Jim Goad

The band Goad was started in Florence, Italy by Gianni Rossi and his brother Maurilio during the late 1970s. They released their first album, Creatures at the end of 1983. The band, includes Maurilio Rossi (vocals, keyboards and guitar), Gianni Rossi, (guitar and backing vocals), Francesco Diddi, (flute, violin, guitars and sax), Vick Usai, (drums), Tommaso Baggiani, (drums), Luis Magnanimo, (bass), and Antonio Vannucci, (piano and keyboard). This is a fantastic prog journey back in time with original sounds. All the elements are there for a classic. Flutes, keys, electric guitar solos, drums, heavy bass and good vocals…

The band Goad was started in Florence, Italy by Gianni Rossi and his brother Maurilio during the late 1970s. The music is a straight forward prog. With various tempo changes, Mellotrons, guitar solos and some flutes and saxes. Just as it should be. Nice sounding prog as was made in the seventies and eighties. Not exceptional but solid and has a fair balance.

Croce's debut ABC album was also his commercial breakthrough, topping the charts for five weeks, largely due to the comic, up-tempo title tune, a story song about competing pool hustlers, although Croce also reached the Top 20 with the change-of-pace ballad "Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels).

Guitarist Jim Hall is the sort of musician who displays such technical expertise, imaginative conception, and elegance of line and phrase that almost any recording of his is worth hearing. Still, Concierto ranks among the best albums of his superb catalog. For starters, the personnel here is a jazz lover's dream come true. Paul Desmond (saxophone), Chet Baker (trumpet), Roland Hanna (piano), Ron Carter (bass), and Steve Gadd (drums) are on board, creating – along with Hall – one of the highest profile lineups ever put to tape. Yet Concierto is not about star power and showboating. As subtle, nuanced, and considered as any of Hall's output, the ensemble playing here demonstrates great group sensitivity and interplay, giving precedence to mood and atmosphere over powerhouse soloing. Conductor and arranger Don Sebesky evinces a chamber ambience from the sextet on "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To," the smoky "The Answer Is Yes," and the Hall centerpiece "Concierto de Aranjuez".