AAJ Review: Brand X, Locked & Loaded

[jkelman]

My review of Brand X's Locked & Loaded, its second live album since returning after Newelt two decades in 2017, with original members John Goodsall and Percy Jones, today at All About Jazz.

There are a great many bands whose lineups have been so fluid that keeping track of who was in the band when is no mean feat. Few bands have, however, had as complicated a history as Brand X. Even in its latest re-reincarnation, there's been a lineup shift between the high octane fusion group's January, 2017 performance documented on But wait...There's more!, released independently the same year, and Locked & Loaded, culled largely from a show just five months later and released as the current band hits the road for a relatively short tour of the northeastern United States. But weathering lineup changes is something Brand X has long handled with aplomb, and Locked & Loaded is nothing short of a stellar addition to But wait...There's more! in documenting Brand X 2017, and with its own magic to recommend.

The band first came together in the mid-'70s, with an original lineup featuring guitarist John Goodsall, über-bassist Percy Jones, keyboardist Robin Lumley, percussionist Preston Heyman, and drummer Phil Collins, who used the open-ended, improv-heavy Brand X as a separate creative outlet to the stricter confines of his by-then main gig with Genesis, the ascending progressive rock group whose diametrically opposed objective was to reproduce its studio material as faithfully and consistently as possible in performance.

But even by the time of its studio debut, Unorthodox Behaviour (Charisma, 1976), the group had already experienced a shift in personnel, with Heyman gone and the band reduced to a quartet, with saxophonist Jack Lancaster guesting on some tracks. Brand X's formative lineup would, in fact, go unheard until 1997, when Gonzo Multimedia released {missing period}, which featured a half dozen Goodsall/Jones compositions that were, in some cases, germinal versions of music that would ultimately end up on Unorthodox Behaviour and the 1977 studio followup, Moroccan Roll (Charisma).

The core quartet of Unorthodox Behaviour was augmented, for Moroccan Roll, with Morris Pert, a busy session percussionist (tuned and untuned) who'd garnered attention for his work with Japanese percussionist Stomu Yamashta, Canterbury mainstays Caravan, fusion compadres Isotope and, most notably, Marscape (RSO, 1976), an all-too-often overlooked progressive masterpiece led by Lumley and Lancaster, but also featuring fellow Brand Xers Collins, Goodsall and Jones.

But as Collins became increasingly busy with the demands of Genesis' upward trajectory towards superstardom, his participation with Brand X became inconsistent; even the band's third album, the live Livestock (Charisma, 1977), was culled from live dates featuring both Collins and, when he was busy gigging with Genesis, American drummer Kenwood Dennard, at that time best-known as a participant in guitarist Pat Martino's brief move away from mainstream jazz towards more hard-hitting fusion, Joyous Lake (Warner Bros., 1976).


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[FrippWire]

Great review, John. I never tire of reading Brand X's history even though I've been reading about it for decades. The new live album is red hot as is this Brand X line-up. One of my desert island bands for sure; I'm a fan for life.

[jkelman]

Great review, John. I never tire of reading Brand X's history even though I've been reading about it for decades. The new live album is red hot as is this Brand X line-up. One of my desert island bands for sure; I'm a fan for life.

Thanks for the kind words. Since Brand X coverage at all about jazz has been relatively meagre, I figured there'd be quite a few readers there unfamiliar with the band and its history.

Between this and my upcoming review of Jeff Berlin's Joe Frazier Round 3 CD single, it's really had me thinking about why some artists become "legends" and others may be known in their niche markets but not beyond. Why Jaco Pastorius and not Jeff Berlin & Percy Jones? Why Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Joe Zawinul and not Dave Stewart?

There are many reasons, but there's one particularly big elephant in the room, with respect to artists whose breakout work comes from countries outside of the USA. Jeff is American, of course, and has played with many prestigious Americans, but his breakthrough was with Bruford, for example, which did well, but nowhere like Weather Report, Return to Forever, Head Hunters. There was distribution for the Bruford stuff here, but did it get the same press and marketing as those other bands?

I'm not saying this is the only reason, but time and again it seems, at least in the more jazz-centric areas, that it's largely been the American acts that did better back in the day. Prog? Another story...

And, like I said, there are more reasons. But this one has always niggled me in the jazz-centric world.

[Dave (in MA)]

Berlin, Jones & Stewart are legends in here.

[calyx]

The band first came together in the mid-'70s, with an original lineup featuring guitarist John Goodsall, über-bassist Percy Jones, keyboardist Robin Lumley, percussionist Preston Heyman, and drummer Phil Collins [...] But even by the time of its studio debut, Unorthodox Behaviour (Charisma, 1976), the group had already experienced a shift in personnel, with Heyman gone and the band reduced to a quartet, with saxophonist Jack Lancaster guesting on some tracks.

Sorry to immediiately jump in before I've even read the article, but this just isn't factually correct. Preston Heyman didn't actually join until well after "Urorthodox Behaviour" had been recorded. And Collins even wasn't an original member. This isn't quite how it all happened.

Collins joined an existing rehearsal band which, apart from Goodsall, Lumley and Jones, included drummer John Dillon, vocalist/percussionist Phil Spinelli and Pete Bonas on second guitar. This line-up recorded an unreleased (rejected) album for Island which included vocals and was broadly in an Average White Band style. Then Collins replaced Dillon and Spinelli/Bonas left and the band became all-instrumental. For a long time after that, they had no percussionist - including when they recorded "Unorthodox Behaviour", which was in September/October 1975 as Genesis were getting ready to record "A Trick Of The Tail".

Subsequently percussionists were added -

Bill Bruford (December 1975) - three gigs [Bill had 'depped' for Phil in rehearsal during the late stages of the "Lamb" tour]
Jeff Seopardie (December 1975/January 1976)
Andy Ward [Camel] (February 1976) - one gig

It was only then that Preston Heyman joined, and he lasted until September 1976 and the Ronnie Scott's Club residency when Morris Pert sat in one night (documented on the "Livestock" album) and stayed.

(The confusion in your timeline appears to come from the fact that "Missing Period" is NOT what it purports to be - it is BBC sessions disguised as "recordings of uncertain origin", but actually consists of two sessions from February and July 1976, only the second of which had Heyman on percussion.)

As for Jack Lancaster, he only appears on "Touch Wood", the very last track on "Unorthodox Behaviour".

Update: I've now read the entire intro & have something else to add - "Is There Anything About?" was indeed released in 1982, but not "two years after it had been recorded", at least not most of it. That album was a "contractual obligation" album culled from unused session tapes, some of them dating back to the very first album, with some newer recordings [which didn't feature a full band line-up, as Goodsall, Jones, Collins etc. were not involved in the process at all], by Robin Lumley.

Also, it's Mike Clark, not Clarke (that would be the drummer in The Byrds !)

And, to add a bit of useful context, Chuck Bürgi joined from the Al Di Meola Band. He'd been on Di Meola's 1977 "Elegant Gypsy" tour, in a line-up which also included ex-Mahavishnu keyboardist Stu Goldberg, and it was after sharing the bill with Di Meola one night that he came to the attention of Brand X.

Lastly, the tours with Pierre Moerlen were in 1997, not 1998.

[jkelman]

Thanks, Aymeric...clearly my online sources were incorrect! I'll make your welcome corrections a little later today, with thanks. Though I might not include quite all your details...this is, after all, aimed at a generalist audience. But I'll make sure what I do have is correct in timeline. Again, with many thanks.

Only one thing: I know about Clark. Thank apple autocorect and some tired eyes for that one!
Thanks again...it's been awhile since I've had an Aymeric drubbing!!
John

[jkelman]

Berlin, Jones & Stewart are legends in here.

I know, and they've always been to me. But ask most jazz fans and they'll know Pastorius, Corea, Hancock, etc....far fewer will know Berlin, Jones & Stewart. Even many non-jazzers will have heard of Corea & Hancock, if not Pastorius. When you get beyond the prog world....and I find it curious, since BJ&S are all absolutely sophisticated as hell jazzers (at least imo). Like I said, there are reasons...many....but the general (not all) American-centricity of jazz fans (even in Europe, outside the hardcore fans and to an admittedly less degree) seem,based on my travels, to treat jazz as a distinctly American form...even when there's so much evidence to dispute it.

It just makes me, well, a little mad sometimes. I thought it might be interesting to hear some folks' opinions.

[interbellum]

According to the liner notes of Eddie Howell's The Man From Manhattan (a.k.a. The Eddie Howell Gramophone Record) from 1975 Brand X (Collins, Lumley, Jones, Goodshall and sometimes Lancaster) made their debut together on record on that album.
How does this fit in the Brand X-history?

[calyx]

According to the liner notes of Eddie Howell's The Man From Manhattan (a.k.a. The Eddie Howell Gramophone Record) from 1975 Brand X (Collins, Lumley, Jones, Goodshall and sometimes Lancaster) made their debut together on record on that album.
How does this fit in the Brand X-history?

From Eddie himself (interviewed by me in 2002) :

"The Brand X collaboration came about by way of my aquaintance with Robin [Lumley]. We met at the Chrysalis office in London sometime in 1973, where we were both contracted, me as a songwriter and Rob, I think as an arranger/producer. we worked together on demos for my songs and became good mates. I signed to Warner Bros to make records, and got Rob in to produce as he knew most of the songs. Rob was playing keyboards and co-producing Brand X at the time, and they (the band) spent a lot of time hanging around the studio (Trident in Soho) so it seemed like a good idea to have them on the record."

[interbellum]

From Eddie himself (interviewed by me in 2002) :

"The Brand X collaboration came about by way of my aquaintance with Robin [Lumley]. We met at the Chrysalis office in London sometime in 1973, where we were both contracted, me as a songwriter and Rob, I think as an arranger/producer. we worked together on demos for my songs and became good mates. I signed to Warner Bros to make records, and got Rob in to produce as he knew most of the songs. Rob was playing keyboards and co-producing Brand X at the time, and they (the band) spent a lot of time hanging around the studio (Trident in Soho) so it seemed like a good idea to have them on the record."

Thanks.

[jkelman]

Sorry to immediiately jump in before I've even read the article, but this just isn't factually correct. Preston Heyman didn't actually join until well after "Urorthodox Behaviour" had been recorded. And Collins even wasn't an original member. This isn't quite how it all happened.

Thanks again, Aymeric. Let's try this on for size:

The band first came together in the mid-'70s as a rehearsal band, with an original lineup featuring guitarist John Goodsall, über-bassist Percy Jones, keyboardist Robin Lumley, included drummer John Dillon, vocalist/percussionist Phil Spinelli and Pete Bonas on second guitar.

After a stylistically different album was submitted to and rejected by Island Records, Spinelli and Bonas left, as did Dillon, replaced by drummer Phil Collins, who used the open-ended, improv-heavy Brand X as a separate creative outlet to the stricter confines of his by-then main gig with Genesis, the ascending progressive rock group whose diametrically opposed objective was to reproduce its studio material as faithfully and consistently as possible in performance.

This was the lineup that recorded Unorthodox Behaviour (Charisma, 1976), which also featured saxophonist Jack Lancaster guesting on one track.

Following a number of other percussionists fleshing the group to a quintet (including ex-Yes/King Crimson's Bill Bruford, Camel's Andy Ward, Jeff Seopardie and Preston Heyman), the quartet of Unorthodox Behaviour was ultimately augmented, for Moroccan Roll (Charisma, 1977), by percussionist Morris Pert, a busy session percussionist (tuned and untuned) who'd garnered attention for his work with Japanese percussionist Stomu Yamashta, Canterbury mainstays Caravan, fusion compadres Isotope and, most notably, Marscape (RSO, 1976), an all-too-often overlooked progressive masterpiece led by Lumley and Lancaster, but also featuring fellow Brand Xers Collins, Goodsall and Jones.

and:

A final contractual obligation album, Is There Anything About? (culled from tapes dating as far back as the group's very first album), featured Goodsall, Jones, Lumley, Robinson, Giblin and Collins, though only Lumley was actually involved in any new recordings for the release. The record was issued in September 1982 by CBS in the UK, more than two years after the band's dissolution.

and, of course, bolded here ( :; ):

And so, there became two versions of Brand X: one, featuring Goodsall, Jones, Robinson and newcomer, Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters drummer Mike Clark, to focus on its more experimental side; while Goodsall, bassist John Giblin (Peter Gabriel, Steve Harley) and the returning Collins and Lumley worked on more user-friendly music.

and, finally,

Expanding to a sextet (its largest lineup ever), the band returned with Manifest Destiny (Cleopatra) in 1997, with Goodsall, Jones and Katz joined by bassist/keyboardist Franz Pusch, bassist/keyboardist/vibes/MIDI-vibraphonist Marc Wagnon and X-Communication guest, flautist Danny Wilding, before dissolving once again in 1999, after a couple of years of occasional touring in Europe and Japan, with ex-Gong drummer Pierre Moerlen replacing the departing Katz in 1997, along with the 1998 addition of keyboardist Kris Sjorbing.

Again, thanks...and hope this gets it right! (Oh yeah, I changed the Lancaster reference, but I did know it; I changed it, though, because I could see how the original sentence might mislead folks into thinking he was on the entire album.

Many thanks!
John

[calyx]

John,

Good, looks 100% accurate now.

Aymeric

[jkelman]

John,

Good, looks 100% accurate now.

Aymeric

Good, Aymeric; thanks again, man...you know I always want things to correct, but unfortunately, have nobody to fact-check my work and, as I'm sure you know, there's a lot of misinformation out there. Some stuff I obviously know, but I always research when writing these kinds of pieces. I do check your website on matters Canterbury and Canterbury-related, but don't think the information you provided for this one can be found other than by hearing from you, right? If there's another place I should look, so let me know. It's hard to know what to believe or not believe on the web, but your knowledge is pretty darn impressive!

So, thanks again...until the next time
Cheers!
John

[calyx]

Good, Aymeric; thanks again, man...you know I always want things to correct, but unfortunately, have nobody to fact-check my work and, as I'm sure you know, there's a lot of misinformation out there. Some stuff I obviously know, but I always research when writing these kinds of pieces. I do check your website on matters Canterbury and Canterbury-related, but don't think the information you provided for this one can be found other than by hearing from you, right? If there's another place I should look, so let me know. It's hard to know what to believe or not believe on the web, but your knowledge is pretty darn impressive!

Thanks. Around 2001-02 I conducted a series of interviews with all members of Brand X whom I was able to contact - namely, Robin Lumley, Percy Jones, Morris Pert, Mike Clark, Kenwood Dennard, and associates like Jack Lancaster and Eddie Howell. Somehow the projected feature has yet to materialise, so the material has remained "in the vaults" waiting for a chance to be used. Hopefully that will be a future book on jazz-rock that I am preparing, but I have also been in touch with the maker of the Brand X documentary. I have sent him all the interview material, and also a gem - a 7-minute recording of Morris Pert responding to my questions, some of which I hope will make it into the documentary.

The one thing I have online on Brand X is this chronology :

http://www.calyx-canterbury.fr/bands/chrono/brandx.html

Could be of some use to those in need of more precise info on dates.