Lantern Heights Vinyl & CDs

Review: The exquisite 1974 debut album by American pianist, guitarist, producer and songwriter Gary Marks hears a deserving reissue through Lantern Heights. Now a published fiction and non-fiction author, Marks' early musical career ended all to shortly, and was Marked sonically by sweetened contemporary jazz and folk arrangements, heard best on this homeward but still subtly cosmic opening statement of an LP. The open-ended, pathetic-fallacious 'Sherry's Song' is our twinging piece de resistance, with Marks serenading a young flame as the object of his gushing folksy affections, while the immediate follower 'Gathering' indulges a completely "other" set of progged-out emotions. 'We Free' unites the two through a bossa nova downturn, and 'A Gina Theme' isolates the vibraphone in a kind of giant sonic glasshouse, serving as one of several interludes that steadfastly beautify the record.