Introduction

I grew up musically in the 70's. There were 2 defining moments that formed my musical tastes. The first was a television transmission of the first side of Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells". The second was a radio play of the Genesis song "Squonk". Both were unlike anything I had heard before; I was hooked on Genesis for life (so far).

Derek Jewel

What is there to do on a Saturday night when you live in a remote Scottish farmhouse? Television was one option but with little choice of channels and no interest in sport my entertainment was listening to BBC Radio 3. I don't listen to clasical music, which is what Radio 3 plays, but on Saturday evening they broadcast a program called "Sounds Interesting" where they played the "best of modern contemporary music". The host was Derek Jewel, a well respected Jazz music reviewer who wrote for the Sunday Times (amongst other things). I'll be forever grateful to Mr Jewel for the artists he introduced me to.

Follow this link to find out more: A web page that is dedicated to Derek Jewel


Genesis
was tops in 1976

This is a cutting I have slipped in to the sleeve of my Wind and Wuthering album. I thought other Genesis fans would be interested in this little bit of Genesis memorabilia.

The sound of a glittering group



DEREK JEWELL


NOW that they have shed their early preoccupation with sensation for sensation's sake, understanding that their music has theatrical elements powerful enough not to need the constant crutch of histrionic gimmickry, there is no more satisfying band in the world than Genesis.

  They were the happiest of choices for the re-opening of North London's rock theatre, the Rainbow, last weekend. The cheerlessness of the Rainbow's site, the faded splendour of it's Betjemanesque delights, can scarcely be amended; but few will not welcome the renaissance for popular music occasions of a hall of such dimensions.

  Genesis did not try to seize the audience by the throat at the start. They are far too subtle for that. With compositions of substance, changing moods and tempos, played out against

endlessly dramatic stage lighting, occasionaIly mixed with dry-ice mists and laser-beam cobwebs, they worked relentlessly to capture the sell-out house with music, not stun it with noise. Very sensible, too; a non-stop two-hour show needs care and contrast. Climaxes reached too early turn into sour bathos.

  So, at first, they were displaying brand-new material: "The Eleventh Earl of Mar" and bassist Mike Rutherford's charming ballad, "Your Own Special Way," which could do as much for Genesis as did "I'm Not In Love" for 10cc. Only later did Phil Collins--now a very good front man--deliberately pull the audience closer to the band with a generous ranging through well-known compositions belonging to most years of the band's history.

  Superb material from albums like

"The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway," "Foxtrot," "Selling England By The Pound" and "A Trick Of The Tail" was laid out in glittering fashion by a band at the peak of its powers. Collins does a lot ,of drumming apart from singing and shooting around the stage with joyful energy, and he and the new drummer from Weather Report, Chester Thompson, are a tremendous double-act. Their three companions, especially Tony Banks on keyboards; played beautifully.

  The end was all climax. "Supper's Ready," that 20 minute piece of unnerving social commentary, was explosively received: a standing ovation seemed the most natural response in the world. There was more to come, including "Los Endos." The audience would have stayed happily all night.

  There have been packed. houses, too, at Ronnie Scott's Club for Salena Jones, and richly she deserves it. From a bright beginning in Britain at the start of the decade, this daughter of Newport News, Virginia, who grew up a block away from Ella Fitzgerald's home, seemed to lose artistic direction.

  Now, she is triumphantly doing it her way again, singing and swinging with a jazz inflection, using many standards and ballads, without ever sounding other than thoroughly modern. Her voice is sweet, her range surprising, her audience command easy and assured.

  With the right breaks-- especially on record---she is ready to become a major inter.national performer. She is her own woman, certainly, but her scat-singing finale sounds so like Ella, it's uncanny./P>


And then there were three...

This is a cutting, similar to the one above from two years later when Genesis had released And then there were three...

JAZZ AND POP CHOICE


DEREK JEWELL

GENESIS And Then There Were
Three/Charisma CDS 4010 £3.99
THE album title tells you that guitarist Steve Hackett is gone. But the survivors--Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins -- make so much play with assorted keyboards, guitar and percussion that the eleven compositions sound as muscular, confident and intriguing as anything done by Genesis before. The individualistic Genesis sound remains, certainly, with rich instrumental combinations and challenging lyrics (try the witty , sharp lines of "Down and Out"), and their range stretches from the easy, laid-back "The Lady Lies," through the delicate "Snowbound," to the crashing "Ballad of Big." Not quite "Wind and Wuthering" standard, this new one, but very good value.
MANHATTAN TRANSFER
Pastiche/Atlantic K 50444 £3.79
THE title does this brilliant American harmony quartet no justice. They still reflect pop nostalgia marvellously - here

they pick off The Supremes and others so evocatively - but their range is now immense, much more than pastiche. They reshape jazz, rock, cabaret, classic ballads in their own way, with humour, impeccable musicianship and glittering style. Their breakneck version of Woody Herman's jazz anthem, "Four Brothers," is startlingly good. Songs of the "Love for Sale" genre vie with contemporary sounds like "Walk in Love" and "It's not the Spotlight." Music, this, which will endure.
MILT JACKSON/MONTY
ALEXANDER Soul Fusion/Pablo 2310 804 £4.35
A PLEASANT change, after Pablo's flood of Montreux al- bums, t ° hear a studio record of such supreme craftmanship which does not, nevertheless, cramp the effervescence or in- vention of two major artists. Milt Jackson may or may not be the world's finest vibes-man; bur he has always been a master, never overcome by any musician he's worked with; always his original self. In pianist Alexan-

der's trio, and aspecially its leader (just completed a fine week at Ronnie Scott's) he seems to have consummated one of those musical marriages made in heaven. For relaxation, spark. ling improvisation, and sheer listening enjoyment, this ranks among the finest jazz performances.
NATIONAL HEALTH National
Health/Affinity AFF6 £4.05
A YOUNG British band whose inventiveness and musicianship already inspire comparisons with Americans like Weather Report and Chick Corea. Yet truly, their particular style of modern music is their own. Compositions are on the long side, with'wondrous tones, textures and counterpoint wrought from electronic key- boards, guitar, percussion, bass as well as acoustic piano, clarinet, various woodwinds and the added voice of Amanda Par. sons. Dave Stewart, the leader, is the main composer, with help from a second keyboards player, Alan Gowen. The idioms vary from modern rock to (as in the opening of "Borogoves ") medieval and even military.

For ideas, improvisational talent and confident bounce, National Health are good medicine; sad that bassist, Nell Murray, is reported to be leaving.


CLIVE BENNETT

NICK LOWE Jesus of Cool/
Radar Records Rad 1 £3.79
WILDLY eclectic, and with more than one Spector haunting him, Lowe's self-produced album is a tonic. Drawing on his early days with Brinsley Schwarz and later as a producer for, among others, Stiff Records (motto: Reversing into tomorrow), Lowe brings a cynical humour and immense verve to his music. There is verbal acuity, too. Certainly it is slick, even flash, but whatever his chosen style--from the Shadows to the Damned - Lowe is unrelentingly professional in sound and approach.
ROBERT PALMER Double Fun
Island ILPS 9476 £4.10
THOUGH not severing his links with America's west coast (members of Little Feat still feature in the credits) Robert Palmer has now gone for more opulent

and grandiose arrangements. The characteristic rhythmic complexes remain but they support anks of horns and strings big enough to submerge any material. Fortunately Palmer's voice and songs are sufficiently individual and the production so strong and imaginative, with every technical trick ruthlessly. exploited, that the fusion works. Try "Best of both worlds" and be convinced.
WINGS London Town
PAR 10012 £4.10
CONTAINING fifty minutes of music, Wings' first studio album for two years has been cut at a lower level than usual. It neatly symbolises its contents; essentially cosy, undemanding and probably ideally suited to those whose happy and fulfilled domestic situation parallels Paul McCartney's own. Only one track "With a little luck," has any real distinction; the remainder are typically well.wrought examples of consummate crafts. manship. They receive carefully considered, if scarcely inspired, production.


Duke

By the time Genesis had released Duke I had sort of lost interest. The second album reviewed here Gradually Going Tornado by Bruford was much more to my taste. And note what is said about Japan "Could be one of the bands of the Eighties", accurate or what!



JAZZ AND POP CHOICE


DEREK JEWELL


• GENESIS Duke/Charisma CBR
101 £4.99

• BRUFORD Gradually Going
Tornado/EG Records EGLP 104
£5.35

• JAPAN Quiet Life/Ariola AHAL
8011 £4.99

THREE BANDS who think, who construct, who help maintain that fine early-Seventies tradition of rock which combines energy with beauty, skill with meaning. Genesis have triumphantly toured. Their album, perhaps a touch off peaks like, say, Wind and Wuthering, is still splendid. It has nothing to do with either John' Wayne or Ellington, but contains one moving song (Duchess) which might loosely be construed for Billie Holiday or a dozen other tragic figures. Tur n It On Again is excellent, too, but there isn't a track you won't enjoy.
  Bruford (Bill) has built a really good band which has jazzier touches than, for ex- ample, Yes or Genesis. Listen to the superb Jaco Pastorious-like bass (Jeff Berlin) on Palewell Park to judge that. Construction? I've rarely heard modern "symphonic'' compositions better or more majestic than Lands End and and Q.E.D. Brilliant, all of it.
  Japan are "new," although Quiet Life is their third album. Their bizarre appearance has nothing to do with their music, which is out of Roxy Music, Bowie, etc. Steadily building a reputation, they need to learn a bit about live performance, but already have got it together on album. Snip tracks are The Other Side of Life, All Tomorrow's Parties and Despair, where the moody mixing of piano and melancholy sax bears heavy Bowie Berlin-doom influences. Could be one of the bands of the Eighties.

• BING CROSBY Bing Sings
Whilst Bregman Swings/Verve
MV 2663 (Import double album
£8.99)

• PAT METHENY GROUP
American Garage/ECM 1155
(Import. £5.50)

• 2nd VISION First Steps/
Chrysalis CHR 1289. £4.79

FOR these albums which tend to the jazz end of the spectrum, you may have to search a bit; but you'll be richly rewarded. The Crosby comes from the 1950s, and is now reissued by Japanese Polydor. Classic, crisp, swinging music from a Buddy Bregman big band, with Bing's voice bouncing masterfully through a dozen classics of the "Mountain Greenery" and "September in the Rain" genre.
  Guitarist Pat Metheny continues to lead one of the best "fusion" bands," and his latest quartet is cheerful, evocative and triumphantly lyrical. His

guitar really does sing (try "Airstream") and if you wish to experience what joy in music means, I suggest "Heartland." Fusion is also the tone of the new band, 2nd Vision, which features Jon Etheridge (ex-Soft Machine, and Grappelli's accompanist) and violinist Ric Sanders (Albion Band etc.). Everything is here from folk to Brazilian. English elegy to dazzling syncopation. A stunning debut.



MARTYN SUTTON


• 10cc. Look Hear.
Mercury. 9102 505. £5.65.

ALL WE have come to expect from 10cc, with or without Godley and Creme, is here in abundance. Highly literate music that remains accessible due to those fiendishly catchy hooks that are embedded in the complex mix. It is vintage 10cc: quirky bass vocals, searing rock numbers, floating pop ballads, a dash of reggae. Nobody produces more intelligent music and "I Hate to Eat Alone," "I Took You Home" and "It doesn't matter At All" are classics. Melodic, original songs performed with skill and precision. The subject matter embraces loneliness, disco music, L.A. love and the boat people. Not to be missed.

• Gerry Rafferty. Snakes and
Ladders, United Artists. UAK30298
£5.39.

AFTER YEARS of relative paupery, Rafferty now. inhabits that rich hinterland where gold albums grow on 'trees and'every cloud is lined with silver discs. He deserves to be aboard' the gravy train which started rolling after five million people bought his "City to City" album, This new collection is equally imPressive:  fine  songs, inventive arrangements and, above all, that marvellous vocal style. His elegant, jazzy drawl always sounds soothing, but on songs like "Welcome to Hollywood" acid flows with the honey. Sweet tune, sour lyric.

• Billy Joel. Glass Houses.
CBS. CBS86108. £5.29.

ONLY Elton John and the Beatles have pulled off the same trick in recent times. Joel can produce  ballads that move mothers to tears and gritty rockers that give him credibility with the street kids he often writes about. He plays the piano beautifully, writes wonderful songs and sings with style and charismatic energy. He is, in short, a bona fide superstar, His new album is crammed with interesting material ." Through the Long Night" and "All for Leyna" are moving love songs, "You May Be Right " and "Don't Ask Me Why" are superb pop numbers while else- where he rocks with consiiderable power and aggression. His range is staggering: a master craftsman.


Mad Mad Moon lyric explained?

"Was it summer when the river ran dry
Or was it just another dream.
When the evil of a snowflake in June
Could still be a source of relief."

In 1976 the United Kingdom suffered a country wide drought and many rivers literly "ran dry". However in June of the same year there was a widespread fall of snow, an unusual and needless to say infreqent event. However given the parched condition of the country, even a fall of snow in the middle of summer was a welcome source of water for the drought ridden people of England. The lyrics to Mad Mad Moon accurately describe the events in England in the summer of 1976.

However Trick of the Tail was released in February 1976 so the Mad Mad Moon lyric must have been written sometime in 1975, well before the events they appear to describe. What a spooky coincidence, but great timing for the people listening to this great album in the summer of 1976!


The Return of the Giant Hogweed lyric

"Turn and run,
Nothing can stop them,
Around every river and canal their power is growing."

Released in November 1971 on the album Nursery Cryme The Return of the Giant Hogweed has the spread of a weed as its subject. The lyrics exaggerate somewhat but I remember one summer when I was hired by a local farmer to tackle the menace. Armed with protective clothing, a sharp chopper, a large metal syringe and a concentrated solution of Sodium Chlorate my task was to eliminate the Giant Hogweed from a stream running through the farmer's land.

The procedure was first to disarm the enemy by decapitation, removing the posionous leaves which caused blisters if they touched bare skin. The effect was heightened by the spines on the leaves and sunlight which seemed to activiate the poison. The decapitation left a hollow stump in the ground. Sodium Chlorate is a weedkiller which was commonly used by sprinkling on the leaves. However in this instance a solution was injected down the hollow stump to kill the roots of the plant. Slowly and methodically the plants were felled and poisoned along the length of the stream till none of the Giant Hogweed remained.


Top records of 1976

This is another cutting I have listing Derek Jewels top records of 1976. So what is in it for you Genesis fans? Well Genesis is listed there proving they are world class.

Pop and jazz: the albums of the year

Since when in musical history did barrier breaking happen on an annual basis? Never. So if 1976 was not especially innovatory, it's no cause for alarm. There was a cascade of good music, building especially on the literacy which popular music has steadily established in the late 1960s and 1970s.

Adelaide Hall. The Year's greatest re-discovery-that she is still performing, and brilliantly. London became aware of her again in 1974, when she sang Creole Love Call at the London Memorial Service for Ellington. Now she records Duke with modernity and style.

Joan Armatrading. The year's best single. Her album includes it-her enchanting and beautifully arranged Love And Affection.

Mike Oldfield. His boxed set is his three major works (Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge. Ommadawn) partly re. mixed, partly re- created, re-packaged, plus a fourth album of bits and pieces (e.g. In Dulci Jubilo). Great value, especially if you don't own any of the majors already.

Peggy Lee. Songs of wit, aptness, deliciously melodic. And who wrote them? Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, whose song, Hound Dog, was one major vehicle, with which Elvis Presley smashed up the cosy entertainment world that had nurtured Miss Lee's generation. Ironic.

Evita. Will she follow the incredible success story of Jesus Christ Superstar? A superb piece of work, with a strong story line-the life and death of Eva Peron- which seems made for the theatre.

Vangelis. The one-man show who plays many instruments and writes with melodramatic, symphonic sweep. One un-

expected admirer of his is the 'primitive' English painter, Helen Bradley.

Porgy and Bess. Why this one? There are other splendid versions of Gershwin's masterpiece, but this is the first time Porgy and Bess has been recorded in stereo and without cuts. Sublime.

Jon Anderson. 'Yes' (the progressive rock band Anderson inspires) were voted top group in the world this year in Melody Maker, yet have issued no group album this year. Instead, all five members have produced solo albums in the last 12 months or so: Patrick Moraz's /

(Charisma); John Squires' Fish Out Of Water (Atlantic); Alan White's Ramshackled (Atlantic) and Steve Howe's Beginnings (Atlantic).

Duke Ellington. The main work on this Ellington album, The Queen's Suite, was recorded in 1959, pressed as a unique copy, and sent to Buckingham Palace the year after Duke had met the Queen for the first time. Hasn't been heard before, though collectors have possessed bootleg copies. Magnificent work.

Near-misses. The first solo album by Jaco Pastorious (Epic); Cleo Laine's Born

On A Friday (RCA)' Stephen Stills's Ilegal Stills (CBS); Stan Tracey/Donald Houston with their jazz-and-words recreation of Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood (Steam); Bob Dylan's Desire (CBS); The National Youth Jazz Orchestra's Eleven Plus (RCA); David Bedford's The Odyssey (Virgin); Decameron's Tomorrow's Pantomime (Transatlantic); Daryl Hall and John Oates's Whole Oats (Atlantic); The Beach Boys' 15 Big Ones (Reprise); Wings' At The Speed Of Sound (Capitol)' Jethro Tull's Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll, Too Young To Die (Chrysalis); McCoy Tyner's Fly With The Wind (Milestone); Steeleye Span's Rocket Cottage (Chrysalis); Ralph Towner's Solstice (ECM); The Singers Unlimited's Feeling Free (MPS/BASF); The Carpenters' A Kind Of Hush (A & M); and Joni Mitchell's Hissing of Summer Lawns (Asylum).

Artists to watch: Joan Armatrading, finest yet of black singers raised in Britain and now reaching for super- stardom (provided someone will actually produce her stage act); Jaco Pastorious (brilliant bassist of the American band, Weather Report); Peter Frampton, who's already made it in the USA; Brand X, a most evocative jazz-rock band, in which drummer Phil Collins of Genesis plays; Barbara Dickson, emerging into her kingdom after several years- she's on Evita; the already established Camel , a symphonic-rock band still under-regarded; the American singer, Al Jarreau; and Landscape, a very musicianly jazz-rock band led by John Walters. The new band formed by Rick Wakeman, allegedly to rival Emerson, Lake and Palmer, should be something too.

Derek Jewell


Derek Jewell's Pick of the year


Jon Anderson: Olias of Sunhillow, Atlantic K50261, £3.25.


Neil Ardley: Kaleidoscope of Rainbows, GUll GULP 1018, £3.50.


Joan Armatrading: Joan Armatrading, A & M AMLH 64588, £3.60.


Julie Covington/Paul Jones, etc.: Evita by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd-Webber, MCA MGX 563 (Double Album), £6.99


Nell Diamond: Beautiful Noise, CBS 86004, £3.79.


Duke Ellington: The EIIington Suites (including The Queen's Suite), Pablo 2335 743, £3.60.


Genesis: A Trick Of The Tail, Charisma CDS 4001, £3.50.


Adelaide Hall: Hall of Ellington, Columbia S CX 6586, £3.35.


Steve Hillage: 'L', Virgin V 2066, £3.25.


Catherine Howe: Silent Mother Nature, RCA RS 1041, £2.99.

Peggy Lee: Mirrors, A & M AMLH 64547, £3.60.


Manfred Mann: The Roaring Silence, Bronze ILPS 9357, £3.50.


Mike Oldfield: Boxed, Virgin V BOX 1 (four LP Set), £7.99.


Oscar Peterson: In Russia, Pablo 2625 711 (Double Album), £5.20.


Steeleye Span, Martin Carthy and others: The Electric Muse (the Story of folk into rock), Island/Transatlantic FOLK 1001 (four LP set), £7.50.


Art Tatum: The Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Pablo 2625 703, £29.50.


10 c.c. : How Dare You?, Mercury 91'02 501, £3.50.


Vangelis: Heaven and He!l, RCA RS 1025, £2.99.


Willard White/Leona Mitchell/Cleveland Orchestra (directed by' Lorin Maazel): Porgy & Bess by George Gershwin, Decca SET 609/11 (three UP set), £11.25.


Stevie Wonder: Songs In The Key Of Life, Motown TMSP 6002, £6.99.


Last modified: Sat Jul 27 22:31:05 GMT Daylight Time 2002