends Of Mr. Cairo" and "Private Collection" are two albums with some nice and fine moments with few great moments. But, with "Short Stories" it's another story. "Short Stories" is the only album where the communion between the incredible voice of Jon Anderson and the beautiful music of Vangelis is almost perfect. So, returning to "The Best Of Jon & Vangelis", I can say that it's a nice introduction for those who aren't familiar with Jon & Vangelis music. However, I really think that their second compilation album "Chronicles" is better and more complete than this one is.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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