Flight - 1976 - Incredible Journey

Flight

1976

Incredible Journey

01. Music Is

02. 1929

03. First Impression

04. Mystery Man

05. 2003

06. Visions Of A Dream

07. The Sands Of Time

08. Rock 'N' Roll Star

Acoustic Bass, Electric Bass – John Ray 

Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar – Ted Karczewski

Brass, Lead Vocals – Pat Vidas

Drums, Percussion – Russell A. Dawber, Jr.

Keyboards – Jim Michael "Fizzwah" Yaeger

Recorded at Media Sound Studio, New York

Yeah, I can see where this would turn off plenty of listeners, particularly those like an underground fan such as myself. Don't ask me to explain how I like this, but I do. It surely has all of the elements of commercial, mid-70's US prog that really were turning off those not in the mainstream back then. In fact, I'm not sure if I can think of a more stereotypical example of the genre, from the cascading tom-tom drumming, synthesizers and ultra-high production quotient. And just to top it off, most of these tracks have utterly insipid lyrics. Thankfully, I'm not a lyric guy, and can quite easily tune them out and concentrate on the music. The musicianship on here is superb, particularly the lead guitar. When this guy solos, he scorches! But for the most part, no individual instrument is spotlighted. After all, this is rather fast moving, symphonic sounding prog, and everyone adds to the finished product fairly equally. I guess you could say there are also some fusion elements in the mix, but this is not what I generally consider fusion, based mostly on their selection of material. Overall, very consistent. Based on this one, I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for their first as well.

''Incredible journey'' (1976, Capitol) has this amazing, multi-colored, almost chaotic front cover, which tells a lot about the contained material.In this album Flight sound like Starcastle gone mad, taking a turn into Return to Forever/Santana-like territories.It has that US Pomp Prog feeling with the glam synthesizer flashes, poppy vocals and some of Yes' unbelievable ability to create ultra-complex, very dense instrumental music, then it passes through fast and furious jazzy patterns with technical interplays and solos and abnormal rhythm changes.They were pioneers in making something difficult sound listenable and that's exactly what's going on in ''Incredible journey''.Powerful trumpets, in-your-face synth lines, Fusion-esque electric piano, a cool guitarist with a flawless style, going from jazzy moves to almost Hard Rock-in leads, even some Mellotron/harpsichord echoes in a few tracks.The result is not absolutely on par with the debut, the main reason being the not so memorable hooks all the way through.Still a fascinating mix of pompous orchestrations and jazzy orgasms and definitely very far from a run-of-the-mill album.

Florida based Flight's second album is a super tight and intense fusion like Return to Forever.... mixed with AOR Midwest styled 1970s FM pomp like Styx or Starcastle. Just the most bizarre blend of contrasting styles one can imagine. As if the band were made fun of for being musical wizards, so in order to be cool they put out crowd pleasing rock music. WTH? I like it in any case. One of a kind that's for sure.

Flight - 1975 - Flight

Flight

1975

Flight

01. In Flight (4:48)

02. Make A Miracle (3:45)

03. Let's Fly Away (3:53)

04. Latin Dippy Doo (9:20)

05. Rhapsody to You (7:50)

06. Falling in Love (3:38)

07. Ease of Confusion (3:08)

08. Theme to the Stratosphere (9:01)

Pat Vidas - all brass & lead vocals

Jim Michael "Fizzwah" Yaeger - all keyboards

Ted Karczewski - electric & acoustic guitars

John Ray - acoustic & electric basses

Russell A. Dawber, Jr. - drums, percussion

Recorded at Media Sound Studio, New York

Originally released in 1975 by Capitol Records

This one is progressive jazz rock at its best for sure.Compositions are really fast,complex and intricate,offering tons of adventuruous interplays and a very rich sound.However,FLIGHT are not your average band,delivering long improvisated parts or jam sections.The compositions are mainly short with a great developing structure and also featuring often humurous vocals of somekind of late-60's pop style.Pat Vidas present a wide variety of catchy trumpet parts,supported by great electric piano,moog synths and a touch of mellotron and even some fantrastic solos by guitarist Ted Karczewski.The funky bass lines of John Ray try to create a more relaxed atmosphere...but instrumental parts are trully mind-blowing, reminding me of GENTLE GIANT and actually if you can imagine a cross between GG and NUCLEUS you are very close to FLIGHT's unique sound.Energetic brass rock in battle with complicated jazzy prog with also some hints of classic progressive rock.This band deserves a lot more than this limited fame they earned.A must-have for ages.

FLIGHT were a five piece band out of Florida and this is their debut from 1975. It's been a long time since I've groaned this much while listening to an album. The vocals are so weak and the trumpet that the singer plays is so not the style I like. You would think this was an old school Mexican band with those fast paced trumpet blasts. The synths also bring down the rating for me.

I like the start of the closer, probably the best part of the record for me. It goes downhill from there. Also the guitar early on "Latin Dippy Doo" is good, but songs like "Make A Miracle" and "Falling In Love" make me want to cry. It's music like this that explains why Prog has had such a bad reputation in my opinion. Not recommended.

Flight were a Florida based progressive rock/fusion band with mellotron, Moog, guitar, trumpet, and quite a bit of kinetic energy. This is one of the most confused releases from a most confused time in American history (think Gerald Ford and hyper inflation). The album opens up as if Starcastle had decided to sound like Yezda Urfa instead of you-know-who. But then there's trumpet. Trumpet? OK, then. This leads to 'Make a Miracle' which is more like Earth, Wind, and Fire. "Baa-bay, I need you...baa-bay" It's actually quite accomplished for the style. Then how about some fusion runs similar to Mingo Lewis' Flight Never Ending? And so it goes, yo-yo-ing back and forth from insane prog to complicated fusion to radio soul hits. What a cool and dopey album, really. Too sophisticated for chart topping; too mainstream to be an underground cult classic. Can't imagine what the hell Capitol were thinking here. The more I review albums on the Capitol label, the more I wonder just how drugged up were those guys in the 70s? Flight were to get even more bizarrely contrasting on their followup album. Awesome.

Magnificent US Prog band, recording and performing between mid-70's and early 80's.They recorded three albums as far as I am concerned:''Flight'' (1975, Capitol), featuring Pat Vidas on trumpets/vocals, Jim Michael Yaeger on keyboards, John Ray on acoustic & electric basses, Russell Dawber on drums and Ted Karczewski on electric and acoustic guitars, is Progressive/Jazz Rock at its best for sure.Compositions are really fast, complex and intricate, offering tons of adventuruous interplays and a very rich sound.However Flight are not your average band, delivering long improvisated parts or jam sections.The compositions are mainly short with a great developing structure and also featuring often humurous vocals of somekind of late-60's pop style.Vidas presents a wide variety of catchy trumpet parts, supported by great electric piano, Moog synthesizer and a touch of Mellotron and even some fantrastic solos by guitarist Ted Karczewski.The funky bass lines of John Ray try to create a more relaxed atmosphere.But instrumental parts are trully mind-blowing, reminding me of Gentle Giant and actually if you can imagine a cross between Gentle Giant and Nucleus you are very close to Flight's unique sound.Energetic Brass Rock in battle with complicated jazzy Prog with also some hints of classic Prog rock.This band deserves a lot more than this limited fame they earned.A must-have for ages.