A Scarcity of Miracles

Last updated
A Scarcity of Miracles
A Scarcity of Miracles.jpg
Studio album by
Jakszyk, Fripp and Collins
ReleasedMay 30, 2011
Genre
Length42:22
Label Discipline Global Mobile
Producer Robert Fripp, Jakko Jakszyk
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
All About Jazz positive [1]
PopMatters positive [2]

A Scarcity of Miracles is the lone album by Jakszyk, Fripp and Collins, released in 2011. It united singer and guitarist Jakko Jakszyk with three musicians best known from King Crimson, guitarist Robert Fripp, saxophonist Mel Collins and bassist/Chapman Stick player Tony Levin. Porcupine Tree member Gavin Harrison was featured on drums. Jakszyk and Harrison would go on to participate together in the next incarnation of King Crimson.

Contents

Presented as "a King Crimson ProjeKct" (or spin-off), the album started as a series of improvisations between Jakszyk and Fripp, with Collins adding his parts later. Levin and Harrison joined in near the end of the process, once Jakszyk had shaped the material into songs with fully formed melodies and lyrics.

Background

Originally the frontman for eccentric English progressive pop band 64 Spoons, Jakko Jakszyk had an intermittent solo career (as well as putting in a stint as guitarist for Level 42), leading the one-off Dizrhythmia project (with Gavin Harrison) and working with a variety of musicians including Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin, Swing Out Sister, Jansen Barbieri Karn and Tom Robinson. Between 2002 and 2007, he sang and played guitar for 21st Century Schizoid Band, a project set up to reunite King Crimson members from the 1960s and 1970s lineups of the band and to play the band's music from that period. This brought him closer into the King Crimson circle, as did his 2006 solo album The Bruised Romantic Glee Club which included contributions from various King Crimson members (including Robert Fripp and Mel Collins), as well as covers of two tracks by the band.

For The Bruised Romantic Glee Club, Fripp had invited Jaksyzk to build new songs on the foundations of existing Fripp soundscapes. For what would become A Scarcity of Miracles, the two recorded new improvised instrumental sessions together in Wiltshire, England with no particular intention of making an album. [3] With Fripp's agreement, Jakszyk took the resulting recordings and again reworked them into full songs. Collins (a frequent Jakszyk collaborator) subsequently "heard unplayed sax waiting to be given voice" and joined the developing project. [3] With the majority of the music now recast, a full album took shape. Levin and Harrison (the latter another longstanding Jakszyk friend and collaborator) subsequently recorded the rhythm tracks. [4]

Reviewing A Scarcity of Miracles in All About Jazz, John Kelman commented that "it may lack the sharp corners, jagged edged and harder surfaces of latter-day Crimson, and there's none of the overt symphonic prog of early Crim, but Jakszyk's refined vocals, soft-spoken playing and haunting songwriting, Fripp's searing lines and orchestral soundscaping, and Collins' soaring soprano sax melodies make for the best group record—Crimson or no—to come from the Fripp camp in nearly thirty years." [1]

With A Scarcity of Miracles tagged as "a King Crimson ProjeKct", speculation arose that it might be the basis of the next line-up of King Crimson (the main band itself having been on hiatus since 2008, and having described earlier works entitled ProjeKcts as research and development work since 1999). Like the covers of many King Crimson albums produced by Discipline Global Mobile, the cover of A Scarcity of Miracles featured a painting by P J Crook, providing an additional conceptual link. At the time, Fripp himself gently denied and clarified the project's position by describing the record as "one of my favourite albums of those where I am a determining element. It has the Crimson gene, but it is not quite KC." [4] However, when a new seven-person line-up of King Crimson was announced in September 2013, it consisted of all five musicians involved in the album plus longtime Crimson drummer Pat Mastelotto and drummer/keyboardist Bill Rieflin. This line-up went on to be the longest continuous one in King Crimson history (later adding drummer Jeremy Stacey in 2016), and performed a couple of Miracles pieces as part of their live set (the title track and "The Light of Day") during 2014-2016.

Track listing

  1. "A Scarcity of Miracles" (7:27)
  2. "The Price We Pay" (4:49)
  3. "Secrets" (7:48)
  4. "This House" (8:37)
  5. "The Other Man" (5:59)
  6. "The Light of Day" (9:02)

Personnel

Additional personnel

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King Crimson</span> English progressive rock band

King Crimson were a progressive rock band formed in 1968 in London, England. The band drew inspiration from a wide variety of music, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, folk, heavy metal, gamelan, industrial, electronic, experimental music and new wave. They exerted a strong influence on the early 1970s progressive rock movement, including on contemporaries such as Yes and Genesis, and continue to inspire subsequent generations of artists across multiple genres. The band earned a large cult following.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Fripp</span> British guitarist, composer, record producer, and author

Robert Fripp is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, and author, best known as the guitarist, founder and longest-lasting member of the progressive rock band King Crimson. He has worked extensively as a session musician and collaborator, notably with David Bowie, Blondie, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Daryl Hall, Midge Ure, Talking Heads, and David Sylvian. He also composed the startup sound of Windows Vista operating system, in collaboration with Tucker Martine and Steve Ball. His discography includes contributions to over 700 official releases.

<i>Thrak</i> 1995 studio album by King Crimson

THRAK is the eleventh studio album by the band King Crimson released in 1995 through Virgin Records. It was preceded by the mini-album VROOOM in 1994. It is their first full-length studio album since Three of a Perfect Pair eleven years earlier, and the only full album to feature the "Double Trio" lineup of Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Trey Gunn, Bill Bruford and Pat Mastelotto. It is also the last time all members from the Discipline era would work together, the last new album to feature Bruford, and Levin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mel Collins</span> British musician

Melvyn Desmond Collins is a British saxophonist, flautist and session musician.

21st Century Schizoid Band were a King Crimson alumnus group formed in 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jakko Jakszyk</span> Musical artist

Michael "Jakko" Jakszyk is an English musician, record producer, and actor. He has released several solo albums as a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as lead singer and second guitarist of King Crimson between 2013 and 2021 succeeding Adrian Belew in the role. His work has been variously credited to "Jakko", "Jakko Jakszyk", and "Jakko M. Jakszyk".

The ProjeKcts are a succession of spin-off projects associated with the band King Crimson.

The Crimson Jazz Trio was a jazz trio led by drummer Ian Wallace, formerly of King Crimson, who re-interpreted King Crimson's music.

"Islands" is the title and closing track of the album of the same name by the progressive rock band, King Crimson, released in 1971. The song's pastoral, mellow, and quiet feeling distinguish it from the album's first four tracks. The song was played live only a few times in 1971, with Collins using a regular concert flute, and Fripp playing guitar in place of Marc Charig's cornet.

The Elements of King Crimson is a box set series by King Crimson. Originally created to promote the band's 2014 tour of the same name, it is sold exclusively through the band's merchandise booth on the tour and from the Discipline Global Mobile online stores.

<i>Live at the Orpheum</i> 2015 live album by King Crimson

Live at the Orpheum is a live album by the band King Crimson, released by Discipline Global Mobile records in 2015. The album was recorded on 30 September and 1 October at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, California on the band's The Elements of King Crimson US tour of 2014.

David Singleton is an English record producer, audio engineer, record label director, musician, songwriter, author and Internet entrepreneur. He is best known as the production and business partner of Robert Fripp of King Crimson.

<i>Radical Action to Unseat the Hold of Monkey Mind</i> 2016 box set by King Crimson

Radical Action to Unseat the Hold of Monkey Mind is a box set of live performances by King Crimson, released on 2 September 2016. It is the first full-length release by the seven member incarnation of the group that formed in 2013.

<i>Live in Toronto</i> (King Crimson album) 2016 live album by King Crimson

Live in Toronto is a live album by the band King Crimson, released by Discipline Global Mobile records in 2016. The album was recorded on 20 November at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Toronto, Canada during the band's The Elements of King Crimson tour of 2015. It is the second full-length release by the current seven-piece incarnation of the band and featured new compositions never before released by the band on record.

<i>Live in Chicago</i> (King Crimson album) 2017 live album by King Crimson

Live in Chicago, or Official Bootleg: Live in Chicago, June 28, 2017, is a live album by the English progressive rock band King Crimson, released through Discipline Global Mobile records on 14 October 2017. The album was recorded on 28 June at the Chicago Theatre in Chicago, Illinois during the band's 2017 United States tour. It is the first full-length release by the eight-piece incarnation of the band and features new songs and rearrangements of compositions mostly from the early 1970s.

<i>Live in Vienna</i> (King Crimson album) 2017 live album by King Crimson

Live in Vienna, or Live in Vienna, December 1, 2016, is a triple-disc live album by the English progressive rock band King Crimson, originally released in a limited capacity in Japan as Live in Vienna 2016 + Live in Tokyo 2015 on 27 September 2017. The expanded album, just titled Live in Vienna, was released through Discipline Global Mobile on 6 April 2018.

<i>Meltdown: Live in Mexico City</i> 2018 live album by King Crimson

Meltdown: Live in Mexico City is a Blu-ray and triple-disc CD live album by the English progressive rock band King Crimson. Recorded over five nights in July 2017, Meltdown was released on 20 October 2018 and was produced by the band's keyboardist Bill Rieflin from Multitrack recordings. The release was announced in August 2018 and was preceded by streaming of the track "Indiscipline" on 4 October.

<i>Secrets & Lies</i> (album) 2020 studio album by Jakko M. Jakszyk

Secrets & Lies is the eighth solo album by English musician Jakko M. Jakszyk, released on 23 October 2020 by InsideOut Music. It is his first release since 2009's Waves Sweep the Sand. Showcasing his diversity and many of his influences, it features progressive rock pieces that originated from King Crimson writing sessions, intimate ballads, and excursions into world music. The album was promoted by the release of three singles and accompanying music videos: "The Trouble With Angels", "It Would All Make Sense", and "Uncertain Times".

<i>The Bruised Romantic Glee Club</i> 2006 studio album by Jakko M. Jakszyk

The Bruised Romantic Glee Club is the fifth solo album by English musician Jakko M. Jakszyk. it was his first release in 9 years since 1997s The Road to Ballina and first since the breakup of the 21st Century Schizoid Band, a band featuring former members of early lineups of the progressive rock band King Crimson. Jakszyk was the only member who previously hadn't been a member of the band though he did join the band when they reformed in 2013. Due to Jakszyk's membership of the Schizoid band, the album features members of the band.

References

  1. 1 2 Kelman, John (27 May 2011). "Jakszyk, Fripp & Collins: A Scarcity of Miracles". allaboutjazz.com. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  2. ↑ Kozar, Ron (23 March 2012). "Robert Fripp: An Appreciation | PopMatters". popmatters.com. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  3. 1 2 Sleevenotes from A Scarcity of Miracles, Panegyric 2011
  4. 1 2 Burning Shed page for A Scarcity of Miracles
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.