Spectrum of Mine

Brother of Mine

This is an important song from my youth. Were it possible, I'd have worn out several copies of the Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe CD in the same way people used to go through old LPs. Among the many excellent songs on that album, this one stood out to me at the time. I guess I can't really say why, whether it was the arrangement, the surprisingly coherent and optimistic lyrics, or something else entirely. Listening to it now, Bruford's percussion defines a great deal of the mood of the song for me, along with the characteristic "Yes" keyboard and guitar runs from Wakeman and Howe. For whatever reason, this song connected emotively to my teenage naivete. I suppose it still does.


Via the Spectrum Road

I have the excellent Saudades from Trio Beyond, the tribute band for The Tony Williams Lifetime. I figured I owed it to myself to check out the original thing, so I picked up a copy of Emergency! when visiting the Jazz Record Mart in Chicago last week. I am surprised to find the album not nearly so listenable as Saudades. I've selected a track I find particularly distasteful, largely because of the tired and lethargic sounding vocals. The track has no energy, and what little may be in the process of developing is crushed by the dead vocal lines, which is a problem on more than one track on this album. This CD may have to grow on me, I'm not sure, but the first two listens have not turned out as well as I expected.