Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Nice, The
Label: Charisma Records
Released: 1970
Length: 45:20
Rating: 3.5/5
»Five Bridges« was an ambitious live project that prog-rock pioneers The Nice, fronted by keyboard wizard Keith Emerson, recorded in 1969 together with a London orchestra under the baton of Joseph Eger. The album came out at a time when a rock band teaming up with an orchestra was about the most innovative thing you could dream up in the music industry. The title suite in five movements, which is also the centerpiece of the album, was dedicated to the English city of Newcastle upon Thyne, famous for its five bridges.
»The Five Bridges« was, as mentioned, the centerpiece of this live orchestral project. This original composition, written by all three Nice members, is also one of the few highlights on »Five Bridges«. Thanks to its mix of rock, classical and jazz fusion, it deserves the attention of every fan of the life and work of the legendary Keith Emerson, and it’s the reason the album is still worth a spin now and then. Blending orchestral arrangements, jazz and a rock band was wildly innovative for the time, even though Keith went on to create plenty of much better stuff later. The real added value lies in Emerson’s keyboard wizardry, especially on the Hammond organ. It would all have come off even better if the suite had stayed fully instrumental, because Lee Jackson’s needless vocal clowning in the fourth movement spoils it quite a bit.
»Intermezzo ‘Carelia Suite’, Emerson’s tribute to the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, which he also performed with a different arrangement as a member of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, once again shows his obsession with the masters of classical music from the late Romantic and early modern eras. Its epic elements are pushed even further by Emerson’s pompous direction, while the Jackson-Davison rhythm section repeatedly steers it into jazz territory. The Nice’s version of »Pathetique«, originally written and composed by the Russian classical composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, leaves a similar impression, though it was played with a bit less fire. The mashup of Dylan’s »Country Pie« and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 is one of the more bizarre experiments in The Nice’s short story and leaves mixed feelings, since crossing Dylan’s down-home folk with symphonic rock, or rather classical music, comes off as pretty jarring at times.
The final act of this recording is the original piece »One of These People«. It features Emerson’s trademark organ arrangements and Jackson’s use of a vocal vocoder, which was something special back then but this time comes off as downright annoying. The whole thing is pretty limp and mostly recalls a weaker version of the short, comic closers on some classic ELP albums. Jackson simply wasn’t a good enough singer for Emerson’s later compositional ideas, while Davison could barely keep pace with Keith’s keyboard organ antics, so no wonder the keyboard sorcerer teamed up with noticeably better musicians and composers soon after »Five Bridges« came out. As a musician and composer, he had long since outgrown his Nice bandmates.
»Five Bridges«, a not overly thrilling orchestral project in which Emerson did most of the shining, was one of The Nice’s last live outings, as in 1970 all three members marched off in their own directions. Emerson went on to the supergroup Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Jackson to Jackson Heights and Davison to Every Which Way. After one more live album, »Elegy« (1971), released after their breakup, nobody missed them all that much, mainly because Emerson, Lake & Palmer were a much better band. Still, in 2002 the trio of Emerson, Jackson and Davison got together one last time (unsuccessfully) and recorded the live album »Vivacitas«.
Lineup
Keith Emerson – keyboards
Lee Jackson – bass guitar, vocals
Brian Davison – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Joe Harriott – saxophone
Peter King – saxophone
Chris Pyne – trombone
Alan Skidmore – saxophone
John Warren – woodwinds
Kenny Wheeler – trumpet, horn
The Sinfonia Of London orchestra – conductor Joseph Eger
Production
The Nice
Track list
1. Fantasia 1st Bridge / 2nd Bridge (2:42)
2. Chorale 3rd Bridge (3:27)
3. High Level Fugue 4th Bridge (4:01)
4. Finale 5th Bridge (7:59)
5. Intermezzo, ‘Karelia Suite’ (9:01)
6. Pathetique Symphony No.6. 3rd Movement (9:20)
7. Country Pie/Brandenburg Concerto No.6 (5:40)
8. One Of Those People (3:09)
