BACK DOOR

UK Jazz-Rock trio, formed in 1971 in North Yorkshire by bassist Colin Hodgkinson and keyboardist/flute-sax player Ron Aspery, who both have been known each other since playing in Eric Delaney's Showband.Third member was drummer Tony Hicks.Hard to find any record labels interested, the trio recorded and mixed their 14-track self-titled debut alone, eventually about 1000 copies were preseed by RCA, distributed around the local area.

These jazz buddies were definitely talented back in 1972, when the album was published.Lots of improvisational parts with good performances, divided into 14 very short Jazz-Rock tunes.Especially the performance of Hodgkinson on electric bass is at moments really intricate.Aspery performs mostly with his sax, a mix of melodic parts and hardcore jazzy abstract playing.A few tracks though include some very mellow flute passages with an evident folkish vibe.Other times the sound closes to Brass Rock, when Aspery decided to deliver series of delicate sax tunes.However the problem of being a trio reflects on their music.The sound is very dry and dated at times and compared to multi-membered Jazz/Fusion acts of the time with a much more diverse sound Back Door seems to lose by a mile.And while the individual performances seem to be decent enough, the whole mix of the trio is not always conveincing.Additionally the majority of tracks relies heavily on the bass/sax/drums combination, making the album rather one-dimensional.

I think the music of Back Door on their debut would have been fun to watch live and even the album might have been a good entry back in early-70's, but today it sounds quite sterile and monotonous.Even so, Jazz-Rock fanatics will find a good dose of enjoyment on this one but they will be propably the only ones to fully appreciate it.