While it's called The Montreux Jazz Festival, it's always made clear from the very beginning that it's always been more than just jazz.
The 21st-century incarnation of Tull which, along with Barre, includes keyboardist Andrew Giddings, bassist Jonathan Noyce and drummer Doane Perry, is as flexible as any that's come before. Whether it's the elegant folksiness of "Life is a Long Song", the strange amalgam of "Fat Man", with Anderson on bouzouki, the pumping blues of "Some Day the Sun Won't Shine For You", on which Anderson proves he's still got his harmonica chops from This Was, or the more progressive leanings of "Hunting Girl", from "Songs from the Wood" album, Anderson's choice of younger band mates has clearly been influenced by a need for perhaps the most stylistically diverse version of Tull to date.
There are some welcome surprises. Tull pulls out "With You There to Help Me", from the largely overlooked Benefit, and it's both reverential and contemporary, with Anderson's flute soaring. His voice may have suffered from the ravages of time, but his flute playing clearly hasn't.
While the band says the first half of the show as acoustic, the second electric, it's not quite that clearly delineated. There's nothing acoustic about "Hunting Girl", which sits firmly between two instrumentals—Barre's Django Reinhardt-esque "Empty Café" and the buoyant and slightly Spanish "Eurology" from Rupi's Dance, which features Giddings' accordion alongside Anderson's lithe flute.
But the second half of the show is decidedly heavier, and also features more extended tunes, with the three Aqualung tracks and the episodic "Budapest", from the "Crest of a Knave" album, all turning up the heat. Whatever deficiencies might be there in Anderson's voice are made up for by the energy of his presence, his untarnished instrumental skills and the clean strength of the group. Barre has always managed to play a kind of intelligent metal when he kicks in the heavy distortion, and he remains a distinguishing asset to the band.
The album is testament to a group that, while having to adapt to a number of changes over the years, is still capable of putting on a fine show. Its glory days of releasing classic albums may be over, but with a set list covering its entire existence and continuing to reveal occasional surprises, it's a group that still has plenty of life and validity to it...Pepe Panzer
Line-up:
- Ian Anderson / flute, guitar, vocals
- Martin Barre / guitar, flute
- Andrew Giddings / keyboards
- Jonathan Noyce / bass
- Doane Perry / drums
- Masha / vocals (CD1 track 9)
Codec: mp3
Bitrate: 320 kB/s
Size ca.: 246 MB
Genre : Progressive Rock
2000mustangs
Tracklist:
CD 1
01. Some Day The Sun Won't Shine For You (4:20)
02. Life Is A Long Song (3:31)
03. Bourée (4:57)
04. With You There To Help Me (6:33)
05. Pavane (4:28)
06. Empty Cafe (2:37)
07. Hunting Girl (5:30)
08. Eurology (3:39)
09. Dot Com (4:43)
10. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (5:00)
11. Fat Man (5:25)
CD 2
01. Living In The Past (6:59)
02. Nothing Is Easy (5:10)
03. Beside Myself (6:39)
04. My God (8:30)
05. Budapest (11:29)
06. New Jig (1:27)
07. Aqualung (8:02)
08. Locomotive Breath (8:36)
Post je objavljen 06.01.2009. u 22:28 sati.