Live At Carnegie Hall Jonesboro GA

Live At Carnegie Hall

Renaissance

BTM Records, 1976

REVIEW BY: Loznik

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 08/31/1999

I am not normally a fan of live albums - I prefer the controlledsurroundings of the studio, where the artist can hopefully makemusic as close to the version in their head as is possible. As witheverything in life, though, there are exceptions to this rule -Deep Purple's Made In Japan, Camel's A Live Record and Utopia's Another Live are examples that spring instantly to mind.Meet another one - Renaissance's Live At Carnegie Hall. I managed recently to pick up thisdouble LP at an embarrassingly cheap price in a second hand shop -bargain!

This is the second main incarnation of the band - the foundermember, and former Yardbird, Jim McCarty having left during thecreation of Prologue, the band's second album. On this release may beheard the highly-rated Annie Haslam (vocals), Mike Dunford (vocalsand guitars), the excellent John Tout (keyboards), Jonathan Camp(Bass) and Terence Sullivan (Percussion). For the live performance,add a major credit for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

The opening track is "Prologue", written by Dunford, the onlytrack on the album from the previous version of the band. Itconsequently has a substantially different sound about it. Smoothlyplayed, there's a free-form, jam session feel to it. There's aclassically-played piano, bass and drum break that is simplyjoyful, subsequently slowing to a thoughtful treatise bearingHaslam's trademark haunting vocals.

We then hear the first of several irritatingly chatty verbalintroductions. I really could do without these spoken interludes -oh, well. "Ocean Gypsy" is a ballad off the Scheherazade album from 1975. It is principally a vehiclefor Haslam's vocals, but the song suffers an excess of saccharinand I start to tire of hearing it before too long. There's aninstrumental middle section where things start to pick up - I loveHaslam's voice, but it is possible to get too much of a goodthing.