(Editor’s note: Portions of this review were
\noriginally published on houseofshred.com)<\/p>\n
The name Magna Carta Records has in recent years become
\nsynonymous with great progressive rock. No other label has produced
\nthe quantity and quality of excellent releases in this genre. One
\nof the mainstays of Magna Carta’s creative stable of artists and
\nvisionaries is Trent Gardner. Gardner has his name linked with
\ndozens of projects on the label. Starting with his own band
\nMagellan and on to several of Magna Carta’s tribute albums and more
\nrecently, the stellar Steve Walsh solo album. His latest project is
\nthe progressive\/symphonic masterpiece
\nLeonardo – The Absolute Man<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The subject of
\nLeonardo<\/i> is the seminal creative genius Leonardo Da Vinci.
\nPainter, architect, writer, musician and scientist are just a few
\nof the many disciplines that Da Vinci practiced. Considered by many
\nto be one of the most prolific creative influences on modern
\nculture, his life is fertile ground for this biographical
\nexportation, and Gardner’s moving symphonic rock is the perfect
\nvehicle to convey this story.<\/p>\n
At its heart it’s a concept album. While not a linear story,
\nLeonardo<\/i> is a series of vignettes that portray key events in
\nhis life. One however, does not need to be familiar with his life
\nto enjoy this album. The individual songs stand on their own, and
\nthe lush instrumental passages that tie the vocal songs together
\nadd continuity and dimension.<\/p>\n
Featuring a stellar cast, the voice of Leonardo is provided by
\nJames LaBrie of Dream Theater. LaBrie is perfect for the part and
\nshows the great power and range that DT fans are already familiar
\nwith. The rest of the cast (11 individual vocalists in all) is
\ncomprised primarily of artists from the Magna Carta label including
\nSteve Walsh of Kansas, Chris Shryack of Under the Sun and one of my
\nfavorite performers on the disc, Ice Age vocalist Josh Pincus, who
\ndelivers an incredible performance.<\/p>\n
It’s hard to decide what impressed me most on this disc-the
\nincredible musical arrangements, or the powerful vocal
\nperformances. The musical emotions of Gardner’s compositions range
\nfrom the pastoral to the chaotic, as bits of heavy progressive rock
\nmeld into graceful symphonic interludes, powerful vocals and
\nbeautiful melodic passages including a masterfully delivered duet
\nbetween Steve Young and Michelle Young on “First Commission.”<\/p>\n
The CD packaging is very well done as well, featuring a nice
\nintroduction by Trent Garner, a full libretto of the score and some
\nnice artwork.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":26827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5791],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-38114","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-original-cast-recording","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38114"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38114"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}