Little Hans - Wunderkind (Reissue) (1971-72/1999)

In the beginning (of the Baltimore maverick prog rock band OHO), there was Little Hans, a group comprised of drummer Jeff Graboski, singer/guitarist J.P. Graboski, and keyboardists Mark O'Connor and Trent Zeigen. Active in the early '70s, Little Hans (the name taken from one of Freud's famous patients) never released an official recording, but the unit recorded over an hour of professional demos in 1971-1972. Fans of OHO will find in the father all the basic elements of the son's character. But Wunderkind, the CD collecting those demos, also makes a fine listen by and of itself. Little Hans' music takes its source in the symphonic rock of the late '60s, especially Procol Harum and the Moody Blues, adding to it a personal interpretation of British progressive rock, a conception that lands very close to other underground American bands like Happy the Man and Grits. Musically complex and lyrically intellectual, the music can be moving despite a certain pomposity and clutter in the arrangements. Wunderkind starts with three songs recorded in separate sessions with ex-Mothers of Invention engineer Dick Kunc. "Bedlam" is the most satisfactory one, a challenging but rewarding piece that blows some gospel into Genesis and Emerson, Lake & Palmer's songwriting. The main opus is the 42-minute suite "Peter Pan." A retelling of the fairy tale, it is made of 19 sections, some of them virtuosic in nature. The dead-serious attitude of the group doesn't fit very well with the fantasy of the tale, but the piece has its good moments, namely in "Animosity," "Flight," and "Conflict and Resolution." "Recession" was recorded later with a different lineup that included bassist Joe O'Sullivan (future OHO alumni) and singer Aleta Greene. The disc concludes with three live tracks, very badly recorded. Wunderkind came out in 1999 and was given away with copies of the magazine Progression. Extra copies have circulated, but the album is now very hard to find and a collector's item.