classic and rare Australian popular music from the 1950's, 1960's. 1970's and beyond..including rock and roll, pop, beat, rock, surf and progressive, plus contemporary artists, new releases, reviews and other fun stuff

.

.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Kahvas Jute...Wide Open..progressive rock from 70's Sydney band


Kahvas Jute were a progressive/hard rock group, based in Sydney, and were active initially between 1970-74. Their album "Wide Open" is renowned for the stunning guitar playing and the strength of the songwriting. The band went on to become one of the finest acts of the era, but they never recorded again until mid 2005 when they decided to reform and try out a few new songs , much in the vein of their original album.

Musically, the album fits somewhere between the likes of Cream and Blodwyn Pig, with nods in the direction of Led Zeppelin, the Jeff Beck Group etc. It's a very English sound, but far from being a slavish copy of the overseas role-model the album bears a uniquely Australian flavour. The tightly structured songs and the superb guitar work of Dennis Wilson and Tim Gaze combine to place the record head-high in the progressive stakes. Furthermore the whole shebang is held together by the restlessly exploratory bass style of the great Bob Daisley and the muscular, yet agile drum patterns of Dannie Davidson.

There was no hype to the band, just an unpretentious bunch of musicians capable of producing inventive and enduring music. Not only did the band earn a reputation as one of the best live bands of the period, they also released one of the great Aussie progressive albums in Wide Open. As the title suggests, Wide Open is a free-flowing, expansive blending of rock, jazz and blues, with a touch of folk thrown in for good measure, a hard-as-nails progressive blues rock extravaganza strong on rhythm and melody, and bristling with exceptional guitar interplay.

After their demise in 1974, Wilson joined Chariot, Davidson went on to session work and Daisley moved to England and became bassist with outfits like Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow ,Gary Moore Band, Widowmaker  and Ozzy Osbourne 's Blizzard Of Ozz. There is much discussion that Bob Daisley is the highest record selling Australian artist of all time...
-----
CREDITS
Dannie Davidson - Drums
Dennis Wilson - Guitar
Tim Gaze - Guitar, Vocals
Bob Daisley - Bass




2 comments: