The "Five Bridges Suite" is a modern piece of music, written in the 1960s, combining classical music and jazz. Written about the UK city of Newcastle upon Tyne, it was released as an album by the Nice as Five Bridges, which achieved the number two position in the UK album charts.[2] In the Q & Mojo Classic Special Edition Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock, the album came No. 29 in its list of "40 Cosmic Rock Albums".[3]

Five Bridges
Live album and Studio Album by The Nice
Released	June 1970
Recorded	Live at Fairfield Halls, Croydon, London, England, 17 October 1969 except "Country Pie", live at Fillmore East, Manhattan, New York City, New York, December 20, 1969 and "One of Those People" (1969 studio recording)
Genre	Progressive rock
Length	45:20
Label	UK: Charisma US: Mercury France, Germany: Philips
Producer	The Nice[1]
The Nice chronology
Nice (1969) Five Bridges (1970) Elegy (1971)

History

The work was commissioned for the Newcastle Arts Festival and premiered with a full orchestra conducted by Joseph Eger on 10 October 1969 (the recorded version is from 17 October in Croydon's Fairfield Halls). The title refers to the city's five bridges spanning the River Tyne (two more have since been built over the river, including the Gateshead Millennium Bridge), and the album cover, by Hipgnosis, features an image of the Tyne Bridge.

The five movements are:

• "Fantasia" – orchestra with solo piano interludes by Keith Emerson
• "Second Bridge" – trio without orchestra
• "Chorale" – Lee Jackson's vocals with orchestra, alternating with piano trio interludes
• "High Level Fugue" – piano with accompanying cymbals
• "Finale" – a restating of the Second Bridge with additional jazz horn players.

Emerson used Walter Piston's well-known textbook on orchestration for the work.[4] Emerson credits Friedrich Gulda for inspiring the High Level Fugue, which uses jazz figures in the strict classical form.

Also included on the Five Bridges album were live performances from the same Fairfield Hall concert of the Sibelius Intermezzo and a movement from Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony. Both involved the orchestra playing the "straight" music juxtaposed with the trio's interpretations. Newly discovered material from this concert was later issued as part of a 3-CD set entitled Here Come The Nice.

The Five Bridges album also included a blending of Bob Dylan's "Country Pie" with Bach's "Brandenburg Concerto No. 6" (with a quote of Coleman Hawkins' jazz line "Rifftide" as well) and a studio recording of the original "One of Those People".

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[5]
TopTenReviews	[6]

Paul Stump's 1997 History of Progressive Rock called the album "ill-conceived", commenting that the orchestrated pieces are poorly meshed, with the rock band and orchestra playing either separately (as on the first few movements of "The Five Bridges Suite") or such that "The textures of neither genre are properly utilized; it is like listening to two transistor radios simultaneously playing ..." However, he cited the final two tracks as among the Nice's best works, elaborating that "['One of Those People'] perhaps illustrates the Nice's real gift: to reduce pop forms to their constituent parts, alter their horizontal profile by cutting down paragraphs and overturning expected progression of chords and rhythm, which gives Emerson just as much of a chance to display his considerable technique without recourse to braggadocio."[7] Mike DeGagne's retrospective review for Allmusic, in contrast, argued that "Intermezzo" and "Pathetique" "are marvelous examples of classical and rock commingling" and that throughout the album, "Each example of genre merging is pristine and fluid, making the actual overlapping of multiple styles completely transparent."[5]

Track listing

Side one

1. "The Five Bridges Suite" (Keith Emerson, Lee Jackson) – 18:06

• "Fantasia 1st Bridge"
• "2nd Bridge"
• "Chorale 3rd Bridge"
• "High Level Fugue 4th Bridge"
• "Finale 5th Bridge"

Side two

2. "Intermezzo 'Karelia Suite'" (Sibelius, Arr. Emerson, Joseph Eger) – 9:01
3. "Pathetique (Symphony No. 6, 3rd Movement)" (Tchaikovsky, Arr. Emerson, Joseph Eger) – 9:23
4. "Country Pie/Brandenburg Concerto No. 6" (Bob Dylan, Johann Sebastian Bach) – 5:40
5. "One of Those People" (Emerson, Jackson) – 3:08

Charts

Personnel

The Nice

• Brian Davison – drums, percussion
• Keith Emerson – keyboards
• Lee Jackson – vocals, bass guitar

with:

• Joe Harriott – saxophone
• Peter King – saxophone
• Chris Pyne – trombone
• Alan Skidmore – saxophone
• John Warren
• Kenny Wheeler – trumpet, flugelhorn
• The Sinfonia Of London orchestra conducted by Joseph Eger

References