Monday, 2 September 2019
John Serry's two 'solo' albums Exhibition (1979) and Jazziz (1980)
That beautiful photo of a narrow street in presumably New York City is just priceless: portrait of the artist as a young man in bell bottom slacks. So here's the keyboardist of Auracle's 1st LP, viz., John Serry, Jr., setting out on his own solo journey with plenty of fresh ideas and energy and invention.
I love how finding one good album will often lead to discovering more material from related artists that is worth hearing. This sentence unfortunately fails to apply to a majority of posts on this blog but thankfully is fully applicable to today's. In fact these two nicely complement the Auracle two making a pretty package of quite accessible, yet often brilliant, late-day fusion in that typical US style that has been demonstrated endlessly on these pages: the so-called categories 2 and 4, to use the now universal throughout the world category description. Of course there is a basis of commercial jazz-rock to appeal to the masses, but you will see that John manages to make almost every track or composition unusual or unique in some way or another, either with odd chords or unexpected riffing that takes it beyond just about anything I'd expect to hear in the ordinary metropolitan summertime jazz festivals you'll see throughout the world full of senior citizens and cheap families looking for free concerts.
From the 1979 album, a track called Sabotage uses a relatively trite intro of C minor arpeggios then adds on a polytonal bass line and then flies into the stratosphere with a completely out of key soprano sax / guitar riff. If you listen carefully, note the interesting musical instruments used in the arrangement throughout the song:
From the second 1980 album, Song for You recalls so much the sweet Simon and Bard albums I've so cherished over the years, also may be Tim Eyermann's work in the later releases, like my favourite tune "The One that got Away."
The melody keeps on going through such odd changes and permutations from its relatively simple major beginning, it almost hypnotizes me to listen to this song. The pattern itself reminds me of a track from that masterpiece of category 2 fusion Skywhale -World at Mind's End an album that I pray everyone already knows well.
https://www21.zippyshare.com/v/jaDCAC8f/file.html
ReplyDeletehttps://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/yi4jul
Thank you so much!!
DeleteThank you very much.
ReplyDeleteOld friend , "Exhibition" (Grammy Nomination Best Inst.Arrangement "Sabotage"), a great lp , the other one i only knew the front cover , and for the "Jazziz" , many thank´s ! ...
ReplyDeletethx so much always informative blog:
ReplyDeletecomment from utoob fan:
"fusion fan
3 weeks ago
Fantastic album as is its predecessor Exhibition. Interesting story, I got to know a John when he visited the Uk some years ago and he stayed with me for a short while. I even ripped a copy of the Auracle Glider album to CD as he did not have an existing copy. Interestingly John said that for Exhibition he had hired two of the top session guitarists who turned up to recording assuming they could handle anything this young unknown musician had written. But when they saw the complexity of the music they bailed and John had to find a guitarist capable of mastering the complex music at short notice. Luckily he hired a Barry Finnerty who did an incredible job, as did Mike Sembello on Jazziz. John is a true virtuoso and I was privileged to see him with his live band he formed in London with the Mondesir brothers and Gary Bellamy.
"
wow thanks for the info, another one to seek out there
ReplyDeleteThanks! I've had Auracle's Glider for years but have never heard Serry's solo albums.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much
ReplyDelete