Viola Crayola - Music: Breathing Of Statues (Reissue) (1974/2005)

THE VIOLA CRAYOLA was a Texan band fronted by the VIOLA brothers, Anthony on the guitar and Ron on drums, joined by the bassist Bill JOLLY. The bright future of the band was unfortunately sealed by the death of very talented Anthony VIOLA in a car accident in San Antonio in late 1974. Before his tragedy, the band recorded their only LP in first three days of October in 1974, a short (29 minutes) album and besides a Frank ZAPPA influenced number, completely instrumental jazz fusion record which shows off all the talents of this trio, especially creativity and technical playing by the late Anthony VIOLA. Even though the album sometimes gives the impression of a jam feel, the back cover illustrates with note sheets on how the music is actually carefully structured and composed. Dedicated to Mama Viola, the LP was originally released in 1974 on a obscure label Fautna and waited for more than 30 years to be found as a lost gem and then released on an audio CD on Radioactive label in 2005. The record itself was titled after the poem Music Breathing Of Statues by Rainer Maria RILKE.