Glass (band)
Encyclopedia
Glass is a progressive rock
trio from the Pacific Northwest
who play complex original instrumental symphonic jazz-rock. The group consists of Greg Sherman (born 1954) on keyboards
, vibes
& Mellotron
, his brother Jeff Sherman
(b. 1952) on bass guitar
, guitar
, bass pedals
and keyboards, and their childhood friend Jerry Cook (b. 1953) on drums
and percussion
.
and the occasional original piece. On September 6, 1968 they attended a Jimi Hendrix
concert at the Seattle Center Coliseum
where the British band The Soft Machine
was the opening act. They were transfixed by The Soft Machine, a guitar-less power trio. Shortly thereafter they changed their name to Glass and began playing originals exclusively. In 1970 Jeff and Greg attended the Famous Arrangers Clinic in Las Vegas
, further refining their song-writing skills. Moving to Olympia, Washington
in 1971 to attend The Evergreen State College, they quickly became favorites on-campus for their spirited performances. Numerous live performances in and around Olympia, Seattle, Tacoma, Bellingham, Port Townsend and other Pacific Northwest venues (including the first-ever live broadcast concert on KAOS-FM
) gave them considerable local attention and accolades. They received their best reception at the first Jimi Hendrix Memorial Concert in Seattle where they were the only band to play totally original material. Professional studio recordings were made in 1975, which they then shopped around to various record labels in an attempt to land a record contract.
Unfortunately the mid-1970s was not a good time for rehearsal-intensive progressive rock music in the Western United States. The music industry was being taken over by punk rock
and disco
to the point where even well-established rock acts were being dropped from their labels. Despite their well-honed local reputation, Glass found themselves unable to attract a contract anywhere on the West Coast
or in New York
. Two members even undertook a trip to London
in the summer of 1975 to speak with industry representatives in the birthplace of progressive rock, but if anything the economic and musical depression was even worse in England.
Disappointed and disillusioned, the band officially went into remission in late 1976 after one last attempt to attract progressive music opportunities in New York City.
In 1977 the band briefly reunited to record a demo for MCA Records at Seattle's Kaye Smith recording studios. When once again the demo failed to entice the major label, the band was put on hold to work on various other musical projects including a solo career for bassist/guitarist Jeff Sherman.
Twenty years passed. By the mid-1990s a full-scale progressive rock revival was brewing, thanks to the internet and the new economics of CD releases. Glass began contemplating a comeback and started testing the waters, contacting old fans, making new business connections. In 1999 rehearsals began, and their old tapes got dusted off for an archival release. The record label Relentless Pursuit was set up to release Glass music and solo recordings by the band members. After considerable digital cleanup and editing, a 2-CD set of recordings from 1973-1977 was released, entitled No Stranger To The Skies. Following the resounding success of that release a third volume was released the following year. Several concerts were arranged and performed, not only in the Pacific Northwest but also in Mexico (BajaProg Festival
in 2002 and 2004), ProgWest Festival (Claremont CA, 2001), and Progman Cometh
Festival (Seattle 2002 and 2003).
The acclaim that their live performances garnered attracted the attention of French independent progressive rock label Musea Records, who in 2004 offered to re-release No Stranger To The Skies and give it worldwide distribution. Simultaneously the Sherman brothers were brimming with ideas for new music, and began writing and rehearsing brand new material for their "first all-original album in 27 years." This album, Illuminations (with cover photo by Erik Poulsen) was released by Musea in 2005 to great reviews. Bringing the music full circle, it features guest appearances by some of the cream of the British progressive rock movement, including Hugh Hopper
(ex-Soft Machine), Richard Sinclair
and Phil Miller
.
In October 2007 Glass embarked on their first-ever European tour to support their newly-released live recording on Musea, Glass Live at Progman Cometh.
Glass returned to the recording studio in 2008 and 2009 to finish their 4th album for Musea entitled "Spectrum Principle". It was released worldwide on October 15, 2010. Produced largely by drummer Jerry Cook, it promises to be a bit of a departure from their last studio album "Illuminations".
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
trio from the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
who play complex original instrumental symphonic jazz-rock. The group consists of Greg Sherman (born 1954) on keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, vibes
Vibraphone
The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....
& Mellotron
Mellotron
The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin Music Master, which was the world's first sample-playback keyboard intended for music...
, his brother Jeff Sherman
Jeff Sherman (musician)
Jeffrey Edward Sherman is an American musician . He is a founding member of the band Glass, as well as a solo artist who has released both under his own name and under the pseudonym Jeff Joad.-Early career:Four years after Jeff Sherman was born in Seattle, his father, an electrical engineer for...
(b. 1952) on bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, bass pedals
Bass pedals
Bass pedals are an electronic musical instrument with foot-operated pedal keyboard with a range of one or more octaves. The earliest bass pedals from the 1970s consisted of a pedalboard and analog synthesizer tone generation circuitry packaged together as a unit...
and keyboards, and their childhood friend Jerry Cook (b. 1953) on drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
and percussion
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
.
History
Glass began in the 1960s as a Port Townsend-based rock band called The Outcasts, playing coversCover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
and the occasional original piece. On September 6, 1968 they attended a Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
concert at the Seattle Center Coliseum
KeyArena
KeyArena at Seattle Center , is a multipurpose arena, in Seattle, Washington. It is located north of downtown in the entertainment complex known as Seattle Center, the site of the 1962 World's Fair, the Century 21 Exposition...
where the British band The Soft Machine
Soft Machine
Soft Machine were an English rock band from Canterbury, named after the book The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. They were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene, and helped pioneer the progressive rock genre...
was the opening act. They were transfixed by The Soft Machine, a guitar-less power trio. Shortly thereafter they changed their name to Glass and began playing originals exclusively. In 1970 Jeff and Greg attended the Famous Arrangers Clinic in Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
, further refining their song-writing skills. Moving to Olympia, Washington
Olympia, Washington
Olympia is the capital city of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat of Thurston County. It was incorporated on January 28, 1859. The population was 46,478 at the 2010 census...
in 1971 to attend The Evergreen State College, they quickly became favorites on-campus for their spirited performances. Numerous live performances in and around Olympia, Seattle, Tacoma, Bellingham, Port Townsend and other Pacific Northwest venues (including the first-ever live broadcast concert on KAOS-FM
KAOS (FM)
KAOS is a hybrid college-community radio station licensed to The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. It broadcasts in HD Radio at a power of 1,100 watts and also streams live via the Internet. The station continues to offer free radio broadcasting training to any member of the...
) gave them considerable local attention and accolades. They received their best reception at the first Jimi Hendrix Memorial Concert in Seattle where they were the only band to play totally original material. Professional studio recordings were made in 1975, which they then shopped around to various record labels in an attempt to land a record contract.
Unfortunately the mid-1970s was not a good time for rehearsal-intensive progressive rock music in the Western United States. The music industry was being taken over by punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
and disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
to the point where even well-established rock acts were being dropped from their labels. Despite their well-honed local reputation, Glass found themselves unable to attract a contract anywhere on the West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
or in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Two members even undertook a trip to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in the summer of 1975 to speak with industry representatives in the birthplace of progressive rock, but if anything the economic and musical depression was even worse in England.
Disappointed and disillusioned, the band officially went into remission in late 1976 after one last attempt to attract progressive music opportunities in New York City.
In 1977 the band briefly reunited to record a demo for MCA Records at Seattle's Kaye Smith recording studios. When once again the demo failed to entice the major label, the band was put on hold to work on various other musical projects including a solo career for bassist/guitarist Jeff Sherman.
Twenty years passed. By the mid-1990s a full-scale progressive rock revival was brewing, thanks to the internet and the new economics of CD releases. Glass began contemplating a comeback and started testing the waters, contacting old fans, making new business connections. In 1999 rehearsals began, and their old tapes got dusted off for an archival release. The record label Relentless Pursuit was set up to release Glass music and solo recordings by the band members. After considerable digital cleanup and editing, a 2-CD set of recordings from 1973-1977 was released, entitled No Stranger To The Skies. Following the resounding success of that release a third volume was released the following year. Several concerts were arranged and performed, not only in the Pacific Northwest but also in Mexico (BajaProg Festival
Baja Prog
Baja Prog is an annual progressive rock festival in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico, held since 1997. It draws a number of well-known bands in the genre, and an average of 1500 attendees each day.-External links:* * *...
in 2002 and 2004), ProgWest Festival (Claremont CA, 2001), and Progman Cometh
Progman Cometh
Progman Cometh Music Festivals were two Canterbury scene music concerts held at the Moore Theatre in Seattle Washington in 2002 and 2003.-Friday, August 16th:* 7:00pm Glass * 8:30pm Hughscore* 10:00pm Pip Pyle's Bash! - world debut!...
Festival (Seattle 2002 and 2003).
The acclaim that their live performances garnered attracted the attention of French independent progressive rock label Musea Records, who in 2004 offered to re-release No Stranger To The Skies and give it worldwide distribution. Simultaneously the Sherman brothers were brimming with ideas for new music, and began writing and rehearsing brand new material for their "first all-original album in 27 years." This album, Illuminations (with cover photo by Erik Poulsen) was released by Musea in 2005 to great reviews. Bringing the music full circle, it features guest appearances by some of the cream of the British progressive rock movement, including Hugh Hopper
Hugh Hopper
Hugh Colin Hopper was a progressive rock and jazz fusion bass guitarist. He was a prominent member of the Canterbury scene, as a member of Soft Machine and various other related bands.-Early career:...
(ex-Soft Machine), Richard Sinclair
Richard Sinclair
Richard S. Sinclair is a progressive rock bassist, guitarist and vocalist who has been a member of several bands of the Canterbury scene.-Biography:...
and Phil Miller
Phil Miller
Phil Miller is an English progressive rock/jazz guitarist who was part of the Canterbury scene.He was a member of the bands Delivery, Matching Mole, Hatfield and the North, National Health, Short Wave and has since worked in solo projects and in his band In Cahoots, which he founded in 1982...
.
In October 2007 Glass embarked on their first-ever European tour to support their newly-released live recording on Musea, Glass Live at Progman Cometh.
Glass returned to the recording studio in 2008 and 2009 to finish their 4th album for Musea entitled "Spectrum Principle". It was released worldwide on October 15, 2010. Produced largely by drummer Jerry Cook, it promises to be a bit of a departure from their last studio album "Illuminations".
Discography
- 2001: No Stranger To The Skies, Vol.s I & II (Relentless Pursuit Records RD4128)
- 2002: No Stranger To The Skies, Vol. III (Relentless Pursuit Records RD4128-III)
- 2004: No Stranger To The Skies (Musea Records FGBG 4516.AR)
- 2005: Illuminations (Musea Records FGBG 4594.AR)
- 2007: Glass Live At Progman Cometh (Musea Records FGBG 4736.AR)
- 2010: Spectrum Principle (Musea Records FGBG 4854)