BLUE WOW!!!

Just before I went back to school in 2000 I decided to be a groupie one more time. Yes, I said groupie. My friend and I were die-hard King Crimson fans. I mean we would go see any King Crimson members other projects anywhere. I think we saw Robert Fripp solo like ten times. We saw Bill Bruford Earthworks about six times. We saw the Tony Levin Band maybe more then we can count. Then we got some information about a band called BLUE. BLUE was really called Bruford Levin Upper Extremities. I knew all about the group except a young trumpet player Chris Botti. Chris Botti is now very well known and is making a killing on his soft jazz playing, but before he did that he was in a genre crossing band called BLUE. His trumpet playing was amazing.

We got word of BLUE through a King Crimson pre-order mailer we got as an e-mail. My friend called me up and told me that this really looks exciting. Since he was a fan of another band that was also with a trumpet player and featured Bill Bruford and Tony Levin and a wonderful and hugely gifted guitar player named David Torn. That project was called Cloud About Mercury. My friend saw that tour in 1987. He told me it was very unusual for it's time, but I understood that because the album was on ECM. I did not expect it to be straight forward, and simple.

When the CD arrived in the mail I quickly put it on. Later in the day my friend who also bought this CD called me. He told me that he loved this CD and cranked it up to full volume in the house. He worked second shift and invited me over to listen to it with him the next day. Since I had the next day off I agreed. I could not get it off the CD player and I too cranked it to full volume. The music was wonderful. I won't call it fusion because it really is not that, but I will call it ballsy. It took more chances then a lot of artist do. I mean three of the four members know they can create something great. Levin, Bruford and Torn take these risk very well. Botti was new to the game, he played exceptionally well for a trumpet player.

The album was a success with me because I like this stuff. I like the experimental and progressive side of things. Torn's guitar riffs are exactly what I like to hear. Bruford's drumming could not be any better. Levin's bass and Chapman stick could not be full of power. Botti made it sound fun and less forced then I thought. He did not put himself on Miles Davis or any other trumpet player, he played like he just does, very good and kicked ass.

I gave it more credit when I saw the first show they played on the east coast. A place called Toad's Place. The reputation there is amazing and to watch this with fans like me. The two hour show was great. After the show there was a meet and greet and talking to the band I felt like they really wanted to do this. They had fun, and so did I. This was not that last time we see this project. In the course of their tour we went to see them about twelve times and each night brought out magic out of all of them. My most favorite night was the Knitting Factory shows. Watching them blast through the first show was great, but the late show had so much magic and the improv was amazing. Even in the liner notes on the live CD Tony Levin even speaks about how the first song of the second set was all improv and would like a copy if someone had one.

I mean we went to a lot of shows from Rochester New York, to Philadelphia to Chicago and every night it was great. Looking back this band was really ahead of their time. It's too bad that they might never get back together because if they did it would be magic all over again. Every written piece on the album has a great touch. The live album they put out for is also very good and you can hear them feed off the energy of the crowd. They played for two hours, but there was no sense they rehearsed some of these pieces. It was a top notch effort by a top notch super group. Enjoy something they may never come across our ears again. "You Got it Torn" as Chris Botti says in "Original Sin." You got it, is right!

Gypsy Wolf Cantina where BLUE would meet after recording sessions and have an awesome meal.