Jade Sarson

Jade Warrior—the debut self-titled and self-produced album by Jade Warrior, released in 1971 as one of the earlier albums of the psychedelic progressive rock movement. Aurally, the album sets the scene for what the majority of the bands later albums were to sound like—mixing various ethnic sounds with a progressive and unearthly sound, as well as sudden changes between slow acoustic guitar melody, to distorted and heavy electric guitar with a faster tempo.

Jade Warrior's first album following Tony Duhig and Jon Field's emergence out of the psychedelic July captures them abandoning the best of that band's whimsical moodiness in favor of a symphonic spirituality epitomized from the outset by the soaring guitars that ecstatically slice through the opening "Traveller." Reminiscent, in places, of a less-precious successor to Quintessence and the Incredible String Band in that moods and esotericism do sometimes get the better of the band's more conventional music impulses, Jade Warrior is nevertheless a remarkable album, all the more so since its makers could readily have given the likes of Jethro Tull and the Moody Blues some serious competition in the mellifluous prog stakes…

Jade Warrior were pioneers of the world fusion genre, though in reality, their early albums didn’t really seize the moment as they should have. Like most bands from the early 70s, Jade Warrior were finding their way in the music world, and they seemed to possess three distinct styles…

Once a symbol of the Vertigo label's adventurism, Jade Warrior's lack of sales led to their dismissal in 1972, which inevitably resulted in the band's disintegration. However, the Warrior's multi-instrumentalists, Jon Field and Tony Duhig, soldiered on at the urging of Steve Winwood, whose enthusiastic support of the diminished Warrior secured the duo a deal with his label, Island. Floating World was the new-look Jade's debut, a concept album themed around the Japanese philosophy of Ukiyo, with the songs revolving around two interrelated series of compositions…