Five Bridges

Five Bridges
Studio album by The Nice
Released	June, 1970
Recorded	October 17, 1969
Genre	Rock, Progressive rock
Length	45:20
Label	Mercury Records (USA) Charisma Records (UK)
Producer	The Nice[1]
Professional reviews
Allmusic [2] Discogs [1] TopTenReviews [3]
The Nice chronology
Nice (1969) Five Bridges (1970) Elegy (1971)

The Five Bridges Suite is a modern piece of music, written in the 1960s, combining classical music and jazz. Written about the UK city of Newcastle upon Tyne, it was released as an album by The Nice which achieved the number two position in the UK album charts^[4].

History

The work was commissioned for the Newcastle Arts Festival and premiered with a full orchestra conducted by Joseph Eger on October 10, 1969 (the recorded version is from October 17 in Croydon's Fairfield Halls). The title refers to the city's five bridges spanning the River Tyne (two more have since been built over the river), and the album cover features an image of the Tyne Bridge.

The five movements are:

• Fantasia - orchestra with solo piano interludes by Keith Emerson
• Second Bridge - trio without orchestra
• Chorale - Lee Jackson's vocals with orchestra, alternating with piano trio interludes
• High Level Fugue - piano with accompanying cymbals
• Finale - a restating of the Second Bridge with additional jazz horn players.

The most elaborate orchestral writing is the Fantasia, but even this is fairly rudimentary, which is understandable as it was Emerson's first foray into this medium. Emerson credits Friedrich Gulda for inspiring the High Level Fugue, which uses jazz figures in the strict classical form. Individually, the movements are not worthy of special notice, but the suite as a whole is remarkable for its successful integration of the disparate materials. The ambitious nature of the production is also laudable - the entire suite was recorded at a concert performance and meetings of pop groups and orchestras were not at all commonplace.

Also included on the Five Bridges album were live performances from the same Fairfield Hall concert of the Sibelius Intermezzo and a movement from Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony. Both involved the orchestra playing the "straight" music juxtaposed with the trio's interpretations. Newly discovered material from this concert was later issued as part of a 3-CD set entitled Here Come The Nice.

The Five Bridges album also included a blending of Bob Dylan's Country Pie with Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 (with a quote of Coleman Hawkins' jazz line Rifftide as well) and a studio recording of the original One of Those People.

Track listing

Side one

1. "The Five Bridges Suite" (Emerson, Jackson) - 18:06

• "Fantasia 1st Bridge"
• "2nd Bridge"
• "Chorale 3rd Bridge"
• "High Level Fugue 4th Bridge"
• "Finale 5th Bridge"

Side two

1. "Intermezzo 'Karelia Suite'" (Sibelius) – 9:01
2. "Pathetique (Symphony No. 6, 3rd Movement)" (Tchaikovsky, Arr. Emerson, Joseph Eger) – 9:23
3. "Country Pie/Brandenburg Concerto No. 6" (Bob Dylan, Johann Sebastian Bach) – 5:40
4. "One Of Those People" (Emerson/Jackson) – 3:08

CD Reissue

The CD reissue has 5 bonus tracks. These are:

• "The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack"
• "Flower King of Flies"
• "Bonnie K"
• "Diary of an Empty Day"
• "America"

The original album is tracks 1 to 8. The bonus tracks are tracks 9 to 13. Unfortunately, the "Five Bridges Suite" track numbers bear no relation to the music - and the sleeve notes bear no relation to the CD tracks.

Sleeve Notes

• "The Five Bridges Suite" - Tracks 1 to 8

CD Tracks

• 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)

Actual Music

• "Fantasia 1st Bridge" (6.11)
• "2nd Bridge" (3.58)
• "Chorale 3rd Bridge" (3.32)
• "High Level Fugue 4th Bridge" (1.00)
• "Finale 5th Bridge" (3.26)

This means that Track 3 is actually the 2nd Bridge and Track 4 contains 3rd Bridge, 4th Bridge (at 3.32) and 5th Bridge.

Personnel

• Brian Davison - drums, percussion
• Keith Emerson - keyboards
• Lee Jackson - vocals, bass guitar

With:

• Joe Harriott - Saxophone
• Peter King - Saxophone
• Chris Pyne - Trombone
• Alan Skidmore - Saxophone
• John Warren
• Kenny Wheeler - Trumpet, Flugelhorn

References