IAN ANDERSON "Ian Anderson Plays the Orchestral Jethro Tull" ZYX Records JETHRO TULL "Aqualung Live" Fuel
Friday, July 21, 2006; Page WE06
IAN ANDERSON"Ian Anderson Plays the Orchestral Jethro Tull"ZYX RecordsJETHRO TULL"Aqualung Live"Fuel
SURPRISE! BRITISH PROG-rockers were influenced by classical music! And traditional folk music! Did we mention blues and jazz? No one melded those varied influences more deftly than Jethro Tull, which is why it makes sense that flutist/frontman Ian Anderson codified all those connections, but emphasized the first, a few years ago in a concert with Germany's Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt. The two-CD/two-DVD project's title, "Ian Anderson Plays the Orchestral Jethro Tull," is a little misleading since the concert kicks off with "Eurology" from Anderson's 2003 solo album, "Rupi's Dance," and there's a fair amount of singing and talking, as well as outside-of-Tull material. It's also not the first time Tull has worked this seam: Some of the songs appear, in different, disappointing arrangements, on 1985's "A Classic Case" with the London Symphony Orchestra.
There are also no other Tullers (guitarist Martin Barre is definitely missed), just Anderson on vocals, acoustic guitar and, most winningly, flute. Of course, many of his compositions lend themselves to orchestral treatments, notably the classic "Aqualung," "Locomotive Breath," "Budapest," My God" and "Living in the Past," which Anderson both isn't and is: Johann Sebastian Bach's "Bourée," which inspired a jazzy extrapolation by the flutist, here comes full circle in a classical re-orchestration. The DVD's bonuses include a long interview with Anderson on the project.
  Ian Anderson rocks with an orchestra. (By Ian Anderson) |
At the close of "Aqualung Live," the XM Radio concert recording of Jethro Tull's 1971 magnum opus, Anderson submits a critique. The performance, he drolly notes, was "quite lamentable, indeed atrocious, but we've done our best for you." Actually, the band's "best" isn't all that bad, though Anderson's voice clearly isn't what it once was. If you can get past the sound of his road-worn pipes on "Cross-Eyed Mary" and other cuts, you'll find a mostly faithful reprise of "Aqualung," performed in the cozy XM Performance Theater in Washington.
The presence of Anderson -- who still plays a mean, jazz-inflected flute -- and Barre is enough to ensure a reasonably entertaining facsimile of a rock classic, from the indelible guitar riff that kicks off the title track to the rearranged "Hymn 43" to the inevitable winding down of "Wind Up." Bonus tracks collect snippets of banter heard throughout the concert. At one point, the always quotable Anderson demystifies the nature of a great song hook: "It's just the same five or six notes rearranged by another monkey." And lest this release be mistaken for a "money-grabbing" move, Anderson explains in his liner notes that proceeds from sales will benefit various charities for the homeless.
-- Mike Joyce
Appearing Wednesday at Wolf Trap with the Filene Center Orchestra conducted by John O'Hara (who also conducted on the album).
