Jadis is a band centred around singer/guitarist Gary Chandler and has a special place in my musical heart since the early eighties. Many times I have seen them live and I have all their albums in my collection, including all live albums. After the release of their wonderful latest album More Questions Than Answers the band went on tour. The band is no longer as "big" as they once were, within the prog genre of course. Where the Boerderij used to bulge when Jadis performed, nowadays one has to settle for a few hundred people and the long break will certainly be partly to blame for that. So now there is a new live album and of course I added this album to my collection on CD, without thinking that is. I was very pleased with the latest album and there are three songs from this album on Live Snapshot and they are interspersed with old songs, especially from the early ages, and that actually says a lot. This Changing Face, More Than Meets The Eye, View From Above and Holding Your Breath are all songs from the most successful phase of Jadis' existence and they are performed with great enthusiasm and playing pleasure. Sadly, my two favourite tracks from the last album are not played, I would have loved to hear Do You Know and From All Sides. Chandler's voice is fine and the voice of keyboard player Martin Orford is also nice to listen to. And so is Chandler's guitar playing and Orford's keyboard parts. Steve Christey has been the drummer for many years and newcomer Andy Marlow is the bassist who completes the rhythm section and together they provide a stable background. Chandler is a great guitarist who sometimes races past himself out of pure enthusiasm and you can hear that here and there, but his playing is ultimately Jadis' calling card. The new tracks fit perfectly between the already mentioned crackers of yesteryear and that is mainly because Chandler has chosen to make less straightforward rock songs and give more space to the keys of Orford. Of course, it rocks quite a bit now and then, but the balance between quiet passages and the heavier ones is excellent. Wood Between The Worlds is one of the better songs on the last album for me and is also very beautiful live. Understand from the album of the same name is a surprising choice and I personally would have preferred to hear Counting All The Seconds from that album, but how often does it happen that a band plays exactly all the songs that are best for you? Not often, so we're not going to complain about that, the setlist is fine and so it remains for me to discuss the quality of the recordings and there is a lot to be said about that. As said, Jadis have already released a few live albums and there are a some very good ones among them. Of course, we have to take into account the budget that this sympathetic band was able to use for this album because it is no longer so that unlimited investments could be made. Given this fact I have to conclude that it all sounds fine but that there are a number of flaws to be heard and it is to the band's credit that they have not filtered everything out. This gives an honest picture of what could be heard at the concerts, although during the concert I attended, Chandler's voice was not as good as on this live album. His vocals sound very good and I assume he was on fire on the nights of the recordings. It is a pity that there are some quite abrupt transitions between the songs and Chandler's talks, this cut and paste work could have been done a bit more carefully. They used recordings from different nights but still.... It's great that Jadis is back and clearly with a lot of enthusiasm, making Live Snapshot a beautiful and sincere reflection of what the band has shown during the tour to promote More Questions Than Answers. Let's hope we don't have to wait too long before a next Jadis album is released. *** Erik Fraanje (edited by Dave Smith) Where to buy? |
