I bet it was some time ago but this is just the album you’re after if you want some fresh fusion of John McLaughlin, Jan Akkerman, Larry Coryell types with a touch of Jimmy Page and Steve Howe.

By way of background, Apostolis was born is Katowice into a Greek family and he honed his style as a teenager in a local band called the Silesian Blues Band. They are said to be one of the most important bands in seventies Polish rock, which I can well believe. The 1980s saw him play with Krzak, Dzem and jazz legend Tomasz Stanko before moving to live in Greece.

Whilst he concentrates on being the axe-hero, he also plays the piano and keyboards along with Marcin Pospieszalski (bass, keyboards) and Paul Wertico (drums). They certainly work well together and are particularly tight on these original compositions by Apostolis. If fact, if you’ve got Pat Metheny’s Letter From Home, you’ll have heard Paul before as he was a member of the Pat Metheny Group at that time (1989).

So jazz-rock returns on a high. The opening three tracks have something of Jeff Beck in them during his groundbreaking and brilliant Blow to Blow/Wired period, particularly ‘Pinoccho’s Dreams’.

On ‘Waltz For Barbaras’ they take a breather from all that double time fretwork action and it gets all bluesy. Love the bass and cymbals on this but a waltz? ‘Back To The North’ (Poland?) is fairly mellow and the rockin’ ‘New Century’ finishes off the album.

‘Colours Impressions’ is the opus and, as expected, is a long-winded swapping of solos. But that’s what fusion tended to be all about (also see McLaughlin/Santana, Mahavishnu Orchestra et al). The musicianship is excellent and even though I poke a little fun at this track, they create a tension throughout until it peaks to a flying handicap gallop in the final furlong (sorry, that’s five minutes).

The extravagance of jazz-rock fusion was a child of the seventies but this album, at 45 minutes long, is about just the right length (certainly would fit on a old vinyl album) and as a modern update, it’s a worthy reassessment of the genre. This is certainly the best I’ve heard of late and is thoroughly recommended.

Reviewed: Apostolis Anthimos - Back To The North (Metal Mind Records) Cat. No. MMP CD 0396 Release Date: 30th March 2006
Tracklisting
1. Bar Wah Wah (5:00)
2. Bonnie’s Eyes (4:08)
3. Pinoccho’s Dreams (4:10)
4. Waltz For Barbaras (6:10)
5. Colours Impressions (14:54)
6. New Century (5:41)
7. Back To The North (5:05)

Links:
www.apostolis.net
www.paulwertico.com
City Pages “Dude, Where’s My Double-Necked Guitar?” by Alison M. Rosen June 19, 2002