King Crimson

King Crimson was a progressive rock band founded in London in 1969. Considered one of the pioneers and one of the pillars of the genre, beyond its sonic diversification and stylistic mutations.

The band adopted various sounds during its history, a product of the diverse instrumentation used and has had a great influence on many contemporary music artists. Additionally, he gained a large following despite having little presence on radio, television or other media.

Although originally from England, the band had a mix of personnel from England and the United States since its reincarnation in 1981. The group was also characterized by its constant changes of members, with more than two dozen musicians having passed through its ranks., as well as for long periods of inactivity. Robert Fripp, the guitarist and leader, is the only member who was part of King Crimson throughout its history, although some other musicians such as Bill Bruford, Adrian Belew or Tony Levin had a long career with the group.

The name King Crimson, in Spanish Crimson King, was the idea of lyricist Peter Sinfield as a synonym for Beelzebub, prince of demons. According to Fripp, Beelzebub is an anglicism of the Arabic phrase B'il Sabab, which means "man of ambition."

The group's original lineup was very influential, but very short-lived, lasting just over a year. Between 1970 and 1971 King Crimson was already an unstable band, with many member changes. In 1972, greater stability was achieved with bassist and vocalist John Wetton and a sound that mixed hard rock, classical music and jazz was developed; In 1974 they separated for the first time. The band formed again in 1981, influenced by new wave and with a completely different style, but broke up again in 1984. They returned again after more than ten years, in 1994, with the album THRAK. In 2000 and 2003, the albums The ConstruKction of Light and The Power to Believe appeared, respectively, their last albums. Its last period of activity began in 2014.

Although Fripp was the only common factor across all King Crimson albums and lineups, he did not consider himself the leader of the group. For him, King Crimson was “a way of doing things” and the constant changes of its members only reflected that point of view.

History

Origin

In August 1967, brothers Michael Giles (drums) and Peter Giles (bass), already having some musical experience from their time in previous groups, publicly announced the need for a singer for their project. Robert Fripp, who was not a vocalist, showed his interest in being part of the project and thus Giles, Giles and Fripp was born.

Based on a format of eccentric pop songs and complex instrumentals, the band recorded several unsuccessful singles and an album, The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp. The band hovered on the brink of success, with several radio sessions and a television appearance, but never managed to achieve commercial success. The album was nothing more than a hit single, and was even disparaged by Keith Moon of The Who in a magazine review. In attempting to expand their sound, Giles, Giles and Fripp recruited multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald, who played keyboards, saxes and flutes.

McDonald then brought his girlfriend, former Fairport Convention singer Judy Dyble, whose stay in the group was brief and ended at the same time as her romantic separation from McDonald. McDonald then brought in lyricist Peter Sinfield, with whom he had been writing songs. That friendship began when McDonald said to Sinfield, regarding his 1968 band (Creation): "Peter, I have to tell you, your group is hopeless, but you write great lyrics. Would you like to write a couple of songs together?" One of the first songs McDonald and Sinfield wrote together was "The Court of the Crimson King".

Fripp, for his part, had seen the musical group 1-2-3 (later known as Clouds) in concert. This band would later inspire some Crimson songs of classical, jazz and improvisation melodies. It was then that Fripp recommended his friend Greg Lake, a singer and guitarist, to be part of the group. Lake should replace Fripp or Giles. Although Peter Giles would later sarcastically describe it as one of the "nice political moves" of Fripp, he himself expressed his disappointment with Giles, Giles and Fripp, since he had not achieved the expected success. Peter Giles then resigned to be replaced by Greg Lake as the group's bassist and singer. At this point, the band morphed into what would become King Crimson.

In 1969 the group debuted as an opening act for the Rolling Stones at a concert in Hyde Park, and recorded their first album, In the Court of the Crimson King, in October. They also went on their first tour of Europe and North America. At the end of the year, tensions and creative differences arose that led to the departure of Michael Giles and Ian McDonald from the band, who the following year recorded an album under the name McDonald and Giles.

The 70s

Robert Fripp with Greg Lake and Peter Sinfield continued King Crimson momentarily as a trio. This is how they recorded their second album in 1970, In the Wake of Poseidon, in which the musician Mel Collins, who would later become part of Camel, joined the group. Fripp's former partner Peter Giles also participated on this album.

Greg Lake left the group in April, foreseeing what was coming (in literal words), due to Fripp's leader character and the constant unpredictability in terms of composition and elaboration of his songs without a specific line, to form with Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer the also progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer, leaving King Crimson without a vocalist until Gordon Haskell took that place and also the bassist for Lizard, the band's third album, also from 1970. Haskell had already recorded with King Crimson in < i>In the Wake of Poseidon, in the song "Cadence and Cascade".

Andy McCulloch played drums in Lizard, in addition to the participation of Jon Anderson of the group Yes in one of the songs. Haskell and McCulloch left the band shortly before the release of Lizard, leaving King Crimson without a vocalist, bassist or drummer.

Fripp then began to audition new musicians to fill the vacant places. Drummer Ian Wallace and vocalist Boz Burrell were selected and since no bassist convinced Fripp, he decided to simply teach Burrell how to play bass. In 1971 they released the group's fourth album, Islands. At the end of that year Peter Sinfield left the group, and then the remaining members went on a new tour called Earthbound in 1972 with the full intention of dissolving the group at the end of it. Shortly after, with the material recorded from that tour, Fripp released the album Earthbound , his first live album.

However, after the Earthbound tour, Collins, Burrell and Wallace left King Crimson to join Alexis Korner in a band called "Snape". Fripp again sought new members to re-establish King Crimson. The first chosen was percussionist Jamie Muir, who had already been considered by Fripp as a possible member of the group. Next up was vocalist and bassist John Wetton, whom Fripp had known since his college days. Wetton had also previously been considered for membership, but his addition had not come to fruition. King Crimson was starting again.

Bill Bruford was the next chosen, a decision that was criticized by many people, as Bruford left Yes for King Crimson, which already had a history of great instability and had proven very unpredictable. Bruford himself revealed that he was more interested in artistic purposes and that was why he had joined King Crimson. Finally, David Cross was selected as a viola, violin and keyboard player to reinvent the sound of the new group. They began working in 1972 and the following year they finalized their new album, Larks' Tongues in Aspic. Muir left King Crimson shortly after Larks' Tongues in Aspic. The group then embarked on a new tour of Europe and the United States.

This stage of King Crimson was characterized by the influence it received from the nascent heavy metal music that was developed mainly in the United States and Great Britain. Fripp's guitar was more aggressive, as was Bruford's drums, which sounded powerful, and Wetton's bass was also louder.

At the end of 1973, the group prepared their next album, Starless and Bible Black, which was completed in early 1974. This album made the King Crimson of that time the first to remain intact for more than one tour and for more than one album. Most of the album was recorded in concert during 1973, with only two songs recorded in the studio ("The Great Deceiver" and "Lament"), another of the songs was only partially recorded in studio ("The Night Watch"), which showed that King Crimson was essentially a live group. Fripp always considered it appropriate to capture the atmosphere and energy of live performances and therefore recorded the songs at concerts.

David Cross began to question his place in the group. His role as a violinist had been more important at the beginning of this new version of King Crimson, but the progression and musical aggressiveness they were handling at that time significantly reduced his contributions to the band's sound, he himself declared that he had been relegated to being a soloist. the electric piano player. He left the group when they began recording their next album titled Red.

Red also includes the participation of Robin Miller, who had already recorded with the group, on oboe; as well as the collaboration of Marc Charig on the cornet. David Cross appears only on the song 'Providence', which had been previously recorded at a band concert in June of that same year (1974). Mel Collins returned as soprano saxophone, Ian McDonald also returned as alto saxophone and his intention was to return as a permanent member of King Crimson, although this could not be realized. At that time Fripp became interested in the writings of the Russian mystic George Ivanovich Gurdjieff and even talked about being replaced by McDonald. It was a time when Fripp seriously considered leaving the group.

The Red album lineup did not tour and two months before the album was released, Robert Fripp announced the dissolution of the group. "King Crimson is totally finished forever" he declared. In 1975, the band's second live album was released, called USA, composed of performances during 1974.

Fripp then dedicated himself to a solo career, also collaborating with important musicians. For his part, Ian McDonald formed the group Foreigner with other musicians in 1976. King Crimson had apparently ceased to exist, but it was only the end of another stage of the group.

The 80s

At the beginning of 1981, Robert Fripp and Bill Bruford began to form the formation of a new group that would be called Discipline. For some time they looked for a new bassist until they found Tony Levin. Levin was known primarily for his collaborations with renowned musicians such as John Lennon and Peter Gabriel. From the beginning Fripp, who knew that Levin was available, had considered him one of the best candidates for his new group.

Fripp also summoned guitarist and vocalist Adrian Belew, who was with the Talking Heads on tour. Fripp had never worked with another guitarist in the same band, so the decision to seek him out revealed his intention to create a sound completely different from that of King Crimson. Belew agreed to record with Fripp's new group immediately after finishing the Talking Heads tour.

During the recording of the album in 1981, Fripp realized that King Crimson's sound was there and reconsidered his decision to call the group Discipline. The other members agreed and called the album Discipline instead, under the name King Crimson. The Crimson King's gang had resurfaced.

The group made a trilogy of albums continued with Beat from 1982 and concluded with Three of a Perfect Pair from 1984. Belew was also in charge of almost all the lyrics of all three albums, in addition to incorporating completely instrumental pieces. This version of King Crimson had elements of new wave music, most likely a result of Belew's work with the Talking Heads, who were one of the initiators of the genre. The resulting sound, with interlocking patterns of two guitars, has also been described as "gamelan rock" for its structural similarity to this Indonesian musical tradition.

After Three of a Perfect Pair, King Crimson disintegrated again for ten years. Fripp became involved in a series of legal disputes over the rights to everything related to the group, which took him almost all of that time but ended in the creation of the company Discipline Global Mobile, which is currently It boasts the entire King Crimson catalog and its collateral projects.

The 90s

In 1994 King Crimson formed again, but as a sextet with the addition of two new members to the 1981-1984 lineup. Fripp and Belew on guitars, Levin on bass, Trey Gunn on an instrument called the Warr guitar and Bruford on drums accompanied by another percussionist, Pat Mastelotto. This "double-trio" made just a few albums in the 1990s, the 1994 EP VROOOM, which only preceded the release of the album THRAK in 1995 and then the live album THRaKaTTaK in 1996.

In this new King Crimson, the members combined their instruments in unique ways. Regarding the sound, it was a mix of the style of the Discipline period complemented by the heavy metal guitar of Red. This version of King Crimson had a completely different proposal and level of experimentation than all their previous eras, which once again led them to disintegrate.

The rest of the nineties through Discipline Global Mobile, works by other artists and collateral projects to King Crimson were released, called ProjeKct One, ProjeKct Two, ProjeKct Three, ProjeKct Four, as well as the ProjeKct X, or simply ProjeKCts, which are subgroups of King Crimson (according to Fripp these are a fraKctalization of King Crimson) who have carried out several live recordings where the improvisational ability of the musicians currently involved in King Crimson has been demonstrated and where they have made evident his ability to produce music.

In the 21st century

After the ProjeKcts work, Bruford and Levin left the band. The King Crimson lineup, again formed as a quartet by Belew, Fripp, Gunn and Mastelotto, released the band's next album called The ConstruKction of Light in 2000.

After some financial problems, Discipline Global Mobile currently exclusively manages King Crimson's material, releasing numerous live albums and collections of their discography. In 2002, the EP Happy With What You Have to Be Happy With appeared, which preceded the release in 2003 of The Power to Believe, King Crimson's last studio album.

In November 2003 Trey Gunn announced his departure from the group. For their part, both Tony Levin and Robert Fripp announced Levin's reinstatement as bassist of King Crimson. King Crimson's lineup consisted of Adrian Belew, Robert Fripp, Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto. Meanwhile, in 2006 the ProjeKct Six appeared.

Pat Mastelotto announced in 2008 the return of the band with a series of concerts, as well as changes in the group's lineup, since Gavin Harrison, drummer of Porcupine Tree, joined as a member of King Crimson, accompanying Pat Mastelotto as second. drummer.

Return and cessation of activities

After a period in which the group seemed definitively dissolved, Robert Fripp announced an eighth King Crimson line-up that would begin work in 2014, composed of veterans Fripp, Collins, Levin, Mastelotto and Harrison, plus the addition of Jakko Jakszyk, on guitar and voice—with extensive experience in King Crimson's music following his time in the 21st Century Schizoid Band—and Bill Rieflin on drums. In this way, King Crimson would have three drummers for the first time, in addition to being the first group with a British majority since the 1970s.

In 2016 Bill Rieflin decided to take a break from music and was replaced by drummer Jeremy Stacey on the 2016 European Tour. In early 2017 Rieflin's return was announced, bringing the group to eight members, four of them percussionists. Between the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017, Greg Lake and John Wetton died.

The history of King Crimson is generally associated with the constant changes of members it has had, but in reality that happened especially in its first years; Since 1981, when the group resurfaced, it began to have greater stability of members where some left, then returned, and the flexibility of those changes became its characteristic hallmark.

Between October and November 2017, Bill Rieflin was unavailable to continue the tour and was replaced by Chris Gibson, until his return in December. In March 2020, Rieflin died of cancer; Gordon Haskell also died in October of that same year.

With more than fifty years of experience, King Crimson was one of the longest-running bands in the history of music and one of the most important representatives of progressive rock. Furthermore, its members were considered musicians of great technical and interpretive quality.

Although active in concerts, the group has not recorded new studio material since 2003. By 2022, due to the Covid 19 pandemic, as well as the advanced age of some of the members involved, King Crimson ceased its activities.

Members

Last alignment

• Robert Fripp — guitar, mellotron, electric piano and keyboards (1969–2021).
• Mel Collins — saxophone, flute, choirs and mellotron (1970–1972; 1974 (study; 2014–2021).
• Tony Levin — bass, Chapman Stick, choirs and synthesizer (1981-1984; 1994–1997; 2003–2021).
• Pat Mastelotto — percussion and battery (1994–2021).
• Gavin Harrison — main battery (2007–2021).
• Jakko Jakszyk — voice, guitar and flute (2013–2021).
• Jeremy Stacey — battery, keyboards, choirs (2016—2021).

Previous members

• Peter Sinfield — letters, lighting, synthesizer and artistic design (1969–1972).
• Greg Lake — voice and bass (1969–1970, died in 2016).
• Michael Giles — drums, percussion and choirs (1969).
• Ian McDonald — keyboards, saxophone, clarinet, low clarinet, flute, mellotron, vibráfono and choirs (1969; 1974 (study), died in 2022.
• Gordon Haskell — voice and bass (1970, died in 2020).
• Andy McCulloch — Battery (1970).
• Ian Wallace — drums, percussions and choirs (1971–1972, died in 2007).
• Boz Burrell — voice, bass and choreography (1971–1972, died in 2006).
• Bill Bruford — Battery and Percussion (1972-1974, 1981-1984, 1994-1997).
• John Wetton — voice and bass, occasionally violin, piano, guitar and lyrics (1972–1974, died in 2017).
• David Cross — violin, viola, mellotron, electric piano, keyboards and flute (1972–1974).
• Jamie Muir — percussion, battery and trombone (1972–1973).
• Adrian Belew — voice, guitar, electronic percussion and lyrics, occasionally battery (1981–1984, 1994-2009).
• Trey Gunn — Warr guitar, under Ashbory, Chapman Stick and choirs (1994–2003).
• Chris Gibson — keyboards, synthesizer and mellotron (2017; substitute for Bill Rieflin).
• Bill Rieflin — keyboards, synthesizer, mellotron, choirs, battery and percussion (2013-2015; 2017; 2017-2020, died in 2020).

Other participants

• Keith Tippett — piano and electric piano In the Wake of Poseidon, Lizard e Islands. Musical jazz.
• Peter Giles — low on In the Wake of Poseidon.
• Marc Charig — horn on Lizard, Islands and Red. Musical jazz.
• Robin Miller — English oboe and corn Lizard, Islands and Red. This musician was a member of the London Sinfonietta, with which he took part in the recording of the camera work of Arnold Schönberg.
• Nick Evans — rod trombone in Lizard. Musical jazz.
• Jon Anderson — voice in Prince Rupert Awakes, from the album Lizard.
• Rick Kemp — low (touched with the group for two weeks before Boz Burrell joined this, but he was never an official member).
• Harry Miller — bass in Islands.
• Paulina Lucas — voice of soprano in Islands.
• Hunter McDonald — synthesizer and engineering Earthbound.
• Richard Palmer-James — letters in Lark's Tongues in Aspic, Starless and Bible Black and Red.
• Eddie Jobson — violin and electric piano USA.
• Margaret Belew — letters from "Indiscipline" (from the album) Disciplineand "Two Hands" Beat).

Group components by albums

Discography

King Crimson has released and continues to release a large number of live albums, corresponding to all their periods. The studio albums they have released to date are the following:

• In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)
• In the Wake of Poseidon (1970)
• Lizard (1970)
• Islands (1971)
• Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973)
• Starless and Bible Black (1974)
• Red (1974)
• Discipline (1981)
• Beat (1982)
• Three of a Perfect Pair (1984)
• THRAK (1995)
• The ConstruKction of Light (2000)
• The Power to Believe (2003)