REFUGEE

Why Patrick Moraz left this band? Maybe the money and fame that YES offered to him were very good to not be taken as very good opportunities. But I think that as a musician he really didn`t need to join YES. In this album, he shines as a very good keyboards player, composer and arranger. In my opinion, he is the main musician in this album, and his talent is very well exposed. This is a very good album that maybe the then remaining members of YES (and /or their manager) listened to it very well, and after Rick Wakeman left them months before, it was really obvious that Moraz`talent was the one they needed to continue playing and recording together. One of the things that I don`t like from YES was the way (as told by Moraz himself in interviews for the "Notes from the Edge" website; look for them if you want to read them in www.yesworld.com ) fired him in 1976, just before the recording of the "Going for the One" album. Moraz said that when he was fired, the band owed to him a lot of money from their last tour, and that he was "left in the cold" with his wife and a son. I don`t know if YES finally paid to him that money, but that band is well known for not treat some of the members they fire in the right way.

The other members of REFUGEE were former members of THE NICE: drummer Brian Davison and bassist / lead singer Lee Jackson, both very good musicians. Paricularly, Davison is a very good drummer, and Jackson has been criticized a lot as not a good lead singer, but, to be honest, I still have not listened to THE NICE`s music, believe or not, and after reading several reviews about his voice I really expected him to be a very bad lead singer, but I don`t think so. His voice sounds "raw" sometimes, but his style of singing is very personal, and as bassist he also is good.

The best songs in this album are "Credo" and "Grand Canyon", on which all members play very well, and Moraz also plays a bit of Church Organ on "Credo". "Papillon" is also ver good, with very good keyboards and drums. "Someday" sounds a bit like an Hymn, similar a bit to ELP`s recording of "Jersualem". "Ritt Mickley" is an instrumental piece full of Jazz-Rock influences a la RETURN TO FOREVER. In this album, I found some of Moraz`s influence to YES` sound, like his very personal synthesizer solos similar to the solos he played in the "Relayer" album, particularly in the song "Sound Chaser". He even uses a clavinet in "Ritt Mickley" making it sound like in STEVIE WONDER`s "Superstition" song!

I think that Moraz`s departure from REFUGEE to join YES "sabotaged" future projects of this very good band. I also know that in THE MOODY BLUES he also wasn`t treated in the right way. In fact, he never was an official member of that band, and he left that band or was fired in 1991, also in not very good terms. I think that he really didn`t deserve to be treated that way. But he also has said in interviews that he still has good memories of the time he was playing with YES and THE MOODY BLUES. But I don`t know if he considered REFUGEE as a "one-off album" band.

This is a very recommendable (and maybe forgotten or underrated) Progressive Rock album done by a very good band which only lasted for a brief time (I think that it only lasted for one year).

During his time with YES, Moraz included in his "Patrick Moraz`solo" during their tours parts of "Papillion" and "Grand Canyon". These can be seen and heard in YES` video from their 1975 concert called "Live at Q.R.P.".