English vocals, instrumental
International relevance: ***
Nature and Dave Greenslade are indeed odd bedfellows, but what might look strange today wasn't necessarily strange in the late 60s and early 70s when music was more important than genres, and minds (for whatever reasons) were more open to unusual constellations. But even back then, it must have raised a few eyebrows having Nature, the Hendrix influenced blues band with a workingman's grit, backing up British keyboard virtuoso Dave Greenslade.
Greenslade was fresh out of jazz/blues/prog/rock blenders Colosseum and hadn't yet formed his own four-piece with his surname as their collective moniker. Their eponymous debut of low calorie symph rock wouldn't follow until 1973, only a few months before their second album ”Bedside Manners Are Extra”.
1972 was a busy year for Nature. They
had dropped their previous name Blues Quality, worked with Pugh Rogefeldt as a touring act, as well as making a couple of studio
singles. Also, their first album was released on the sanctified Gump
label. And, they recorded with Tonkraft performance for Swedish Radio,
There are two Greenslade led tracks and three by
Nature but it's really a shared effort with Greenslade taking a
prominent part in Nature's stoned blues numbers both as an accompanist
and a soloist. Nature in turn sounds fairly comfortable in the excerpt from Colosseum's ”Valentyne Suite”. Actually, they
sound generally less restricted here than on either of their two
studio albums. The sound however is a bit unbalanced and would
benefit from a sensitive remix to give it some more oomph and depth.
The 40 minutes show was also featured
in the dubious ”Progglådan”, and it's a good thing that the
Japanese Belle Epoque label liberated it for a standalone release.
(”Progglådan” overall should be broken up in separate releases – at
least some of the shows deserves a more accessible release) This
session may not be the most called for, and I assume what really
attracted the Japanese was Greenslade's involvement. Still, if you're
into either him or Nature – or both – ”Live 1972” is a
worthwhile curio.
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