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Forgas — Cocktail
(Cuneiform Rune, 1977/2025, DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2025-08-29

Cocktail Cover art

The first Forgas Band Phenomenon album, Roue Libre, came out in 1997, and we’ve been covering them with each subsequent album. (Not sure how we missed Soleil 12 in 2005, but we’ve reviewed all the others.) But before forming the Phenomenon, Patrick Forgas put out three albums under the name Forgas, and now Cuneiform has brought us a reissue of the very first one, Cocktail, originally released in 1977. Yes, a full 20 years before Roue Libre. The album’s ten tracks are augmented by a formidable thirteen additional tracks, demos spanning from 1973 to 1979, including a 1975 demo version of “My Trip,” the track that occupied the whole second side of the LP. This is the same track listing that featured on the 2008 Musea edition. Cocktail is a very enjoyable example of late-70s large ensemble jazz-rock. There are hints of Canterbury, as you might expect, and at times, you can almost imagine it’s a long lost funky spin-off of National Health. Forgas himself is primarily a drummer, but he also contributes bass, keyboards, vocals, and guitar; he’s joined by guests Gerard Prevost (bass), Laurent Roubach (guitar), Jean-Pierre Fouquay (keyboards), Francois Debricon (sax, flute), Patrick Le Mercier (violin), Patrick Tilleman (violin), Didier Thibault (bass), Dominique Godin (keyboards, sax), and Bruce Grant (sax). For the bonus demo tracks, Forgas is mostly on his own. I particularly enjoy having both woodwinds and violin in the mix — so many times you hear one or the other, but not both. Debricon’s flute gets a lot of the standout solos, but the music is more focused on the grooves and overall texture than on flashy soloing. The bottom line is that this is quite an enjoyable album, and it’s good to finally hear it after all these years.

Filed under: Reissues, 2025 releases, 1977 recordings

Related artist(s): Forgas Band Phenomena

More info
http://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/cocktail

 

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