KEITH EMERSON BAND FEATURING MARC BONILLA

After his last performance with ELP (the disappointing "In the hot seat") and a good solo album ("Emerson plays Emerson"), Mr Keith Emerson has come back here with his interesting duo, featuring M. Bonilla once again...well this latter vocalist is a good singer and it seems He's perfectly fitted into the AOR style! Well talking about the first suite- entitled "The House Of Ocean Born Mary"- it's not certainly equal to "Pirates" from "Works- vol 1" and sometimes is enriched by means of some interesting epic numbers, being the best tune here... the other songs are uneven and sometimes quite stupid (listen -for example- to his "honky-tonk" piano style within "Gametime"); instead "Falling Down" is a commercial song, which is not inspiring and quite disappointing too; and moreover the other two tracks, such as "Malambo from Estancia Suite" taken from a composition by Alberto Ginastera and the final tune "The Parting " are not mixed in a good manner, even though this latter song is useful to conclude the album by means of an intelligent and quite powerful ballad at the piano; and otherwise the performance by Emerson is always elegant in the album, all along its length, despite of a few stupid moments.

At the end his work here is not as good as the best albums by ELP, but you can find some interesting breaks-through inside, also thanks to the remarkable performance at the guitar by Bonilla...make your own choice, as usual!!