Gillan, Ian : Clear Air Turbulance

Ian Gillan, an English rock music vocalist and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist for Deep Purple. During his career Gillan had a year-long stint as the vocalist for Black Sabbath and sang the role of Jesus Christ in the original concept recording of Andrew Lloyd Webbers rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. Over the years he has proved that he has an incredible voice and has been a very influential force in the rock genre. Clear Air Turbulence is the second full length album by Ian Gillan Band, released in 1977. When Ian Gillan was recording his solo albums in the late 1970s and early 80s, Deep Purples influence never went away. But Gillan did make an effort to try different things, and he was at his most experimental on Clear Air Turbulence. Instead of the hard rock/heavy metal sound of his former band, we have here is a mix of funk, soul, R & B, gospel, jazz rock/fusion with just a bit of hard rock for good measure. Enjoyable, if uneven, this album illustrates Gillan’s willingness to take some chances. While the singer favors an aggressive hard rock groove on Money Lender, the jazz fusion-influenced touches of Over the Hill, Goodhand Liza and the title song could lead you to believe that you’d been listening to Weather Report and Return to Forever. Heavy metal and hard rock are in short supply on this album, which employs no less than five horn players and shows that Gillan didn’t want to be a headbanger 100-percent of the time. The new digipak edition is limited to 1000 copies. Digitally remastered using 24-Bit process, released on a golden disc.

1. Clear Air Turbulence
2. Five Moons
3. Money Lender
4. Over The Hill
5. Goodhand Liza
6. Angel Manchenio