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Wilfred Langmaid
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David Gilmour: Live In Gdansk - Sony BMG

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David Gilmour: Live In Gdansk is a nod at history. It chronicles on two CDs and one DVD a 2006 show played at the shipyards of the Polish city. Those very shipyards were where the seeds of the 1980 populist uprising that changed that country forever were sown.

It is also a poignant farewell. It is the last recorded snapshot of keyboardist Richard Wright, who was a charter member of Pink Floyd when they formed in 1965. In fact, it was released in the U.K. one week after he died Sept. 15.

Above all, though, this is a great document of David Gilmour as an elder statesman of rock hitting on all cylinders.

After being associated with Pink Floyd from the outset, Gilmour joined them full-time in 1968 after initial leader Syd Barrett's illness and demise. He was part of their commercial apex that ran throughout the 1970s with megahit albums like 1973's Dark Side Of The Moon and 1979's The Wall. After anger and lawsuits, he ended up with the name of the band and most of its members when it imploded in 1983 and Roger Waters went solo.

Gilmour's profile rose in 2006 with the stellar solo comeback On An Island. For this live disc, he uses much of the first CD and much of the DVD to give that album's 10 songs - no slouches in studio - an extra spark live.

Highlights include Take A Breath, which gets an extra sparkle by the work of second guitarist Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music fame, and the title track.

The key for most of the audience that night and most of the customers of this release, though, is the Pink Floyd material. Gilmour leads these in his authentic and gifted way.

That way is with a voice that is distinctive, competent, and in some ways stronger and richer past age 60 than ever before.

His guitar, of course, is the star of his show. Fronting a seven-piece band, he is instantly recognizable, inventive and tuneful.

Some would say that Gilmour-fronted Floyd, which means everything from Waters' departure onwards, is smoothed out as compared with the years when Barrett (1965-1967) or Waters (1968-1983) fronted the group. That said, Astronomy Domine from the 1967 debut disc Piper At The Gates Of Dawn sparkles. So does the Gilmour-penned Fat Old Sun from 1970's Atom Heart Mother.

Their halcyon days of the 70s are showcased nicely too. The career breaking Dark Side Of the Moon (1973) gets its moment early - the show-opening Speak To Me > Breathe (In the Air) > Time. 1975's Wish You Were Here (Shine On You Crazy Diamond and the title track) and 1979's The Wall (Comfortably Numb) are also highlighted with skill by the man who has led these albums' songs in concert for over two decades now.

The Pink Floyd put together by Gilmour in 1987 - including Mason, who had clashed with Waters and left in 1980 - is represented by Great Day For Freedom, a track from 1994's The Division Bell.

Like many songs, this song was surely was picked for the venue and the night - a night that the people in attendance will long remember. In the bigger picture, as a project by the man keeping the flame of Pink Floyd lit since he joined the band all those years ago, Live In Gdansk is a clear signal that he is still ready to take that journey.

Fredericton-based freelance writer Wilfred Langmaid has reviewed albums in The Daily Gleaner since 1981, and is a past judge for both the Junos and the East Coast Music Awards. His column appears each Saturday.