JADE WARRIOR

It's interesting to read the variety of opinions about the first Jade Warrior album and Jade Warrior as a band. I often think that people who describe albums such as this one are a bit impatient. What was so special about Jade Warrior is the elemental mix of Tony Duhig's uniques acoustic and electric guitar contributions which are always heavily influenced by BOTH oriental AND rock music. Jon Field's contribution are fantastic flute playing and (a very big part of the Jade Warrior sound) hand drums and tradtional percussion. On the first three albums (all classics) they were joined by Glyn Harvard on vocals and bass (ocassional acoustic guitar). Harvard's voice and his lyrics are essential to Jade Warrior. The combination of these 3 talents created something truly magical.

I understand what the others say about this album sounding disjointed: that's how it first seemed to me. Seemed like if they got a nice mellow groove going the next thing you knew there would be a disturbingly loud intrusion of hand drums that would spoil it. Now, it just seems to me that these are transitions between songs. If you can image the above 3 friends gathering for a loose Sunday afternoon jam session with some rock and rock influence thrown in, well you would have this album. Some soft songs, the rock stuff is a little bit over the top and raw, but there is a really nice flow to the album in general.

Go listen to some samples of this album, then buy it. You might start with any of the first 3 albums, they are all a bit different, but basically cut from the same stone so to speak. I still like Released the best of these three (contains Three Horned Dragon King, Bride of Summer, Water Curtain Cave, and Yellow Eyes which are in my opinion about the best stuff from the first 3 albums), probably followed by Last Autumn's Dream (the most consistent of the 3 and with an awesome Side 2).

The stuff on Island Records (the next 4 Jade Warrior releases) is Field and Duhig taking their musicianship and composition skills to an incredibly high level. They keep the Oriental groove, but Way of the Sun is purely South American and they handle the switch nicely. Waves and Way of the Sun (especially the latter) are virtuousic masterpieces. Way of the Sun displays such musical intelligence it just amazes me, but again if you aren't really focused on the fine points you can miss the whole thing.

So if you are thinking about jumping on the Jade Warrior bandwagon...I encourage you. You are in for hours of listening pleasure.