Five Bridges

Last updated

Five Bridges
NiceFiveBridges.jpg
Live album / Studio album by
The Nice
ReleasedJune 1970
Recorded17 October 1969 at Fairfield Halls, Croydon, London (except "Country Pie", live at Fillmore East, New York City on 20 December 1969 and "One of Those People", a 1969 studio recording)
Genre Progressive rock
Length45:20
Label
Producer The Nice [1]
The Nice chronology
Nice
(1969)		Five Bridges
(1970)		 Elegy
(1971)

Five Bridges is a live and studio album and fourth overall by English progressive rock band The Nice, released in June 1970 by Charisma Records. Most of the album was recorded live in concert at Fairfield Halls in Croydon, London, in October 1969. The final track, "One of Those People", is a studio recording. The album's centrepiece is "The Five Bridges Suite", a five-part composition about Newcastle upon Tyne that features the group performing with the Sinfonia of London session orchestra conducted by Joseph Eger.

Contents

The album was a commercial success in the UK, peaking at number two on the UK Albums Chart. [2] In the Q & Mojo Classic Special Edition Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock, the album came No. 29 in its list of "40 Cosmic Rock Albums". [3]

History

The work was commissioned for the Newcastle Arts Festival and premiered with a full orchestra conducted by Joseph Eger on 10 October 1969 (the recorded version is from 17 October in Croydon's Fairfield Halls). The title refers to the city's five bridges spanning the River Tyne (two more have since been built over the river, including the Gateshead Millennium Bridge), and the album cover, by Hipgnosis, features an image of the Tyne Bridge.

The five movements are:

Emerson used Walter Piston's well-known textbook on orchestration for the work. [4] Emerson credits Friedrich Gulda for inspiring the High Level Fugue, which uses jazz figures in the strict classical form.

Also included on the Five Bridges album were live performances from the same Fairfield Hall concert of the Sibelius Intermezzo and a movement from Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony. Both involved the orchestra playing the "straight" music juxtaposed with the trio's interpretations. Newly discovered material from this concert was later issued as part of a 3-CD set entitled Here Come The Nice.

The Five Bridges album also included a blending of Bob Dylan's "Country Pie" with Bach's "Brandenburg Concerto No. 6" (with a quote of Coleman Hawkins' jazz line "Rifftide" as well) and a studio recording of the original "One of Those People".

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [5]
TopTenReviewsStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [6]

Paul Stump's 1997 History of Progressive Rock called the album "ill-conceived", commenting that the orchestrated pieces are poorly meshed, with the rock band and orchestra playing either separately (as on the first few movements of "The Five Bridges Suite") or such that "The textures of neither genre are properly utilized; it is like listening to two transistor radios simultaneously playing ..." However, he cited the final two tracks as among the Nice's best works, elaborating that "['One of Those People'] perhaps illustrates the Nice's real gift: to reduce pop forms to their constituent parts, alter their horizontal profile by cutting down paragraphs and overturning expected progression of chords and rhythm, which gives Emerson just as much of a chance to display his considerable technique without recourse to braggadocio." [7] Mike DeGagne's retrospective review for Allmusic , in contrast, argued that "Intermezzo" and "Pathetique" "are marvelous examples of classical and rock commingling" and that throughout the album, "Each example of genre merging is pristine and fluid, making the actual overlapping of multiple styles completely transparent." [5]

Track listing

Side one

  1. "The Five Bridges Suite" (Keith Emerson, Lee Jackson) – 18:06
  • "Fantasia 1st Bridge"
  • "2nd Bridge"
  • "Chorale 3rd Bridge"
  • "High Level Fugue 4th Bridge"
  • "Finale 5th Bridge"

Side two

  2. "Intermezzo 'Karelia Suite'" (Sibelius, Arr. Emerson, Joseph Eger) – 9:01
  3. "Pathetique (Symphony No. 6, 3rd Movement)" (Tchaikovsky, Arr. Emerson, Joseph Eger) – 9:23
  4. "Country Pie/Brandenburg Concerto No. 6" (Bob Dylan, Johann Sebastian Bach) – 5:40
  5. "One of Those People" (Emerson, Jackson) – 3:08 (studio recording)
1990 CD Reissue

The 1990 CD reissue has 5 bonus tracks taken from 1972 compilation Autumn '67 - Spring '68 . These are:

  1. "The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack"
  2. "Flower King of Flies"
  3. "Bonnie K"
  4. "Diary of an Empty Day"
  5. "America"

The original album is tracks 1 to 8. The bonus tracks are tracks 9 to 13. The "Five Bridges Suite" track numbers bear no relation to the music, and the sleeve notes bear no relation to the CD tracks.

Sleeve Notes

  • "The Five Bridges Suite" – Tracks 1 to 8

CD Tracks

  1. "Fantasia 1st Bridge/2nd Bridge" (2.42)
  2. "Chorale 3rd Bridge" (3.27)
  3. "High Level Fugue 4th Bridge" (4.01)
  4. "Finale 5th Bridge" (7.59)

Actual Music

  1. "Fantasia 1st Bridge" (6.11)
  2. "2nd Bridge" (3.58)
  3. "Chorale 3rd Bridge" (3.32)
  4. "High Level Fugue 4th Bridge" (1.00)
  5. "Finale 5th Bridge" (3.26)
This means that Track 3 is actually the 2nd Bridge and Track 4 contains 3rd Bridge, 4th Bridge (at 3.32) and 5th Bridge.

Charts

Chart (1970/71)Position
Australia (Kent Music Report) [8] 28
United Kingdom (Official Charts Company)2
United States (Billboard 200)197

Personnel

The Nice

with:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emerson, Lake & Palmer</span> English progressive rock band

Emerson, Lake & Palmer were an English progressive rock supergroup formed in London in 1970. The band consisted of Keith Emerson (keyboards) of the Nice, Greg Lake of King Crimson, and Carl Palmer of Atomic Rooster. With nine RIAA-certified gold record albums in the US, and an estimated 48 million records sold worldwide, they are one of the most popular and commercially successful progressive rock groups of the 1970s, with a musical sound including adaptations of classical music with jazz and symphonic rock elements, dominated by Emerson's flamboyant use of the Hammond organ, Moog synthesizer, and piano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Emerson</span> English keyboardist, songwriter, and composer (1944–2016)

Keith Noel Emerson was an English keyboardist, songwriter, composer and record producer. He played keyboards in a number of bands before finding his first commercial success with the Nice in the late 1960s. He became internationally famous for his work with the Nice, which included writing rock arrangements of classical music. After leaving the Nice in 1970, he was a founding member of Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP), one of the early progressive rock supergroups.

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

The Nice were an English progressive rock band active in the late 1960s. They blended rock, jazz and classical music and were keyboardist Keith Emerson's first commercially successful band.

<i>Pictures at an Exhibition</i> (Emerson, Lake & Palmer album) 1971 live album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Pictures at an Exhibition is a live album by English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in November 1971 on Island Records. It features the group's rock adaptation of Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky, performed at Newcastle City Hall on 26 March 1971.

<i>The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack</i> 1968 studio album by The Nice

The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack is the 1968 debut album by the English psychedelic rock and progressive rock group the Nice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hilding Rosenberg</span> Swedish composer and conductor (1892–1985)

Hilding Constantin Rosenberg was a Swedish composer and conductor. He is commonly regarded as the first Swedish modernist composer, and one of the most influential figures in 20th-century classical music in Sweden.

Johann Ludwig Krebs was a German Baroque musician and composer for the pipe organ, harpsichord, other instruments and orchestras. His output also included chamber music, choral works and concertos.

Jackson Heights was a British progressive rock band from England. It formed in 1970 after The Nice organist and pianist, Keith Emerson, decided to leave the trio to form another band, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, leaving bassist-vocalist Lee Jackson and drummer Brian Davison on their own.

"Blue Rondo à la Turk" is a jazz standard composition by Dave Brubeck. It appeared on the album Time Out in 1959. It is written in 9
8 time, with one side theme in 4
4, and the choice of rhythm was inspired by the Turkish aksak time signatures. It was originally recorded by the Dave Brubeck Quartet with Dave Brubeck on piano, Paul Desmond on alto saxophone, Eugene Wright on bass, and Joe Morello on drums.

<i>Ars Longa Vita Brevis</i> (album) 1968 studio album by The Nice

Ars Longa Vita Brevis is the second album by the English progressive rock group the Nice.

Brian Davison, was a British musician. He is best known for playing drums with The Mark Leeman Five, The Nice, Brian Davison's Every Which Way, Refugee and Gong.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee Jackson (bassist)</span> English bassist

Keith Anthony Joseph "Lee" Jackson is an English bass guitarist known for his work in the Nice, a progressive-rock band, as well as his own band formed after the Nice, Jackson Heights, and finally Refugee with Nice drummer Brian Davison and Swiss keyboardist Patrick Moraz. Jackson plays bass left handed.

<i>Elegy</i> (The Nice album) 1971 live album by The Nice

Elegy was the final official album release by The Nice, Keith Emerson having since moved on to Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Lee Jackson to Jackson Heights and Brian Davison to Every Which Way. It consists of live versions of songs from earlier releases, a studio take of a Tchaikovsky piece ("Pathetique") that had been released live on the previous album and a previously unheard cover of Dylan's "My Back Pages". Released a year after The Nice's final show in March 1970 in an attempt to capitalize on ELP's burgeoning success, the album achieved number 5 in the UK album chart.

<i>From the Beginning</i> (box set) 2007 box set by Emerson, Lake & Palmer

From the Beginning is a box set which presents aural and visual documentation celebrating Emerson, Lake & Palmer's career; consisting of five discs that include a number of single b-sides, significant live recordings, alternative studio mixes and material taken from band rehearsals, plus a bonus DVD featuring 'The Manticore Years' documentary, presented in a deluxe book-style sleeve complete with a 60-page picture booklet containing extensive sleeve notes by the band discussing the ELP years. It also contains rare and previously unseen photographs and images.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ferruccio Busoni discography</span>

Ferruccio Busoni discography is a list of recordings of music composed or adapted by Ferruccio Busoni. For recordings of music with Busoni as pianist, see Ferruccio Busoni discography.

<i>Autumn 67 – Spring 68</i> 1972 compilation album by The Nice

Autumn '67 – Spring '68 is a 1972 compilation by the English psychedelic rock and progressive rock group the Nice. The album consists of outtakes and alternate versions of previously released songs, which were recorded between Autumn 1967 and Spring 1968.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chorale</span> German Protestant church hymn

A chorale is the name of several related musical forms originating in the music genre of the Lutheran chorale:

References

  1. ↑ "Nice, The – Five Bridges (LP) at Discogs". www.discogs.com. 23 August 1970. Retrieved 3 October 2009.
  2. ↑ "The Official Charts Company – The Nice – Five Bridges". Official Charts Company . Retrieved 3 October 2009.
  3. ↑ Q Classic: Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock, 2005.
  4. ↑ "Keith Emerson obituary, The Guardian" . Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  5. 1 2 DeGagne, Mike. Five Bridges at AllMusic
  6. ↑ "TopTenReviews – External Link". www.toptenreviews.com. Retrieved 5 December 2009.
  7. ↑ Stump, Paul (1997). The Music's All that Matters: A History of Progressive Rock. Quartet Books Limited. pp. 58, 87–88. ISBN   0-7043-8036-6.
  8. ↑ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 217. ISBN   0-646-11917-6.
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.