Mike Gibbs in Seven Songs for Quartet and Chamber Orchestra (Gary Burton) 1974

 

I can't believe I missed this one when I went through the Mike Gibbs stuff, way back here. (I think.)

Of course, since it's officially credited to famed vibraphonist Gary Burton, it's not so surprising.  However the music is all from Mike, many of the tracks having been recycled from his other orchestral works or solo albums.  The sound is very much like the Paul Winter Consort material e.g. Icarus, that we all so love fondly, with complex chamber arrangements in the Oregon manner and a delicate and very original and unique employment of the orchestra playing thoughtful, what can only described as intellectual music, since it based to such an extent in a knowledge of modern classical music as well as fusion and jazz.  Also similar is the highly downloaded Herbert Joos album posted years ago.  (Looking back I see it received literally several thousands of page views since Feb. 2018.)  

Another old friend also resurfaces here, the NDR Orchestra, which was ripped a few times before in their releases, one of which also featured Gibbs.

A track called Phases starts quite slowly with a bass melody soloing-- pretty much as ECM as it gets-- and slowly builds in intensity through a seven minute span:

The oddness and dramaturgy of the chords is very much indebted to the modern composers from Stravinsky on.  Incidentally the bassist is Steve Swallow, though I thought it was Eberhard Weber.

It was a shock to see this in the Gary Burton discography actually, I've known him forever due to the connection with Keith Jarrett.