1970s Output of Swedish organist / composer, Merit Hemmingson, By Request

 

Discogged thusly and rather sparesly: 

Swedish organist, composer and singer, born August 30, 1940 in the village of Gärdsta in Marby parish in Jämtland. She became famous in the late 1960's for her modern pop arrangements of Swedish folk music.

I think the first thing that most of us will notice is, the band is naked in the woods on that last album.  If you, like me, are curious for verification from the verso you'll be disappointed, there's just a drawing of Merit.  No butts.  And no more images of that really pretty blonde flautist (Josefine Mellander).  Obviously if you learned anything about that time period you learned nudism and stuff like communes with free sex were a big deal back then, thankfully the fad is long gone and passed today. 

Similarly the music is for sure a style that would never show its face today: Hammond Organ backed by different instrumentation but usually a rhythm section and sometimes orchestra playing a mix of jazz, ethnic folk, and baroque fugues, sometimes all 3 in one track.  At one point you get a jews harp playing percussion under a jazz-skat singing folk tune-- you get the idea:

Sometimes she sings, sometimes in the very annoying jazzy style of Dudziak, and sometimes there are cover versions.  In the later albums there are covers of famous classical tunes, and I have to honestly say her version of Ravel's beautiful Pavane pour une Infante Defunte is the single worst classical rendition I have ever heard, out of all the many I've heard.

In terms of more listenable samples, from 1972's Trollsang, opener called Mandom etc. demontrates the occasional funky sounds (mixed with baroque patterns):

From 1973's Bergtagen, Elverumvisan:

From 1975's Balsam, Balsam a la Sebastian demonstrates the classical influence as well as the inescapable organ sound:

The 1979 free sex/ nudist album Gastabud features a wonderfully sly-chorded and interesting vocal track called Harem which I definitely don't want to know the lyrics to:

The penultimate track on that album, called Trade Mark is genuinely beautiful (here the guitarist is Michael Lundqvist):

I should mention too that our beloved Janne Schaffer and Georg Wadenius appear on the 1977 album.  B.J. Lindh on the other hand shows up on the 1975, the uniquitous but unfortunately named Toots Thielemans on harmonica.

Overall, from this the blog, the albums of Berndt Egerbladh are the most similar with the heavy dependence on folk.

Some Requests: Eddy Palermo's 1985 Jazz Fusion Mood and Gerard Marais's 1986 BBG (Big Band de Guitares) [FLAC limited time only]

 

Eddy Palermo is an Italian guitarist. This album appears with his ensemble discogged here.  It's quite light fusion with pleasant sounds, typical of the era, all instrumental. 

A Song for You:

I threw in the album called Eddy Loves Frank, made up of big band versions of Frank Zappa. It's a little bit interesting, note the Regyptian Strut cover:

Unfortunately I was not too pleased with some of the other versions, such as the immortal Echidna's Arf.  And it oddly enough ends with a rendition of America the Beautiful, rather than 'America the empire wannabe'.  I guess it kinda makes sense considering it came out in 2009.

Gerard Marais, who was in my Instants Chavires with Pifarely posted so long ago, is typical French progressive jazz, as you can easily discern and detect form my sample called Sagittaire:

Some Requests: Claude Rodap-Fregate Orchestra's 1986 Syn-Ka

 

October Country:

This is just fantastic, like a reminder of Springtime and new, free flowing energy :)

Alert! We have a genre-hopping, phase-shifting, strange and wonderful little UFO here >>> cool proto-prog morphing into space-disco jams with multi-synth leads: Cosmic!

Take the Steve Robinson - Its A Lie Lp, blended with elements of Michel Magne's - Moshe Mouse Crucifixion and Zeus B.Held.... mix in Mort Garson ..............out of this world, yes.

Just look at that album cover, we know they were time-travelers.

...3rd song, 'Synthetic Love', that repeating synth-chorus and bossa nova beat brings to mind a final hurrah, like a last celebration, sailing away from everything we ever knew into the new.

...next song, 'Fregate', continues the vibe with a solemn but hopeful piano refrain and surf-like sounds....love it.

First track:

Some Requests: Vingioi - Very Well, from 1979 Italia

 Artist information here (real name with too many i's is Vincenzo Gioieni. Note that the earlier 1976 library album is unavailable digitally (so far).  Anyone have it too though to share?  Presumably the same style, of mixed library music but nicely performed and very typical, dare I say generic, for ex., Septic: