Refugee (band)

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Refugee
General information
Genre (s) Progressive , Art Rock
founding 1973
Current occupation
E-bass , e- cello , vocals
 Lee Jackson
Patrick Moraz
Brian Davison († 2008)

Refugee is an English progressive rock band.

history

After the breakup of The Nice by keyboardist Keith Emerson , Lee Jackson and Brian Davison formed the bands Jackson Heights and Brian Davison's Every Which Way , with which, however, neither of them could continue the success of The Nice . In 1973 Jackson became aware of the Swiss keyboardist Patrick Moraz , who had previously worked in the Mainhorse group (their only album was released in 1971). A virtuoso technically equal to Emerson, albeit stylistically a little more inclined to jazz than this (with Moraz you can hear clear influences from Bill Evans , Jan Hammer and Maurice Ravel , with Emerson rather those from Oscar Peterson and Alberto Ginastera ), he saw great potential in it, and together they began to write material for the next Jackson Heights album. It quickly became clear, however, that the new material was too heavy for Jackson's band, and they approached Brian Davison, who seemed to them to be the right person for an entirely new project. Together with him, they wanted to continue the concept of the keyboard trio, and build on the better days of The Nice .

The three musicians could have got together earlier, because Keith Emerson, who had met Moraz at a The Nice concert in Switzerland, had suggested Moraz as a replacement for himself after he had left The Nice . But Jackson and Davison hadn't been ready to move on immediately.

Getting a contract with Tony Stratton-Smith was surprisingly easy for everyone involved, and work on an album called Refugee immediately started at Island Studios . The recordings were not always easy, because between the recording sessions the band played their first concerts (the first in the London Roundhouse on December 2, 1973) and Patrick Moraz, who had little studio experience, put keyboard track over keyboard track, which the producer liked John Burns made it extremely difficult to mix the album. Davison also suffered from a severe alcohol problem. The album was released on Stratton-Smith's progressive rock label Charisma Records . Despite the outstanding material and the success of the record (it entered the English " Melody Maker " charts at number 28 ) , the LP, released in 1974, remained a one-off project.

Refugee completed a successful concert tour and even had an offer to tour with Eric Clapton . In addition, a second album was already being planned. But after a last concert on August 13, 1974 in the Roundhouse, Moraz left the band - he had been offered the successor of Rick Wakeman at Yes at the beginning of the month , an offer he could not refuse in view of the band's success. Moraz can be heard on the Yes studio album Relayer (released December 5, 1974). On the tour for this album he played some excerpts from the Refugee album (from Papillon and Grand Canyon ) as part of his keyboard solo . Some of the material that might have appeared on a second Refugee album, he reworked the next year for his solo album The Story of I , others appeared on the Refugee Live album in 2007. Jackson and Davison (the latter after a brief stint at Gong , replacing Bill Bruford ) soon ended their musical careers until Keith Emerson briefly revived The Nice in 2002.

In March 2007 the English record company Voiceprint released a concert recording from Newcastle City Hall (1974) which, in addition to some pieces from the studio album, contains two heavily re-composed The Nice covers and two previously unknown pieces by Refugee.

In connection with this publication, the contact between Moraz, Jackson and Davison had intensified again. Reunion concerts in Europe were discussed for a while. However, on April 15, 2008, Brian Davison died of a brain tumor at the age of sixty-five .

In 2010 a 2-CD set was released via Floating World Records, which contains both the 1974 studio album and the 1974 concert recording. The booklet contains detailed liner notes by Martyn Hanson, who published books on The Nice and ELP, among others.

Discography

  • Refugee (1974)
  • Live in Concert Newcastle City Hall (1974, released 2007)

Sources and web links