I had some great news earlier this year that “Seven Windows” (an 80’s project featuring songs by much loved UK singer/songwriter Jess Roden), which I thought was long lost for 40 years has been restored and remastered by the guys who made it in the first place. Seven Windows are Jess Roden with the US production duo Michael MacDonald (no not that one) & Stephen Dwire.
It is released via New York label Sunnyside Records – a CD distribution deal for UK/Europe is in progress, but CD is available in the US now. The album is streaming (including in glorious 24bit on Qobuz) and there is a Bandcamp page for it – but beware the cost of buying the CD as it ships from US (hence trying to get the UK/Europe deal sorted asap).
Anyway – a bit of info – it wasnt until the mid 90’s that I became aware of “Seven Windows” and it was another 10 years before i finally got my hands on an LP. The original was released solely in The Netherlands via a small independent label, it was a one-off collaboration with Jess Roden, who I followed through the 70’s and 80’s in his wild and varied projects, including Bronco, Alan Bown, Keef Hartley, The Butts Band, Stomu Yamashtas “Go Too” and his own great solo and band albums. I always loved that he had a jazz edge to his music even at its most rock & blues extremes. His ballad singing was something else and he made a couple of great solo albums in New York with the legendary producer Joel Dorn.
“Seven Windows” was quite different to the albums of his I’d heard before, more jazz influenced, layers of keyboards and some wonderful late night sax. I was never too sure who actually played on the album at the time, the sleeve notes were almost non-existant – as if they were intent to keep it a mystery – I but now find it included some of 80’s New York’s finest session guys.
…. Elliot Randall and Hiram Bullock on guitars; Mark Egan and Marc Johnson on Bass; Jack Waldham on keys; Jerry Marotta on drums; Michael Leohart on trumpet; Rob Mounsey on Electronic Wind synth; Bernard Fowler on backing vocals … the list goes on & on !!
Its very special to have Jess back and the restoration and remastering of these recordings by Michael MacDonald from his original analogue tapes is a work of art in itself.
There is a great 4* review in this months MOJO … are there any other Jess fans out there who have picked up on this yet ?
J
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2744644451_16.jpg
https://sunnysiderecords.bandcamp.com/album/seven-windows
Excellent news!
I’ve been keen to hear this album ever since I learned of its existence.
I was lucky enough to catch Jess and his band play live back in my university days – the Bronco albums were in the little Island Book Of Records that you could get from record stores, and the next thing I knew he was touring and releasing albums under his own name, which is when I saw him. I was mightily impressed with his and his band’s performance, and like you I’ve followed his work ever since. I bought the fabulous Hidden Masters set a couple of years back, so this release is a definite purchase for me.
Thanks for the heads-up, I’d not spotted a Mojo review, and I still can’t find it in my copy! What page is it on?
August issue page 95.
thank you 🙂
Ah, thanks Hubes! Found it – I missed the Jessness factor due to the slightly arm’s length nature of the recording artist’s name. Must try harder.
Obviously, my critical faculties have still not fully recovered from the shock of the hideous display of tasteless populism on the cover of the previous month’s issue.
To be honest I opened the Mojo app and did a search for Jess Roden. As September’s issue arrived yesterday I could have spent time trying to find it in that.
Hiya
We’ve talked about the wondrousness of Jess many years in the past haven’t we ??!! … I’ve been a bit absent from here & only just set my account back up again … so hello again 🙂
I met up with Jess via a mutual friend some years ago – lovely bloke – and after I realised that the new release arrangements were limited to US, been trying to help in some small way to move things forward so it’s available here … fingers crossed, shouldn’t be too long
In the meantime the album is streaming – and Qobuz (which i use as its got a fairer payment model to artists – still buttons, but buttons about 8x size of Spudify) is streaming it in its 24bit 96k glory – sounds fabulous
The Anthology box set was something else wasnt it – lovely thing to have
Best, J
I’ve already ordered from the US – for me, Jess material is well worth the postage!
Its always a joy to hear him … the newly discovered track “NYC” is worth the price of admission alone 🙂
I’m another who bought the Hidden Masters collection (it was actually 12 years ago) and am very interested in this.
I loved the Jess Roden Band, and thought they never got their due.
Thank you for bringing this to light.
Hi Carl
The Anthology was wonderful wasnt it – have you seen that Neil who put that together has been instrumental in the new Nick Drake box set out in a couple of weeks … he started work on it a couple of years after the Jess set was released !!!!! (delays not down to him)
Fingers crossed the UK distribution for Seven Windows will be sorted soon – in the meantime you can hear it on the Bandcamp page or on Qobuz where they are streaming the 24bit 96k masters
When I hear more about the distribution I’ll post an update
J
To those who look for this on Qobuz you won’t find it listed under Jess Roden. Enter Seven Windows into the search engine and up it pops.
Here’s the Qobuz link – sorry I meant to include it https://open.qobuz.com/album/n550tt9vee3bc
Here’s the Qobuz link – sorry I meant to include it https://open.qobuz.com/album/n550tt9vee3bc
There’s a fascinating background on the album’s recording, and all the people who play on it, here on the official album page at the record co web site.
https://sunnysiderecords.com/site/release_detail?id=1234
J