Private Collection, The - Rick Wakeman

Advantages: the beautiful voice of Bonnie Tyler
Disadvantages: nothing

...I would like to speak to you about Rick Wakeman, the famous keyboard player of your country (i'm french !) Little story of RW The little Rick learns the piano in five years because his father is one very big soloist ! Years pass and the young man plays in the english group "YES" with the very good singer Jon Anderson ! Wakeman amazes everybody and all the criticisms. He decides to steal his own wings and composes for him. In 1971, RW takes out his first album, alone in piano ! Three years after "Journey to the center of the earth" from Jules Verne. It's a world success ! Now, nobody can't stop him ! He composes more 50 albums in 20 years (studio, live and best of !) But, EMI, the famous english société ask to Rick to compose a suite (25 years after !) and gives him all the means necessaire for there ! Return to the Center... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Set a precedent for future use of keyboards in rock music
Disadvantages: Mastered from tape which "whines" on occasion

...that this is one of the most "covered" of Wakeman's tracks, a particularly good version having been recorded by the Japanese prog rock trio Ars Nova. This track also soars the album to its climactic close with multi-layered instrumentation that must have taken hours to record! The band that played on the album was a curious collection of Wakeman's friends. Members of different Yes line-ups appear on a few of the tracks, along with others such as Dave Cousins from his first group, The Strawbs, who plays electric banjo(!) on Catherine Howard. The CD master was taken from the original tapes, but sadly has not experienced the level of resotration that one might expect from such a seminal work. Indeed, occasional clicks are heard (which could have been removed), and some "whining" of the organs is audible on long notes. However, this only makes... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: progressive rock classic
Disadvantages: no

...Released back in 1972, "Fragile" is considered one of the greatest examples of the movement conventionally named as British prog/art rock. Unusually high trained rock musicians combine powers in order to produce an album that, for sure, has everything a good prog album needs. Sheer but controlled virtuosity, beautiful innovational melodies, complex but coherent structured music forms. A flavour of classical music is always being implied from times to times throughout the record, mostly due to Rick Wakeman's keyboard work. It was no surprise that Rick Wakeman followed a more "classical influenced" way in his solo works(check "journey to the center of the earth" to get a better idea of Rick's solo works). I think the title "Cans and Brahms" warns one clearly. What we actually have in this album, is a collection of progressive rock classics... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful