Emerson Lake & Palmer - A Time And A Place (2010)

El Mago Alberto nos deja un box de 4 CD del trío mágico en vivo y salido en el 2010. Las palabras sobran...

Artista: Emerson Lake & Palmer

Álbum: A Time And A Place
Año: 2010
Género: Rock sinfónico
Nacionalidad: Inglaterra

Lista de Temas:
Disc One: The Early 70's
1. The Barbarian [Isle of Wight Festival, Isle Of Wight, UK on August 29, 1970]
2. Take A Pebble [Beat Club, Bremen, Germany on November 26, 1970]
3. Ballad Of Blue [Lyceum Ballroom, London, UK on December 9, 1970]
4. High Level Fugue [Lyceum Ballroom, London, UK on December 9, 1970]
5. Hoedown [Mar Y Sol Festival, Veja Baja, San Juan, Puerto Rico on April 2, 1972]
6. Still. You Turn Me On [The Civic Center, Tulsa, OK on March 7, 1974]
7. Lucky Man [The Civic Center, Tulsa, OK on March 7, 1974]
8. Karn Evil 9 (1st, 2nd & 3rd Impressions) [Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, CA on Feb. 2, 1974]
Disc Two: The Late 70's
1. Peter Gunn Theme [The Coliseum, Wheeling, WV on November 18, 1977]
2. Pictures At An Exhibition [The Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, TN on November 20, 1977]
3. Tiger In A Spotlight [The Coliseum, Wheeling, WV on November 18, 1977]
4. Maple Leaf Rag [The Coliseum, Wheeling, WV on November 18, 1977]
5. Tank [The Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY on February 9, 1978]
6. Drum Solo [The Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY on February 9, 1978]
7. The Enemy God Dances With The Black Spirits [The Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY on 1978]
8. Watching Over You [The Coliseum, Wheeling, WV on November 18, 1977]
9. Pirates [The Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, TN on November 20, 1977]
10. Tarkus [The Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY on February 9, 1978]
11. Show Me The Way To Go Home [The Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, TN on November 20, 1977]
Disc Three: The 90's
1. Knife Edge [Wiltern Theater, Los Angeles, CA on March 17, 1993]
2. Paper Blood [Obras Stadium, Buenos Aires, Argentina on April 5, 1993]
3. Black Moon [Waterloo Village Concert Field, Stanhope, NJ on July 31, 1992]
4. Creole Dance [The Estadio, Santiago, Chile on April 1, 1993]
5. From The Beginning [The Spodek, Katowice, Poland on June 22, 1997]
6. Honky Tonk Train Blues [Universal Amphitheater, Los Angeles, CA on Sept. 25, 1997]
7. Affairs Of The Heart [Waterloo Village Concert Field, Stanhope, NJ on July 31, 1992]
8. Touch And Go [Wiltern Theater, Los Angeles, CA on March 17, 1993]
9. A Time And A Place [Casino Ballroom, Hampton Beach, VA on August 1, 1998]
10. Bitches Crystal [Universal Amphitheater, Los Angeles, CA on September 25, 1997]
11. Instrumental Jam [Obras Stadium, Buenos Aires, Argentina on April 5, 1993]
12. Fanfare For The Common Man - America - Rondo [Obras Stadium, Buenos Aires, Argentina on Apr 5, 1993]
Disc Four: This Boot's For You - A Fan's View
1. Introduction [Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA on July 19, 1971]
2. The Endless Enigma [Long Beach Arena, Long Beach, CA on July 28, 1972]
3. Abaddon's Bolero [The Town Hall, Louisville, KY on April 21, 1972]
4. Jeremy Bender - The Sheriff [The Olympiahalle, Munich, Germany on April 24, 1973]
5. Toccata (includes Drum Solo) [Friedrich-Ebert-Halle, Ludwingshaven, Germany on April 10, 1973]
6. Jerusalem [Henry Lewit Arena, Wichita, KS on March 26, 1974]
7. Nutrocker [Boston Gardens, Boston, MA on July 12, 1977]
8. C'est La Vie [Boston Gardens, Boston, MA on July 12, 1977]
9. Piano Concerto #1 3rd Movement [Veteran's Memorial Auditorium, Des Moines, IA on June 12, 1977]
10. Closer To Believing [Veteran's Memorial Auditorium, Des Moines, IA on June 12, 1977]
11. Close To Home [Warfield Theater, San Francisco, CA on March 14, 1993]
12. I Believe In Father Christmas [Beacon Theater, New York, NY on November 17, 1993]

Alineación:
- Greg Lake / vocals, bass and guitars
- Keith Emerson / keyboards and synthethizers
- Carl Palmer / drums and percussion

Aquí el comentario del Mago...

A estas alturas cuando ya ha corrido mucha agua bajo el puente es casi ridículo ponerse a reseñar los trabajos de Emerson Lake and Palmer, trío ícono del rock progresivo cuasi fundadores del estilo, si hasta la vida misma los despide en ese formato, primero se fue Emerson, luego se fue Lake y después le tocará el turno a Palmer. Si hay algo que caracterizó al trío fue su fanatismo en ensayar y ensayar y tocar muchísimo, y el resultado siempre fue de excelencia.
En esta ocasión cae al blog una producción cuádruple de actuaciones en vivo, tres directos de consola (los primeros) y un cuarto con tomas de audiencia que es un tanto anecdótico.
Los tres primeros volúmenes son de una brillantez absoluta, la versión completa de "Karn Evil 9" es sencillamente para el asombro, más sabiendo de la complejidad de la instrumentación, un verdadero orgasmo musical, falto la vocecita de Speddy Gonzalez pero es una aberración particular solamente, el resto es un paseo musical por sus discos mas representativos. Admirable también las mezclas,los paneos, un esfuerzo increíble por la tecnología disponible de entonces. Quienes no hayan escuchado estas grabaciones y son fanas del progresivo y del trío en cuestión, estarán de regocijo absoluto.
Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends.

Mago Alberto

Vamos con los comentarios en inglés...

With two-thirds of progressive rock supergroup Emerson, Lake & Palmer having just completed its first tour in over a decade—an intimate theatrical tour featuring keyboardist Keith Emerson and guitarist/bassist/vocalist Greg Lake, billed as an unplugged warm-up for July, 2010, when the full trio will reunite for what is, so far, a single date at London's High Voltage Festival---a box set that collects live performances from the group's quarter-century off-again/on-again career seems to make a lot of sense. And with Shout! Factory at the helm—following a reissue program, over the past couple years, that has seen ELP's original discography get the remaster/deluxe/expansion treatment—the four-disc A Time and a Place is as comprehensive a collection of the group's repertoire as has ever been released in a readily available set.
As with many legacy groups, ELP hasn't been shy about jumping on the "bootleg series" bandwagon, releasing no fewer than four box sets (not including a two-disc "best of) that have delivered a whopping thirty CDs of live performances, with quality ranging from the superb to the abysmal. Other than pathological fans, who truly needs over 60 hours of live performances from a group that, in its 1970s heyday, only released seven studio albums and three live albums, with the underwhelming Black Moon (Shout! Factory, 1992), delivered when the group reformed in the early 1990s, after imploding in 1979? Isn't nearly five hours enough? Based on A Time and A Place, it sure is...and, for the most part, in the most positive way possible.
For those who haven't invested an arm and a leg for ELP's four Original Bootleg Series From the Manticore Vaults box sets, A Time and a Place is more than enough for any longtime fan...or, for that matter, newcomers to a group that, in its prime, was one of the most exciting live progressive rock groups of its time—but, in its fall from grace, represented everything wrong with progressive rock. Emerging in the late 1960s and peaking in the mid-1970s, with individual albums by groups including Yes and ELP selling in the millions, the punk/new wave movement ultimately delivered a fatal blow, with progressive rock falling completely out of popular/commercial favor for nearly two decades, until the internet's emergence began a groundswell of a global fan base, creating a kind of prog rock renaissance that has continued well into this millennium. Prog hasn't reached anywhere near the kind of sales that it did in its heyday, but for many it has become self-sustaining once again, engendering a whole new group of fans interested in legacy groups like ELP, making the release of A Time and a Place particularly welcome.
Broken into four discs—The Early '70s (the group at its best), The Late '70s (the group in decline), The '90s (a group trying to rebuild/rediscover itself) and a fourth disc, This Boot's For You: A Fan's View, that collects some true bootleg quality recordings of ELP songs which stand out for a variety of reasons—A Time and a Place accurately portrays all the strengths and weaknesses of a group that combined elements of classical, jazz, rock 'n' roll and more into a distinctive, majestic, powerful—and equally, bombastic, self-indulgent but still glorious—sound. When it works—as it does throughout much of this collection of concert material, ranging from the group's very first live performance at the Isle of Wight Festival in the summer of 1970 (the entire performance released by Eagle Rock in 2006 as Isle of Wight 1970: The Birth of a Band) through to its last shows as a group in 1997—it's very, very good; but when it doesn't, it's as cringe-worthy as it ever was (Greg Lake, in particular, whose ego has known few, if any, bounds and can be heard in all its, um, glory, here).
ELP was a group that began life with an almost crippling problem: a stylistic dichotomy, that only got worse as time went on, and its massive success (multiple millions sold, arenas packed to the nosebleeds) fed equally massive egos. Emerson—not the first to use the nascent Moog Synthesizer of the late 1960s, but certainly the one to popularize it, traveling with an unwieldy studio version sporting a large patch panel that looked like a then-telephone operator's nightmare—was the group's most talented, stylistically broad player. Whether stabbing knives into a Hammond organ while riding it around the stage; using a ribbon controller to act as a combined phallus/weapon during the peak of ELP's early epic, the 20-minute title track to Tarkus (Atlantic, 1971); or playing a baby grand piano lifted into the air and spun high above the crowd, Emerson combined exhilarating showmanship with stunning virtuosity. There may be no visuals at play here, but it's difficult not to be impressed by his performances, especially on the Early '70s disc—clearly this Jimi Hendrix of the keyboards' prime.
Emerson's combined organ, piano and synth work is simply mindboggling on a live version of the 35-minute "Karn Evil 9" suite on the Early '70s disc, the crowning masterpiece of 1973's Brain Salad Surgery (Manticore) and ELP's undeniable high water mark, one that set the bar so high for the group that it never managed to come close to it again. Keyboardists are known for independent left/right hand thinking, but Emerson takes it to another level, while playing with a ferocity that few, if any, progressive rock keyboardists have, before, then or since. To cap off this terrific performance, the recording quality is actually better than that on the group's officially released live album from back in the day, 1974's Welcome Back My Friends, To the Show That Never Ends (Manticore)—fuller, meatier, louder.
The problem that faced ELP since inception, however, was that, as much as Emerson wanted to pursue complex compositions that fed the group's stunning virtuosity—and with drummer Carl Palmer happy to go along for the ride, a percussionist whose time may have been less than ideal, but whose orchestral approach to his massive drum kit (complete with gongs and tympani) was a perfect foil for Emerson—Lake wanted to be something else entirely: a romantic singer/songwriter. True, his largely acoustic ballad, "Lucky Man," would become the group's first major radio hit, and it remains a fine song, but later albums seemed almost contractually bound to feature at least one of his insipid love songs. And plenty of them find a home on A Time and a Place.
"From the Beginning," from Trilogy (Atlantic, 1972), wasn't such a bad tune, and the 1997 version here sounds fine, although Lake's voice, by this time, had lost much of its range, and become rough-edged in ways that didn't always work, especially considering his voice was once so sweet. The '90s' opener—a visceral look at "Knife-Edge," from Emerson, Lake & Palmer (Atlantic, 1970)—is marred, throughout, by Lake's inability to deliver the lines that made his original performance so powerful. Yes, everyone ages and voices' range drop, but at the time of this recording, the King Crimson co-founder was only 50 years old.
Still, Lake was—and is, in 2010—nothing if not a consummate professional, and he does work with the ravishing limitations that time and lifestyle have imposed on what was once one of the better voices in British progressive rock. Palmer's playing on The '90s set is also evidence of a drummer less over-eager and, consequently, demonstrating better time and some admirable restraint that works well on later tunes like the backbeat-driven "Touch and Go," and even performances of older tunes like the swinging "Bitches Crystal" and thundering "A Time and a Place," both originally found on Tarkus. Emerson's later physical issues are no secret, and while he's simply not capable of the stunning virtuosity of his younger days—towards the end of his solo on the power chord-driven "Paper Blood," his hands seem to run away with themselves—he's still an example of how massive fame can, in many ways, become inherently self-limiting. Had he not been "The" Keith Emerson of ELP, who knows what he might have been able to do, unhindered by the expectations of a huge, but ultimately largely fickle, fan base? Certainly, more than his trio mates, he demonstrates true and unerring credibility, whether he's delivering a classical tour de force on his loose interpretation of Argentinean classical composer Ginestera on "Creole Dance," playing some charming honky tonk on "Maple Leaf Rag," or creating layers of synth on an early version of "Abbadon's Bolero" from Trilogy, introduced here as "Bolona's Bolero."
The 1990s set is the best-recorded, but the 1970s recordings are also well above the merely acceptable. Still, "Ballad of Blue" and "High Level Fugue"—both excerpts from Emerson, Lake & Palmer's standout piano track, "Take a Pebble" that show how ELP was, in its early days, an exciting, improvising group that could, and often did, go to unexpected places in performance—sound as though they might have been taken from the audience but cleaned up exceptionally well. The fourth disc is, as the title suggests, true bootleg quality, but is also absolutely listenable. Two tracks from the Trilogy tour that were performed only briefly before being dropped from the set list—"Abbadon's Bolero" and, more importantly, the episodic "Endless Enigma," the album's high point and a track that's not been heard on any commercial ELP live recording, outside the From the Vault series—make the inclusion of another less-impressive rarity, a medley of the novelty tracks "Jeremy Bender" and "The Sheriff," at the very least forgivable.
Another Ginestera piece, "Toccata," from the "Someone Get Me a Ladder" tour of 1973-74, is lower-fi still, but includes Palmer's lengthy drum solo that's omitted from the abbreviated version on Welcome Back My Friends. It's also now possible to hear Emerson's "Piano Concerto #1 3rd Movement" with orchestra, as opposed to the trimmed-down version on In Concert (Atlantic, 1979)—ELP's contractual swan song that also emphasized material from the group's over-ambitious and over-inflated Works tour of 1976-77, where plans to carry a full symphony orchestra were scuttled, mid-tour, when the group realized that, even with sold-out houses, it simply couldn't sustain the expense.
There's plenty of bombast and excess to be found—specifically Palmer's lengthy drum solo on The late '70s disc, where a thundering mid-point bass drum is a clear visual, for anyone who was there, of Palmer taking the opportunity to go topless before bashing two gongs behind him in a moment that was clear inspirations for Rob Reiner's 1984 mockumentary, This is Spinal Tap. And while it would become nearly iconic, the "rockin' classic" version of Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" might have been massively famous, but it still points to a group on a creative downward slope. It possesses none of the remarkable compositional and arrangement strengths of "Tarkus" and "Karn Evil 9"—or, for that matter, ELP first classical adaptation, Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition," heard here on The Late '70s as a reduced 15-minute medley that may be a far cry from the full 35-minute version of Pictures at an Exhibition (Atlantic, 1971), but remains far stronger than "Fanfare" ever was.
Thankfully it's easy to program out huge missteps like Lake's saccharine acoustic music from Works Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (both Manticore, 1977) and embarrassing moments like the old bar-closer, "Show Me the Way to Go Home." But in a set of nearly five hours, 30 minutes of avoidable music is still a pretty good signal-to-noise ratio. Coupled with Welcome Back, the incredible highs and, occasionally, embarrassing lows of A Time and a Place make a strong case for this group that has ultimately been both revered and reviled...and with good reasons on both counts. Unless ELP heads back into the studio to record a new album—and make it a damn good one—A Time and a Place is the final word for Emerson, Lake & Palmer as a live act. And, overall, a fine one it is.

John Kelman

On paper it looks great: a three-CD retrospective of ELP's career, drawn entirely from live performances, with a fourth disc of bootleg audience recordings (subtitled "a fan's view", but honestly aren't they all?)
Even better, and unlike the comprehensive but completely haphazard "Return of the Manticore" box from 1993, the selections in each set (official and illegal) are arranged in chronological order. When heard from start to finish the program follows the entire trajectory of the band's life span, from Progressive supergroup to dinosaur has-beens to their bittersweet rebirth on the nostalgia circuit in the 1990s. All in all an invaluable history lesson, in just over four hours.
So I had high hopes for this package. But the experience of actually listening to it was more than a little frustrating, for a number of reasons. Even before arriving at the bootleg tapes on Disc Four the audio quality is wildly inconsistent, because the material comes from so many sources. And the standard of the supposed re-mastering is lackluster at best: much of the music here has been previously (or was subsequently) released, and sounds better elsewhere.
Not surprisingly, the gems are all front-loaded onto the first half of Disc One, dating back to the band's "first debut performance ever", according to a confused emcee at the Isle of Wight Festival in August of 1970 (it was actually ELP's "second debut performance ever"). Robert Fripp, who at the time expressed an interest in joining the new group when the future of KING CRIMSON was looking bleak, puts the embryonic trio in perspective: "For a while it looked as if ELP might hold the possibility of carrying forward the aspirations of Crimson. The while was very short."
Sour grapes, perhaps, after his advances were spurned by Keith Emerson. But you can hear what he meant in these recordings: the excitement of those early gigs is still palpable over forty years later. The CD cheats by including separate excerpts from "Take a Pebble" under different titles ("Ballad of Blue" is Greg Lake's acoustic section, with singing; "High Level Fugue" is more of the Emerson solo spot in the song), but it's fascinating to hear the pianist test driving riffs from "Tarkus", "Tank", and Aaron Copeland's "Hoedown", long before they appeared in studio form.
That initial, innovative spirit was too soon sidetracked by success, and in retrospect the Prog Rock pioneers didn't actually progress too far after 1971, except in sales and surplus equipment. The "Works"-era gigs on Disc Two drive that point emphatically home: it's easily he weakest of the first three CDs, and doesn't even include any samples from the full orchestral leg of the tour.
The band's comeback in the '90s, represented on Disc Three, at least exhibited more vitality (if not originality). And the fan recordings on Disc Four include some rare performances ("The Endless Enigma"; "Abaddon's Bolero"), small consolation for the not unexpected and sometimes quite poor bootleg sound.
My advice to consumers, for what it's worth, is to skip this four-disc box altogether and go straight to the individual live releases from each era in ELP's checkered history: "Welcome Back My Friends..." for the classic '70s stuff; "Live at Nassau Coliseum '78" for the "Works" material; and "Live at the Royal Albert Hall" for the '90s reunion shows. Throw in the "Live at the Isle of Wight" concert CD or the original "Pictures at an Exhibition" and the band's history is more or less complete. You'll get the benefit of complete performances and better sound, both of which are conspicuously missing from this package. The legacy of ELP deserves something more than the fan's scrapbook presented here.

Michael Neumann

A nice little collection of animated ELP live material. Killer renditions of Tarkus and Fanfare. Includes some rarer material live like Touch And Go, performed in the 90s, drum solos in the 70s. There is 3 discs worth of material, plus a fourth disc of audience bootlegs. The 3 discs of soundboard recordings are just that... very low if audible integration of audience mikes, so it sounds like very raw studio work most of the time. I would prefer to listen to much of the material on this album compared to some of the live releases, like Works Live or Live At The Royal Albert Hall. Nice job ELP and a nice record cover to boot....
I cannot wait for another ELP studio album though. I think ELP has a lot of room to grow still. As this album shows, they have perfected their old music already!

Roy Fairbank

Wow, simply wow.
This gorgeous little package is a marvellous way to be dropped into the ELP live experience. I must say right away that I have not heard any of the other bootleg box set releases, so I'll leave it to others to complain if this is all merely repackaging of already available materials. If nothing else this is certainly more affordable than any of the other sets. So, that's something to be thankful for.
Pointless personal background material: ELP were one of the first prog groups that I truly fell for. I wore down my vinyl copies of those first five albums. I also had the Works albums and the dreaded one with the suntanned strangers on the cover. I was still convinced enough to buy a new album that swapped a Palmer for a Powell. By the 1990s some of the love had faded and I couldn't persuade myself to buy albums by a reunited team. The luster had dimmed. Since then I found myself in the trade of buying different company's remasters of those same first five albums. The love had returned, but I regretted never getting to hear any new material or at least some new variations on old themes. So, for me, getting to hear live versions of the classics as well as some of the best material from the later works has been a true pleasure that has reawakened the band in my ear and heart.
So, what's in the box? Discs one through three come straight from the soundboards and the sound is simply unbelievable. These are crisp recordings of dynamic performances. Disc one covers the early 1970s, from the Isle of Wight performance through the Someone Get Me a Ladder tour. Disc two gets you through the late 1970s, a lot of Works stuff, without the orchestra, but also intense, speedy performances of "Pictures" and "Tarkus." Disc three brings us to the reunion of the 1990s. I must admit I was worried about this one, fearing some pretty poor vocals from a straining Lake. Though he is clearly wrestling with the likes of "Knife Edge" and "From the Beginning," he pulls it off and the songs work. I'll even admit to liking the "newer" songs: "Paper Blood," "Black Moon" and "Touch and Go." (Okay, not so new, but you know what I mean). Finally, disc four includes tracks from 1971 through 1993 that come from fan recordings. These are obviously the only true bootlegs here, and the recording quality is obviously less than top notch, but all de-hissed and de-popped enough to make them great to hear, especially for live rarities like "The Endless Enigma" and "Abaddon's Bolero."
Whether it's all enough to convince the anti-ELP squads is doubtful, but it's been a pleasure for this listener to be welcomed back to the show. A wondrous box of treasures from the stage that shows off how monstrously intense this group really could be.

David Paddy

A disfrutar!!!