The Nice
The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack

1967 will be remembered as one of the most innovative and proactive years in the history of contemporary music. At that time, a true cultural revolution was taking place, and the way of conceiving the seven notes was adapting in parallel: in that blessed year, the Pink Floyd would start to take their first steps after much grafting in England's underground clubs, while The Doors of the legendary Jim Morrison would open the doors to a new musical conception to the whole world. Meanwhile, in the dense English undergrowth, a willing and ambitious group was preparing to navigate the musical flow of that period, where acids, psychedelic harmonies, and endless innovations floated: often forgotten by the masses, this band was unwittingly part of the lineup of groups that would influence future rock.

We are talking about The Nice, mainly known for being the group that brought Keith Emerson, one of the most representative keyboardists in the history of 20th-century music, to success: the band was born as a simple backing group for the American singer P.P. Arnold, then breaking away from her and assuming a completely autonomous form, immediately sowing a land that would yield multifaceted and multicolored fruits. The group was completed by the presence of David O'List on guitar, Lee Jackson on bass, and Brian Davison on drums. The quartet began to gain a substantial slice of notoriety, especially live, where Emerson's virtuosity and charisma overshadowed the validity of the remaining members of The Nice: the keyboardist's passion for classical music was poured into the group's music with a series of torrential reinterpretations of classics such as Bach and Sibelius, which would flow in a "consumerist" form into the band's debut work, The Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack (1967, Immediate Records).

The meaning of the pseudonym Emerlist Davjack is simply found in the fusion of the musicians' surnames, like a sort of unified soul acting in a unique and inseparable modus operandi, also highlighted by the plastic casing that unites the four members of the band: in reality, this "unicum" would see its first "cracks" form already in this debut LP, but we will talk about them later. The album is pervaded by predominantly romantic, dreamy, and carefree atmospheres, between mystical kings in magical lands (Flower King Of Flies) and references to carnival figures like Harlequin and Colombina (The Cry Of Eugene, perhaps the best piece of the whole lot); there are also purely psychedelic moments, as in the panting Dawn, while the wild rockabilly Bonnie K and Tantalising Maggie are accompanied by the classic taste of Emerson's usual keyboards; but the two symbolic tracks that highlight the true ambitions of the charismatic keyboardist are named Rondo and War And Peace. The first is an adaptation of Dave Brubeck's classic Blue Rondo A La Turk, where it all acquires a rock and classical atmosphere at the same time, becoming "the standard of the standard" (Le Orme would perform the track in the same manner as The Nice): Rondo, which also includes a brief excerpt from Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, would be humanly considered among the first "classics" of British Progressive Rock, for rhythmic complexity and musical taste, while the other instrumental piece of the LP, War And Peace, showcases the abilities of the rest of the band.

After this brilliant debut, ranked among the first prog records alongside Moody Blues' Days Of Future Passed, The Nice would try to replicate it with the complex Ars Longa Vita Brevis, when the band was already orphaned of O'List: Emerson's overwhelming presence would begin to influence future productions, and after the eponymous album, the live Five Bridges and the posthumous Elegy, the band would dissolve definitively, and each member would take different paths. Emerson would compose with Greg Lake and Carl Palmer to form the famous supertrio and achieve far greater success compared to his former colleagues (Jackson would form Jackson Heights, revisiting even The Cry Of Eugene, while Davison would reunite with Jackson after an unfortunate stint with Every Which Way).

The Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack is an utterly indispensable product for fans of British Progressive and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, especially for its seminal value.