Customer Reviews

Helen 12 Trees

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As far as the music is concerned, I am in complete agreement with the previous review. This is a stunning piece of work from Mr. Mariano and co. Whether you are a fan of fusion or just great modern jazz, this album is bound to be a fine addition to any collection. I don't believe this line up was ever a working unit but they sure sound like it. It all fits together like a glove and the results are spectacular. Although the full band pieces are excellent, the Mariano/Hammer duo Charlotte is the high point for this listener. It's great to hear Jan Hammer's acoustic piano accompaniment to Mariano's superb playing on soprano sax!
This is my first purchase from Promising Music and I am very impressed with the high quality of this MPS re-issue. The re-mastering job is excellent, and it all comes in a great looking LP style package featuring a booklet of beautiful photos and liner notes. The actual cd itself is an all black mini vinyl replica. Very cool! These MPS re-issues are a little pricey but well worth it!

I stumbled across this album back in the 70's because I had to have anything with Jack Bruce on it. Turns out it is one of the few jazz/rock/fusion albums I still listen to. Many bands back then were playing as fast and loud as they could, but this music is played with real taste and imagination. Mariano also put out a couple of other albums in this style. And NO guitars! Just sax,violin, and keyboards over a solid rhythm section of bruce and John Marshall. If you like this album, be sure to check out Mariano's other 2 from this period:"reflections",recorded in Finland, and featuring Jukka Tolonen on guitar, and "october", recorded in Germany. His style of jazz/rock/fusion may not be as loud and frantic as some of the other bands of that era, but I find it more rewarding.

This forgotten gem, originally released at the adventurous MPS-label is certainly fusion at its best. Progressive, experimental, virtuosic. Featuring the dynamic rythm section of basslegend Jack Bruce and masterdrummer John Marshall, who played on Jack's classic "Harmony Row" supplemented by percussionist Nippi Noya.

The music ranges from Indian-like fusion, showing Mariano's deep interest for South Indian music - besides sax and flute he also plays the nagaswaram - to the tender sax/piano duet "Charlotte", featuring Jan Hammer in an unusual tender moment.

But of course Hammer also plays his trademark superfast guitarlike synth-lines, trading solos with Mariano and Polish violonist Zbigniew Seifert, a stunning player who unfortunately passed away in 1979, only 33. Here he shows some beautiful and electrifying playing.

Highly inventive and transcendental. Great players concentrating on making pure and intense music.

Describing albums as Fusion Music will nowadays often conjure up images of synth noodling giving way to loud fast runs and a rock back beat driving a lot of noisy playing competing for dominance. Of course not all Fusion was like that but let's be honest - a lot of it was and that's fine. I love a good bit of well-played noise as much as the next bloke. But this brilliant album by Mr. Mariano and co. is all about beauty. The runs are there, particularly from Mr. Hammer, but what holds it all together is the elegance and beauty of Mr. Mariano's playing and the restraint his playing encourages in the others . Other reviewers have described the beautiful packaging and the music well enough so I won't go into much more detail in that regard other than to attempt to describe the music contained within to someone who hasn't heard it: Imagine a beautiful and soulful combination of Eberhard Weber's 'Little Movements' with an occasional dash of Jeff Beck's 'Wired' (without the guitar) and a handful of the more melodic Soft Machine thrown in. Add a touch of Eastern modal music here and there and hold it together with a propulsive but sympathetic jazz-rock bass and percussion sensibility and you have it. In lesser hands that could be a recipe for a bad melange of styles but we are in the hands of masters here. Here it all adds up to a brilliantly successful and beautifully played work of art full of joy and life. Great modern jazz.

I can also highly recommend Mr. Mariano's album 'Mirrors'.