STAIRWAY TO ESCHER

Born out of the ashes of Buon Vecchio Charlie, this Italian Jazz Rock combo was equal unlucky at its precursor, not having the chance to come up with a proper recording during its brief career.Three member of Buon Vecchio Charlie participate on Bauhaus, guitarist Luigi Calabro, bassist Paolo Damiani and drummer Rino Sangiorgio along with sax player Claudio Giusti and keyboardist Alberto Festa.Bauhaus performed at the Villa Pamphili festival in Rome in 1974, where they won the Best Italian Band prize and their only documents come from a live session at the Festa Garage Studios around the same time.However these recordings would only see the light some 30 years later as a posthumous album, released on Akarma under the title ''Stairway to Escher''.

Buon Vecchio Charlie had their jazzy moments as well, but the new step on this early Italian Prog group's members was definitely in a much jazzier vein, extremely close to compatriots PERIGEO, who were quite succesful at the time, with loose arrangements, rich solos and a sense of freedom among their musical ideas.Slight WEATHER REPORT and RETURN TO FOREVER inspirations are also present throughout the listening.The seven pieces follow the vein of electric Jazz Rock with extended jamming parts and alternating climates, starting from mellow sax-based intros and ending in a fiery Jazz Rock attitude with pounding bass and drum parts, very sharp electric guitars and ethereal electric piano lines.Lots of inventive sax leads, some nice interplays and of course tons of individual jazzy solos are present as well.The tracks contain very dense instrumental music with little space for breathing and often an abstract, quirky style with constantly shifting performances.The result is pretty good with some of Calabro's guitar moves being absolutely fascinating, while Festa's dreamy electric piano is propably the main reason of the CHICK KOREA-related similarities.

Akarma reissued the album in vinyl for die-hard fans of collectable issues and any fan of PERIGEO, dense electric Fusion and sax-fronted Jazz Rock should be a proud owner of this album.Warmly recommended.