IAN CARR'S NUCLEUS: ROOTS

Finding enough superlatives to describe the music of Nucleus has become a real problem for this writer, and 'Roots', the groups fifth studio album, continues the trend. Issued on the Vertigo label during 1973, 'Roots' had some tough acts to live up to, namely Nucleus' ground-breaking debut 'Elastic Rock'(1970), the incendiary complexity of sophomore release 'We'll Talk About It Later'(1971) and the fiery fusion of the same year's 'Solar Plexus'. And this wasn't even the first Nucleus album of 1973, the group had already issued the funky 'Labyrinth' earlier in the year, yet it maintained the high standards set by the first three Nucleus albums and even helped the Ian Carr-led outfit develop their sound further, as they gradually headed into faster and more fluid areas of jazz-rock. Simply put then, 'Roots' really is a fine album. Those who have taken an interest in both Ian Carr and Nucleus will know that this was a group with a high membership turnover, and the revolving door policy partly explains the high quality of the music on offer. With so many great musicians playing alongside Carr over the years, its no surprise to find that each Nucleus album has it's own significant character, it's own quirks, styles and it's very own sound. For 'Roots', Carr was augmented by the likes of Brian Smith(sax, flute), Dave MacRae(piano), Roger Sutton(bass) and Clive Thacker(drums), none of whom featured on 'Elastic Rock', and with only Smith, MacRae and Thacker retained from previous release 'Labyrinth'. Vocalist Joy Yates, guitarist Jocelyn Pitchen and Brazillian percussionist Aureo Da Souza also feature, and the overall line-up lends 'Roots' a deep percussive groove which in turn provides the perfect foundation for the fiendishly complex rhythmic zig-zags cooked up by the ensemble players. This makes for a strangely hypnotic quality throughout, and the album's stand-out cuts, which includes the opening title-track and the excellent seven-minute 'Southern Roots & Celebration', rank alongside some of the finest Nucleus material of the decade. Of course, the key is Carr himself, a band-leader/trumpeter with exceptional organisational ability who seems blessed with an ability to get the best out of the musicians around him. An elegant and gutsy jazz-rock album, 'Roots' is yet another chapter in the exciting story of Nucleus and Ian Carr, and just like it's predecessors, comes highly recommended to all fusion freaks. Excellent. STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2013