The Nice 1967/1970 progressive rock band

The Nice

I Nice furono un gruppo britannico di fine anni sessanta, il cui genere musicale può essere identificato nell'art rock. La loro musica era una miscela di rock, folk, beat e musica classica.  

Storia

Il gruppo si formò nel 1967 per accompagnare la cantante statunitense P. P. Arnold, in tournée in Inghilterra. I componenti erano il tastierista Keith Emerson, il chitarrista David O'List, il bassista Keith "Lee" Jackson ed il batterista Ian Hague, poi sostituito da Brian Davison.
Già nei concerti con la Arnold, i quattro musicisti avevano un momento a sé nel quale si esibivano da soli, il che permise loro di sviluppare un proprio repertorio: quando, dopo sei mesi di attività, la cantante tornò in patria, il gruppo decise di proseguire per proprio conto.
Il primo album uscì nel 1967 col titolo The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack, una crasi fra i cognomi dei componenti del gruppo. Alcuni mesi dopo l'incisione, O'List abbandonò il gruppo ed i rimasti decisero di proseguire come trio.
Nell'anno seguente uscì il secondo album Ars Longa Vita Brevis, che contiene un arrangiamento dell'Intermezzo della Karelia Suite di Sibelius ed una lunga suite di loro composizione, il cui nucleo è la trasposizione del primo movimento del Terzo Concerto Brandeburghese di Bach. La mancanza della chitarra spostò tutta l'attenzione sulle tastiere di Emerson il quale si guadagnò fama di virtuoso tastierista.
Il terzo album, intitolato semplicemente Nice, venne registrato per metà dal vivo e per metà in studio e chiuse il loro periodo più creativo.
Seguirà un album registrato dal vivo nel novembre del 1969, con un'orchestra sinfonica ed una sezione di fiati, ma pubblicato nel giugno del 1970, intitolato Five Bridges. Nonostante gli apprezzamenti della critica, ma insoddisfatti per non essere riusciti a raggiungere il più ampio successo, i Nice si sciolsero di fatto poco prima della pubblicazione dell'album.
Emerson nel frattempo si era unito a Greg Lake e Carl Palmer per dar vita al celebre trio che esordí a luglio al Festival dell'Isola di Wight.
Jackson e Davison, dopo aver cercato, con scarsa fortuna, di approfittare della relativa notorietà acquisita con i Nice, fondando rispettivamente i Jackson Heights e gli Every Which Way, nel 1974 diedero vita ai Refugee con alle tastiere lo svizzero Patrick Moraz, che poco tempo dopo avrebbe sostituito, per un paio di anni, Rick Wakeman negli Yes, suonando anche nel loro album Relayer.
Nel 1971, postumo, uscì Elegy che contiene una versione di America di Leonard Bernstein, tratta da West Side Story.
Nel 1972 viene pubblicata una raccolta con un inedito, intitolata Autumn '67-Spring '68.
Nel 2002 l'etichetta Castle Music pubblica BBC Sessions, una raccolta di registrazioni effettuate per la BBC tra il 1967 ed il 1970 e contenente diversi inediti e rarità.
Sempre nel 2002 Emerson, Jackson e Davison si sono riuniti per una serie di concerti dal vivo in Gran Bretagna. Da questo tour è stato prodotto l'album live Vivacitas pubblicato nel 2003.
In seguito alla pubblicazione di questo album si è molto parlato di una possibile ricostituzione dei Nice nella storica formazione a trio, ma la scomparsa del batterista Brian Davison, avvenuta il 15 aprile 2008, ha posto la parola fine su questo capitolo.

Stile musicale

I Nice si collocano nella scena musicale inglese di fine anni sessanta del XX secolo, e si trovarono stilisticamente a fianco di altri gruppi britannici con cui si incrociarono e che sarebbero esplosi di lì a poco arrivando a livelli molto alti di popolarità; fra di essi Genesis, King Crimson, e Yes. Attraverso la scelta ardita di un trio in cui la chitarra veniva sostituita dalle tastiere, e favoriti dalla formazione musicale e dal virtuosismo del tastierista Keith Emerson e dalle sue esperienze giovanili in club jazz e blues di Londra, seppero creare con originalità una fusione fra rock e musica classica. Questo nuovo tessuto sonoro in cui confluivano venature jazz e blues sarebbe stato definito in seguito “Progressive Rock”, e oltre a fornire la base per reinterpretazioni in chiave rock di brani classici spaziando da Johann Sebastian Bach a Jean Sibelius, da Leonard Bernstein a Antonín Leopold Dvořák, vide anche incursioni in territorio jazz e blues psichedelico, con le interpolazioni del Blue Rondo à La Turk di Dave Brubeck, fino a cover di Bob Dylan.

Formazione

• Keith Emerson - tastiera, organo Hammond, pianoforte, voce (1944-2016)
• Lee Jackson - basso, chitarra, voce (1943)
• Brian Davison - batteria, percussioni (1942-2008)
• David O'List - chitarra, voce (1948)

Discografia

Album in studio

• 1968 - The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack
• 1968 - Ars Longa Vita Brevis
• 1969 - Nice
• 1971 - Elegy

Live

• 1970 - Five Bridges
• 2003 - Vivacitas'

Altro

• 1972 - Autumn '67 - Spring '68 (antologia)
• 2001 - The Swedish Radio Sessions (registrazioni live presso la radio svedese nel 1967, Bob Dylan in "She belongs to me")
• 2002 - BBC Sessions (dal vivo con inediti e rarità)

 The Nice, Concert at Ernst-Merck-Halle in Hamburg, Easter 1970

Dr. Ronald Kunze - Opera propria

The Nice were an English progressive rock band active in the late 1960s. They blended rock, jazz and classical music and were keyboardist Keith Emerson's first commercially successful band.
The group was formed in 1967 by Emerson, Lee Jackson, David O'List and Ian Hague to back soul singer P. P. Arnold. After replacing Hague with Brian Davison, the group set out on their own, quickly developing a strong live following. The group's stage performances featured Emerson's Hammond organ showmanship and abuse of the instrument, and their compositions included radical rearrangements of classical music themes and Bob Dylan songs.
The band achieved commercial success with an instrumental rearrangement of Leonard Bernstein's "America", following which O'List left the group. The remaining members carried on as a trio, releasing several albums, before Emerson decided to split the band in early 1970 in order to form Emerson, Lake & Palmer. The group briefly reformed in 2002 for a series of concerts.

History

Early career

The Nice evolved from Gary Farr and the T-Bones, which keyboardist Keith Emerson and bassist Keith "Lee" Jackson were both members of before the band dissolved in early 1967 Emerson then briefly played with the VIPs, who toured the Star-Club in Hamburg, and his playing style became influenced by the organist Don Shinn, including standing up to play the instrument and rocking it on stage. Meanwhile, P. P. Arnold, a performer who reached a higher level of popularity in the UK than her native U.S., was unhappy with her backing band, The Blue Jays, and wanted a replacement. Her driver suggested Emerson would be able to put together such a group. Emerson agreed, but only on the condition the band could perform on their own as a warm-up act. Since it effectively meant getting two bands for the price of one, manager Andrew Loog Oldham readily agreed. Emerson recruited Jackson, drummer Ian Hague and ex-the Attack guitarist David O'List, the latter by recommendation from journalist Chris Welch. The name came from Arnold saying, "Here comes the Naz",^[a] which the group misheard as "the Nice".
The band played its first gig in May 1967, and had its first major break at the 7th National Jazz and Blues Festival in Windsor on 13 August. Oldham had managed to secure a separate set for the group in a side tent away from also accompanying Arnold on the main stage, where they gained attention. The next week, Welch wrote in the Melody Maker that "it was the first time I had seen a group actually in the act of winning its first following in quite dramatic circumstances". When Arnold went back to her family in the US shortly afterwards, Oldham offered the group a contract of their own. Hague was not interested in the "progressive" direction the group wanted to go in, so he was replaced by former Mark Leeman Five and Habits drummer Brian Davison.
Now a band in their own right, the Nice expanded their gear, recruiting roadies Bazz Ward and Lemmy, the latter of whom provided Emerson with a Hitler Youth ceremonial dagger to stick into the keys on his Hammond organ. They spent the end of 1967 on a package tour with Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, the Move and Amen Corner. Pink Floyd's then leader, Syd Barrett, missed several gigs and O'List had to stand in for him. The group's first album was recorded throughout the autumn of 1967, and in October of that year they recorded their first session for John Peel's radio show Top Gear. The album included classical and jazz influences including extracts from Leoš Janáček's Sinfonietta and a rearrangement of Dave Brubeck's "Blue Rondo a la Turk" renamed as "Rondo", changing the time signature from the original 9/8 to 4/4 in the process. The group clashed with producer Oldham in the studio over the length of the track, but eventually won the argument; the full eight-minute piece was included on the album. After the album was released, the group realised that Oldham had a conflict of interest as manager and record company owner, so they recruited sports journalist Tony Stratton-Smith to take over management duties.
For their second single, the Nice created an arrangement of Leonard Bernstein's "America" which Emerson described as the first ever instrumental protest song. The track used the main theme of the Bernstein piece (from West Side Story) but also included fragments of Dvořák's New World Symphony. The single concludes with Arnold's three-year-old son speaking the lines "America is pregnant with promise and anticipation, but is murdered by the hand of the inevitable." The new arrangement was released under the title "America (Second Amendment)" as a pointed reference to the US Bill of Rights provision for the right to bear arms. In July 1968, Immediate Records publicised the single with a controversial poster picturing the group members with small boys on their knees, with superimposed images of the faces of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. on the children's heads. A spokesman for the band said "Several record stores have refused to stock our current single .... the Nice feel if the posters are issued in United States they will do considerable harm". During the tour that followed the release of their second album in July, the group spawned controversy when Emerson burned an American flag onstage during a performance of "America" at a charity event, Come Back Africa in London's Royal Albert Hall. The group were subsequently banned from ever playing the venue again.
By summer 1968, the group had become concerned about O'List's reliability and matters came to a head following a gig in Croydon's Fairfield Hall in September. According to Ward, O'List had an altercation with him in mid-performance. Emerson subsequently called a band meeting with Jackson and Davison and stated flatly that O'List should be sacked. They agreed, and immediately after their performance at The Ritz, Bournemouth in October, he was fired by Stratton-Smith with the rest of the band present. O'List, however, claims that he left the band voluntarily because he was upset at Stratton-Smith's decision to make Emerson the front man, saying "I left the band and waited for Keith to get in contact... I should have gone straight to Keith, but I didn't."

Reduction to a three piece

The Nice briefly considered looking for a replacement, with Steve Howe trying out at an audition. Howe got on well with the rest of the band, but a week later had second thoughts and decided not to join. Emerson tried to learn guitar so he could cover some of O'List's old parts, but gave up after one gig.
The band's second LP Ars Longa Vita Brevis featured an arrangement of the Intermezzo from the Karelia Suite by Jean Sibelius, which the band's friend Roy Harper had recommended they covered, and the album's second side was a suite which included an arrangement of a movement from J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3. The group used an orchestra for the first time on some parts of the suite. The band were on the bill at the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival and briefly toured Ireland with Yes and Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band which, by all accounts, was fraught with logistical problems.
The third album, titled Nice in the UK and Everything As Nice As Mother Makes It in the US, featured one side recorded live on their American tour and one side of studio material. As with previous albums, it included arrangements of classical material, in this case the Third Movement of Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony (Pathetique), and rearrangements of Bob Dylan's "She Belongs to Me" and Tim Hardin's "Hang on to a Dream".
In 1969, the band found time to contribute to other projects. Emerson performed as a session player for Rod Stewart and the Faces, while the whole group provided instrumental backing for the track "Hell's Angels" on Harper's 1970 album Flat Baroque and Berserk. Mid-year, tour promoter Michael Emmerson asked the Nice to write some music for the Newcastle upon Tyne Arts Festival. The result was the Five Bridges suite. The group premièred the piece on 10 October 1969 at Newcastle City Hall. A complete version with an orchestra was performed at the Fairfield Hall, Croydon on 17 October, which was recorded for the album of the same name. The title refers to the city's five bridges spanning the River Tyne, and Jackson's lyrics refer to his Newcastle childhood and the St James' Park football ground.
By late 1969, Emerson thought the Nice had progressed as far as it could musically, and was particularly dissatisfied with Jackson's limited vocal style. He asked Jack Bruce and Yes' Chris Squire about forming a new band, but both turned Emerson down. While on tour in the US with King Crimson, Emerson held a meeting with Stratton-Smith and declared "the Nice had outlived its usefulness". By the end of the year, Emerson and Crimson's Greg Lake had decided to form a band together. The group carried on touring into 1970, but sometime early in the year, Emerson told Jackson that he would be leaving the band. Matters were not helped by Immediate Records filing for bankruptcy; the band later said they received no royalties from the label while an active group.
In February 1970, the group collaborated with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra led by Zubin Mehta. This was broadcast in the following month as part of the "Switched-On Symphony" program. Following standard television procedure of the day, the Nice's contribution (a version of "America") was recorded ahead of time and the band mimed for the cameras.
By March, the group had confirmed they would split, and a report on the band's decision was printed in Melody Maker. The group played their last British concert on 22 March at the Fairfield Hall, Croydon, and after a short German tour the band broke up, playing their last gig on 30 March at the Berlin Sportpalast.

Post-Nice and reunion

Emerson and Lake recruited Carl Palmer from Atomic Rooster and formed Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP). In 1971, the posthumous Nice album Elegy was released. It included different versions of previously released tracks, two being studio versions and two live from the 1969 US tour. Emerson had no involvement with compiling the album, which was done by Jackson, Davison and Charisma Records. The album reached No. 5 in the UK.
Jackson formed Jackson Heights which released five albums between 1970 and 1973. Emerson supported the band and became a fan. Davison formed "Every Which Way" which released an album in 1970. Both Jackson and Davison formed Refugee with keyboardist Patrick Moraz in 1974, but Moraz left the group after one album to replace Rick Wakeman in Yes.
After over three decades of inactivity, the Nice reformed in 2002 for a series of concerts. A three-CD set Vivacitas was released, with the third CD being an interview with Emerson, Jackson and Davison. Dave Kilminster guested on guitar at the concerts. Davison died on 15 April 2008 aged 65 in Horns Cross, Devon, from a brain tumour. Emerson died on 11 March 2016 in Santa Monica, California, of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Musical style

The Nice were primarily a live band. Their stage performances were bold and violent, with Emerson incorporating feedback and distortion. He manhandled his Hammond L-100 organ, wrestling it and attacking it with daggers (which he used to hold down keys and sustain notes during these escapades). Emerson's playing was inspired by Jimi Hendrix, Billy Ritchie of Clouds, and Don Shinn as well as earlier figures such as pianist Jerry Lee Lewis.
The group's early sound was geared more towards psychedelic rock with only occasional classical influences. Following O'List's departure, Emerson's control over the band's direction became greater, resulting in more complex music. The absence of a guitar in the band and Emerson's redefining of the role of keyboard instruments in rock set the Nice apart from many of its contemporaries. He used a combination of Marshall Amplification and Leslie speakers in order to project a full sound to compensate for the lack of a guitarist.
Jackson never considered himself a great singer, partly because the group chose poor keys for his vocal range, but his bass playing, with heavy use of a plectrum, was a distinctive part of the band's overall sound. He was influenced by Bob Dylan, whose songs were often covered at the time; the Nice interpreted several of them, typically reducing them to three or four verses and featuring a long improvised middle section, such as "She Belongs to Me".

Legacy

"The Nice will be here when all the others are in Pantomime in Wolverhampton."

John Peel

The Nice were one of the pioneering progressive rock bands and their fusion of styles strongly influenced the movement into the 1970s. Their commercial success on Charisma Records was key to establishing the label, which went on to include several other progressive acts, including Genesis and Van der Graaf Generator. Genesis were fans of the Nice and "The Knife" from their album Trespass was directly inspired by the band. Though the Nice were not the first to combine a rock band and orchestra, they did inspire similar attempts by other groups, such as Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother.
The group have often been compared to ELP, but there were important differences between them. Emerson's showmanship was more important in the Nice, and he mostly used just Hammond organ live as opposed to a wider range of keyboards, including the Moog synthesizer, in ELP. John Peel, an early champion of the Nice, called ELP "a waste of talent and electricity".

Members

• Keith Emerson (born 2 November 1944, Todmorden, Yorkshire – died 11 March 2016) – organ, piano, vocals (1967–1970, 2002)
• Keith "Lee" Jackson (born 8 January 1943, Newcastle upon Tyne) – bass, guitar, vocals (1967–1970, 2002)
• David "Davy" O'List (born 13 December 1948, Chiswick, London) – guitar, vocals (1967–1968)
• Ian Hague – drums, percussion (1967)
• Brian "Blinky" Davison (born 25 May 1942, Leicester, Leicestershire – died 15 April 2008) – drums, percussion (1967–1970, 2002)

Discography

Studio albums

• The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack (Immediate, 1967)
• Ars Longa Vita Brevis (Immediate, 1968)
• Nice (aka Everything As Nice As Mother Makes It) (Immediate, 1969) - [UK #3]
• Five Bridges (Charisma, 1970) - [UK #2 US #197]

Live albums

• Elegy (Charisma, 1971) - [UK #5]
• America – The BBC Sessions (Receiver, 1996)
• The Swedish Radio Sessions (late 1967) (Sanctuary, 2001)
• BBC Sessions (Sanctuary, 2002)
• Vivacitas (Sanctuary, 2003)
• Live at the Fillmore East December 1969 (Virgin, 2009)

Compilation albums

• Autumn '67 – Spring '68 (Charisma, 1972, UK), released as Autumn to Spring (Charisma, 1973, USA)
• Keith Emerson with The Nice (Mercury/Polygram 1970), material from Five Bridges and Elegy
• Nice Hits Nice Bits (BMG Fabricated, 1999)

Singles

• "The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack" / "Azrial (Angel of Death)" (Immediate IM 059, November 1967)
• "America" / "The Diamond Hard Blue Apples of the Moon" (Immediate IM 068, 21 June 1968) - [UK #21]
• "Brandenburger" / "Happy Freuds" (Immediate IM 072, 8 November 1968) - [UK / Europe]
• "Hang on to a Dream" / "Diary of an Empty Day" (Immediate, 1969) - [Europe]
• "Country Pie" / "One of Those People" (Charisma, 1969)

 

 

The Nice - Rondo - 1967 - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqQWntzevy4

 

 

The Nice - war and peace - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okId4QBVbUQ

THE NICE ''The Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack- Azrael'' on French TV ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwZupfYP-qg

▶ 6:35

Sep 18, 2016 - Uploaded by Vas Lek

THE NICE ''Play'' Both Sides of Their First Single On French TV Studio.

 

 

The Nice - Karelia Suite - 1969 - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvuoWhTJbPA

47:53

Ars Longa Vita
Brevis Full Album -
The Nice [1968]
Remastered

LilHaseProductions

YouTube - Jan 29, 2016

 

 

The Nice - America (Live on British TV "How It Is" 1968) - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg9jHTYZ-6U

 

Lyrics

Well, c'mon darlin', the stars are burning bright
C'mon now darlin', our lick is good tonight
'Cause we're the all time winners in the all time loser's game
Yeah, we're the all time winners and here we go again
The king and queen of America
Yeah, it's the king of nothing and the queen of rage
With a pile of confusion upon a glittering stage
You know we never did anything to make ourselves feel proud
You know we never did anything, so let's play it loud
Let's hear it for the king and queen of America
So c'mon darlin', there's a big moon in the sky
We're gonna build a little satellite, we're gonna make it fly
We're gonna send it up to heaven, all the way up to the stars
And all of them aliens are gonna find out who we are
We're talkin' 'bout the king and queen of America

Songwriters: Emerson / Jackson / Davison / O'LIST

America lyrics © WB Music Corp., Rilting Music Inc., Chappell & Co., Charles Strouse Publishing, Grey Dog Music, EMI UNART CATALOG INC, CHAPPELL-CO INC, LEONARD BERNSTEIN MUSIC PUBLISHING CO LLC THE, UNIVERSAL-POLYGRM INTL PUB OBO LEONARD BERNSTEIN MUSIC PUB.C, JALNI PUBLISHING, INC., RILTING MUSIC, INC.

 

 

 

 

The Nice - She Belong To Me - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnXsGTyHm5Q

 

 

Lyrics

She's got everything she needs,
She's an artist, she don't look back.
She's got everything she needs,
She's an artist, she don't look back.
She can take the dark out of the nighttime
And paint the daytime black.

You will start out standing
Proud to steal her anything she sees.
You will start out standing
Proud to steal her anything she sees.
But you will wind up peeking through her keyhole
Down upon your knees.

She never stumbles,
She's got no place to fall.
She never stumbles,
She's got no place to fall.
She's nobody's child,
The Law can't touch her at all.

She wears an Egyptian ring
That sparkles before she speaks.
She wears an Egyptian ring
That sparkles before she speaks.
She's a hypnotist collector,
You are a walking antique.

Bow down to her on Sunday,
Salute her when her birthday comes.
Bow down to her on Sunday,
Salute her when her birthday comes.
For Halloween buy her a trumpet
And for Christmas, give her a drum.

Songwriters: Bob Dylan

She Belongs to Me lyrics © Special Rider Music

 

 

 

THE NICE - Hang on to a Dream - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrCBWzhlCVM

 

Lyrics

What can I say, she's walking away
From all we saw
What can I do, still loving you
It's all a dream

How can we hang on to a dream?
How can it really be the way it seems?

What can I do, she's still saying it's through
With how it was
What will I find, I still can't see why
She says what she does

How can we hang on to a dream?
How can it really be the way it seems?

What can I say, she's walking away
From all we saw
What can I do, she's still saying we're through
It's all a dream

How can we hang on to a dream?
How can it really be the way it seems?
How can we hang on to a dream?