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The Ed Palermo Big Band — Prog vs Fusion - A War of the Ages
(Bandcamp Sky Cat records no#, 2025, CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2025-08-28

Prog vs Fusion - A War of the Ages Cover art

In case you’ve been living in a cave for the last thirty years or so, Ed Palermo and his Big Band have mastered the art of re-arranging the music of better known conventional artists for his twenty-or-so-piece big band, and throughout the years he has tackled the music of Frank Zappa, Todd Rundgren, The British Invasion (in The Great Un-American Songbook Series), Edgar Winter, as well as his own original compositions. On Prog vs. Fusion, A War of the Ages, we are treated to two lengthy medleys that include bits (and in some cases lengthier extracts) of many of our favorite progressive rock and jazz-rock fusion artists, two genres that have informed one another for decades, all arranged in Palermo’s unique big band fashion with a Zappa-like continuum where the music never stops. On the prog side we find Yes, ELP, King Crimson, and Steely Dan, and on the fusion side we find John McLaughlin and Mahavishnu Orchestra, Tony Williams Lifetime, Wayne Shorter, Return to Forever, and Allan Holdsworth, and of course Zappa makes an appearance on three different arrangements of “G-Spot Tornado.” And what side does Soundgarden belong to? Since most of the tunes are instrumental (although there are plenty of vocal cuts), he gets away with a one-minute clip of “Tarkus,” or a two-and-a-half minute mash-up of “G-Spot Tornado / Resolution / Jingo,” and for the most part it works well, especially for those of us who are long-time followers of both genres. Especially enjoyable are Crimson’s “Pictures of a City” with Bruce McDaniel singing, a full length instrumental version of “Long Distance Runaround,” Wayne Shorter’s “Milky Way Express,” and a super-funkay “Snake Oil” originally by the Tony Williams Lifetime. The group switches to a distinctively orchestral sound for the three minute instrumental version of ELP’s “Take a Pebble,” with the unforgettable main theme and solo delivered on soprano sax. One thing for certain is that all of these versions will sound unlike any you’ve heard before.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): The Ed Palermo Big Band

More info
http://palermobigband.bandcamp.com/album/prog-vs-fusion-a-war-of-the-ages

 

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