stereo hi-fi music: ProjeKct One - Jazz Cafe Nights. Second Night (2007)

With the applause of the first night ringing in the rafters at the Jazz Café, the mood behind stage was confident, even bullish – people were enjoying themselves. After what counts as arguably the most brooding and mysterious introductions ever made by the projeKcts (Levin’s upright bass is just sensational with spooky embellishments on the glockenspiel courtesy of Bill), there follows a lengthy bass jam from Gunn, Levin and Fripp. Never has so much bottom-end been pushed, prodded and rippled in the service of music as is done here. I’m not sure you’d want to hear a whole gig of it (and I’m not sure any of the players concerned would either) so fortunately things move forward at a sprightly pace, with 2i2 benefiting from an especially savage workout from Fripp. Some improvisations are tentative in nature whilst others blast ahead without a second glance. Things lurch into Smoke On The Water-style territory on 2ii1, whilst the appearance of a venerable drum machine setting the tempo takes folks by surprise on 2i5; if you like to hear Fripp and Gunn rocking out then these ones will do it for you. Also of interest here is 2i4 which has many elements of Deception of the Thrush and a sci-fi tingler to close the second night in a dizzying wave of radiophonics.

Tracks

Disc Number 1
1.	2 i 1	[PREVIEW]	12.54
2.	2 i 2	[PREVIEW]	7.23
3.	2 i 3	[PREVIEW]	7.26
4.	2 i 4	[PREVIEW]	8.25
5.	2 i 5	[PREVIEW]	6.23
6.	2 i 6	[PREVIEW]	5.33
7.	2 i 7	[PREVIEW]	6.08
Disc Number 2
1.	2 ii 1	[PREVIEW]	13.24
2.	2 ii 2	[PREVIEW]	11.08
3.	2 ii 3	[PREVIEW]	6.41
4.	2 ii 4	[PREVIEW]	8.32
5.	2 ii 5	[PREVIEW]	11.04

All previews are MP3 192kbps

Personnel
Bill Bruford - Drums and Percussion
Robert Fripp - Guitar
Trey Gunn - Touch Guitar
Tony Levin - Bass and Stick

Audio Source: Adat Multi-Track
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Fan Reviews

Jazz Cafe 12-02-97, Wed., Jun 11, 2008
Written by DeVito
The ProjeKcts were presented as "research and development" arms of King Crimson, but I quickly found that I had no interest in listening to them on those terms. Instead, I simply listen to each ProjeKct on its own terms, as a musical end in itself. The ProjeKcts were primarily improvising groups; this means the tunes don’t always (or even often) lead to a "proper" resolution, or follow the rules of composition -- or even "good taste" (the enemy of art). This is a positive attribute. ProjeKct One feels, to me, like the most fully realized of the ProjeKcts. I think that each of the eight sets played and recorded over this four-night gig is a great album in itself and the whole thing would make a great eight-disc box set. (Actually I made my own 12-disc set, adding an 80-minute "best of" disc for each night.)
December 2 feels a little different, to me, than December 1 -- the "brooding and mysterious" intros (they called that style "mysterioso" back in the 1950s) are captivating, but overall these sets seem a little less intense than the previous night’s sets, but maybe have more breadth. In any case I find that they stand up under repeated listening. The 2ii3-4-5 sequence (or "Blue Balls Rising," as I call it) is a particularly interesting mysterioso-rock-jazz-spacemusic suite.
P1 was a great band, and we’re lucky all four nights at the Jazz Cafe were recorded, since the group was a one-off. If you have any appreciation for the improvising side of Crimson, I think you’ll really like ProjeKct One (and all the other ProjeKcts). --Chris DeVito

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