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Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 From: David Levkovitz <>
Subject: BajaProg 2004 rundown
Well another great festival has come and gone. At first I thought this years was
going to be one of the strongest yet, it turned not to be so. Not that it wasn't
great, the bands I expected to be good, were. But usually there are some great
surprises among the bands I'm not familiar with and the daytime bands. This year
they were a great disappointment. Here's a quick synopsis.
Day one:
Kotebel - I own one of their CD's and like it quite a bit. Unfortunately they
chose material that was all very similar. Good musicianship with a classically
trained female vocalist.
Richard Sinclair/Glass - Richard Sinclair is one of the founders and geniuses of
Canterbury, why he hooked up with the mediocre Glass is beyond me. This is the
guy that played with Caravan and Hatfield and the North for God's sake!
Matraz - The only good thing about day one. This is a great complex prog band
with wonderful musicians. Their instrumental sections bordered on prog/metal at
times, but don't let this turn anyone off, the melodies are great.
Day 2:
Cast - Good musicians and good melodies. The vocalist is a little too
melodramatic in his delivery for my taste, which is a big drawback. Alfonso (the
host and organizer of the festival) is a great keyboard player.
Pocos & Nuvens - These guys were pretty good. Great flute and violin. They could
be a and to watch in the future.
Anekdoten - Not the greatest musicians, but they can write some darn good music.
The highlight was when the bass player says "now we're going to play something
dark and mysterious". What, as opposed to all that upbeat happy music they've
been playing for the previous hour?
Day 3:
KBB - This is when the festival really kicked into high gear! This is fiery prog/fusion
played the way it's supposed to be. The lead violin player is an absolute
virtuoso! The rest of the band are no slouches either.
Deus ex Machina - One of the best active progressive bands ever. World class
musicians with innovative compositions. This is what real progressive music is
all about. Nothing retro or derivative about these guys.
Holdsworth/Softworks - Totally out of place. This sounded like a 1960's free
jazz concert where none of the musicians know what the others are going to play.
One of the best, most influential guitarists in the history of music (UK,
Bruford, Ponty, Softmachine, etc) and he cleared the theater. I see him play
with his fusion trio in LA all the time, that would have gone over much better.
Day 4:
Jaime Rosas Trio - These guys were horrible. When the music press thinks of
progressive music being pretentious and bombastic, this is what they are talking
about. Just a bunch of keyboard noodling to uninteresting compositions. The
thing that many of these ELP influenced keyboard trios don't understand is that
what made ELP so great is not that Emerson was a great keyboard player, that's a
given. It's that he was great composer! Even if he wasn't as good a player as he
was but still as great composer ELP still would have been a great band.
Arti e Mesteri - Based on one great CD from the 70's these guys have a
reputation as one of the best Italian bands, and deservedly so. Great Italian
melodies played by world class musicians highlighted by one of the best drummers
in the world in any genre. Furio Churico is a phenom. I've seen all the great
drummers in their prime, Bruford, Palmer, Cobham, Donati, etc, and none of them
have anything on this guy. He is in his early 50's and doesn't look a day over
40 and hasn't lost a step.
IQ - The only neo band that transcends that limited genre to be one of the best
bands around. Although I would have liked a little different song selection, it
was great show. It was good to see them live again.
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