Review Summary: Amazing work of a brilliant musician. An album with avant-garde/jazz approaches.
“Szobel” is the only album of the Austrian pianist and composer, Hermann Szobel. The line up on the album is Hermann Szobel, Vadim Vyadro, Dave Samuels, Michael Visceglia and Bob Goldman.
As happened with many European countries, Austria never was a real hot bed for prog rock music. Few bands and artists were born in that country in the 70’s. It comes to my mind only a few names such as, Eela Craig, Kyrie Eleison, Paternoster, Michael Mantler, Joe Zawinul and Rigoni & Schoenherz. And all these names never had much success and became obscure bands, even today. But, there’s a name that I think deserves a special mention, due to the quality of his work and also due to his incredible story. I’m talking about the only but amazing album released by Hermann Szobel.
Hermann Szobel is an Austrian pianist and composer that was born in Vienna. Szobel had played the piano since the childhood and received a classical pianist training. In 1974 he settled in New York and formed an own band. In 1976 he recorded his first and only album named “Szobel”. After that, Szobel gave a few concerts, but then fell out with management and fellow musicians, although a second album was already planned, and then largely disappeared from the music scene and world. It seems that in 1979, when Szobel was working on his second album, in the middle of a recording session, he had a mental breakdown and storms out of the studio. The album was never finished and Szobel completely disappeared. In 2001, Hermann’s mother files a missing person report on her son. After several rumours about his whereabouts, from what I know, nobody knows where he is now, what could he be doing at the moment or if he is even still alive. In any case, he did’nt appear again musically. So, as I mentioned, this is really an incredible story.
Featuring five lengthy instrumental tracks, “Szobel” is quirky fun from start to finish features extremely complicated compositions with surprisingly memorable melodies tucked away within the zig-zagging overlay of intricate musical passages. The music is jazzy based but contains elements of rock and Western classical music. We can say that it’s somewhere between the jazz fusion and the avant-garde progressive rock, evoking associations with the achievements of Frank Zappa, Henry Cow or Gentle Giant. As a rule, they’re accompanied by sharp but melodic solos by the Latvian saxophonist, perfectly fitting into the aesthetics of ambitious varieties of the modern jazz. Szobel had some serious musical and compositional chops. His impressive piano virtuosity is noticeable throughout the album, with his uncanny piano runs weave around the soaring reeds of Vyadro, while the rhythm team pumps and pulse under everything else.
“Mr. Softee” impresses with the great harmony of musicians, perfectly cooperating with each other despite numerous rhythmic turbulences. Still, the musicians don’t limit themselves only to showing their virtuosity, they also offer a bit of lyricism, mainly in the piano introduction, remember to outline the melody and the whole thing has a lot of energy. “The Szuite”, can show even more creativity, virtuosity and sophistication, which is almost twice as long, in which there’s more space, but there are also more intense moments. All the protagonists twirl deliriously around themselves with new rhythmic layers are constantly emerging. At times, this piece all comes close to approaching avant-garde and free-jazz. “Between 7 & 11” and “Transcendental Floss” are probably the most accessible pieces here. “Between 7 & 11” is a groove laden piece that shows a slow but powerful sounding presenting a band that knew how to create a memorable jazz-fusion with a dangerous edge. It contrasts with the speed sound on “Transcendental Floss” that contains serious passages, from squawking sax, to majestic piano, acrobatic drumming and soaring vibraphone. “New York City, 6 AM” stands out as the most atmospheric piece on the album. This is a perfect piece of music that conjures up so well the existential loneliness of walking New York’s backstreets just before the sunrise. It reminds me strongly the American film noir. This is a very intriguing piece and conclusion to the career of this genius who left the world of music so soon.
Conclusion: “Szobel” is truly a captivating, creative and sophisticated album, which is the complete opposite of the direction in which fusion was mixed at the time. In terms of workmanship, this is the absolute highest level that can be found in such a style, which, after all, requires considerable skill to be played. Obscurity and hype actually meet a field of musical creativity and instrumental-technical brilliance. Occasionally “Szobel” sounds a little like Zappa, but also has certain chamber prog moments. The music is powerful, airy and elegant, slightly skewed and very virtuosic. In addition to the master’s brisk operation of the piano, the very versatile bass playing is particularly noteworthy. The music also has a certain character of its own, especially because of Szobel’s classical piano playing. Szobel could have had a brilliant career, but perhaps the music biz just wasn’t for him. At least he gave us this one gift before going off-grid.
Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel)
