DVD REVIEW: Renaissance, Song of Scheherazade (2009, Cherry Red/Hybrid)

Have I ever told you the story of how I discovered the band Renaissance?

Back in 1991-ish, I had heard a song by a British group called Miranda Sex Garden, from their then current album Suspiria. I was completely taken aback by the layered female vocal harmonies (many of which seemed to me to be derived from traditional English and Italian madrigal…how right I was, I’d later find out) and the dark, almost orchestral nature of their metallic, industrial-esque musical backing. I was raving about the band to someone in my local record store (Alwilk in Flemington NJ, for those of you out there who may have frequented that chain in the NY/NJ area back in the day), and he mentioned to me that if I liked MSG (and I did, except for in my Chinese food) he had a band I might be interested in…with the caveat that they were lighter and more symphonic than MSG. I took him up on his offer to check the group out, and a few days later he had made copies for me of some material by a band called Renaissance. He felt OK in doing this as all their albums were out of print at that time, save for a pair of compilations which had come out in the US a few weeks prior.

I took the two tapes home and started playing them…and I was hooked. Glorious female vocals, orchestrations, beautiful classical guitar and piano, and a warm, punchy bass that was more a lead instrument than anything else. I spent the entire summer of 1991 seeking out their albums in second hand shops, lucky enough to acquire copies of Carnegie Hall, Novella, and A Song for All Seasons on vinyl. Soon these were joined by the two compilations on Sire Records, Tales of 1001 Nights I and II…and years later, by a mish mash of import CDs from the UK, Germany, and Japan (yes, I paid $40.00 US a piece for Novella and Song for all Seasons from Japan…and $50.00 US for a copy of Azure D’Or). I was completely and irrevocably hooked by this vastly overlooked, underrated British combo.

Only one thing has been missing over the years…a video document of the classic band (Annie Haslam, Michael Dunford, John Tout, Terrence Sullivan and Jon Camp) live in concert.

This missing link has been rectified thanks to the release of Song of Scheherazade, a 125-minute long DVD on Cherry Red/Hybrid that compiles footage from a pair of concerts in New Jersey (the band’s US home base for most of their career with regard to their fan base) in 1976 and 1979.

Many of the band’s better known works are covered here. 1976 was in many ways close to the peak of the band’s critical and commercial success…fresh off a series of successful dates at Carnegie Hall, WNEW radio out of NYC broadcast several Renaissance concerts as part of their regular concert series. Ed Sciaky in Philly and Alison Steele (the Nightbird) championed the band’s music in two of the biggest music markets in the eastern US. The band took the stage at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic NJ for a set that featured their epic masterwork “The Song of Scheherazade,”a 20+ minute tone poem based on the legendary tales of 1001 nights, and the title track to their fourth album. Also featured from that album is the elegiac and melancholic “Ocean Gypsy,” later covered by Blackmore’s Night on their debut release. Two tracks from their release Turn of the Cards, and one each from Ashes are Burning and Prologue (that album’s title track) round out the first half of the DVD contents. The band is in fine form, and Haslam’s voice has never sounded finer. Tout’s piano on “Running Hard” is as lyrical as ever, and Camp’s bass playing is precise and impressive; at this time, I’d say he was perhaps the most underrated bassist in all of prog music.

I wish I could say the same glowing things about the video quality. I know much has been said about this subject, and I have to reiterate it; the video quality is…well…passable. And I think I am being generous. I understand that budgets probably did not allow for an amazing level of restoration to be done on material that has more of a cult appeal, but honestly…I’ve seen Doctor Who episodes, unrestored, from the early 1960s that looked better. The picture is washed out/faded, grainy, and subject to bursts of interference and/or distortion throughout. It’s a shame…this is the first chance for many to see the band at their height, and, well…we can see the band, but not much more.

The 1979 footage (from Asbury Park NJ’s Convention Center) is better, but sadly not by much. Thankfully the setlist offers up enough gems to overcome this limitation for the most part. Jon Camp’s rocking out on a double neck on the opening piece “Can You Understand – Intro” is perhaps worth the cost of admission alone…though I continue to feel it looks odd to see an electric guitar being strapped around Michael Dunford’s neck. Still, we get a nice selection of material from the band’s then current Azure D’Or (which would be the last album recorded by the classic band, and their final release on Sire Records in the US). “Jeckyll and Hyde” and “The Flood at Lyons” are two of my favourite later Renaissance tracks, and both are performed admirably here. “Forever Changing” always seemed a bit twee to me (thought the performance is fine, featuring some gloriously bell-like Haslam vocals), and the less said about the song “Secret Mission,” the better. I’d sooner have had “The Winter Tree” or “Only Angels Have Wings,” but I suppose those are more minor quibbles. We also get fine renditions of “The Vuntures Fly High,” one of the band’s fastest, rockiest tracks, a second take on “Mother Russia” (written about the life of Soviet dissident and author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and his novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich), and a wonderful performance of their later day epic “A Song for All Seasons.” By this point, Renaissance had been implementing more amplified/electric instruments in their songs, arrangements and concerts, and this concert shows the band at the very end of their classic period.

It is again a shame that the video quality can’t match the performance passion and quality. A release like this has been eagerly anticipated and longed for by the Renaissance faithful for quite some time…and while I can play the DVD, and enjoy the excellent live renditions of some of my favourite Renaissance songs…I just can’t watch it. While Song of Scheherazade is far from a failure as a release, it’s also far from an unmitigated success.


Capitol Theatre 1976:
Running Hard
Ocean Gypsy
Carpet of the Sun
Mother Russia
Prologue
Song of Scheherazade

Asbury Park Convention Hall 1979:
Can You Understand - Intro
The Vultures Fly High
Jeckyll and Hyde
Northern Lights
Forever Changing
Secret Mission
Mother Russia
A Song for all Seasons
The Flood at Lyons


Annie Haslam – vocals
Michael Dunford – acoustic and electric guitar
John Tout – piano and keyboards
Terrance Sullivan – drums and percussion
Jon Camp – bass guitar and vocals

Let's have a warm welcome please, for Renaissance...

Let's enter the Wayback Machine today.

'Back in the day,' I used to spend a lot of time in record stores...so named because they carried records. Records are these big pieces of round black vinyl with grooves on them, and you put them on a device called a turntable, and...

Oh wait...most of you know this.

Ahem.

Anyway...I used to spend a lot of time in records stores. I'd browse through the bins, talk to the staff and so on. At the time (I'm thinking 1992-1993 or so), I was getting into a group called Miranda Sex Garden, which started out as a trio of a capella vocalists performing madrigals and evolved into a dark, goth/fetish/semi-industrial group with angelic vocals and a dark, driving musical backing that could be called progressive in its own right. In any event, I'd just picked up Suspiria, their full length rock release, and was raving about it in the local shop when a guy whose musical opinions I generally respected said 'If you like MSG, I have got a band for you.'

I was intrigued, especially as he said that they were lighter by far than MSG, but with a singer that'd blow any of the three female vocalists in MSG away. Sadly, he said, all their albums save for 2 comps were out of print in the States, and the comps, while good, weren't really the best way to check them out. He said, if I bought a few blanks for him, he'd dub copies of a few albums for me to check out. I took him up on the offer, and a few days later I was gifted with a pair of taped labeled 'RENAISSANCE.'

Yes, they were lighter by far when compared to MSG.

And yes, their vocalist blew away Katharine Blake, Donna McKevett and/or Kelly McCusker, perhaps all at the same time.

A few weeks later a friend of mine and I were in Vintage Vinyl in Fords NJ...one of the biggest and best record stores in NJ. They actually had a prog section (still do, and it's one of the best...no real large amount of French prog, sadly, but still...) and as I was going through it, I found...Renaissance CDs...A Turn of the Cards...Scheherazade...Live at Carnegie Hall...Novella...A Song for all Seasons...and a bunch more besides. Sadly, they were all imports, all priced between $25 and $50 a piece...and I didn't have a CD player yet.

I resigned myself to buying the two comps (Tales of 1001 Nights in 2 volumes), on Sire Records and available at stateside prices, on cassette. I wore them out. Played them constantly. And over time, I began to buy the albums...first actually on vinyl, used. Played them all the time. Wore them out. Sang along. Was blown away by their material...the operatic vocals of Annie Haslam...a guitarist who played to add colour and tone to the music, not to solo. A pianist who sounded like he should be playing Rachmaninoff, not 'rock' music. A bassist who blew away Chris Squire, in my not so humble opinion. And a drummer who had to handle some impressively complex rhythms and move a song along that didn't necessarily rock out.


How could this group not have been huge?

Was it the fact that their material was more classically informed?

Was it the fact that they didn't 'rock out' like Yes or Crimson or Tull?

I wish I knew.

Certainly not having their albums in print in the US was not a help. Sire really dropped the ball on that, and the same could be said for a lot of major labels' handling of newer prog...or prog that wasn't played on classic rock radio (ref. echolyn, Annie Haslam on Epic, et cetera). Realistically, Renaissance's fan base in the US was/is in a band that stretches from Boston to DC...the traditional prog corridor in the US. Unlike Rush or Kansas, they didn't have much chance to expand beyond that. The fact that they were at their best live with an orchestra behind them to realise their richly textured compositions was a drawback as well, I'd wager, in terms of touring.

All of this moves away from the point...or points...of all of this.

1) To this day, Renaissance remains one of my most loved groups. I was very nearly starstruck when I got to meet Annie Haslam a few years back at NEARfest...I had to be pushed into going over to say hi and ask for a photo with her, such was my terror of actually being able to say something to someone whose voice I had fallen in love with. For someone whose favourite group is probably King Crimson, meeting Annie was perhaps the biggest highlight of my life.

2) I think more people should check out Renaissance. Seriously. Their material is awesome...the run of albums from Prologue through Azure d'Or is nearly flawless, in my not at all humble opinion. After that...hit and miss...sometimes more miss than hit. But that run of 7 studio albums and 1 live album...almost the pinnacle of musical perfection in 'rock' music.

3) Now that record stores are going the way of the dodo and the passenger pigeon, it's going to get harder and harder to have that kind of communication where discovery is the end result. There ore, of course, some very good web forums out there where one can trawl and dig and look for gems, but I miss the one on one connection I had at the local. One thing I hope in time that I will be able to do is be kind of a 'local' for any of you out there...telling you about what I've found, what I think, and so on.