TOLTEC

	Toltec
	Produced by Jon Anderson
	Released on January 30, 1996
	no chart information
	Find it at GEMM
10346-2 cover

I feel like I’m missing something when I listen to Toltec, as if it were the audio component of a multimedia presentation. Dialogue from Indian spiritualist Longwalker, traditional Indian songs, bouncy and light originals from Jon, and instrumental bridges run together like the score to a film playing in the singer’s head. The Toltec, as I understand it, are an ancient race of Indian magicians; at least that’s what I remember from Carlos Castaneda. Drawn to magic as he is, Anderson becomes a willing mouthpiece for the movement, and (as the cynic in me would say) it’s a little like inviting the Jehovah’s Witnesses into your home. I do believe God’s spirituality descends on earth in myriad forms, but the more someone tries to articulate it, the more of man’s hand I see in the whole thing, and the less sense it makes to me. So, in listening to Toltec (or reading Castaneda, or sitting for a medium) it might pay to have a salt lick handy, since a grain just isn’t gonna do it. Distilling the actual songs with vocals (which is what most people would expect from a Jon Anderson album) is near impossible; like Pete Townshend’s Psychoderelict (a work very different in intent of course), the songs rouse you from a waking sleep induced by distant dialogue. And so the listener slips between two worlds: one of thought (making sense of Longwalker’s arcana) and one of feeling (the uplifting and childlike music). However, this tends to stimulate both worlds simultaneously, which is to Toltec’s detriment: my brain finds the music too simplistic, my heart feels the dialogue is a distraction. As for the Latin American Indian element, this isn’t the musical amalgam that Deseo was; despite the use of traditional songs (and the assimilation of folklore that would naturally accompany such an undertaking), Toltec isn’t any more authentic to my ears than Tangerine Dream’s Southwestern scores (Oasis, Canyon Dreams). The melodies are trite but the music isn’t, swelled to a rich hue with exotic instrumentation that includes Charlie Bisharet (I’m pretty sure that E’s an A) and familiar faces from Jon’s recent work. Had the singer replicated the feel of “Building Bridges” across an entire disc, he might well have had another Deseo on his hands. Instead, Jon’s critics are going to have a field day with this. I’ll file Toltec under ambitious but unfocused, as if sections of Deseo and Earthmotherearth were incorporated into an anthropology class.

TRACK LISTING

Part I

THE BOOK OPENS 4:59
QUICK WORDS (TALK-TALK) (Jon Anderson/Luis Perez) 2:54
SHALL WE PLAY THE GAME 3:45
SEMATI SIYONPME 3:16

Part II
GOOD DAY MORNING 2:02
LEAP INTO THE INCONCEIVABLE 3:53
SONG OF HOME 1:11
BUILDING BRIDGES (Jon Anderson/Eduardo del Signore) 5:55
SOUND AND COLOR 4:01
LONGWALKER SPEAKS 2:48

Part III
MAAZO MAAZO 1:23
ENTER YE THE MYSTERY SCHOOL 7:54
AVE VERUM (W.A. Mozart) 3:08

All songs written and arranged by Jon Anderson unless noted

CREDITS

JON ANDERSON -- vocals (and probably some instruments as well), cover art
DEBORAH ANDERSON -- harmonic vocals
CHARLES BISHARET (sp?) -- violin
EDUARDO DEL SIGNORE -- bass guitar & buen amigo
MARIA E DEL REY -- vocals
PAUL HANEY -- saxophone
KEITH RICHARD HEFFNER -- orchestration and keyboards
PATRICIA HOOD -- harp
LONGWALKER -- speaking
DAVID ERIC LOWEN -- vocals
DANIEL NAVARRO -- vocals
LUIS PEREZ -- percussions and unique ethnic sound, traditional Indian songs research, adaptation and arrangements
FREDDY RAMOS -- guitars
NINA SWAN -- vocals
Salo Loyo -- keyboards (13)
Ron Wasserman -- production engineer
Kevin Dickey -- remix and reprint engineer
Candace Upman -- art direction
Sandy Del Rio -- graphic design

REGION	RELEASE DATE	LABEL	MEDIA	ID NUMBER	FEATURES
US	January 30, 1996	High Street	CD	10346	picture sleeve
JPN	1996	Windham Hill	CDPRO	BVCW-688	promo release
UK	May 9, 2000	One Way	CD	35146