Genre: Progressive Rock
Format: flac + cue + log
Released: 2002
Label: Inside Out Music
Allmusic Review: Review by Franзois Couture Since 1998, the California Guitar Trio has regularly toured with expanded versions of the band. The fan favorite is no doubt the quintet form with King Crimson members Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto. A live album, Live at the Key Club, was made available in 2001 through the CGT Direct Collectors' Series. CG3+2 takes the quintet in the studio to record their repertoire. The track list includes a couple new CGT compositions, jams and studio constructions credited to the whole group, a few more of those incredible covers the band is known for, and a few old favorites revisited. Granted, "Melrose Avenue," "Blockhead," and "Train to Lamy," all dating back to the trio's first two albums (Yamanashi Blues in 1994; Invitation in 1995), suffer a bit from overexposure, but having a rhythm section to back them up is a whole new thing — "Melrose Avenue" turns into a splendidly driving album opener. The group compositions, in which engineer Bill Munyon also had a word, are not as satisfying as the trio's own songs. Somewhat looser, they don't pack as much energy or beauty as "Skyline" and "Eve," the two new pieces co-written by the team of Bert Lams, Paul Richards, and Hideyo Moriya. The highlights are provided by the covers: Yes' "Heart of the Sunrise," the Mahavishnu Orchestra's "Dance of Maya" (did someone mention virtuosity?), and two delightful Japanese traditional tunes rearranged by Moriya — "Zundoko-Bushi" even includes bits of King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man" and "Vrooom." CG3+2 is only half new to the fans and constitutes a meager offering composition-wise. But if the idea of the guitar trio being backed by such a skilled rhythm section makes you salivate, then by all means grab it. You won't be disappointed!
I love these guys and I may like this cover of Heart of the Sunrise evenbetter than I like hearing Yes perform it.
01. Melrose Ave
02. Skyline
03. Dancing Anne
04. Heart Of The Sunrise
05. Hanagasa
06. Zundoko Bushi
07. Blockhead
08. Dance Of Maya
09. Swampy Space
10. Swampy Return
11. Train To Lamy
12. Eve
13. What I Am
14. The Chase
Bert Lams: guitar, tenor guitar
Paul Richards: guitar, slide guitar
Hideyo Moriya: guitar, mando-cello
Tony Levin: bass, Chapman stick
Pat Mastelotto: traps and buttons
Produced by Bill Munyon & Pat Mastelotto with the CGT and Tony Levin
Recorded at Wire, Austin TX, 2-5 Sep 2001
Engineering by Bill Munyon, assisted by Todd Dillon
Additional mixing and assistance: Paul Richards, Bert Lams
Mastered by David Singleton, Alex Mundy; additional mastering by Jim Wilson
Art direction and design by Ioannis, Alan Chappell
Digital paintings & photography: Ioannis
Band photos by Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto
Notes: (****)
The California Guitar Trio were all once students of Robert Fripp's and have a long association with King Crimson and Tony Levin, for example guesting on Levin's Pieces of the Sun. Levin had toured before with the CGT when he and Mastelotto joined them to make this CG3+2 quintet for touring in 2001. After touring (and a live album, Live at the Key Club), they went into the studio and made this. (The initial plan had been for a tour and album had been with Terry Bozzio rather than Mastelotto on drums, but Bozzio dropped out shortly before touring began.)
Release was originally planned on Discipline Global Mobile, but cutbacks at DGM meant CG3+2 emerged on InsideOut.
CGT's Paul Richards described the album as "very different from any previously released CGT studio album. It features more of the electric/improvisational style of the CGT and has some amazing playing by Pat and Tony." "Heart of the Sunrise", "Dance of Maya", "Eve", "Melrose Avenue", "Zundoko-Bushi" and "Train to Lamy" were all heard on that earlier touring, while tracks (9), (10), (13) and (14) represent the sort of improvisation that had been going on. Pieces like "Melrose Avenue", "Blockhead", "Eve" and the cover of "Dance of Maya" date back further still. The cover of "Heart of the Sunrise" (which, of course, Levin played while in ABWH) is very nice: Howe's, Wakeman's and even many of Anderson's parts are covered by the CGT on guitars, while Levin and Mastelotto add their own flavours to the rhythm section.
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