Colosseum
(Angel Air)
Born in the full flush of the late ‘60s British blues revival, Colosseum were contemporaries of Ten Years after, Savoy Brown and most notably, Cream, with whom they shared their exploratory inclinations. Not surprisingly, after Cream split, members of Colosseum went on the back up bassist Jack Bruce and even expropriated some of his songs for their repertoire. But while they wowed them in Europe, the band never made much of a dent on these shores, despite an array of talent that rivaled any of their peers - vocalist Chris Farlowe, guitarist Clem Clempson, drummer extraordinaire Jon Hiseman, bassist Mark Clarke, Dave Greenslade on keyboards and the late Dick Heckstall-Smith on all tenor and soprano saxophone, sometimes simultaneously. Their instrumental abilities made them very much a super group, albeit one that lacked the ballyhoo accorded peers like Cream and Blind Faith.
In some ways, their lack of wider success was at least partially a product of their own doing. Although they toured incessantly from 1968 to their final dissolve in 1971, and put out several fine albums, their penchant for free-style improvisation, progressive posturing and complex compositions that thwarted any attempt at accessibility limited their ability to draw a wider audience, particularly one weaned on catchy hooks and easily absorbed melodies. Nevertheless, a glance back in hindsight via this live reunion concert in 1994 offers opportunity to reexamine their formidable prowess.
Farlowe's still as blustery as he ever was, all soulful and swaggering, but it's the other members of the ensemble -especially Hiseman, Clempson and Heckstall-Smith - that take center stage with their freewheeling flights of fusion-esque dexterity. True to form, there are no hits here, their Jack Bruce covers "Rope Ladder to the Moon" and "Theme From an Imaginary Western," a trademark take on the venerable blues standard "Stormy Monday Blues, the title track of their signature disc Those About To Die Salute You and a few of Cream's signature riffs tossed off by Clempson early on notwithstanding. And truth be told, their tendency towards self-indulgence does find some of the longer instrumental forays growing somewhat tedious over time.
Still, with both a CD and accompanying DVD to offer emphasis, there's ample cause to suggest this is a band that deserved another go, and with it, perhaps a new and appreciative audience as well.
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Standout tracks: "Those About To Die," "Rope Ladder To The Moon," "Theme From An Imaginary Western" LEE ZIMMERMAN
