RICOTTI AND ALBUQUERQUE
First Wind THINK LIKE A KEY MUSIC
Future ELO bassist does the jazz-rock thing. Nice!
Largely overlooked for far too long, the reissue of this 1971 jazzrock curio continues the reassessment of the career of Michael de Albuquerque, best known as the tweedjacketed, shadesdonning bassist for Electric Light Orchestra between 1972 and 1974. Despite a career that saw him work with British soul singer Maxine Nightingale (he featured on her 1976 debut, Right Back Where We Started From, the title track of which hit the No.2 spot in the US, selling more than a million copies in the process), Mike Hurst and Mary Hopkin in Sundance, and former ELO colleague Mik Kaminski in Violinski, de Albuquerque remains very much a cult artist, something the recent reissue of We May Be Cattle But We All Have Names, his 1973 debut solo album, and now First Wind, as well as Prog’s interview with him last year, will hopefully redress.