The Ed Palermo Big Band - 2025 - Prog vs. Fusion [A War of the Ages]

(55:03; Sky Cat Records)

I have been fortunate enough to hear quite a few of the most recent albums by Ed Palermo and his band, and I have always loved the way he takes music and arranges it into something very different indeed. Is he a proghead who loves jazz, or a jazz musician who has dabbled in the dark side? Who knows? It doesn’t really matter, as whether he is releasing big band arrangements of Frank Zappa or Todd Rundgren the end result is always a delight. Here he is sometimes playing it somewhat straight by rearranging a single song, but at others he mashes a few different songs together (“Black Hole Sun” leading into “Bodhisattva” for example). I think you can learn all you need about Ed just by playing the third track, “There Comes A Time” by Tony Williams. The voiceover from the American and British generals is straight out of Python, and when we get the cry from the Brits of “Release the Mellotron” the Americans could not believe what they were hearing, “I didn’t think the bastards had the guts!”. Of course, from there it is a short step to the amazing horn-led “Tarkus”, and we are off.

We get Yes, King Crimson, Allan Holdsworth and so much more. Some songs are visited more than once, some are played in full while others are just snippets, but at all times the music is treated with reverence and respect. Yes, it is meant to be fun and light-hearted, but Palermo is showing how there are often similarities between genres, and great songs can be turned into something quite different when there is a master arranger involved. It is very hard indeed to pick a favourite, but what I can say is that each song is clearly identifiable and when I finished listening to this the first time, I immediately played it again as I had enjoyed it so much. Their version of “Take A Pebble” is so very different indeed from the original, so much so that it sounds more like modern classical than anything else, yet the rippling heart is still there, while “Long Distance Runaround” is very close to the version we all know and love, just played on totally different instruments.

I am sure fans of Big Band music will love this and possible discover prog, while progheads may decide that jazz isn’t too far removed from what they like to listen to anyway. Me, I grew up listening to big band jazz on eight-track in the car, while I hear much more prog than a regular human, and all I can say is that this is a delight. 

Kev Rowland, July 2025

Links:
https://www.palermobigband.com/