Customer Reviews

Jet Set Jewel (Mlps)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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).

I have to admit I hesitated on "Jet Set Jewel". As a long-time fan of Jack Bruce, I had picked up "How's Tricks", his previous LP with the same band, back when it was originally released, and couldn't find anything to like about it. When I heard that their next outing was finally being released, I had my doubts. How WRONG I was!
This is an album that ranks with Bruce's best, in writing, playing, singing, on all levels. Although I doubt it would have jump-started his career - after all, Bruce always followed his own muse, and as he states in the liner notes, commercial success was not a big priority for him - if there was a "hit" here I believe it was "Neighbor, Neighbor". Don't be put off by the fact it was created in '78, when the world of '60's superstars was getting bleak and dire. Like all Bruce's solo work, this collection has a timeless feel that makes it hard to pigeon hole. If you have enjoyed the very best of Jack's work, you will enjoy this.

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...

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.

If you're only a luke warm Jack Bruce fan, this album will not win you over. But if you are a hard core fan, as I am, this will be a most rewarding experience. The album's (arguably) best three songs have already showed up on Willpower and some others have been performed in other contexts: Childsong on SomethinEls and a Kip Hanrahan album, Neighbor Neighbor on his live 50th birthday album. Still, the versions on this CD are superb.

While Songs for a Tailor could be called "eclectic" moving freely from folk to jazz to R&B, Jet Set Jewel is even more far flung. I'd call it eccentric. From blues to reggae to latin jazz to folk to near operatic - it's almost jarring how much ground he covers - sometimes within a single song. One tune, in particular, "She Moved" sounds like Michael Mantler meets Billy Joel.

This album is a huge leap forward from "Hows Tricks", this line-ups first effort. The musicisans seem much more polished and they are comfortable and energized working with each other. Also - the songs, themselves, are much better - the compositions are far more ambitious and the arrangements are nothing less than brave.

The songs are mostly little stories about people and relationships, which, in itself, is a little different for Jack. I'm not sure if it all hangs together the way that say "Harmony Row" does. And because I'm more familiar with some songs than others, its difficult to look at the whole thing - as a single piece. I have a feeling that songs that sound a bit weird to me now will probably wind up being my favorites down the road.

Anyway, some albums are deep - this one is thick and dense and porous and tangled and sometimes airy. It is always joyous and profoundly moving in only the way Jack Bruce can be.

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 (as on most of the material on "Out of the Storm") doesn't apply here at all as his voice not only seems to have regained the almost operatic range & balls-out 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.

The 3 best songs (Jet Set Jewel, Mickey the Fiddler, The Best is Yet to Come) are, of course, the ones written by the legendary Bruce/Brown partnership & were on the "Willpower" compilation of a few years back. However, if you think those 3 songs are all you need, you're wrong. You'll really be missing out without the other 7 which are almost all on the same level of excellence give or take a few hairs. Even the weakest song overall, the straight Creamish funky blues workout of "Neighbor" has an unbelievably great saxophone solo on it by Dick Heckstall Smith of Graham Bond Organisation & Colossuem (all those curious should immediately check out the album "Valentye Suite" by Colossuem, it's a stone-cold classic).

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 (and on "Willpower") but never like this. The production & the sheer strength of Jack's voice during these sessions (which unfortunately he lost and was never quite able to regain a couple of years later) will amaze you. This is exactly how Jack & his band needed to sound to regain 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). Eric Clapton may have sold 10 million more records but Jack will always be the better artist, despite a few slip-ups here and there, precisely because of Albums like this one that dared to push the envelope and succeeded. As to the fools who shelved this 25 years back, I hope they're consigned to a desert island & forced to listen to bee gees records all day.

Outstanding musicianship on this one. Jet Set Jewel, Maybe It's Dawn, & She's Moving On are very well written & fantastically arranged. His stuff hits home more than most Clapton efforts--no slam against Clapton. To me, it seems like Bruce's stuff is just as, if not more sincere as EC's song-writing. Take it for what it's worth.