Disc 1:
[1] Piercing glances - 7:54
[2] Etude revisited - 5:24
[3] A palace of pearls - 5:58
[4] Original sin - 8:14
[5] Dentures of the Gods - 6:25
[6] Deeper blue - 6:32
[7] Cobalt canyons - 7:30
Disc 2:
[1] Fin de siecle - 5:46
[2] Picnic on Vesuvius - 9:28
[3] Cerulean sea - 7:03
[4] Bent taqasim/ Torn drumbass - 5:40
[5] Cracking the midnight glass - 6:53
[6] Presidents day - 6:47
[7] 3 minutes of pure entertainment - 10:54
[8] Outer blue - 6:06
BILL BRUFORD is known to most
of the visitors to this page. He's a longtime member of King Crimson,
and has been a member of the influential groups Yes and U.K. When not
out with Crimson, Bill tours and records with his own group:
Earthworks. Bill recently started his own web site. On Blue Nights you
hear Bill at his wildest, and most expressive. The CD starts, as did
the live shows, with Bill playing alone on stage. There are a few drum
solos, a few improvised pieces where he shines, and a couple of Bill's
compositions from the earlier BLUE CD.
TONY LEVIN plays all his basses
on this cd: the Chapman Stick, NS Electric Upright, and the Music Man
bass (with funk fingers.) There's some featured Stick playing, a bowed
bass solo intro, and some featured wierdness from the Funk Fingers with
ring modulation(!)
DAVID TORN, well known for his
own albums and sound tracks, plays guitars - but that doesn't describe
much of the unique element he brings to this music. Unearthly loops,
electric oud, bouzouki... things like that give you a better idea of
how he sounds in the group. Also here is one of David's better known
compositions: Three Minutes of Pure Entertainment, from his classic
Cloud About Mercury CD. That CD had Bruford and Levin on it, which led
to the group doing 3 Minutes as an encore piece. (It lasts closer to 9
minutes now!)
CHRIS BOTTI on trumpet provides
the lead voice for the group. His own releases, on the Verve Forcast
label, are more jazz oriented than the playing with BLUE. Here, Chris
gets pretty wild, with the other players, but at many times pulls
things together with a great melodic sense, and sparse playing. Some of
the tracks feature duo introductions with Chris and guitar, which
weren't on the studio cd, but developed as the pieces were played live.
2000 CD Papa Bear Records 2
2000 CD Discipline Global Mobile 2
Having recorded the BLUE cd, the band toured Japan and various clubs in
the U.S, recording all the shows to multiple ADAT's. When it was all
over, all the performances were studied (not an easy job!) and the best
were chosen for this project. Mixing proved a pretty big job - blending
the sounds of different nights in different clubs into a cohesive
package. Too many good pieces to sqeeze into one CD, so we decided to
make it a double. Then the idea arose of having some remix engineers
take our live playing and use it for material for remixes. Possibly a
good idea for future PapaBear release, but we only had room for one
remix on this project - it's by SplatterCell, and is presented as a
bonus track, after a long pause at the end of CD2.
THE PACKAGE
As is usual with Papa Bear releases, there's a lot in the package. The
booklet contains excerpts (text and photos) from the Road Diaries that
appeared here on the site during the tour. There are some other photos
in the package, taken of the group onstage, and some shots of audiences
peek through from behind the cd's. This is the first of Papa Bear
Records releases to NOT have a custom cardboard package - it's just the
usual jewel case with insert panels and booklets. The reason for the
change is twofold: we've had mixed comments from our buyers about the
cardboard packages - some loving them, some requesting a more durable
package (hey, it's ART!) But the bigger reason is economical; to print
the previous packaging required as large a printing volume as possible,
to hold down the higher cost. So we estimated the eventual sales of
World Diary, From the Caves, and BLUE. Trouble is, when those initial
runs are all sold, it won't be possible to re-print in the same way.
The good news: anyone who has, or gets, any of the first runs of those
earlier cd's will have something of a collectors item - future runs
will be to jewel box.
THE TRACKS (Notes from the cd booklet)
Piercing Glances
We started off many shows with Bill entering the stage alone - then one
at a time, we would each join in. Having no plan for the piece, we were
as entertained as the audience to hear what would transpire at each
performance. On this night, after we'd each solo'd and eased into some
kind of piece, there was an unplanned segue into Etude Revisited.
Deeper Blue
As many songs have a life of their own, playing this one live changed
it a lot. The Botti/ Torn intro, free from drums and bass, developed
out on the road as Bill and I would sit and listen to the other two
musicians make magic.
Cobalt Canyons
Astute listeners who have heard the BLUE CD version of this piece will
notice the unusual addition of a vocal sample, strummed live into the
guitar pickups by electrical wizard Torn, to set up the tempo of the
rollicking live version.
Picnic on Vesuvius
This piece was born one night, at The Knitting Factory in New York
City. On playing an improvised piece, the band almost magically came up
with chords, a melody, rhythm, sections - all from out of the air.
After the show we ran to Robert Frazza, to check that the ADATs had
been recording the marvelous event. They hadn't. In fact, due to
technical problems, no tape had been running at all - we had no record
of the music. I knew we wouldn't remember all the intricacies, so I
came up with this solution; on the web site I re-quested any fans who
might have taped the show to please send a copy, so that we could learn
the piece that had only happened that one time. After some initial
reluctance (it's not kosher to tape shows) we were sent no less that
four tapes of that night. Though the quality was rough, we were able to
learn the piece, and played it thereafter. We called it "the Industrial
Improv" until Bill came up with the current title.
Cerulean Sea
On the BLUE cd this piece starts off with David Torn's outer space
loops, then the bass enters, and then the vocal drone on it's one note.
On tour, it seemed more challenging to start off with the vocal note
unaccompanied, and ... see whether the pitch was still in when the bass
joins in. (Many nights it wasn't!)
Torn Drumbass
The original composition is only the last minutes of this much more
complex version, where David Torn gives reign to his electric oud. He
titled his lead in Bent Taqasim which refers to an Arabic word for an
improvised out-of-time introduction.
Presidents Day
On the BLUE cd, this was a piece mixing Bill's furious electronic
drumming loops with improvised acoustic kit playing - all with the band
playing over it, and samples of various bits from elsewhere in the cd
thrown into the pot. Unable to match this concoction, we avoided the
piece on tour until one night, at the Theater of Living Arts in
Philadelphia, when we decided, on the spur of the moment, to try it.
3 Minutes of Pure Entertainment
A David Torn composition, from his classic CD Cloud About Mercury. Bill
and I had played on that release with David, and the wild playing
opportunities of this composition made it an ideal encore for the BLUE
group. The cd has Bill's introduction of the piece, where he chides
David Torn for having had too little drums in the mix of the original
album.
WHICH CLUBS
Track on BLUE NIGHTS were recorded at:
House of Blues / Boston
The Bottom Line / NYC
Theater of Living Arts / Philly
The ParkWest / Chicago
Orion Sound / Baltimore
The Birchmere Theater / Alexandria
TECHNICAL INFO
The shows were recorded to multiple ADAT machines. To mix, we used the
EMAGIC Logic Platinum system. Our recording and mixing engineer: Robert
Frazza, assisted in mixing by David Torn. Mastering was done by David
Torn. In the mastering process, we utilized the LINN Hi Fi System,
which was very helpful in fine tuning the sound, and revealing sound
problems.
Although Bill Bruford has been a member of the most prestigious prog
acts ever (King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, UK) his true love has to be
found in the direction of jazz and pure experiment. Together with
"buddy" Tony Levin, guitarist David Torn and trumpet player Chris
Botti, Bill delivers some "difficult to swallow" material by means of
the Bruford Levin Upper Extremities project. Recorded at various
locations throughout the States, the double album Blue Nights is a
pattern-card of what this foursome is capable of. In "Etude Revisited"
you get that repetitive pattern which has been apparent during the
latest King Crimson reincarnation and which has been so inspiring for
upcoming talent such as Ozone Quartet, Priam, Xang and Anomaly. In
"Cerulean Sea" an ambient intro makes way for some fierce bass slapping
which almost removed my speakers from their hinges! The interaction
between Bruford's jazzy drums, the soulful bass playing of Levin and
the occasional trumpet of Botti make "Original Sin" one hell of a
unique experience. If you thought the solo escapades of Bruford on
albums like Feels Good To Me and One Of A Kind were awesome then please
note that all of that superb stuff has been left aside in favour of
Earthworks and BLUE which in turn is not so evident, pure jazz. The
fact that there was an audience present was a bonus for the band
because you can clearly hear that the four had a wonderful time and
"fun" on stage regardless if there was a public or not. So Blue Nights
certainly isn't an album which you put in your CD-player whilst your
doing the dishes. Personally I preferred Bruford when he was creative
with Annette Peacock. Blue for me is a bit too much to really
appreciate, a little bit too technical and too sketchy instead of
outlined compositions.
Review courtesy John "Bo Bo" Bollenberg www.progressiveworld.net - Your Ultimate Guide To Progressive Music
This recording chronicles the live performances of Bruford Levin Upper
Extremities from 1998. The disc showcases the band's unique blend of
jazzy modes with Crimson-esque textures and, occasionally, just plain
weirdness. Many of the tracks become looser jams in the live
performance. For those who saw this tour, the disc will be a great
memento. For those who didn't, it will serve as a shining example of
what they missed, and encouragement to be more careful not to pass up
subsequent tours. The band is Tony Levin, Bill Bruford, Chris Botti,
and David Torn. Levin is certainly one of the greatest living electric
bass players, and the disc shows that fact off in fine fashion. Bill
Bruford's percussion work comes across as both very creative and quite
impeccable. Trumpeter Chris Botti calls to mind Miles Davis at times,
while carving out his own particular style. The last link, David Torn,
has a style that is nearly indefinable, combining strange guitar
textures with loop work for an art form that is almost peerless. And
the whole of this group, despite each member's separate abilities, is
so much more than the sum of the parts.