Jet Set Jewel (Mlps) [Import, Limited Edition]

Jack Bruce | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 13, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Limited Edition
• Label: Universal Japan
• ASIN: B0000BHK77
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,266,637 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Boy

2. Head in the Sun

3. Neighbour, Neighbour

4. Childsong

5. Jet Set Jewel

6. Please

7. Maybe It's Dawn

8. Mickey the Fiddler

9. She's Moving On

10. The Best Is Still to Come

Editorial Reviews

Japanese remastered reissue of 1978 album, that's unavailable domestically, packaged in a miniature LP sleeve. 10 tracks. Universal. 2003.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE lost rock masterpiece of the 1970s, September 19, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Jet Set Jewel (Audio CD)

Who were the fools that shelved this amazing album 25 years ago? Jack mentions in the liner notes how really bitter he was about this at the time & it's easy to see why now 25 years later: "Jet Set Jewel" was, for once, a fantastically produced set of 10 peerless songs with Jack's voice at the top of its form that would have completely revived his career without giving up an ounce of artistic integrity.

The usual complaint about Jack's voice being 'whiny' & annoying doesn't apply here at all as his voice not only seems to have regained the almost operatic range & power it had in the glory days of Cream but it & every other instrument were fine-tuned in the studio & balanced & layered & textured in every detail to a Steely Dan level of perfection.

As for the songs, all 10 are winners full of the type of raw power, passion, beautiful & unexpected melodic turns & colorful lyrics Jack last displayed on the great "Harmony Row," except that now you also have the added bonus of Dennis MacKay's superior original production & 2003 level digital remastering. Most of the songs are too progressive & complicated to have garnered much AOR radio play in the late '70s but the title track written with Pete Brown is the exception. The title track is a flat-out AOR hit that never happened. Bruce fans have heard this song before in concert but never like this. The production & the sheer strength of Jack's voice (which unfortunately he lost a couple of years later and never quite regained to this awesome level of mastery)during these sessions will amaze you. This is exactly how Jack & his band needed to sound to recapture the mythic dimension of the best late '60s psychedelic rock with 1978 studio technology.

There are very few albums you listen to all the way through and are so amazed by you can do nothing but say "wow!" This is one of them. You are literally mesmerized and glad to be alive in a world where something as cool as this album can at least be created (even if not brought to the public for 25 years).

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "Jewel", a true gem..., October 16, 2003

By 

Jason A. Levine (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jet Set Jewel (Audio CD)

Having read the previous review, I felt even more compelled to comment about this magnificent 'lost' treasure. In true Grail-like fashion, "Jet Set Jewel" is a collection of melodic masterpieces and engineering perfection, with everyone (on both sides of the studio glass) in top form.

From song to song, you're constantly reminded of the innovation (and influence) that Jack Bruce actually had on modern rock songwriting. Being 1978, Jack & Co. can be heard seguing from very dramatic, progressive passages, into slick 'dance' music interludes; but these disco-fusion moments are so happening, I could barely stop myself from moving along. We're talking *thick* grooves here, and with Jack on the bass and Simon Phillips on drums, you're gonna feel the groove...all over.

...and the engineering: as echoed previously, it's of Steely Dan calibur.

Jack was back...in full form. And did the record company have any interest? Well, that's a story you'll have to read about in the liner notes (which are *also* top-notch!)

If you want to take a surreal trip to 1978 and hear what the best of the best was capable of creating, then hop aboard the Concorde - and join the Jet Set...

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Out of the Vault 25 years later, June 23, 2003

By 

G. Wallace (Hilliard, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Jet Set Jewel (Audio CD)

The liner notes tell the story of Bruce's unfortunate artistic imprisonment at Polygram and the scuttling of this finished record. Polygram finally released three of the better numbers in 1989 as part of a Jack Bruce retrospective. Bruce re-recorded three compositions that were among the finest songs on albums in the 80's and 90's (The Boy on 1995's Monkjack, Childsong on 1993's Something Els and Mickey the Fiddler for his 1980 comeback). Those numbers are also highlights on Jet Set Jewel. Of the remaining songs, Neighbor Neighbor is a rather pedestrian blues and three more are actually Tony Hymas compositions. That leaves She's Moving On as the unheard Jack Bruce song (lyric by David Hart) and it's as much a two-part piece as To Isengard or Post War. Playing and production strongly recall How's Tricks and the material is of comparable quality. It's probably not the first Jack Bruce record for a new listener, in part because of all the Hymas compositions. Certainly one the Jack Bruce fans will want to own, though. This one was released after Universal acquired Polygram, so maybe mergers aren't all bad.