Colosseum - Morituri Te Salutant: Colosseum 1968-2003 On Stage & In The Studio

Humongous retrospective treatment for jazz/rock gods

We’re forever being told that less is more. Refreshingly, UK jazz/rock supergroup Colosseum firmly believed that more is more. Restraint wasn’t their thing. Excited by each other’s virtuosity, they had a thrilling tendency to hammer away all at once, forever, building up a freight train momentum, then reversing the train over the listener’s face. Hearing them in full chat is like being keel-hauled beneath the UK. That’s a compliment. With the proviso that you don’t listen to all four discs in one sitting – an experience akin to having your skin flayed off by a swarm of carpet tacks – there’s much heady excitement to be had here. Formed around ex- Bluesbreakers Jon Hiseman, Dick Heckstall-Smith and Tony Reeves, Colosseum positively mullered audiences in their initial 1968-71 incarnation.

Did any drummer swing more freely and exhilaratingly than Jon Hiseman? Now there was a man who knew how to get the party started. Taken in tandem with Dave Greenslade’s munchy Hammond grooves, Hiseman’s propulsive stock-in-trade is manna for samplers.

Highlights? Try Top Roadie, the fervid original demo of Those About To Die, or the Chinese puzzle which is Jumping Off The Sun. Better yet, hear Chris Farlowe egest his own trachea over a sawing string section on Time Lament… Saxual healing with Colosseum. Marco Rossi

4 stars 4 stars 4 stars 4 stars

Sanctuary/Universal | 2709352 (4-CD)

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