THIRD

I've read several reviews that underrate this album generally considered "historical". I'm not surprised of that. "Third" is not an easy record. It requires years of training before one guy would have the listening skills to enjoy it. Let me make an example: take whatever easy-listener you know and put in his/her ears "Bitches Brew". The kindest thing you can hear from him/her will be that it is a inconsistent soup of stuff unworthy to be called "music". I love "Third", especially the underrated Mike Ratledge's "Slightly All the Time" that I personally consider one of the highest peaks of the so-called "Canterbury Sound". Generally, of the four tracks people praise only Robert Wyatt's "Moon in June", the prototype of the second generation of Canterbury Sound, that of Hatfield and the North, National Health and other less known bands. It's not my case, though I like very much Wyatt. I tell you a bit of my life. When I was fifteen I buyed "Ummagumma", convinced to have in my hands a record like "Dark Side" or "Wish You Were Here". The shock was great. The same was the first time I listened to "Third". Years passed, I began to appreciate jazz, firstly Bird & Dizzy, after Monk, Mingus, Davis and so on, till I arrived to John Coltrane. After that, I had the occasion to approach again "Third" (and "Fourth" "Six"...). And "Third" was so clear to me, so understandable, that even I thought it was "easy". Almost ten years of listening and music training passed between the first time I listen terrified to "Third" and the time I enthusiastically bought the CD.