Colosseum
Valentyne's Suite

Year 1969, the most prestigious production company of the '70s was born, which will always boast of having had among its clutches the best progressive, psychedelic, pop-folk groups of the '70s. Vertigo was born, and its first production labeled VO1 is precisely Valentyne's Suite by Colosseum. A crystalline album, of spectacular jazz-rock at times psychedelic but with clear matrices that in the following years would be called "progressive matrices."

The Colosseum debuted the year before with the mediocre "For Those About to Die We Salute You" but reached the peak precisely with this album, and some say it is the most elegant production of Vertigo and that this album immediately put it in excellent prospects for the future (and I would certainly agree, considering that among other artists are bands like Black Sabbath, Cressida, Gentle Giant, Affinity, Uriah Heep, Catapilla, and Jade Warrion, as well as Kraftwerk). The whole album Valentyne's Suite unfolds in perfect, quite catchy songs alternated with beautiful sax and guitar phrases. I point out "Butty's Blues", a song that seems to have been taken from the cabarets of the '40s and corrected with brilliant Hammond inserts.

It could be said that it was the first record to underline the power (or rather the necessity) of the 33 RPM. This is because if I remember correctly, the Colosseum was the first group to make a suite of about 17 minutes, which therefore required an entire side of a 33 RPM. We are talking about the colossal "Valentyne's Suite" divided into 3 acts.
The first act "January's Search" is characterized by its boogie-woogie central part with many sax, piano, and Hammond solos and phrases. The second act "February's Valentyne" is a bit slower, always accompanied by the excellent horns of Dick Heckstall-Smith. The last act "The Grass Is Always Greener" takes more psychedelic roots that reminded me of Jefferson Airplane; the song initially puts aside horns and piano to make room for bass and guitar solos and will recall them for the closing.

Before closing, I would like to emphasize that the keyboardist Dave Greenslade later formed the very interesting project Greenslade, similar to the works of Yes and Van Der Graaf Generator. Bassist Tony Reeves collaborated with one of my favorite bands, Curved Air. One of the cornerstone albums of rock, the door that closes psychedelia and opens prog, the album was recorded at the end of the spring of 1969. The masters King Crimson, who will dictate the rules of Canterbury prog, will have finished recording their first enormous album only a few months later.