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Twenty years after having written
British jazzrock history as Soft Machine, Elton Dean, Allan
Holdsworth, Hugh Hopper and John Marshall got together to try and
evoke those magical moments once again. Recorded in only two days in
London on june 6th and 7th 2002 no doubt a lot
of attention goes to the pure jazz saxophone of Elton Dean who
occasionaly also confides himself to the fragile sound of the Fender
Rhodes. Some ‘connoisseurs’ go as far as saying that this new album
to them evokes memories of Soft Machine’s “Bundles” era. In all
honesty Dean’s input tends to put the emphasis of Soft Works rather
on authentic jazz than on jazzrock. Then again it’s Allan
Holdsworth’s unique style on both guitar and synthaxe which adds a
slight amount of rock within the concept. When you dissect Allan’s
way of playing on the synthaxe as during ‘Baker’s treat’ (a piece of
superb English humour as of course it concerns the London based
Baker Street !) it’s as if you’re listening to some authentic Alan
Gowen material recorded during his life with National Health. As if
Allan has succeeded to bring the dead back to life ! As the name of
the band implies a lot of compositions start out rather ‘soft’
before developping towards a more aggressive nature where of course
improvisation is the key word.
Already released in a different sleeve
on Universal in Japan and now licensed from Moonjune Records, no
doubt Tone Center has added this release to it’s roster mainly
because of the inclusion of Allan Holdsworth. Nevertheless it
remains a difficult collection of jazz inclinations with the largest
chunk reserved for the saxophone of Elton Dean. On the final track
‘Madame vintage’, Dean isn’t around which means you get a different
kind of music alltogether. Those of you who know the Holdsworth solo
albums “Atavachron” or “Metal fatigue” might like this track best
because it really highlights the technical skills of Holdsworth
whilst the rest of the material tends to drift away from the
jazzrock idiom whilst concentrating on the pure jazz elements.
Therefor I’m afraid this album won’t appeal to as many people as it
was intentionally meant for. |
