Canadian Moe Koffman's fusion excursions 1973-1977: Master Session, Solar Explorations, Jungle Man, Museum Pieces

Discogs:

Canadian jazz musician, composer, arranger, and booking agent. He played flute, soprano, alto and tenor saxophones and clarinet. (born December 28, 1928, Toronto, Ontario, Canada - died March 28, 2001, Orangeville, Ontario, Canada).

The situation here is very similar to that of Don Sebesky whose classical foray was posted here.  Canadian Koffman made a great deal of really ordinary classical-themed music which I don't want to call fusion, e.g. the album Moe Koffman Plays Bach which came out in the early 70s, then went all-out critically-unacclaimed bonkers with advanced modern composition and extreme, and I mean extreme music with orchestra and fusionary visions in the 1974 opus Solar Explorations.  The music is very similar to the last post of Carlos Franzetti but far more out there, way out into the intergalactic space actually way past the orbit of ex-planet Pluto and even the Oort cloud. And the vacuum of critical acceptance must have been just so rewarding... explaining perhaps why this was his only really experimental album. 

Prior, the 1973 Master Session is still grounded in simpler classical music adaptations though it gets really interesting with the Syrinx track which though credited to him and Doug Riley, is really by Debussy:

I really love the feeling he put into that piece.

Speaking of fellow Canadian Doug Riley, he has appeared here before with the Dr. Music outfit he led.  Their album called Transcription was a wonderful discovery I praise myself for posting here.

Anyways, the Explorations album is the real stunner, from beginning to end, primary composer Doug Riley again made an absolute masterpiece of the best kind of progressive music, mixing in equal proportions fusion, electric instruments, and modern classical of the most intellectual kind.  The kind of thing I live to hear and die to listen to, and there were so many ideas he filled up a 2-LP set.  And look at the stunning artwork they provided too!  In reality it's solar system explorations with one track for each planet, like Gustav Horst.

Again, in sound very much like the Sebesky Stravinsky homage.

But it was all too much I guess, by the time of 1976's Jungle Man he had reverted to commercialese in the fuzak style.  Nonetheless, his own composition called Temple Flower:

We wouldn't expect too much from the 1977 follow up themed Museum Pieces, but shockingly a really well-crafted and lovely composition by Don Thompson this time, appears as Days Gone By (Egyptology):

I love the way the chord progression, after a couple of generic moves, surprises with very original changes here and there, and throughout the song, so much so that the verse melody passes from F minor to G minor almost imperceptibly!  Really lovely.  The following track by Doug Riley about dinosaurs is also a real winner, resembling greatly his material from the Dr. Music fusion album that was so tasty.

Nice stuff.  As I've said before, it's my thesis that the musicians or composers of the time were able to make such gorgeous progressive music thanks to their deep education and immersion in all three streams of classical, jazz, and pop or rock, one or more of which is typically missing today. Or all the above, in the case of certain musical styles.