Jody Nardone - acoustic grand piano & vocals
Tim Landers - fretless & acoustic bass
Ian Wallace - drumset
Mel Collins - soprano & alto saxophone
01. The Court Of The Crimson King (Fripp, Giles, Lake, McDonald, Sinfield) - 6:16
02. Pictures Of A City (Fripp, Sinfield) - 6:29
03. One Time (Belew, Bruford, Fripp, Gunn, Levin, Mastelotto) - 9:16
04. Frame By Frame (Belew, Bruford, Fripp, Levin) - 5:30
05. Inner Garden (Belew, Fripp, Levin) - 5:34
06. Heartbeat (Belew, Bruford, Fripp, Levin) - 8:56
Islands Suite:
07. Press Gang (Wallace) - 2:32
08. Zero Dark Thirty (Nardone) - 2:18
09. Formentera Lady (Fripp, Sinfield) - 7:32
10. Sailor's Tale (Fripp) - 3:45
11. The Plank (Landers) - 2:14
12. Lament (Bruford, Cross, Fripp, Palmer-James, Wetton) - 9:20
mp3 320kbps + full cover scans: megaupload / rapidshare part1, part2
In the three short years that I knew Ian, we played a lot of gigs together, and made two great records, one of which you are hopefully listening to as you read this. It's pretty amazing that we made both of these records in such a short amount of time but then again, working with the CJ3 always went incredibly smoothly.
Vol. 1 was recorded in less than a week during May of 2005 and Vol. 2 followed suit in June, 2006. I had only just met Tim the day before we started recording Vol. 1, and it was as if we had known each other forever. I'll never forget that first week we all spent together. We'd start working around 10 AM each morning and we fell into such a groove that we'd usually get a great take of our first tune by noon or so, which would prompt one of us to exclaim, "Great... print it... next tune" and "so what do you guys wanna eat for lunch?" For those of you that have never attended a record date before, this is not always the way things go. Lucky for us, this was just another day in the studio with the CJ3.
What you hold in your hands is not a tribute album. This cd, nor it's predecessor, were never intended to be such a thing. When Ian asked me if I'd like to participate in an experiment of his, a jazz piano trio doing
King Crimson music, I leapt at the chance. As a jazz pianist who spent years playing and singing in rock bands, I had been a huge KC fan since high school in the 80's. What a trip to think I'd be part of something that might contribute to the band's legacy, and that I'd get to do it with one of the band's alums -- and now with this record, two alums, thank you Mel!
I used to jokingly refer to the project as "Swing Crimson" but in a way, that really cheapens what we were aiming at. We had some goals in mind. Some were discussed verbally, some weren't. The following are a few of my own personal objectives :
1) To demonstrate that the entire Crimson canon was screaming to be reinterpreted in a jazz setting. Although many people like to put the band in the "art rock" category, I always heard them as a much more diverse mix of jazz, classical and rock. Okay, there was a fair amount of mellotron on those early records but the band certainly did their fair share of improvising over the years as well. We set out to prove that KC's music is as viable as any other body of work to be exploited for reharmonization, restructuring and improvisation, in the same tradition that any great jazz musician would do with
Duke Ellington, Cole Porter,
Wayne Shorter or even The Beatles. At first this seemed like a daunting task. But then I figured, if
Brad Mehldau can do it with Radiohead and Nick Drake, and The Bad Plus with Nirvana, then KC was more than fair game.
2) That a jazz piano trio could make this material rock just as hard as any guitar based ensemble that might attempt it. Some would argue that without Robert's and Adrian's soundscapes, Frippertronics and ever-frightening demonstrations of guitar heavy-osity, that this is not a possibility. I beg to differ and would like to suggest that the cd you are listening to right now -- Vol. 2 -- should prove this point even more accurately than it's predecessor did.
3) That Ian should (and could) find a way to prove to himself, his peers, and the world at large, that although he was a first call, world class, rock sideman and session drummer, he was also a formidable jazz drummer/band leader who could swing his ass off!
4) Finally, it should be fun. Take the music seriously. Take the business seriously. Take ourselves... not so seriously. If we found a particular arrangement or treatment of a tune amusing enough, it usually stuck. We tried to keep in mind that jazz needs a healthy dose of disrespect from time to time, and rock even more so.
Well, by now, you probably know the rest of the story. Just as things were really starting to get rolling, Ian was diagnosed with cancer and before we knew it, he was gone. Note to self : next time you get involved with a band that was this much fun, with heavyweights like Tim Landers and Ian Wallace, be less cautious, less responsible, throw some caution to the wind, take a leap of faith and get as much music recorded as possible. Life is short.
~Jody Nardone
