Customer Reviews

Early Alchemy

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Before Nick Webb teamed up with Greg Carmichael, he and Simon James created Acoustic Alchemy. I was living in London when "Casino" came out and remember loving it. These are -- except for the last cut -- early recordings that had never been released in Album form. Like "Casino", "Sarah Victoria" was re-recorded by the Webb/Carmichael partnership. None of the others was. My personal favorites are "Slap it down" and "Les Bercheres." I also like the new recording "Dream of Fair Women." Along with "Reference Point" this is my favorite Acoustic Alchemy CD.

I have been a fan of Acoustic Alchemy for years, but somehow never obtained this, their first offering until 2006. I was surprised to learn that Greg Carmichael was not on it. In fact they had not even met when this album was issued. The "AA" sound however, is very evident through Nick Webb's wonderful playing and writing, and I would wholeheartedly recommend this to any AA fan or fan of the acoustic jazz genre.

This is a collection of Nick Webb's early recordings with his original partner, Simon James, who split to go solo and was replaced by Greg Carmichael. Webb and James may have been calling themselves Acoustic Alchemy, but really, AA didn't start as a stable and successful group until Webb and Carmichael recorded their first album, red Dust and Spanish Lace, in 1987; these tracks precede that. As Acoustic Alchemy's career progressed, they added other instruments to accompany their steel and nylon string guitars, but there is almost nothing here but acoustic guitar. Try it.

I was compelled to this page in order to find the "If you enjoyed 'Early Alchemy', give a listen to ___(album here)___" recommendation. You see, I've owned this album since roughly 1998 and I literally haven't heard anything else like it. Oh, sure I own the entire AA catalog, from the delightful and wonderful Webb/Carmichael years through to the mediocre-to-bad recent releases of the Carmichael/Gilderdale era. I know AA backwards and forwards. But every time I give Early a listen (or even think of it), I wonder why this particular sound, these arrangements, didn't prevail throughout Acoustic Alchemy's entire history. The sound here is intimate and tight, by necessity. The closest thing to Early Alchemy I have ever heard is the matchless quartet from Germany, Quadro Nuevo - but not even their sound is this unified, despite superior musicianship. I cannot recommend an album more strongly, and hopefully there's a young guitar duo out there somewhere, hammering out tunes and developing a friendly and familiar sound like this. If Early Alchemy is a style all its own, it needs more practitioners.

excellent,

the item I arrive a lot before the predicted date and in very good conditions

thanks