What is prog?

Um texto que escrevi há uns anos em inglês, sobre o que é rock progressivo. Na altura achava que ainda havia alguma coisa a dizer, antes de descobrir o manancial que a internet nos serve, quase sem o pedirmos. Like belonging to a club, being a progger is not a matter of science. Is a matter of faith. And, like faith, it can’t be explained. But believers always try to bring new believers on board. So they must a build a theory to explain their faith. Here’s mine. Having a crush on a prog would require defining prog before, so that it can be understandable to non-proggers. But I’ll skip that. Let’s assume you will recognize prog when you hear it, after a few samples or drawing from your own experience. So, what defines prog? First of all, prog music is not an island, it doesn’t stand apart from the rest of the world. Prog music exhibits links to other types of music - be it classical, jazz, ethnic, folk, blues or contemporary. So the bridges are open to appreciators of other kinds of music the prog to appreciate the pro edge – what is that they’ll consider prog does to their favourite music. To them, prog would be like a simplification of the styles that turns them on. But prog has its own edge to it. This type of music draws heavily on changing time signatures, interplay between instruments and extended soloing. But that’s not the end of it. If it would be so, acts like Procol Harum or Moody Blues would be excluded from the concept. Also more contained performers are considered prog, because they explore new forms of song, combining voice with unusual orchestrations. Such is the case of above groups, but others could be mentioned, like Supertramp, Styx, Spirit or Ithaca, a rather obscure English group close to the Pink Floyd's Ummagumma. Psychedelic music, either in is English or Californian form would fall into this category. Although some of the groups display exquisite solo performers, psychedelic music is deeply anchored in the format of song. Pink Floyd is one of the examples of groups starting from a song based approach and developing into extended soloing. Some of the deep proggers, let’s say, will just start a song as an excuse to solo all the way through, That is that case of Phish, for instance, that can fall into this range, but to some ears will sound like extended rock soloists. And how to classify Frank Zappa, for instance? Prog music bears a challenging mood to convention that can assume many forms. The most extreme ones are exemplified by bands like 5uuu’s, Art Bears, or Magma. They fall into the categories of zeuhl and RIO (rock in opposition), and can differ substantially to the sweet and mild twist and turns of Camel or Barclay James Harvest, for example. But the regular prog is a defying convention in some way. What convention? I think the best way to explain is to look to what was the matrix of popular music before prog. In an extreme simplified look, you can reduce it to a R’n’b matrix that in some cases is tempered by soul. Other styles co-existed, like jazz or classical, but never mixed. So the novelty that prog brought to the popular scene was to mix styles. A song would begin with a bach-like introduction just evolve into some form of rock’n’roll jam (Curved Air, for instance, who were keen on Vivaldi). Renaissance was one of the goups to rely heavily on classical influences. Procol Harum’s A Salty Dog and Grand Hotel are great example of fine craftsmanship of blending rock’n’roll and classic music. Other groups melted very successfully jazz and rock. I’m not talking about the jazz rock movement, which is a chapter of popular music in itself, and should be considered progressive music (not rock), following what Miles Davis initiated in the end of the sixties. I’m talking of more down-to-earth approaches, solid mixes of jazz beats and solos and rock harmonies. Take Brian Auger, Catapilla, the wonderful Keith Tippet records or King Crimson’s Lizard. Are they jazz, are they rock? They are jazz with a rocking flavour to it. Or rock extending its boundaries into swinging territory of jazz. Lizard is one of the most wonderful works of the entire prog movement. Blending psychedelia, jazz, rock and classical it creates a unique body of sensations that are entirely new not only to its time but to ours. This challenging mood has assumed more frequently than not some forms of its own. Some groups like Gentle Giant, Genesis, Van Der Graaf Generator, Can, Tangerine Dream, Pink Floyd created new musical languages of their own. Can prog be defined? Yes, by the listener that suddenly says: this is prog. He has learned that prog is a quality that invades some of the best music we’ve (never) heard. Otherwise, it’s just jargon, and one can easily mistake the concept with some pompous or empty orchestration.