Sky were an English/Australian instrumental rock group that specialised in combining a variety of musical styles, most prominently rock, classical and jazz. The group’s original and best-known lineup featured classical guitarist John Williams, bass player Herbie Flowers, electric guitarist Kevin Peek, drummer Tristan Fry and keyboard player Francis Monkman.
In 1971, John Williams (already one of the most acclaimed classical guitarists in the world) released the fusion album Changes – his first recording of non-classical music, and the first on which he played electric guitar. Among the musicians working on the album were Tristan Fry (an established session drummer who was also the timpanist for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and had played Timpani on The Beatles ‘A Day In The Life’) and Herbie Flowers (a former member of Blue Mink and T. Rex, as well as a busy session musician who, amongst other things had recorded the bassline for Lou Reed’s ‘Walk on the Wild Side’).
The three musicians became friends, kept in touch and continued working together on various projects during the 1970s. One of these was Williams’ 1978 album Travelling, another substantially commercially successful cross-genre recording. As well as Fry and Flowers, the record featured former Curved Air member Francis Monkman (who in addition to his progressive and psychedelic rock background as guitar and synthesizer player, was a trained and accomplished classical harpsichordist).
In 1979, Monkman performed on Louis Clark’s album (per-spek-tiv) n., on which he collaborated with an Australian session guitarist called Kevin Peek. Peek was a musician equally adept at classical guitar and pop/rock styles, having built up a reputation both as a chamber musician and as a long-standing member of Cliff Richard’s band, as well as for working Manfred Mann, Lulu, Tom Jones, Jeff Wayne, Shirley Bassey and Gary Glitter.
The success of Travelling inspired Williams and Flowers to set up Sky, their own long-term cross-genre band. Fry and Monkman were swiftly recruited, with Kevin Peek being the final addition. The band began writing and recording instrumental music drawing on their collective experience of classical, light pop, progressive and psychedelic rock, light entertainment and jazz. After a protracted search for a record company, Sky signed with the small European label Ariola Records.
Although Sky was run democratically (with all members contributed music and/or arrangements), the presence of John Williams in the lineup was regarded as the band’s biggest selling point and was emphasised in publicity. Williams’ concurrent solo instrumental hit – “Cavatina – Theme from The Deer Hunter” – also helped to raise the band’s profile. However, this selling was counterbalanced by some negative reviews from critics accustomed to Williams’ classical performances, who remained unimpressed by his new direction with Sky.
Sky’s self-titled debut album (released in 1979) was highly successful in Britain and Australia, quickly reaching gold record status and eventually topping out as a platinum record. The album featured versions of Eric Satie’s “Gymnopedie No. 1” and an Antonio Ruiz-Pipò ‘Danza’ , as well as original compositions by Monkman and Flowers. Monkman’s ‘Cannonball’ was a minor hit single, and the keyboard player also contributed the twenty-minute second-side composition “Where Opposites Meet” (intended to combine and display the band’s diverse influences) (by wikipedia)
This is the debut album from the session musician supergroup Sky. The idea behind this band was to assemble virtuoso instrumentalists and adept composers who possess an appreciation for classical music, allowing it to infiltrate their own playing and writing. The concept was admirable, and was manifested more fully in future albums; however, on this recording the songs never seem to unfold completely.
With the exception of Kevin Peek’s fiery adaptation of Antonio Ruiz-Pipó’s Spanish guitar piece “La Danza,” this album plods along with no apparent destination. Melodies seem undeveloped but trudge forth nevertheless, presumably for the sake of completing the album. Given the presence of world-class guitarist John Williams, his contribution is hardly detectable, and Francis Monkman’s omnipresent harpsichord becomes tiresome midway through the album. And the monotonous rhythm of bassist Herbie Flowers and drummer Tristan Fry does nothing to alter the tediousness of these pieces. It would be a stretch to call this progressive or classical rock; it is merely instrumental pop/rock. (by Dave Sleger)
I can´t agree with this review … maybe this album is not a masterpiece, but´s it´s the beginning of one of the finest classic-rock formations from this time … with a lot of very interesting sounds … especially in “Where Opposites Meet” … or: listen to the guitars on “Danza” … what a sound … !
Personnel:
Herbie Flowers (bass)
Tristan Fry (drums, percussion)
Francis Monkman (piano, synthesizer, harpsichord)
Kevin Peek (guitar)
John Williams (guitar)
Tracklist:
01. Westway (Flowers) 3.39
02. Carillon Flowers) 3.29
03. Danza (Ruiz-Pipò) 2.58
04. Gymnopedie No. 1 (Satie) 3,41
05. Cannonball (Monkman) 3.42
06. Where Opposites Meet (Monkman) 19.22.
06.1. Part 1 (3.38)
06.2. Part 2 (2.24)
06.3. Part 3 (5.28)
06.4. Part 4 (5.39)
06.4. Part 5 (2.21)
Jon Lord is remembered as the founder of Deep Purple and one of the seminal rock keyboardists of all time. But Lord was also a respected composer, something he pursued alongside and throughout his tenure in Deep Purple. His untimely death in 2012 from a pulmonary embolism cut short a stellar career that was much richer than many realize.
Trace was a Dutch progressive rock trio founded by Rick van der Linden in 1974 after leaving Ekseption. They released three albums before merging back into Ekseption.
LOS CANARIOS from Spain started off as a typical, run of the mill pop/rock band (probably not unlike Los Bravos, but I’m not sure) and released three albums from 1968 to 1972. I’m sure fans of the pop CANARIOS were in for a total rude awakening when they released this double album, “Ciclos”. The band totally went off the prog deep-end and went and adapted Antonio Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” in a prog rock setting. The main guy of this band, Teddy Bautista included lots of great analog keyboards like the Moog II-P modular, Mini Moog, VCS-3, ARP 2600, Mellotron M400. Other members included Alain Richard on drums (and tons of percussion), guitarist Antonio Garcia de Diego, Mathias Sanvellian on additional keyboards (piano, organ, RMI electric piano, harpsichord, etc.), and bassist Christian Mellies. Add that with a choir (both male a female), a couple of male vocalists (I bet the not-so-great singer was one of the band members), and a female soprano, provided by an Indonesian named Rudmini Sukmawati (in which photos of her make her look Gothic, one scary picture of her makes her look like Marylin MANSON!).
After a self-titled release that flirted with pop crossover, violinist David Garrett dives deep into that world with his 2010 effort, an album that rocks like its 1766. Most arrangements are simple as Garrett takes the melodies from Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” and plays them furiously in front of an equally aggressive orchestra that’s augmented by electric guitars and a standard rock kit drummer. No great revelations to be had, but the tracks work well enough, recasting some of rock’s classics as Romantic-era works that are prime for television commercials designed to sell diamonds or wine to the post-Woodstock set. Rock symphonies exceeds its predecessor when it comes to the more clever cuts, such as the “Vivaldi vs. Vertigo,” a mash-up of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and U2’s “Vertigo.” And it’s fun how “The 5th” messes with Beethoven’s — heck, classical music’s — most famous piece and how his take on “Walk This Way” references the Aerosmith and Run-D.M.C. version before turning into a fiddle-led hoedown. Keep in mind, the showy Garrett is a polarizing figure in the classical community, so don’t expect your snootier friends to agree, but if your kids spend way too much time behind the violin, this just might turn them on to rock & roll. (by David Jeffries)
Keith Emerson and Greg Lake met in December 1969 when The Nice and King Crimson, two rock bands that Emerson and Lake each were a respective member of, co-headlined a series of concerts at the Fillmore West in San Francisco, California. Emerson looked to form a new band, and Lake wished to leave King Crimson. During a soundcheck before one of the shows, Emerson described the first time he and Lake played together: “Greg was moving a bass line and I played the piano in back and Zap! It was there.” The pair had met twice before in England in 1969 when The Nice and King Crimson performed at the Jazz and Blues Pop Festival in Plumpton and Fairfield Halls in Croydon.
impressive musicianship here. “Take a Pebble” might have passed for a Moody Blues track of the era but for the fact that none of the Moody Blues’ keyboard men could solo like Keith Emerson. Even here, in a relatively balanced collection of material, the album shows the beginnings of a dark, savage, imposingly gothic edge that had scarcely been seen before in so-called “art rock,” mostly courtesy of Emerson’s larger-than-life organ and synthesizer attacks. Greg Lake’s beautifully sung, deliberately archaic “Lucky Man” had a brush with success on FM radio, and Carl Palmer became the idol of many thousands of would-be drummers based on this one album (especially for “Three Fates” and “Tank”), but Emerson emerged as the overpowering talent here for much of the public. (by Bruce Eder)
