VOTD 1/4/2023

 Stormy Six: Macchina Maccheronica (L'Orchestra)

Purchased from Mike Shanley

I'm an old progressive rock kid. The first LP I bought for myself was Kansas' Leftoverture; I think the third was Yes' Close to the Edge. (One of those records has aged better than the other, maybe I'll get around to writing about that some time.) It's not all I listened to as a teenager. I would listen to records from my father's collection, who in turn would make recommendations. Because of that, I knew who the players in the original Louis Armstrong Hot Five before I knew who Led Zeppelin was. It was from his collection I heard Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus for the first time.

I'd hate to think there was snobbishness on my part, listening to the faux-symphonic recordings of ELP. I did feel like I was distinguishing myself from my peers by listening to things that were "strange." I eschewed punk rock, not that many of my friends were involved with listening to it. I was more impressed with bands that could produce an LP side-long piece. 

Now I understand that's no indication of quality. The accusation of prog rock's "pretenstiousness" is both right and wrong in my view. Yes, there is a pretentiousness to not letting the music fall in a 4/4 groove, or showing off chops more than playing something heartfelt. At the same time, I believe the most pretentious thing you can do is to play publicly and be really bad. I don't mean having an off night, that can happen to anyone. I mean being just plain terrible. That takes some serious self-centeredness to do that.

I still like elements of progressive rock, particular artists. There are some that barely qualify under that banner. I suppose broadly speaking Henry Cow qualifies as prog (some of the time at least), but they had very little in common with the previously mentioned groups. Or, how does one categorize the quirky Etron Fou Leloublan, or Picchio dal Pozzo? Or the crazy virtuosity of Area? Yet, if pressed for a single descriptor, I'd qualify them all as prog.

Which brings me to the Italian group Stormy Six. There are seven players credited on this particular album, one of which is Georgie Born of Henry Cow on cello. The recording dates to 1979, and I might have guessed as much. I might have also guessed they were Italian or French, if I didn't know. They don't sound American. One major reason would be the prominence of the clarinet on this session. He (Leonardo Schiavone) doubles on tenor saxophone too, but it's his clarinet playing that stands out. It's one of the first things we hear from the very start of the album.

The playing is sharp throughout, sometimes sounding challenging without necessarily flashy. I'm enjoying the record as it's playing, but I don't find the music to generally be very memorable. Maybe it's because the band doesn't tend to lean into any particular ideas for very long, musical materials come and go rather quickly. There's a light humor now and then, the music sometimes recalling tangos, marches, or Italian folk songs. 

Prog is such a 70s phenomenon. I guess there are still good examples today, I just don't largely know who they are. And maybe that's fine, that it's a music that was about being European in the 1970s.