***King Crimson Corner***

[sgcim]

RIP, Ian. His flute solo on I Talk to the Wind was beautiful, and his role as master producer of ITCOTCK made the album the great work of art it still is, 50 years later.

It was too bad he and Dennis Elliot got involved with Foreigner,

[Hardbopjazz]

RIP, Ian. 

[felser]

I especially love the "McDonald and Giles" album.

[sgcim]

2 hours ago, felser said:

I especially love the "McDonald and Giles" album.

I was listening to that album yesterday, and it reminded me how great a drummer Giles was, The light touch, the crisp sound, the creativity in his fills, he's got to be one of my fave drummers of all time. They get into some great uptempo grooves on that album, and Stevie Winwood plays keyboards on the first tune.

I looked back at Chris Albertson's review of ITCOTCK, and he gave it five stars in DB. He had been handed a press kit, and Ian said that his two biggest influences on sax were John Handy and Eric Dolphy.Then  Chris went to the Fillmore East (my tone deaf B-I-L was also at that show), and he caught KC opening for Joe Cocker and another big British band. He said that KC blew Cocker and the other band away. The show was completely different than the first album. Albertson said it was like Ian was leading a free jazz group with McDonald taking most of the solos on sax, He said they added improvisation to every tune they played from the first KC album they played.

I also agreed with Albert's assessment of "Moonchild" being the weakest track on the album, with that twelve minute long free section being pure BS. However, the rest of the album was largely Ian's compositions- ITTW was recorded on the Giles, Giles and Fripp album, with Judy Dyble doing lead vocals, but everything else basically the same as Ian's arrangement on the KC album, and the middle section of 20th Century Schizoid Man was composed by McDonald when he was in the British Army. His woodwind writing and playing and Lake's great vocals were the best part of "Epitaph". Of course, Fripp will take credit for all of it, because he survived both of them...

[felser]

3 minutes ago, sgcim said:

 

I also agreed with Albert's assessment of "Moonchild" being the weakest track on the album, with that twelve minute long free section being pure BS. 

Me too.  They could have fit another song or teo on just by editing out that section, which would have made it a basically perfect album.  But those were the times...

[romualdo]

1 hour ago, sgcim said:

I was listening to that album yesterday, and it reminded me how great a drummer Giles was, The light touch, the crisp sound, the creativity in his fills, he's got to be one of my fave drummers of all time.

I also love Michael Giles drumming, especially on McDonald & Giles. "Light & Crisp" expresses it perfectly. Been a KC aficionado since the early 70s. My fav LPs are "Lark's Tongues" with Jamie Muir & The sparse metalish "Red" trio (Ian McDonald actually guests on alto).

Even though I listen to/have a huge amount of avant/free jazz I still have trouble listening to the free section of Moonchild

[sgcim]

Here's what the first band with Ian on alto sax were like in 1969: