PETER AND THE WOLF

Brand X, meets Eno, Keith Tippett, Chris Spedding, and that guy who joined up with Jethro Tull's first guitarist (Jack Lancaster, in Bloodwyn Pig)? Ok, but French Jazz violist extraordinaire, Stephan Grappelli??? Bill Bruford's here, too. This must be one of my weird progressive music dreams. Maybe you've had them. You go into a record store you've never been to before, you start browsing, and you find a bunch of stuff you never knew existed. This album actually predates Brand X by one year, but all the original suspects are here, Robin Lumley, John Goodsall, Percy Jones, Phil Collins. If I'm leaving any of the other musicians here out, it's only for out of lack of personal familarity.

Lancaster has apparently started his own independent label called Verdant Records. This one and Marscape are available in CD-R format.

I have to confess I am not as familiar with the original Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev, these days but I do remember it vaguely from my childhood. I can't comment on this interpretation compared to the original classical piece, but I can certainly attest to high progressive level of the music. The Grappelli/Brand Xian jam, Cat & Duck is simply amazing. Haven't hear Grappelli rock like this since Jazz Violin Summit with Jean-Luc Ponty.

This one's not quite as good as the other Lancaster/Lumley album (that I know of), Marscape, which came out the same year as Unorthodox Behaviour (1976). I'll have to shave off a fraction of a star less than half for the track and round the 3.5, Rock & Roll Celebration (reminds me of Spock's Beard's Running Up That Hill, for better or worse). It doesn't fit well with the rest of music. I was ten years old when this came out, but heard it for the first time recently. I'm a huge fan of Marscape, which has been in my collection for many years. Not entirely clear if this one was intended for adults, but if you have young kids, this might help you to get them hooked on prog.