CD Review: Anderson Stolt's Invention of Knowledge (2016)

It’s a match made in heaven for the diehard progressive rock fan – former Yes vocalist and bona fide prog-rock legend Jon Anderson collaborating with Flower Kings founder, guitarist Roine Stolt. Both men have been an essential part of an iconic prog band, and both have dallied with outside projects that took them out of their comfort zone (Anderson on a series of collaborations with Greek electronic music pioneer Vangelis and Stolt with Transatlantic and the Tangent). Both Anderson and Stolt have enjoyed a modicum of success with their solo careers, although both remain firmly identified with their well-known bands.

Anderson Stolt’s Invention of Knowledge

So perhaps it was fate that brought them together – or maybe just rock ‘n’ roll. The two met in 2014 on a Progressive Nation at Sea cruise when Transatlantic drummer Mike Portnoy suggested that the band should perform a couple of songs with Anderson. The performance ended up being an hour long jam on Yes classics like “Long Distance Runaround,” “And You And I,” and “Starship Trooper.” Stolt found an easy musical chemistry with Anderson and the two artists ended up creating Invention of Knowledge, a four-song prog-rock masterpiece with extended suites and more than enough exciting and innovative music to thrill even the hardcore progger.

Working long-distance via the internet, Anderson would email his song ideas and vocals for his co-producer Stolt to assemble and expand upon in the studio. Stolt added some of his most imaginative fretwork to date to the material, while a band consisting of Flower Kings members Jonas Reingold (bass) and Felix Lehrmann (drums) as well as keyboardist Tom Brislin fleshed out the songs and added their own impressive talents to the mix. Backing vocals on several tracks were provided by Nad Sylvan and Pain of Salvation’s Daniel Gildenlow, who were joined by the feminine voices of Anja Obermayer, Maria Rerych, and Kristina Westas. The resulting performances are simply breathtaking in both their invention and execution.

The title track, comprised of three suites, enters your consciousness with shimmering vocal harmonies; Anderson’s voice eventually soars above the gloss to take center stage alongside Stolt’s piercing guitar licks. The song’s instrumentation is lush and gorgeous, but Stolt’s fretwork really shines, dancing lively across the mix and perfectly complimenting Anderson’s lofty, familiar vocals. The second suite depends a lot on Anderson’s voice, which never falters in telling his tale while the band weaves golden threads of sound behind him, while the third suite offers up more of Anderson’s ethereal vocals accompanied by heady, jazz-rock fusion styled guitar lines.

Everybody Heals

The second song on Invention of Knowledge, “Knowing,” is broken down into two suites, with a gentle opening based on Anderson’s echoed vocals and swirls of psych-drenched instrumentation and interesting percussive rhythms. Brislin’s keyboards are brought to the fore here, the skilled musician evoking memories of Rick Wakeman with his hauntingly beautiful keyboard flourishes. The first suite offers some classical influences with orchestration and signature changes that dart to and fro, Stolt’s guitar more subdued in the mix but evincing some interesting stylistic choices which enhance, rather than distract, from the business at hand. Suite two, titled “Chase and Harmony,” opens with Brislin’s charming piano-play, which offers a nice counterpoint to Anderson’s whimsical vocals and the dreamlike instrumentation that runs like a river beneath the performance.

“Everybody Heals” offers three exciting suites, a lonesome violin riff exploding into full instrumentation on the first section before Anderson’s vocals kick in and provide a road map for the band to follow. Lehrmann’s invigorating percussion work here provides a canvas on which Stolt paints his colorful and multi-textured guitar playing. Although it rises and falls beneath the instrumentation, Stolt’s guitar is a vital part of the song, accompanying Brislin’s similarly deep-tracked piano. The song’s brief second section, titled “Better By Far,” veers musically only slightly from the preceding suite, with Stolt’s weepy guitar licks matched by Brislin’s chiming keyboards while “Golden Light,” the third suite, is operatic in scope and cacophonic in nature with some fascinating, clamorous instrumental swerves that will keep the listener on their toes.

Invention of Knowledge closes out with “Know,” a sweeping, eleven-minute fantasy that offers up more of Anderson’s gorgeous vocal gymnastics and a cinematic soundtrack for his lyrics with tinkling piano notes, flowing guitars and jagged solos, squalls of synthesizer, and sparse rhythms that altogether create a mesmerizing performance that jets by far too quickly. Throughout all of these performances, much like with the Flower Kings’ best efforts, Jonas Reingold’s understated and fluid bass lines provide the foundation on which all the other musical ideas are built.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

After four-and-a-half decades, I’ve remained a loyal Yes fan, and I find much of the band’s 1970s-era catalog to be the timeless, still-exciting definition of progressive rock. Jon Anderson’s solo material is equally enchanting, his unique vocal skills imbuing both his band and solo efforts with an identifiable and magical aura. I’ve been a longtime fan of the Flower Kings as well, Roine Stolt’s contributions to prog-rock guitar easily on a par with Yes’ Steve Howe and Genesis’ Steve Hackett.

Needless to say, I was excited to hear of a musical collaboration between these two talented artists, and they do not disappoint. Invention of Knowledge is as timeless as anything that Yes or the Flower Kings have released through these many decades, a musical throwback to the hallowed, halcyon prog-rock era of the ‘70s but still retaining a contemporary sound and edge. Anderson and Stolt – modern-day musical alchemists – have delivered an incredible work that sits proudly with the classic albums of progressive rock history. Grade: A+ (Inside Out Music, released July 8, 2016)

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Anderson Ponty Band's Better Late Than Never CD review
Martin Popoff's Time and a Word: The Yes Story book review

Book Review: Martin Popoff's Time And A Word - The Yes Story (2016)

Full disclosure right up front: music critic and historian Martin Popoff is a pal of mine. That said, he is, perhaps, also the most prolific scribe in the history of rock ‘n’ roll literature. Seriously, it seems like this guy cranks out a new tome every four to six weeks, and the machinegun pace at which he shoots these things out wouldn’t be nearly so embarrassing for the rest of us tin-eared, slothful rockcrits if his books weren’t so damn good…must be something in the water up there in Toronto, or perhaps one can simply get a lot more work done when it’s winter nine months of the year…

The founder and former editor of Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles music zine, Popoff is widely considered one of the world’s leading authorities on heavy metal and hard rock music. To date (and this will probably change by the end of this week…), Popoff has published multiple volumes on Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Thin Lizzy as well as single books on rockers as diverse as Blue Oyster Cult, Rush, and Ted Nugent plus various essential music guides and the acclaimed, scholarly Who Invented Heavy Metal? For his landmark 50th book, Popoff has chosen to chronicle the life and times of one of rock music’s most beloved gangs with Time And A Word: The Yes Story.

Martin Popoff’s Time And A Word: The Yes Story

For Time And A Word: The Yes Story, Popoff uses his familiar timeline technique to unroll the band’s story as it happened chronologically. The book begins before the beginning, as it were, Popoff documenting the pre-Yes days of the various band members, briefly revealing the musicians’ early experience and influences with a dozen pages that lead up to the formation of Yes in 1968 and the release of their debut album the following year. From this point, Popoff breaks the story into easily-digestible chunks by decade, i.e. the ‘1970s,’ ‘1980s,’ etc, undeniably the best and smartest way to tell the tale of a band with as many movable pieces as Yes.

As anybody who has read any of Popoff’s recent books would know, the writer intersperses revelations from the various band members throughout the text, material gleaned from original interviews with longtime Yes members like Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman, and Alan White as well as lesser-known (but no less talented) members like Bill Bruford and John Wetton, relative band newcomers like Geoff Downes and Billy Sherwood, and contemporaries like Carl Palmer (ELP, Asia) and Steve Hackett (Genesis). Throw in information culled from nearly 50 years of heavy press for the popular band, vintage artwork (album ads, show posters, etc), and rare color and B&W photos and you have a well-researched and documented history of Yes.     

Time And A Word is also an entertaining read, as are all of Popoff’s many books, and he manages to coax relevant memories and comments from the musicians that other writers never go the distance to grab. As shown by the column he regularly writes for Classic Rock magazine, any conversation with Rick Wakeman is going to be peppered with insight and humor, and his experience as a member of Yes spans decades. Heck, Wakeman came and went from the band so often that they should have installed a revolving door on his kit. Jon Anderson sounds every bit like the free-thinking hippie his lyrics would have you believe he is, and both Chris Squire and Steve Howe come across as serious, intelligent musicians that invested a lot of energy into the band’s music and success.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

The main takeaway from Popoff’s Time And A Word is that, no matter the decade or the roster, Yes has always featured skilled, accomplished musicians that, knowing they were part of something special – a rich musical heritage – brought their ‘A’ game to performances and recordings alike. Neither Popoff nor the various band members gloss over the frequent tensions within the band, or the differences in opinion about musical direction that often threatened to derail their efforts.

Throughout it all, Yes continued to make inspired, often great music, and Popoff tells the complete tale, from the beginning through Chris Squire’s tragic death in 2015. There have been other books written about Yes, but none capture the heartbeat of the band’s storied history quite like Martin Popoff’s Time And A Word: The Yes Story. If you’re a Yes fan, or just a fan of prog or classic rock, this is one for your bookshelf. Grade: A (Soundcheck Books, published May 1, 2016)

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CD Review: Anderson Ponty Band's Better Late Than Never

They’re both bona fide legends – singer/songwriter Jon Anderson and violinist Jean-Luc Ponty. Anderson, of course, spent 35 years fronting prog-pop chartbusters Yes, but has also enjoyed a lengthy and successful solo career as well as working on ground-breaking collaborations with musicians as diverse as Rick Wakeman, Vangelis, and Kitaro (plus there was one solid album by the Yes spin-off band Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe).

Ponty may be less well-known to rock music fans, but he’s no less a talent. A traditional jazz violinist who had flirted with bop and free-jazz styles, Ponty pioneered the use of electric violin in both jazz and rock music; he helped create and define jazz-rock fusion during his stint with John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra; and he left his mark on the world of rock ‘n’ roll with his tenure as a member of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention. As a solo artist, Ponty earned acclaim with a slew of eclectic late 1970s albums like Imaginary Voyage and Cosmic Messenger; while in the 1980s and ‘90s, Ponty broke new ground by incorporating synthesizers and other electronics with his violin to create an invigorating and unique sound.

Anderson Ponty Band’s Better Late Than Never

Given their past accomplishments, as well as a propensity for working well with others, it comes as no surprise that these two talents would join their creative mojos together and form the Anderson Ponty Band. Anderson and Ponty are backed by members of Ponty’s touring band, including guitarist Jamie Glaser (whose parts were dubbed in later…long story), bassist Baron Browne, keyboardist Wally Minko, and drummer Rayford Griffin – who, between them all, have experience playing with folks like Chick Corea, Billy Cobham, and Stanley Clarke as well as pop idols like Pink, Toni Braxton, and Michael Jackson.

Together, this is the group that created Better Late Than Never, recording a live performance at the Wheeler Opera House in Aspen, Colorado in September 2014. The fourteen-track, hour-long set is an invigorating mix of prog, pop, and fusion as the band revisits both songs from Anderson’s time with Yes and his solo career as well as tunes from Ponty’s vast back catalog. The brief instrumental intro that opens Better Late Than Never draws upon familiar musical themes from Yes, but the band jumps headfirst into “One In The Rhythms of Hope,” Anderson’s angelic vocals a fine match for Ponty’s otherworldly violin riffs. I particularly like Griffin’s subtle use of what sound like vibes at key moments in the arrangement.

Renaissance of the Sun

The band’s take on the Yes classic “Owner of A Lonely Heart” is generous with new flourishes, the band re-interpreting the song and providing it with just as much muscle as the original, but with Ponty’s buzzsaw violin providing a bit of rough grit to the performance. The shimmering, dancing “Listening With Me” provides a contrast to its predecessor, but the song is no less intense, Anderson’s impressive vocal gymnastics moving perfectly with the instrumentation’s fluid time changes. The exotic rhythm of the Yes deep cut “Time and A Word” is exaggerated and even funkier thanks to a flexible rhythm section and Ponty’s hypnotic violin notes.

“Infinite Mirage” is a breathtaking fusion of Anderson’s songwriting skills and Ponty’s instrumental talents. Anderson takes the Ponty song “Mirage” from his Enigmatic Ocean album and adds words, his silken vocals punctuated by Ponty’s high-flying performance. The free-flowing “Renaissance of the Sun” is a stunning example of the assembled band’s virtuosity, the song masterfully blending electrifying jazz-rock fusion with 1970s-era prog-rock Yes in the creation of a truly impressive performance. Ponty’s violin is threaded throughout, Minko’s mournful piano provides an emotional counterpoint, and Anderson’s vocals add light and texture. The Anderson Ponty Band’s reading of the classic rock radio staple “Roundabout” lacks Yes’s glorious harmonies and Rick Wakeman’s classically-manic keyboards, but otherwise the band acquits itself well and delivers an invigorating take on a familiar tune.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

The Anderson Ponty Band’s two-disc Better Late Than Never includes a ten-song concert DVD that features some of the best performances from the show, the band playing against a cool video backdrop with changing graphics. One minor cavil for what is otherwise an excellent collection of music – evidently Jamie Glaser’s fretwork was edited in using some high falutin’ production wizardry, replacing original guitarist Jamie Dunlap’s performance. You can watch the DVD and not only is Dunlap not introduced as part of the band, his appearance onstage is downplayed by the video editing.

The aforementioned complaint aside, as good as Glaser’s guitar playing is – overdubbed or not – the focus on Better Late Than Never is on Anderson’s soaring vocals and Ponty’s raging violin play. Both men definitely bring their best game to play on these performances, which serves to highlight the intrinsic talents of both. Anderson and Ponty have been talking about working together for 30 years. In this case, “better late than never” is an appropriate album title, the Anderson Ponty Band delivering a dynamic and entertaining live set that is one of the best things to happen to prog-rock in decades. Grade: A- (Liaison Music, released September 25, 2015)

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