ROUND SEVEN

So thankful that I own two of this band's three studio albums plus their first two live records. The hardest part when talking about this band is not dwelling on each member's past. I mean talking about my favourite albums these musicians are on and so forth. So much talent from all over the world. I entered into this their final studio album with some caution as it had been 10 years since they started doing this and it's 1987 so yes I could see the quality slipping or at least the passion and inspiration of playing with these ultra talented colleagues being taken for granted. Thankfully my fears were unwarranted here. I mean talk about professionals.

Going into the music of this rather large group of musicians back in the day I was excited to see Ian Carr of NUCLEUS the most, just a huge fan of his trumpet playing and of his band NUCLEUS. Of course this project being based in Germany I was also excited to see Wolfgang Dauner and Eberhard Weber giving is a Krautrock perpective but also these Jazz greats like Volker Kreigel on guitar and of course the horn players. And speaking of horn players my biggest discovery through this project might be the trombone player Albert Mangelsdorff. In fact I remember hearing him on the song "Raga Yagapriya" here and shouting Mangelsdorff! about 6 1/2 minutes in. Such a unique style of playing. And his song "Raving Raven" the closer is my favourite on here. Such a cool tune starting out as the most jazziest track on here but it's that calm and how they come out of it that blew me away. The other musician that has so impressed me is Charlie Mariano. His composing skills and his playing on that Indian instrument called a Nagasvaram is incredible. I mean he plays soprano sax a lot and other saxes but he really brings a ethnic vibe to the proceedings with that Indian horn. So that song I mentioned earlier "Raga Yagapriya" is where Charlie struts his Indian stuff. Great track and a top three with Mangelsdorff's closer and tough to pick that third track but I think Weber's "Seriously Deep" tune will be that third top three number.

Almost forgot to mention that the opener which is divided into three parts and was written by Wolfgang Dauner and it features his son Florian playing drums on that third section called "African Dance" with his heavy style here. This would be the first album Florian would play on. I think it was 5 years after this before he was back on another album but man he has carved a career for himself commercially playing with many popular bands on the World's biggest stages. So cool to hear him here first. Still I'm glad that Jon Hiseman is the main drummer because he is a beast. Love his work.

Another solid 4 star album from this rather large ensemble.