Label: Blue Élan Records
Release date: March 31, 2019 / July 31, 2020 (reissue)
Production: Michael T. Franklin
Album length: 52.15 min
Genre: Progressive Rock
Rating: 8.5/10
“1000 Hands” is the fifteenth solo album from former Yes vocalist Jon Anderson. It originally came out on March 31, 2019, but got a second, much louder release a little over a year later. The album was nearly thirty years in the making, with roots going back to 1990, when Jon started recording new music for a project that never saw the light of day, Uzlot (a northern English dialect take on “us lot”). In its “embryonic” form, “1000 Hands” came together with keyboardist Brian Chatton, who once played with Jon in Anderson’s first band, The Warriors. That band is also known for having ex-King Crimson drummer Ian Wallace behind the kit at one point.
Chatton, who played keyboards, contributed some vocals and wrote most of the music for “1000 Hands”, is also known as a former member of the psychedelic rock band Flaming Youth, where he played alongside Phil Collins before Collins joined Genesis. He later became the keyboardist for prog rockers Jackson Heights and r’n’b rockers Snafu, though both of those stints were short-lived.
In the early nineties, Jon invited three of his Yes buddies to play on a few tracks, but the whole Uzlot idea eventually fell through. The unfinished version of “1000 Hands” sat forgotten in Anderson’s music archives for ages, until American producer and musician Michael Franklin came up with the idea that Jon should finally release the album, with some extra tracks added. Jon wrote a few new songs and added them to the existing material he’d made with Chatton.
As the title suggests, the album features a whole host of world-class musicians as Jon’s guests, who contributed over the nearly three decades before “1000 Hands” came out. They include Jon’s (former) Yes buddies (guitarist Steve Howe, bassist Chris Squire and drummer Alan White), singer/flutist Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), guitarist Steve Morse (Deep Purple, Dixie Dregs), guitarist Larry Coryell, keyboardist Chick Corea (Return to Forever), violinists Jean-Luc Ponty (ex-Mahavishnu Orchestra, Frank Zappa), Jerry Goodman (Dixie Dregs, ex-Mahavishnu Orchestra) and Robbie Steinhardt (ex-Kansas), Jonathan Cain (Journey), guitarist Rick Derringer, drummer Billy Cobham (ex-Mahavishnu Orchestra), singer Bobby Kimball (ex-Toto) and bassist Stuart Hamm, to name just a few. Over a music career of more than fifty years, Jon has racked up an enviable number of (musical) friends, who were happy to pitch in on his solo compositions over the last three decades.
Thanks to the modern production and the re-arranged early-nineties compositions, there’s no dramatic stylistic gap between the old and new material on “1000 Hands”. “Ramalama”, a sort of cross between folk rock and symphonic rock, has Jon’s classic “mantra-ing” with layered vocal harmonies, the kind longtime Yes fans have known well since the early seventies, while strings give it hefty backing. If you’re not into Jon’s philosophy and spiritual lyrics, this kind of “rama-lama” chanting might make you grind your teeth a bit.
“First Born Leaders”, which has saxophone on top of the pompous vocal harmonies and almost borders on pop rock, leans a bit toward Yes material from the late nineties and early 2000s. The more classic prog-leaning “Activate”, with Jethro Tull patriarch Ian Anderson guesting on flute with his trademark woodwind licks, is among the most interesting tracks on “1000 Hands”. Thanks to some world music elements, it also recalls a few of Ian’s solo efforts from two decades earlier. The cheerful “Make Me Happy”, which faintly echoes some of Phil Collins’ solo work, has a programmed beat and horn arrangements in the style of Earth, Wind & Fire. “I Found Myself”, which has one of the most cliché lyrics of Jon’s career (he’s stressed over and over, directly or indirectly, that he’s found “himself”), is seasoned with a female guest vocal and tasteful violin arrangements.
“Twice In a Lifetime”, with its traditional French-flavored accordion arrangements and mighty orchestration, is a more melancholic number that suspiciously resembles some of the stuff on the Yes album “Magnification” (2001). The dreamy, ethereal yet pompous “WDMCF” could easily pass for a Yes track from the later years of their career, if it had real drums instead of programmed ones. The title track, thanks to its eclecticism and arrangement depth, is one of the album’s highlights. The ethereal, nostalgic closing ballad “Now And Again”, with the signature guitar approach of Jon’s old buddy Steve Howe, turns out great too.
“1000 Hands”, reissued in summer 2020, is a very solid collection of compositions spanning almost thirty years in the career of one of the most colorful and unique singers in rock history. At its core, it’s a kind of cross-section of Jon’s solo career over the last three decades, with some interesting songwriting ideas that came from Chatton’s side too. In a way it’s sad that “1000 Hands” is the last album on which Anderson worked with (the still-living) Chris Squire, and very likely the last one on which he joined forces with White and Howe, who haven’t been in touch with him since Jon last left Yes.
Author: Peter “ProgRock” Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Now
2. Ramalama
3. First Born Leaders
4. Activate
5. Makes Me Happy
6. Now Variations
7. I Found Myself
8. Twice in a Lifetime
9. Where Does Music Come From
10. Come Up
Musicians:
Jon Anderson – vocals, various instruments, arrangements
Steve Howe – guitar
Larry Coryell – guitar
Tommy Calton – guitar
Steve Morse – guitar
Rick Derringer – guitar
Pat Travers – guitar
Bobby Koelble – guitar
Christie Lenee – guitar
Trevor Rabin – guitar
Russel Chalk – ukulele
Don Oriolo – ukulele
Mitch Corbin – banjo
Chick Corea – keyboards
Jonathan Cain – keyboards
Keith Heffner – keyboards
Rick Wakeman – keyboards
Michael T. Franklin – keyboards, ukulele, arrangements
Jeff Abbott – keyboards
Brian Chatton – keyboards
Antonio Esposito – keyboards
Dariusz Grabowski – harmonica
Brian Snapp – flute, saxophone
Charlie DeChant – flute, saxophone
Ian Anderson – flute
Edgar Winter – saxophone
Steve Walters – trumpet
Billy Boyd – trumpet
Brian Scanlon – trumpet
Pat Gulotta – trombone
Tower of Power – horns
Jean Luc Ponty – violin
Robby Steinhardt – violin
Jerry Goodman – violin
Charlie Bisharat – violin
Olga Kopakova – violin
Jason Thomas – violin
Paul Fluery – cello
Krissi Franzen – cello
Chris Squire – bass guitar
Tim Franklin – bass guitar, ukulele
Stuart Hamm – bass guitar
Allan White – drums
Billy Cobham – drums
Matt Brown – drums
Carmine Appice – drums
Pat Frost – “steel drums”, trombone
Steady Joseph – percussion
Eddie Metz jr. – percussion
Nana Academy Youth Choir
Zap Mama – backing vocals
Bobby Kimball – backing vocals
Orlando Symphony Orchestra
Michael Winslow – Fx
Voices of Lindahl
Violectric (Michelle Jones, Brandy Moulden, Krissi Franzen, Kaitlin Higby, Paul Fleruy, T Franklin, Jennie Landau)
