Thursday, February 12, 2009

Nucleus - Belladonna


For Sean-E Dawg. Nucleus was a cornerstone of British Jazz Rock, who are largely unsung nowadays, but in the early 70's they released a slew of beautiful, atmospheric Fusion, in the best tradition of Miles' "In A Silent Way" and Bitches Brew", and also Weather Report's first two albums, masterpieces of the genre. The group was led by Trumpet player and Miles biographer Ian Carr, and an impressive number of Brit Jazz luminaries played in it, including some that went to play in Soft Machine's later incarnations. Their post 70's work is forgettable, but at the peak of their powers this group was bringing the hot shit. In this one Allan Holdsworth plays guitar, never on wank mode, providing texture, colour, direction and fury when necessary, but never forgetting this is a groupmind thang.

Personnel:
Bass [Guitar] - Roy Babbington
Drums - Clive Thacker
Engineer - Roger Wake
Guitar - Allan Holdsworth
Percussion - Trevor Tomkins
Piano [Electric] - Dave MacRae, Gordon Beck
Saxophone [Tenor, Soprano], Flute [Alto, Bamboo] - Brian Smith
Trumpet, Flugelhorn - Ian Carr


Get It

5 comments:

  1. Terrific post, Sandunga. And thanks for the notes. I've only recently discovered Ian Carr, so your information is appreciated.

    Thanks as always,

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  2. very very nice posting. i have several Nucleus albums, which i think are great...but didn't have this one. thank you.

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  3. If you have "We'll Talk About It Later" feel free to share it Pesky. :-) I'm missing that one.

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