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Dick Heath View Drop Down
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Points: 12818 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 18 2008 at 05:31
Sorry , wrt more additions/thoughts to my original reply, something seems to have  gone loopy with the lay-out above - although it doesn't look too bad.
 
I think  without Alesha & Others, 75  is an incomplete masterpiece. I'm sure the seguing the tunes seemlessly must have taken some post-recording studio time back 1968. That's how its been played on my radio show and sits in my I-Pod.
 
I really like the vocals - the artwork for the cover and poster of the original vinyl release, gives the band a somewhat hermaphroditic look - those vocals too when you have to think: "is this a man or woman doing this", adding a little to the exotic/bizarreness of Touch .
 


Edited by Dick Heath - April 18 2008 at 11:46
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jammun View Drop Down
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Points: 3449 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2008 at 17:31
Let's not forget The New York Rock & Roll Ensemble, which at least had prog aspirations.  I think their first album dates from 1968.  One of the members was Michael Kamen, whose name you might recognize.
 
Another band from 1969, Ford Theatre, also had some prog leanings, though perhaps more Doors influenced.
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Dick Heath View Drop Down
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Points: 12818 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2008 at 11:08
Originally posted by jammun jammun wrote:

Let's not forget The New York Rock & Roll Ensemble, which at least had prog aspirations.  I think their first album dates from 1968.  One of the members was Michael Kamen, whose name you might recognize.
 
Another band from 1969, Ford Theatre, also had some prog leanings, though perhaps more Doors influenced.
 
From www.answers (and enough for me not to order a copy of their first album on Amazon.UK. Does this smack of Ekseption but not mainstream prog rockers? I can think of modern 4 or 5 string quartets who do this sort of thing but probably wouldn't get into PA):
 
An apocryphal tale says Juilliard Music Conservatory-trained musicians Michael Kamen, Marty Fulterman, and Dorian Rudnytsky decided in the late '60s in New York that they could make bigger bucks as rock stars than as classical musicians. The results of this legendary experiment were inconclusive. Forming the New York Rock and Roll Ensemble, they broke with tradition on their first two albums -- 1968's self-titled debut and Faithful Friends the next year -- by using classical music instruments in rock songs and using rock instruments on classical pieces. This fusion, daring at the time, impressed legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein so much that he invited the group to appear at one of his Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. For their third Atco release, Reflections, they collaborated with Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis, best known for scoring music for the movie Never on Sunday. Rhythm guitarist Brian Corrigan departed after the third album, and pedal steel guitar player Hank Devito joined. The band then shortened its name to New York Rock Ensemble and switched to Columbia. Released in 1971, Roll Over was their most overtly rock album to date and their biggest seller, although they fell well short of Led Zeppelin on the Billboard charts. The band dispersed after Freedomburger, although Rudnytsky, Fulterman, and Corrigan had one final shot with Flattering Foe.... Devito surfaced years later as a stalwart player in the bands of Rodney Crowell and Rosanne Cash. Only Kamen fulfilled the original trio's objective of successfully melding classical and pop music to make big bucks. After being music director for David Bowie's Diamond Dogs tour, he went on to a thriving career scoring films. After his score for Brazil gained him wide exposure, he hit the mother lode composing music for the Die Hard and Lethal Weapon series. In 1991, Kamen earned an Academy Award nomination for "(Everything I Do) I Do it for You," the Bryan Adams monster international pop smash hit from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Kamen has also worked with Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, Liona Boyd, Sting, Rod Stewart, Metallica, Kate Bush, Belinda Carlisle, the Chieftains, the Cranberries, Roger Daltrey, Eurythmics, John Mellencamp, Jim Croce, and many others. ~ Mark Allan, All Music Guide
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jammun View Drop Down
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Points: 3449 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 28 2008 at 21:17
Originally posted by Dick Heath Dick Heath wrote:

Originally posted by jammun jammun wrote:

Let's not forget The New York Rock & Roll Ensemble, which at least had prog aspirations.  I think their first album dates from 1968.  One of the members was Michael Kamen, whose name you might recognize.
 
Another band from 1969, Ford Theatre, also had some prog leanings, though perhaps more Doors influenced.
 
From www.answers (and enough for me not to order a copy of their first album on Amazon.UK. Does this smack of Ekseption but not mainstream prog rockers? I can think of modern 4 or 5 string quartets who do this sort of thing but probably wouldn't get into PA):
 
An apocryphal tale says Juilliard Music Conservatory-trained musicians Michael Kamen, Marty Fulterman, and Dorian Rudnytsky decided in the late '60s in New York that they could make bigger bucks as rock stars than as classical musicians. The results of this legendary experiment were inconclusive. Forming the New York Rock and Roll Ensemble, they broke with tradition on their first two albums -- 1968's self-titled debut and Faithful Friends the next year -- by using classical music instruments in rock songs and using rock instruments on classical pieces. This fusion, daring at the time, impressed legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein so much that he invited the group to appear at one of his Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. For their third Atco release, Reflections, they collaborated with Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis, best known for scoring music for the movie Never on Sunday. Rhythm guitarist Brian Corrigan departed after the third album, and pedal steel guitar player Hank Devito joined. The band then shortened its name to New York Rock Ensemble and switched to Columbia. Released in 1971, Roll Over was their most overtly rock album to date and their biggest seller, although they fell well short of Led Zeppelin on the Billboard charts. The band dispersed after Freedomburger, although Rudnytsky, Fulterman, and Corrigan had one final shot with Flattering Foe.... Devito surfaced years later as a stalwart player in the bands of Rodney Crowell and Rosanne Cash. Only Kamen fulfilled the original trio's objective of successfully melding classical and pop music to make big bucks. After being music director for David Bowie's Diamond Dogs tour, he went on to a thriving career scoring films. After his score for Brazil gained him wide exposure, he hit the mother lode composing music for the Die Hard and Lethal Weapon series. In 1991, Kamen earned an Academy Award nomination for "(Everything I Do) I Do it for You," the Bryan Adams monster international pop smash hit from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Kamen has also worked with Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, Liona Boyd, Sting, Rod Stewart, Metallica, Kate Bush, Belinda Carlisle, the Chieftains, the Cranberries, Roger Daltrey, Eurythmics, John Mellencamp, Jim Croce, and many others. ~ Mark Allan, All Music Guide
 
I haven't heard that first New York Rock album forever, so I can't say just how prog it was (or not).   Whatever, that approach did not pay off for them, as Roll Over is just straight-ahead rock & roll. 
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Jim Irving View Drop Down
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Points: 1 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 21 2008 at 14:17

Roll Over is usually the only New York Rock *and Roll) Ensemble album people have heard, and I agree it's a straight-ahead rock effort. (A very good one, IMHO, but it was also the first rock album I ever bought, on vinyl. I also saw them live at a college concert. Fond memories.) But their first and second were more proto-prog. They did some interesting blends of classical instrumentation and themes with rock elements, particularly on the first two albums. Faithful Friends' "Brandenburg" is the best example; they had done some shows with Leonard Bernstein and the NY Philharmonic, and this one sounds like it was written as a set-ender for a band-orchestra concert.

The third album "Reflections" was a very odd collaboration with Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis of "Never On Sunday" fame. I don't have that one any more but have al their others.

I proposed NYR(&R)E for addition as Proto-Prog some time ago, but I'm a lurker not a poster and don't have much cred here. FWIW, here's the (somewhat over-the-top) description I proposed:

"Between the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper" in '67 and the emergence of Yes in '69, there was a mini-movement to incorporate classical musical forms and instruments into rock, and vice versa. This had some snob appeal and was widely touted by critics at the time; viewed from another angle, the budding "classical rock" genre (later coopted as moldy "classic rock") was an early foray into prog. THE NEW YORK ROCK AND ROLL ENSEMBLE was formed by Julliard students Michael Kamen, Martin Fulterman, and Dorian Rudnytsky and rock musicians Clif Nivison and Brian Corrigan in 1967. The band's eponymous debut, released on Arco in 1968, included a tight segue from a trio chamber piece on oboe and cello into the poppy rock piece "She's Gone" and the extended-form "The Seasons" that went from a change-time medieval dance passage to an atmospheric organ image of winter. "Faithful Friends", released in 1969, boasted the group's take on the Brandenburg Concerto, which the group performed with Leonard Bernstein and the NY Philharmonic and in TV appearances. The tangential "Reflections", a collaboration with Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis, was next in 1970. After a film appearance in "Zachariah", the band shed rhythm guitarist Corrigan, shortened their name to THE NEW YORK ROCK ENSEMBLE, and released their best-charting album "Roll Over" in 1971. The classical influences had retreated behind the album cover's tough-guy rocker image, but 3-on-2 tempos, orchestral fillips, oboes, cello, and Hank DeVito's pedal steel enlivened a tight, fun rock-and-roll set. The group called it quits after 1972's tired-sounding "Freedomburger"."
Jim
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