Jazzový Orchestr Československého Rozhlasu Řídí Kamil Hála ‎in 1981's Jubileum [with lossless]

Information here. 

More from the former-Czech JOCR posted before.  Of course, this is not Russian, but we are getting closer aren't we, President, or Prime Minister, whichever one it is this year, Putin? Or maybe both now, for the next century, along with Russian vice-president in 2020, Trumpoff?

Best track, B2's Rosy (unlike Russia's future) Kapka:





Composed by Kamil Hála.

Red Devils from 1974, Austria

An odd mix of early 60s proto-rock with harmony vocals, like bad Beatles imitations everywhere, with later rock pop songs that presents us with the usual conundrum of an expensive and sought-after rarity that turns out to be dross.  The first track, which sadly is also the best one:





The remainder of the album would best be reserved for those who are nostalgic for late 50s pop rock... and not even of a high quality...

https://www.discogs.com/Red-Devils-Redevils/release/3241160

United Jazz + Rock Ensemble - Na Endlich! Live in Concert (VAR - 1992)

A glance at the line-up for the United Jazz + Rock Ensemble is bound to set expectations high. Group members include jazz luminaries such as Albert Mangelsdorff, Charlie Mariano, Ian Carr, Jon Hiseman, Kenny Wheeler, Volker Kriegel and Wolfgang Dauner.  One knock on this overall very good recording is that, with so many leading jazz players, there is no clear group leader for the ensemble. Those who favor rock over jazz may also find this group leaning too heavily in the other direction; the jazz fans among you won't mind. 

The Japanese School Band's two albums from 1976 and 1978 [review only]

Sometimes I can't post albums because they have been officially released to CD (I get a warning if the artist complains) and sometimes because the vinyl is rare and the ripper doesn't want me to share.  Sadly for this band, both forces are at work to divert the full enjoyment away from your ears.  But there are so many good tracks on both their albums I had to make a post for them.

For the prog fan, the first album, 1976's Our Best Songs Now, is definitely the best one with fusion in the mix, not just pop-rock songs.  The latter though are highly well written and without the sickliness cum overproduction of bad 70s pop.  This is the one that is rare and LP only, and can be found here, surprisingly.  The first track, Gypsy Mutant Dance, shows the fusionary vision:





On the other hand, the best track for sure you will agree is B2's On a Day, which is just glorious absolutely beautiful seventies funky rock mixed with the high emotions and splendid beauty that was such a hallmark of that innocent era.   The funky beginning augments the generic lyrics but the music just carries you on and on in varied sounds and rhythms making it almost dizzying until you get to the chorus:

our lives are a dream that may vanish in the night
open your eyes you will say, 
hey I can see those faces crying, 
I have lost my fear of leaving

Have a listen:




Now, after listening to this song probably hundreds of times, I know enough about songwriting and lyrics to be able to say I suspect the original chorus was: "I have lost my fear of dying" but that it was changed as being too pessimistic/too uncommercial.  What is equally of note here is that half way through, the band decides (in an even more uncommercial decision), to tack on a progressive instrumental as a bridge, before returning to the song!




In their subsequent album1978's Semi Final (not in the discogs database, although it came out on CD, check here), the band went far and deep into the 70s pop department where they presumably got lost between the girdle belts and the teddies lingerie.  My favourite track, perhaps the best one, is the dancey third song, with the premonitory USB stick reference:




The tenth track (translated as Homeless Traveler) present us with a bit of fusion as an afterthought:

Vindication - Vindication (USA - 1973)

It's Sunday and perhaps the prog heathens among us could use a little religion. This bit of Xian symphonic rock might fit the bill.  No sermons.  No kneeing.  Praying is optional.

And, since Sunday is a day of rest, I will send you elsewhere for a review.  Praise the Lord, this is good stuff!

Fusion Transfusion from Switzerland, 1984 [review only]

Shockingly good fusion in the truest sense of the word blending together all the streams of human musical invention, the warmth and rhythms of jazz with the intelligence of classical composition and the excitement of modern popular music, it's incredible that something so good can be so affordably excellent as you can see from the discogs page.

Valley of the Giants uses flute and strings to create an atmosphere of anxious tension before the classic Mahavishnu electric guitar arpeggios in diminished chords patterns the dialectic between powerful forces, like evil versus good, like Trump versus 7 billion other humans, dissonance at war with beautiful music:





It just amazes me how these composers add the string touches with such ingeniousness to add color to the whole.  To me, the basic fusion composition would be so similar to an Asia Minor or perhaps Alain Markusfeld by the numbers guitar track without that extra ornamentation that just knocks it out of the ballpark right against the lobe of my external ear.  Ouch.

Notice that the composers are flautist Philippe Racine and guitarist Wolfgang Paul (who wrote the above).  Strangely enough neither produced much more music than this stunning masterwork.  What a shame!

For a taste of Racine's work, consider the track a bit embarrassingly titled (nonetheless brilliantly composed) but highly atmospheric, Moondance:






Notice that it was recorded live in 1981 but not released for three years (thank god it was!!) and that the orchestra here is from Basel.

Many many thanks to the friends and contributors who are still willing to help me in this rarefied quest to find beautiful music completely forgotten by our fellow men/women... and look out for this one...

Brilliant fusion from the former CCCP: Sunkar

An absolutely stunning fusion masterpiece, clearly completely unknown until now, which I'm happy to present to everyone.

Here in the eighties we must get accustomed to the electric piano's much thinner clavinova sound to replace the edgy classic rhodes of the seventies, a sound I've said before to me is the most beautiful tone sound I can imagine, especially with tons of vibrato, like Chick used to demonstrate to such good effect.

In some places, with the thick and heavy digital keyboards, it even reminds me of the ne plus ultra of Russian progressive, Horizont and their Summer in Town and Picture of a Boy.

Track B3 with its arpeggiated major sevenths that progress to another fusionized folk melody just blows me away:





From discogs some information. Very little on RYM too.

A perfect combo of fusion and progression, unlike the preceding Anor.  All hail the great Putin, and gravy fries with cheesecurds.

Anor's long sought-after Taste of Pomegranate from 1987

Surprisingly there is a review online from 2001 for this rarity:

Line-up: 

Grigory "Grig" Pushen - bass 

Simon Mordukhayev - saxophones 

Natalie Nurmukhamedova - vocalizes 

Yury Benjaminov - guitars, sitar & Uzbek national string instruments 

Andrey Pertsev - drums 

B.Tashkhodjayev - Uzbek national bass instruments

A.Yakubov - keyboards

ANOR was formed by the talented composers Grig Pushen and Simon Mordukhayev in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, in the beginning of the 1980s. In the first half of the 1980s the band played only in Tashkent's various clubs. In 1985 Anor was invited to perform at the annual (and very popular in these years) festival of Jazz and Jazz-related music, called "Fergana Jazz". It's called so because it was held in the town of Fergana, which is one of the regional civic centres of Uzbekistan. Anor's performance at the "Fergana Jazz 1985" festival was very successful and the band become a winner of it, while a few of the band members were awarded as the best guitarist, bassist, etc. That happened mainly thanks to the enthusiasm and efforts of the Anor bandleader Grig Pushen who was one of the leading composers of Uzbekistan in the 1980s. Anor disbanded in the beginning of the 1990s, and then Grig has founded his own recording studio, which at the time was the most modern and respectable studio in the republic. Back to Anor, after the band's major success on "Fergana Jazz 1985" the famous Uzbekistani female singer Natalie Nurmukhamedova, whose popularity wasn't limited by the borders of the USSR (let alone the borders of her own republic), joined them. Another musician, who was famous all over the USSR, saxophonist Simon Mordukhayev become the 'staff' Anor member a few years ago. A very talented drummer Andrey Pertsev, one of the Anor's former members, also became a well known musician. It happened in the beginning of the 1990s, when he joined the legendary heavy metal band from Moscow called Black Coffee. During the first half of the 1990s Andrey was also a drummer for a couple of Russia's famous Thrash and Heavy-Metal bands. Thanks to his incredible musicianship, the further musical career of Andrey has been continued in Canada, where he and his family live since 1997. Yuri Bendjaminov is also one of the most well known Uzbekistani musicians. The only Anor LP was pressed by both the biggest (Moscow and Tashkent) factories-divisions of the "Melody" concern. "A Taste of Pomegranate" represents an extremely original and complex, intricate Jazz-Fusion (Progressive Jazz-Rock, to be precise), filled with unique, colourful Uzbek and other Eastern ornaments'and all of the essential progressive ingredients as well. In their messages to me, a lot of my friends in CIS and abroad, who are into a real Prog Fusion and have Anor's "A Taste of Pomegranate" LP, expressed their delight with the music of the band and the musicianship of all of the band members. Frankly, the majority of them said Anor is on a par with most of the famous Titans of the genre.



Unfortunately I cannot share their enthusiasm and for me it was a huge disappointment especially in comparison to the next instalment which will be Sunkar.

From rateyourmusic you can see the demand for this.  The review is ineptly overestimating:

80s smooth jazz crossed with Silk Road romanticism.  At the point where the "ethnic" and the bland intersect, the "avant garde" can briefly be seen.  Seasoned pros of the Soviet scene will find much to enjoy, but newcomers might deem Sato, who follow the same formula and are from the same Republic, more palatable.

As usual discogs has the Russian completely hidden from us (a search for Anor doesn't work), it can be found here in the database.  If you look at the sale price on the right hand side you will easily understand why it was such a disappointment to purchase, but here's track b1, which is 13 minutes long, and in my opinion the highest level of composition achieved:





And I'll throw in track b2 right after, which I found to be totally average (thereby giving the lie to the Rym reviewer):

Boomerang [Бумеранг] from Kazakhstan: Boomerang Jazz Ensemble, Ornament, and Mirage,1983 to 1986

I wanted to make my best friend Putin happy by posting a few things from the former Soviet Union aka his future empire so the next series of posts will present some material that may be totally new to you or alternatively familiar but in new rips of high quality vinyl because as I've said before, the records from that part of the world are always scratchy, as the great leader himself once said: "There is no scratch in long-play record Mother Russia, OK? You go stupid journalist buy some Ivanka Nordstrom jewelry. Now I ban you from press gallery, go, let loose siberian tiger on journalist there!"


From wikipedia a charmingly translated choppy bio:

Jazz band "Boomerang"  - Alma-Ata jazz ensemble. Created in 1973, drummer Tahir Ibragimov. The first part: the trumpeter Valery Bannov, saxophonist Viktor Nikolaev, pianist Vladimir Nazarov, bass player Farhad Ibrahimov (brother of Tahir) and percussionist Michael Juraev.  Entitled "Arai" ensemble accompaniment pop vocalist Rose Rymbaeva in the period from 1979 to 1982, in parallel acting under the name of "Boomerang" with jazz programs. The main stage was the Hall of the Conservatory. In 1982, the ensemble of "Aray" began to act separately in the new structure.Boomerang - The "Boomerang" Jazz Band - or: "Jazz Ensemble Boomerang" as it says in Cyrillic on their covers. This Boomerang were led by one Tahir Ibragimov and came from Kazakhstan (then within the USSR). They played a highly creative jazz fusion, with a mix of Caucasian, Asian and Oriental folk/cultural roots, adding up to a unique style of their own.


Unfortunately, there is a lot of filler, improvisation, and repetitiveness to go through to get to the gemational passages hidden here and there in the bedrock.  In general, listening to the first minute of each track, of which we only have 14 in total, distributed among three LPs, works, kinda.  Some or all of them were posted long ago in mp3 on obscure beasties, a lovely website which mixes 1960 to 1990 classical, fusion, folk and jazz in roughly equally enjoyable proportions and which has allowed me to discover innumerable gems which I'm sure would have remained totally unknown otherwise.

Miyako Chaki "Rainbow Chaser " (1977)

More seventies pop from Japan along similar lines to the 2 Anli Sugano I posted before.
The First Track:





Information here on the artist, whose earlier work was disappointing (pedestrian) in comparison, and on the record itself.

Hope some will enjoy this as much as I did.

Finn Savery Trio's visit to New York City from Denmark 1976 [with lossless limited time]

More from him, a bit more accessible than the previous installment.  Despite this, it's a little slow-going at times, not like the multifaceted and cinematic New York of Jochen Schmidt we heard before.

Here and there can be located some nice moments.
Perhaps the most palatable entry is the Intermission from the Lincoln Center:





Apologies for bashing in the front end of this with the previous track.

Here's the info.

Birds of Beauty's [Karsten Vogel] Pelican from 1978

Many thanks to our friends for help with these posts, as always...

Oddly enough this album is totally different from the 1976 album of the same name under his soloist credit, despite the expectation that it would be an English 'translation' of the original Danish.  First of all recall he was in the supreme and unparalleled fusion band Secret Oyster.  And I posted his 1983 album, which was quite impressive indeed, in December 2014.

You can check the band lineups here, note they are different for each track.  Compositions by Karsten, obviously.  The gorgeous ECM-like Little Wren:





The Hungry Mother track, with its classic fusion minor seconds, opposite of what the back depicts of course (from Shakespeare we all know the old mythical belief the mother tore open her breast to feed her young, which logically raises the question why does her beak have a large pouch often full of fish):





What's interesting to me here is you can tell from the trademark musical sounds where he contributed to Secret Oyster, for example the Fender playing an upgoing chord progression (Butterfly Blossom), the abrupt change from a minor beginning to a purely major chord progression (same), the 'birdlike' soprano sax tweeting (Gong-Gong), the melancholy, sombre mood of the slow pieces (the above Wren), etc.  Unfortunately, we have to admit it's a slightly uneven album with here and there some Secret Oysters of shiny brilliance but a lot of tedious late-70s fuzak too.

And again many thanks to the generosity of my occasional contributors, wherever you are in the world, always at far-flung destinations from whoever might be reading this...

Giovanni Ullu from Italy 1978

It's so rare for me to present to you a wonderful album from Italy yet undiscovered, much less two in a row, but this is exactly that--  it's clear we (a collective we for this digital exercise in collaboration) have plumbed the bottom of the barrel of this country extensively, just as their population has plumbed the bottom of the barrel of 500-year-old artworks to show to gullible tourists willing to pay the high price to venture within the country's borders to get fleeced.  It's not too far adrift into prog territory like the previous, and quite similar, to the Roberto Picchio I posted long ago -- remember that one? -- but it's still highly enjoyable and quite unknown (though not rare and expensive like Sage).  The only other Italian album I recently was surprised to hear which I hadn't known, was Maurizio Fabrizio's Movimenti Nel Cielo which is very progressive and advanced (currently available on CD).

Information here.

Track A4's Il Sapore Di Un'altra Vita:





Isn't it surprising such balanced, delicate, and enjoyable songwriting isn't better known?  I particularly enjoy the fact there is so much feeling to his vocalizing, without descending into any hyper-emotional caramelization of the sugars.  Some nice chord progressions can be noted as well.

And this is one of perhaps a handful of well-crafted and nuanced songs here.