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Артист: Jefferson Starship Альбом: Windows Of Heaven, 1999 Издатель: SPV / 085-29102 Жанр: Rock Формат файла: eac.wavpack.scans Ссылка: CD 8 clicks Нахождение: eDonkey/Kademlia

Original Jefferson Starship bandmembers Marty Balin, Jack Casady, and Paul Kantner were back with some songs about the millennium, protests, and life in general on 1999's Windows of Heaven. Guest vocalist Grace Slick, who sings on one track (I´m On Fire, not in this edition), makes the album almost a full-scale reunion. New bandmates Prairie Prince (the Tubes) and T. Lavitz (Dixie Dregs, Jazz Is Dead) add even more spice to the mix, as the offshoot of one of San Francisco's finest '60s psychedelic bands prepared itself for the 21st century. Vocalist Diana Mangano sounds remarkably similar to her predecessor, and helps to create a very Jefferson Airplane-ish vibe. This may not be the best album from the Starship/Airplane catalog, but it served as a stunning reminder that, as of 1999, much of the '60s psychedelic subculture was still alive and well and standing at the Windows of Heaven.

TRACKLIST

1. 01.The Light. (Paul Kantner)  2. 02.See The Light. (Jesse Barish)  3. 03.Borderlands. (Paul Kantner)  4. 04.Maybe For You. (Terry Terrell)  5. 05.Let It Live. (Marty Balin)  6. 06.Let Me Fly. (Paul Kantner)  7. 07.Goddess. (Marty Balin)  8. 08.Blessings. (Claudia Schmidt)  9. 09.Shadowlands. (Paul Kantner) 10. 10.Which Side Are You On (Futr² Remembered). (Paul Kantner) 11. 11.Way Of Love. (Jesse Barish) 12. 12.Later On. (Marty Balin) 13. 13.The Windows Of Heaven (Futr²). (Paul Kantner) 14. 14.Out Of The Rain. (Tony Joe White) 15. 15.Millennium Beyond (Frontera Luminosa). (Paul Kantner)

This post has been edited by OlCh on 16-10-2007, 22:36

Through psychedelia and glam, disco and punk, metal and rap -- Jefferson Starship has tenaciously endured some of music's most clamorous periods. In one form or another, they have risen to the challenge -- often succeeding on their own terms, occasionally falling flat on their faces when they've attempted to fit in with whatever was selling at the moment. Regardless, they keep coming back.

This is what makes their newest CD -- Windows Of Heaven -- an interesting item at a point when much of their audience has moved onto more topical and subservient issues, and musical tastes have splintered over a discriminating and trend-driven demographic. The entire secret behind Windows Of Heaven is its total and complete disregard of what is currently marching in the hit parade. It's the same approach Jefferson Airplane took over 30 years ago when they became the feather in the cap of the Summer of Love. Who says history can't repeat itself...

Today's Jefferson Starship features a mixture of the old and new, notably Paul Kantner, Marty Balin and Jack Casady -- founding members of the aforementioned Airplane and core architects of the so-called San Francisco Sound. From the seeds of their later-day KBC Band (which also featured keyboardist Tim Gorman and guitarist Slick Aguilar), a new and improved Jefferson Starship has emerged in the 90s. In addition to Gorman and Aguilar, the late blues violin master Papa John Creach -- who had played on several of Starship's earlier albums from the 70s -- was brought in, but passed away in '93 just as the group was beginning to regain its momentum. Kantner has been unable to nudge Grace Slick into any long term situation, so he initially recruited vocalist Darby Gould. And for reasons unknown, Gould was quickly replaced by newcomer Diana Mangano. Although Mangano sings a majority of the material with Kantner and Balin, both Gould and Slick make appearances on the new CD. To round things out, former Tube Prairie Prince is playing the drums and Grammy-nominated keyboardist T. Lavitz fills in for departed Gorman, who nonetheless is included on one track. We can only hope Mickey Thomas isn't invited to sing on the next album.

Although I detected a singular theme wavering in between Kantner's allegorical tales -- soaking of sci-fi and acid imagery -- and Balin's toned and lilting ballads, I couldn't quite put my finger on exactly what that theme may be. The Starship remains as aloof and esoteric as ever. Kantner started dabbling with similar motifs when he made the landmark Blows Against The Empire album in 1970. Of course back then -- with help from people like Jerry Garcia, David Crosby and Graham Nash -- a conceptual piece was considered high brow and pretentious, token in its ability to jolt the mind as well as the ear. Today, in 1999, it's simply too bourgeois.

The album opens with Kantner's The Light, an exchange between Kantner and Mangano reminiscent of the old Kantner/Grace Slick duets. Mangano is strong, but she lacks a lot of the authority Slick exuded in such classics as White Rabbit or Somebody To Love. Lyrically, The Light addresses love, intellect and the universe -- in no particular order.

I was thinking that perhaps the two Jesse Barish compositions, See The Light and Ways of Love would give me some insight, but they are merely sugar-coated Marty Balin vehicles. The clues don't even begin to unfurl until Let Me Fly and the title track -- showcases for Kantner's scattered, political rants, Mangano's soaring vocal talents, and a backing band that comfortably follows the action. If you dug the over-the-top power choruses of something like Volunteers, then these odes of optimism are for you.

Ironically, two of the CD's best tunes are sung by Kantner with Darby Gould and Grace Slick, respectively. Shadowlands actually mixes Gould's voice more out in front than Mangano, who sings on the bulk of the disc. One has to wonder what Gould did to get the boot. Maybe she couldn't handle the fact that I'm On Fire features Grace Slick -- the first and only queen of the Starship. Pitted against Kantner's deep-rooted, almost reggae-like reading, Slick sounds as powerful and dangerous as she did thirty years ago. Unfortunately, Slick has repeatedly refused to become a member of the latest incarnation, stating emphatically that she's just too damn old.

Don't ever tell Paul Kantner or Marty Balin they're too old to rock and roll. Balin's Let It Live takes an unexpected turn toward the end when Slick Aguilar finally cuts loose with some inspiring guitar work. Like Jorma Kaukonen and Craig Chaquico before him, Aguilar has to take what he can get in the world of Jefferson.

The finale, Kantner's Millennium Beyond, does its best to live up to its name. Again we are hit with the concept of light as the doorway to a new future. And it becomes evident that the light is pretty much poetry and art and love and everything that was and ever could be -- the way it was supposed to be -- back in the heady days of the late 60s. Old hippies never die, they just keep struggling for a way to convey their ideas -- awash in hope, but mired in convention. Within the context of Jefferson Starship, Kantner is still wringing it for all it's worth.

sorry for my edit