David Rose Group - Live

American violinist, David Rose, left the band Transit Express in the mid 70’s to pursue a solo career.  Joined by some of his former band members with Transit Express to form his new group, a live performance at L’Ouest de la Grosne was recorded by the late Jacky Barbier who died in 2002.  This is one of a series of recordings made at L’Ouest de la Grosne released by Musea as a tribute to Jacky, whose brief autobiography is contained in the sleeve notes.  David Rose released seven albums from 1977 to 1983.

The music is firmly in the progressive jazz-rock vein though he borrows freely from classical composers such as Bartok, Debussy and Satie.  Similarities can be drawn with Brand X, late 70’s Soft Machine and even Hatfield And The North in places.

Rose’s playing style on violin is similar to that of ex-Soft’s and Fairport Convention’s Ric Saunders both as an accompanying musician and as a soloist.

Bass is rich and smooth (Gerard Prevost) and keyboards (Serge Perathoner) delicate, intricate and expressive.  Drums (Claude Salmieri) and percussion (Gerard Kurdjian) arrangements are well thought out, often fast and atmospheric.

This genre within genres is not always easy to get into for the first time due to the sometimes-experimental nature of the compositions but the rhythms within the music here go a long way in assisting the novice listener.  The album runs to almost 72 minutes covering seven tracks with one piece, The Distance Between Dreams, lasting an incredible 23 minutes.  The music itself is timeless and could have been composed today or at any time in the past 30 years and the same can be said for the sound quality of the recording which itself is a tribute to Jacky Barbier.  Nice!

Jem Jedrzejewski

Musea

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