Colosseum - Colosseum Live [Expanded Edition] (2016)

Recorded in March 1971, Live wasn't just a souvenir with live versions of favorites, although studio versions of half of the songs ("Walking in the Park," "Rope Ladder to the Moon," and "Lost Angeles") had appeared on prior albums. There were also three previously unrecorded items, those being the bluesy 15-minute Clem Clemson-Jon Hiseman original "Skellington," "Tanglewood '63" (in which Dick Heckstall-Smith's jazz sax came to the forefront), and the ten-minute charge through the standard "Stormy Monday Blues." Even on some of the songs that had been previously issued on studio releases, there's the difference of hearing Chris Farlowe (who didn't join until mid-1970) on lead vocals -- a blessing or a curse, depending on your taste for his piledriving approach. Credit should be given to Colosseum for giving the album a markedly different approach than their studio outings, and it does demonstrate their prowess as a muscular live outfit with a taste for blending progressive rock, jazz, and blues. But like many a live effort it does tend toward too-long arrangements, none of the songs clocking in under the seven-minute barrier.