While we're off-topic, another obscure keyboardist, Mike Nock

[Dave Trenkel]

So, I know this is starting to stretch very far off-topic, but since there
seems to be a lot of knowledge of obscure keyboard/synth related music
here, I thought I'd ask.

I'm reading "Jazz Rock: A History" by Stuart Nicholson (highly recommended,
BTW, for anyone else into the pre-fuzak era of fusion). In it, he mentions
Mike Nock and his late '60's band Fourth Way, about their appearance at the
1969 Montreaux jazz festival. he writes:

"Their Set at the Montreux festival was recorded and released as
'Werewolf", which turned out to be their final album together. At the time
it was considered a controversial performance, but today it stands as one
of the classic recordings of jazz-rock. By then, Nock was using one of the
most complete, and impressive, electronic keyboard setups in jazz, a
stunning array of synthesizers, ring modulators, flangers, Fender Rhodes
piano and wah-wah pedals, using them to their fullest capabilities from
far-in to the far-out reaches of white noise."

Later, in a quote fromm a Rolling Stone review:

"The Fourth Way demonstrate, in their most eclectic album to date, that we
are still only beginning to discover the musical ramifications of
amplification, ring modulators and other effects. When a history of
electronic music is written, the pioneering work of Fourth Way should
neatly eclipse the influence of many other more highly publicized groups."

Now, this sounds VERY interesting, especially for 1969! I've just done a
web search, and "Werewolf" is evidently out of print, as are the other 2
Fourth Way records. Anybody out there know anything about this, or perhaps
own a copy of this record? I'd heard of Nock previously as a jazz pianist,
but had never heard of this phase of his career!

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Dave Trenkel : improv at peak.org
Minus Web Site: http://listen.to/minusmusic
Minus MP3's: http://www.mp3.com/-minus-
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