Heaven ● Brass Rock 1

Heaven might not be my least favorite band name of all time, but it’s close (this coming from someone who owns records by Aardvark, Fuzzy Duck and Spooky Tooth). It’s just so… un-rock and roll. This UK-based septet was England’s answer to the largely North American-dominated jazz-rock movement of the early ‘70s (Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago were the genre’s biggest success stories, although bands like Chase, The Ides of March and Lighthouse also scored hits with their respective brands of horn-heavy pop/rock). Brass Rock 1, first released as a double album in 1971 on CBS Records, didn’t make Heaven superstars, nor did it provide them with one-hit wonder status. It did, however, establish a more progressive approach to the horn-rock concept. “Come Back” and “Got to Get Away” recall the more experimental efforts of early Chicago, for example, while “This Time Tomorrow” reveals a group who refused to stray far from its jazz roots. It’s “Morning Coffee (A Theme to a Film),” though, a haunting instrumental piece featuring an effective mix of guitar, woodwinds and brass, that provides the band with its most memorable moment. In the end, memory was all that was left. Heaven called it quits within a year, effectively punching its ticket to the afterlife.