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The Nice: The thoughts of Emerlist Davjack (1967)

SERIES: THE ROOTS OF PROG No. 2

If Moody Blues had as their point strength of the interpenetration of psychedelia and classical music, the quartet of Nice instead put his conflict up sounds much more eclectic and electric , adding more facets to the timbre nascent progressive rock.

The first core of the band - which differed from the definitive to the mere presence of drummer Ian Hague, later replaced by Brian Davison during the month of August - formed in the late spring of 1967 as a backing band of soul singer PP Arnold, a discovery of Mick Jagger, who had worked at the time with the Small Faces .

After the summer, Nice realized that they can operate by yourself and abandoned the Arnold , they recovered in the hands of the former manager of the Rolling Stones Andrew Loog Oldham who offered a contract to Immediate Records.
Recorded in autumn term, the first album by the band "The thoughts of Emerlist Davjack " (where Emer-List Dav-Jack is an acronym for the names of the musicians) was born in November and won a success so dazzling also considered to be "the first progressive rock album " in good company with "Days of future passed " of Moodies.

The controversy that developed over the years as to the true authorship of the prog was never resolved as the two groups proceeded in an almost parallel, but rather what is fundamental for the history of rock , was the way in which both teams shook and innovate, each in their own way, the music scene at the time.
Their work has in fact not only spurred a number of classical musicians to come forward, but gave a whole generation of artists from " colleges" and "art schools " until then time marginalized by rock the opportunity to come forward with new proposals.

As for "Days of future passed , even the album revolved around Nice psychedelia, but at least a fifth of its duration, indications emerged of style so original to rise up to do seminal works of contemporary music.

The focus of so much modern resided substantially in eight minutes and twenty seconds of the volcanic rock of the transposition key piece of Dave Brubeck "Blue Rondo a la Turk ", Renamed for the occasion simply" Rondo ".
From it emerged forcefully is all the versatility of Emerson and his associates, and especially the extraordinary power of communication obtained ferrying the complex rhythm in 9 / 8 the original version of Brubeck in a furious 4 / 4 that enveloped the sound of instruments in a single large kernel understandable, attractive and communicative. A

new language in short, that would have influenced generations of composers (see for example the similarity degli attacchi di “ Rondò ” con “ Valentine Suite ” dei Colosseum o la stessa interpretazione delle nostre Orme ) e segnato indelebilmente la carriera dello stesso Emerson , il quale esporterà quella sua invenzione stilistica negli Emerson Lake & Palmer con ben altri risultati.

Uno stile personale inoltre e avulso da qualunque operazione preconcetta da parte di una discografica (come nel caso dei Moody Blues ) che fece dei Nice un simbolo di un nuovo modo indipendente di conceive music.

Certainly some critics noted between the notes of the Nice significant influences by composers such as Leos Janacek, Sibelius, Bach, Leonard Bernstein or the same Antonin Dvorak who was, incidentally, also first love of the Moody Blues . However, because of its iconoclastic power the English quartet was able to skirt the issue any maliziosità, carving out a unique space among young people, thanks to its support to the protest movements who then swarmed in both England and America.
Their instrumental version of "America " of Leonard Bernstein , published June 21, 1968 in fact, raised a lot of controversy, but the group also made a point of reference for the reliably anti-racist claims.

Also in 1968, the departure of guitarist David O'List shifted the focus on Keith Emerson from that moment not only took the reins of Nice, but realized that the His talent could have been even more valued choosing other traveling companions. And as we all know, history proved him right.