GO LIVE FROM PARIS

The first time I heard something about this musical project was in 1976 in a radio station in my country. When I listened to it, for the first time, I must confess that I was very impressed with it. It seemed to me that it was a very different musical proposal. So, soon I tried to buy their first album 'Go', but unfortunately, I couldn't find it. It was only some years ago that I returned to search for it. After some difficulty, I had the luck of buying an expensive Japanese edition.

The Go Project was a very ambitious and innovative musical project, lead by an extraordinary Japanese percussionist, keyboardist and composer Stomu Yamash'ta, which finally brought for him, the international recognition that he so deserved. He had already released, until that date, six solo studio albums. The Go Project consists in three albums, two studio albums 'Go' and 'Go Too' released in 1976 and 1977 respectively and this live album 'Go Live From Paris' which was also released in 1976.

Stomu Yamash'ta was born in Kyoto, Japan and he studied music at Kyoto University in Japan, at Juilliard School of Music in New York City and at Berkeley College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and has also lectured in music. He was the director, producer and composer of the Red Buddha Theatre Company, and in 1972 he brought the Company from Japan to Europe. He worked briefly in France, writing and performing on theatrical multi-media projects, before moving to England. It was from England where he met so many artists and musicians, that he had the idea of creating this so ambitious musical project.

Beyond Stomu Yamash'ta, there are some other musicians in this project that deserve to be mentioned. Steve Winwood is a famous English singer, songwriter and a multi-instrumentalist that was member of The Spencer Davis Group, Traffic and Blind Faith, apart from his brilliant solo musical career. Michael Shrieve is an American drummer and percussionist that is best known as the Santana's first drummer. Klaus Schulze is a musical composer and a pioneer musician of the German electronic music who briefly was a member of Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel, and he has also a long and very solid solo musical career. Al Di Meola is an American guitarist with a long musical career and is one of the best and the most influential guitarists in the jazz fusion category, who collaborates frequently with other great musicians like Jean-Luc Ponty, John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia.

'Go Live From Paris' was the second album to be released of Stomu Yamash'ta's project and was recorded live on 12th June 1976 at the Palais Des Sports in Paris, France. As with its studio version 'Go', this live version has also fourteen tracks and all the tracks flow together as a continuous piece of music. So, there's not much in the way of additional material, aside from the greatly extended 'Man Of Leo' which has lashings of superb guitar from Di Meola, and some slightly elongated bridges between the different themes. The whole double album is only a little over 20 minutes longer than the original album. The performances are remarkable though, as you might expect from these players, with one or two tracks perhaps even bettering their studio counterparts, and it does make for an interesting alternative to the studio album for fanatics like me. The recording quality is excellent, unlike some vintage live albums, but I'm sure that some of you won't see the need to have both, the live and the studio albums. However, 'Go Live From Paris' is, in my humble opinion, a more balanced album. I don't know sincerely if the main reason is because the alignment of the songs was totally changed, but the final result is that this new live version turned it in a better album.

Conclusion: 'Go Live From Paris' is a fantastic and beautiful live album, which isn't inferior to the most of the live albums released in the 70's. Especially, the second part of the album is truly remarkable and unforgettable, mainly because the great show of guitar of Di Meola on 'Crossing The Line' and also because 'Man Of Leo', which is, to my taste, the highest point on the album. The music doesn't lose a bit of its atmosphere in this setting, but it does naturally sound a bit earthier, especially the guitar sound. It's really fascinating listen to these extraordinary but at the same time so different musicians, working so well together. But nevertheless and unfortunately, we are in presence of an underrated project on Progarchives. 'Go Live From Paris' is one of the best live albums of the progressive music and is perhaps one of the less known. It's a pity that an album with so incredible musical moments and so finest playing being almost forgotten, as well this fantastic super group. Anyway, the true is that we are in presence of a lost gem that urgently needs to be discovered and appreciated as it really deserves. This new Yamash'ta's live seminal concept opus is more than sufficient to make me feel that this is really very well spent money for who want to buy it.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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