Parlour

From Home to Home is quite similar to the albums this group had put out in the late '60s as the Kaleidoscope (the British Kaleidoscope, not to be confused with the American band of the same name). In fact, it's similar enough to the Kaleidoscope records to make one wonder why they bothered to change their name. Perhaps there is more polish and sophistication in the production, and a slightly heavier rock sound. But the focus is still gentle, story-like songs with debts to both late-'60s Pink Floyd and late-'60s Beatles, though the songs are not nearly as memorable as the work by those bands, and there is not nearly as much balance between chipper and somber material as the Beatles and Pink Floyd mustered…

The British group the Parlour Band sounded slightly like a much more mainstream, less art-rock-inclined Yes on their sole LP, 1972's little-known Is a Friend. Several members later played in A Band Called O, also sometimes referred to as O Band. Parlour Band's only LP is progressive rock-tinged mainstream early-'70s British album-oriented rock, competent but no more than that. Both keyboard and guitar parts take a strong role, and there's a bit of the multiple tempo changes and classical-tinged organ burble of bands like Yes in songs like "Forgotten Dreams." Some other songs steer well clear of art rock, though, "Pretty Haired Girl" coming across like prototypical early-'70s mellow California harmony rock. Even when it doesn't sound as Californian, though, the album's a pretty laid-back affair and, though it's agreeable, it's lacking in both power and first-rate songs.

When two of the indie-jazz scene’s foremost instrumentalists unite for their debut co-writing collaboration that intermingles panoramic Americana-infused arrangements with a Brooklyn jazz pocket, the result is as ambitious as only violinist Jenny Scheinman and drummer Allison Miller could envision.