ELASTIC ROCK

Trumpeter Ian Carr assembled a fine cast for his jazz rock adventure Nucleus. With a fine array of talented and established British musicians which included oboe player Karl Jenkins, guitar player Chris Speding, bassist Jeff Clyne, drummer John Marshall and saxophone player Brian Smith, Nucleus made a fine piece of cool jazz rock with their debut album Elastic Rock. The future Soft Machine leader Jenkins takes control of much of the compositions on the album but between long breaks Carr himslelf produces some stunning lines on his trumpet, long flowing pieces move throughout which often traded with Jenkins' oboe and keyboard and are punctuated by the flurried guitar parts of Spedding. Though the album has the odd piece which would bring to mind Miles Davis In A Silent Way, Carr claimed to have not heard the album at this point in time though the albums were very near each other in terms of recording, but there are a few hints of what Davis laid down on the Miles In The Sky album. Though Carr has his influence coming from Davis Elastic Rock takes on its own life and runs the roost of British jazz with the smooth lulle of "Striation" and the late night laid back vibe of "Taranaki" where Clyne makes a big impression albeit in a minimalistic method, "Taranaki" breezes along sweetly before melting into "Twisted Track" which, like much of the pieces on the album, is built on rock rhythms. Carr again takes control of the tune with his playing, doubled with some muted trumpet mid way through. For those who are associated with latter day Soft Machine it would be interesting to hear this first Nucleus effort, Jenkins stretches himself over much of the music where he sounded restricted with the Soft Machine, his obeo on the baroque like "Crude Blues pt 1" and the obviously bluesy "Crude Blues pt 2" is very much on a par with his work on Soft Machine's Seven album. Elastic Rock is a cool album with a title that is so very apt. It stretches and expands and is heavily built on a rock foundation, a great piece of early British jazz rock.