UKZ is an international

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

band, that was formed in 2007 by keyboardist/violinist

Eddie Jobson Edwin "Eddie" Jobson (born 28 April 1955) is an English musician noted for his use of synthesizers. He has been a member of several progressive rock bands, including Curved Air, Roxy Music, U.K. and Jethro Tull. He was also part of Frank Zap ...

, who had played in

U.K. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

History

Formation

After a failed attempt to work on a proposed

reunion album with

John Wetton John Kenneth Wetton (12 June 1949 – 31 January 2017) was an English musician, singer, and songwriter. Known for his dexterous bass playing and booming baritone voice, Wetton first gained fame in the early 1970s. Wetton was the singer and p ...

, in October 2007

announced a new band, UKZ, with Aaron Lippert, former vocalist for Expanding Man who had also worked with Jobson in the 1990s,

Trey Gunn Trey Gunn (born December 13, 1960) is an American musician, known for his membership in the progressive rock band King Crimson from 1994 to 2003, playing Warr Guitar and Chapman Stick. Biography A native Texan who now resides in Seattle, Washi ...

from

King Crimson King Crimson are a progressive rock band formed in 1968 in London, England. The band draws inspiration from a wide variety of music, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, folk, heavy metal, gamelan, industrial, electronic, experime ...

Warr guitar The Warr Guitar is an American-made touch guitar, a type of instrument that combines both bass and melodic strings on a single fretboard. It is related to the Chapman Stick, another two-handed tapping instrument. The Warr guitar is designed for ...

, guitarist

Alex Machacek Alex Machacek (born 1 July 1972, Tulln an der Donau, Austria) is an Austrian jazz fusion guitarist. Early years Machacek was born to a Czech family in Tulln, Austria. His family had moved to Austria in the 1960s as refugees. Since then, they h ...

and drummer

Marco Minnemann Marco Minnemann (born 24 December 1970) is a German drummer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist. Career Marco Minnemann has released over a dozen solo albums as drummer, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist, and performed on over 100 studio alb ...

. According to Jobson, the idea of UKZ was to form a players band with a contemporary flavor to it. The project ended up becoming international, as each of the players were situated in different parts of the world and recorded their first EP "

Radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or through a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'', such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visi ...

" without meeting in person. Although many thought the UKZ name referenced UK and Zinc, the band Jobson recorded his '' The Green Album'' with in 1983, Jobson has maintained that since the original name proposed to the project, UK3, linked too much to UK and that John Wetton would have objected with him using the UK name alone, he decided that UKZ sounded more generic and more modern.

EP release and live activity

After releasing an

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

MP3 track, entitled "Tu-95" (after the Soviet airplane), for download on 30 September 2008 and a videoclip of the song "Radiation", UKZ played their debut concert in New York City's Town Hall in January 2009. The band's first EP "

" was then released in March 2009 via Ryko Distribution. In July of the same year UKZ toured Japan, playing in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. Later that year John Wetton joined Eddie Jobson on stage for the first time in 30 years during three shows of Jobson's Ultimate Zero (U-Z) project in Poland and a selection of these performances appeared in November 2010 on the album ''

Ultimate Zero Tour - Live Ultimate or Ultimates may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums * ''Ultimate'' (Jolin Tsai album) * ''Ultimate'' (Pet Shop Boys album) *''Ultimate!'', an album by The Yardbirds *'' The Ultimate (Bryan Adams Album)'', a compilati ...

''. A UK reunion was officialized in 2011 and Jobson and Wetton toured together until 2016, under various line-ups that sometimes included UKZ members Machacek and Minnemann. As a result, the UKZ project took a temporary step back. In November 2013, Lippert, Machacek and Minneman joined Jobson on stage for his brief Four Decades tour in Japan, to play three of the four songs contained in the "Radiation" EP. A performance recorded in Kawasaki was released in 2015 as part of the album and video "

Four Decades ''Four Decades'' is a live album by Eddie Jobson, celebrating the 40th anniversary of his recording career. The album was recorded during one single night in Kawasaki, Japan. The set list is made up by songs from his solo albums and by the artis ...

Discography

Extended plays

*''Radiation'' (2009)

References

External links

UKZ official website
*
Globe Music Media Arts website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ukz Rock music supergroups English progressive rock groups Musical groups established in 2007