Ira Sullivan's Strings Attached, from 1983 [FLAC limited time only]

 

Here's another wonderful and progressive album that is truly lost to time and memory.  

Ira Sullivan is a sax player who starting putting out records in the 1950s, generic jazz with standards, inevitably.  However in the very late year of 1983 he put out this very interesting album full of great compositions.  On this alt. page you can see details about the credits.  So most of the compositions are by David Einhorn (very little other material appears from him in the database) and the arranging of the strings was done by ? who? there is no name, might have been either Einhorn or Sullivan.

The amazing Late Nights (written by David and brother Peter Einhorn), I love that the acoustic guitar intro eschews all the usual jazz cliches and just comes up with original chord strummed figures:

On this album there is another Ballad which is just gorgeous, this time the (chamber) composition is by (reeds and woodwinds player) John Alexander:

Surprisingly the whole album is full of gems.  Not one bad track in my opinion. The CD actually found nonreleased bonus tracks to throw in there too, which are equally interesting.  What a gem...  Will wonders never cease?  Not on this blog!

Ron Carter's Pastels from 1977

 

This one album by Ron Carter I thought was just genius.  I suppose he's a pretty well-known bassist in pure jazz circles, but I didn't really think he delved into the progressive fusion domain, just the standard modern bebop stuff which I really can't listen to anymore.  But he indeed put out this one album at a time when I guess most of his colleagues dipped their toes in fusion or dunked themselves in it.

Compositions are by Ron Carter, but arrangements by the great Don Sebesky, featured before on this blog, back here with his gorgeous and masterful classical arrangements.  So I think this collab is what makes this particularly compelling.  Information on this record with all the credits here.

The unbelievable beauty, with its gentle chord modulations, of the generically entitled chamber piece called Ballad:

This owes a lot obviously to the orchestral arrangements by Sebesky.  I tried to locate all the albums he arranged in the mid-1970s that would be interesting to hear, but there weren't many, with Giant Box being the standout.  I think I also linked that one back in the Sebesky post.

The title track is also amazing:

More similar 1970s US progressive fusion coming.

Roland Haynes' Second Wave from 1975 [FLAC limited time only]

 

This is a one-off (unfortunately) from this fusion keyboardist.  

Hugely enjoyable high energy instrumental keyboards-led stuff for the fusion fanatic, like myself.

Title track:

Going to come back with more US fusion material from the golden age of the seventies next week.

The Advancement from 1970

 

Discogged:

American jazz, psychedelia and folk fusion band. Formed in early 1969 in Hollywood, California, by Rudy Onderwyzer who brought together a number of session musicians.

Regarding Rudy:

American jazz trombonist and night club owner. Born on October 10, 1929. Died on November 6, 2017 (88 years old). He owned 3 jazz clubs in his early years. Together with drummer Shelly Manne he was part-owner of the Shelly's Manne-Hole nightclub in Hollywood, Los Angeles. He also owned The Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach (1969-1981), another important jazz showcase and recording location on the US West Coast at the time. Around 1983 he opened Hop Singh's in Marina Del Ray, only to close it in 1986. Onderwyzer finished his employment career as a bookkeeper for Rudy's Lock And Key. He also worked part-time for the L.A. Times newspaper for over 10 years, in its Polling Department.

So unfortunately, the only LP from him, really.  It's a mix of chamber progressive prog and more simplistic jazz-rock, mostly instrumental.  However the compositions are wonderful, and quite advanced for this early year of 1970.  Consider the wonderful track called Juliet for ex.:

Unfortunately I couldn't make out the compositional credits for these tracks.

Or the very plaintive Painful Struggle:

The astounding folk singer Linda Perhacs in Parallelograms, and more

 

Here's a legit lost masterpiece in my opinion, not so lost though as one would imagine, as it seems it was rediscovered and expanded on a couple of decades ago.  So really this upload should be 'limited time only' for sure.  The original album from 1970 was reissued on CD with some wonderful nonreleased bonus tracks and demos.

Information on her here.  The bio indicates:

Linda Perhacs (born 21 September 1943) is an American psychedelic folk singer, who released her first album, Parallelograms, in 1970 to scant notice or sales. The album was rediscovered by record enthusiasts and reissued numerous times beginning in 1998, growing in popularity with the rise of the New Weird America movement and the Internet. In 2014, she released a second album titled The Soul of All Natural Things, and a third, I'm a Harmony, in 2017.

Musically she's a dead ringer / singer for early Joni Mitchell, way back in her Songs for a Seagull days, back in the late sixties before Joni became pop-influenced and expanded into the piano-playing as on Blue. Especially with the very female-centred lyrics and the wonderfully performed backup vocals (by herself).  Even her voice is very very similar.

But consider the fact that this LP starts with this amazingly odd song called Chimacum Rain [Chimacum is a location in Wash. State]:

I mean if an artist has the courage to start off with something so oddball, you know they're pretty uncompromising in general.  Even more odd is the title track, which, literally is about mathematical figures!  This song absolutely blows me away musically, completely, in every way you can imagine:

In all this blog, have we ever encountered a song purely about mathematical constructs, that is, not being used metaphorically? It's possible, but I don't remember.

The other really beautiful song to me is If You Were My Man, which is so compelling with the profound depth of her longing:

Seriously makes me want to cry listening to that one.  Obviously, based on some personal heartbreak experience.  And the harmony vocals!   Amazingly to me, this was a demo that never made it onto the album. Perhaps written for a second album that never came about?

It turned out she released two more albums, which like the situation with British Affinity singer Linda Hoyle, are not quite as astounding.  For ex., Daybreak, from the 2014 album, shows the inevitable influence of all the alternative music that came out in the intervening years:

Pay attention to the 2005 BBC interview (among the CD bonus tracks for 1970 rereleased) as well in which she talks about her 'beautiful vision' of the world (in her beautiful voice).

All I could say is, thank you from the bottom of my heart for the beauty and emotion of your music, Linda Perhacs.  

Steve Eliovson's Dawn Dance from 1981 [FLAC limited time]

 

There is an interesting story behind this one, which I'll put at the end.  I found it while looking through the discography of the very interesting uber-ECM protege Collin Walcott, who is also on this album.

Steve Eliovson was a South African guitarist, as you can see here, and this was the only LP he released.  His style is ridiculously similar to Ralph Towner, which is for sure a good thing always.

Earth End:

The story:

The Quiet Funeral of a Great Guitarist - Steve Eliovson - Born: 1954 - Died: 15 Mar 2020

There are perhaps many thousands of people around the planet who want to know about Steve Eliovson and what has happened to him. We have decided to put this video up of his funeral for all those who want to know. Had they been given advance warning, I'm sure many would have been at his funeral on this day and to say farewell to an enigmatic and brilliant musician.

The 17th of March was a sad and strange day. I received a message from my friend Herby Opland that Steve Eliovson had died and that his funeral was this very day at 12 noon at the West Park Jewish Cemetery, Johannesburg. The news took me back a few years to when I actively spent a few weeks trying to track the man down. I had made up my mind that if he was alive, I was going to find him. I failed utterly. The closest I got was to a cousin of his in America who then asked me if I had any news.

My desire to find Steve was driven by an obsessive curiosity as to how and why such a talented and awe-inspiring musician could simply disappear off the face of the earth. For a brief moment, we had become friends in the mid 1980's after he walked into my gig in Sea Point and asked if he could sit down with me. I was taking a break and eating my supper at the time. He asked me point-blank if I remember a guitarist by the name Steve Eliovson and because a few years earlier I had watched him perform two incendiary performances with jazz guitarist Johnny Fourie, I immediately recognised him. He came out to my place in Muizenberg twice and we got to jam a little together and then he was gone. I never saw him or heard of him again. When I looked again he had so successfully removed himself from the grid that he was utterly invisible.

Steve's one and only album titled 'Dawn Dance', (ECM), recorded with the late Collin Walcott in 1981, has in the interim, become a highly-acclaimed collectors item, revered by maybe hundreds of thousands of people across the world. Many of whom voice their desire to know just what happened to the mysterious guitarist and why he never recorded again.

I have only been able to fill in tiny bits of detail. He went to the USA and was lined up to record a second album with ECM when he broke his leg badly. This put him out of action for a while. There may have been complications. There are tales of him squatting with a friend and having to store his guitars which were never reclaimed. How he survived over there I do not know. There is another tale that he came back to SA and tried being a farmer for awhile in KZN.

Today I went to his funeral. Myself and my friend Herby, outside of the minimum ten Jewish men required at any Jewish burial, were the only people there who knew who he was. There was no family, no friend, not a single soul who knew and loved him.

Steve had died two days earlier in the Johannesburg General, he had end-stage cancer. He had been living in a flatlet in Berea for some months. Where he was before that is hazy. These flats are owned by the Jewish Benevolent Society and are made available to those who have fallen on hard times. Steve lived there quietly, never once reaching out to old friends and family. This astoundingly talented master-musician gave us a brief flurry of his brilliance and then for reasons still unknown, walked away from it all so quietly that there was no-one outside of Herby, myself and ten strangers at his funeral today.

RIP Steve Eliovson, we did not and will not forget you brother.

Tony Cox

Wow, isn't that something?  Worth listening to just for the sake of his story...

New Sound Shakuhachi from 1978

Not sure if this was requested or if I came across it in connection with another artist.  The album's information is here, it was already a double LP back in the day, but recently rereleased on CD with double the amount of music, more than 2.5 hours worth.  To my ears though, it sounds very similar after a while, some pentatonic folk melody is developed over funk or jazzy beats, like library music, but then is just followed by improvising without much structure. The 2 artists are composer Kiyoshi Yamaya and the shakuhachi (= bamboo flute) player, Kifu Mitsuhashi.

A typically random generic sample called Sado Okesa:

Hopefully you don't share the same sentiment as me that the length and quantity of this is a bit punishing.  Happy Daylight Savings hour to everyone.

Xalph's new Xessander's Present [no download]

 

I was so happy to hear about this release of potentially previously unheard tracks.  In fact, for those well acquainted with this band, both the old collection and the more recent LP release cover almost all the 10 tracks here.  There are only 3 therefore that I haven't heard (although some of the compositions are given a different treatment on this collection): one is the recent electronic track referred to as the "digital bonus track" that is, it's an electronic synth adagio, and the 2 others are absolutely sublime progressive zeuhl stuff.  On the release's Soleil Zeuhl page you can hear them, numbers 7 and 8: Ter and In Memoriam etc.

So it's worth purchasing for those 2 extra tracks which didn't appear on the whole lot once discussed back here on this blog...  

In some way, I think these guys were absolutely exemplary in their style, and better than Magma (sorry to say)...  What an absolute and total joy to listen to this, especially with the remastering.  I do pray a live recording appears, and soon as possible too, as suggested by the Soleil Zeuhl site.

The unbelievable talent of this band, and their ability to craft such complex, creative and interesting music, just leaves me speechless, totally.  Again as I used to say, why is this not played in concert halls instead of the old standards like Stravinsky, when it is just as compelling if not more?

And thanks to the commenter who pointed this out, without whom I would probably never have known about this.

Hawaiian duo Olomana in 3 albums (1976 to 1980)

 

The first 2 albums were requested to be reupped, they were ripped and posted 10 years ago here.  Seagull cover for the first one is still amazing to me.

Information databased here.  Now the third album from 1980, similar in style completely, is available too, so I threw that one in.  Hawaiian folk music of course, but similar in sound to the more simple Seals and Crofts songs.  From the first album, So Free:

Sample from the third album, We are the Children:

Cox Orange 2 LPs + 1 EP, by request

 

Danish funk-fusion band similar to so many others we've encountered from Northern Europe, but heavy on the bass and funky rhythms, less on the fusionary forms.  Like Placebo siamese twinned with Lafayette Afro Rock Band.  All instrumental, sometimes a little too simplistic for me with a handful of chords and not much progressive development.  Or you could say it's as if the Brecker Bros and their atonal funk had been told to tone it down and behave.  Needless to report, there are the usual latin styles too.

Information here.  From the 1978 ST album, the oddness of the riff from Always Public appealed to me:

I notice the 1985 album is missing, anyone have it to share?  It's hit or miss whether or not it will be worth hearing of course, given the late year.

From the second, Sivsko Disko:

To my surprise there is another band with the same name, but this time a German punk band, so that explains the 1989 EP Hypnotized, which I threw in for fun.

Eko Roosevelt in Kilimandjaro my Home from 1976

 

Eko:

Cameroonian musician, pianist and singer (born in Kribi in 1946), studied in Dakar, then Paris, where he released a number of LPs & singles (1975 to 1982), before returning to Kribi.

Ba Bahani sounds like something off the 1970s pop charts, except for the wonderful African lyrics and casually out of sync style of singing:

You should listen all the way to the end when it slows down and gently ends with the wonderful Rhodes complementing the vocalizing.  

By the way I listened to the previous album from 1975 and wasn't too impressed by it compared to this one, which is a bit more developed and varied.  And the next one after this is called Funky Disco Music (1979), so I didn't stray so far.  

But I enjoyed this a lot.

J.O.B. Orquestra's 1978 Open the Doors to Your Faith

 

Complete change in direction now, with mid-1970s funk /soul from this one-off album / group. 

So it's similar to anything from Motown from that period, but lacking the disco moves, thankfully, think The Jackson 5, The Stylistics, or even Marvin Gaye.

This is a creation masterminded by Jorge Barreiro. (Don't know anything about him in particular.)

Without a doubt the 'hit song' from this LP is the one called Only Faith and Hope:

Wow if only we had faith and hope today. Try convincing the 'C'est les Tenebres' French students for example.  Try convincing the Brazilians, half of whom just voted to destroy the Amazon forest and our collective human future.  Try convincing anyone anywhere in the world today who thinks electing authoritarians is going to lead to better lives for everyone plus prudent management of our children's future.  There's this thing called 'history' that tells us what happens in those countries.

Note the track called I believe in thee, which not only sounds like Marvin Gaye but uses the modulated into minor key bridge trick he employed so masterfully for What's Goin' On, and Mercy, Mercy:

It's not progressive, but I love this kind of soulful songwriting, having grown up with it of course.

Care of the Cow's Dogs' Ears are Stupid from 1983, cassette

 

I posted their wonderful, wonderful 1981 album (I still don't know your style) long ago here (10 years ago!), now this, the follow-up from 1983, is finally available.  Since we're further into the 1980s we wouldn't expect too much crazy RIO prog and indeed we don't get a lot of it at all, despite the fact the band name references progmasters Henry Cow.

A track called Cemetery is quite representative:

There are not a lot of songs that really remain memorable after first listen unfortunately, not like the 1981 one.  Some reggae, some straight up songs, a lot of silliness of course.  Needed for completeness though.

Back to Nirgal Vallis with El Orfebre from 1991

 

I was searching for this one since way back when, here, when the first album from this group was posted.  The discogs info is on this page.  This second album is cassette only, so god bless the ripper from the bottom of my heart. Style is classic Mexican acoustic symphonic prog, so it will appeal to many many folks.

First track, called Entre las Cinco y las Seis:

It's quite surprising that this came out in the late year of 1991, it sounds very much a part of the late seventies sound.  Another nice track called Crisis starts with a muted-string bass riff, then builds up really nicely with modulations and the gradual addition of other instruments to an electric finale:

Altogether, this album is a bit more new agey, laidback, less energetic, and folk-derived than the recently posted album Tirelli's Profeta, but relatively similar, especially when compared to the next few posts coming this week which will be all over the map.

For those ever curious like me, the word orfebre means goldsmith.

Catching up with Mezzoforte (with unreleased material)

 

Recall I posted their first couple of LPs here.  This one fits with those as it includes earlier material that was unreleased.  It's databased here, and I should've added it to the earlier post before giving up on this band.  But better late than never, as we say.

Note the following:

This compilation was released after Mezzoforte gained popularity in UK and Europe with the track 'Garden Party' from the album Surprise Surprise (relased in 1982).

Tracks were taken from previous albums, Í hakanum (or Octopus) and Þvílíkt og annað eins.

Tracks 'Eftirsjá / Octopus', 'Með mátulega hóflegri bjartsýni / Modestly Optimistic', and 'Greiðið Afnotagjöldin / Pay Your License' were omitted.

Check out in particular the nice, almost Finnforest sound of a composition called Sweet Nothings:

I'll take a break again until Monday with a lot more beautiful lost music...  Believe it or not, a lot more great stuff to hear.

VA: Dani Jugoslovenske Zabavne Muzike JRT - Opatija '78 - Orkestralna Izvedba - wav LP rip

 

A mixture of easy orchestral, silly generic 'schlager,' trad. jazz, and fusion, databased here.  Some standout tracks, mixed composers.  I suppose you could go so far as to say the music is all over the place.  From google:

The term Opatija records most commonly refers to historical music recordings from the famous Opatija Festival (Festival Opatija), a major annual pop, rock, and chanson music festival held in Opatija, Yugoslavia (now Croatia) from the 1960s through the 1980s.

Unfort. discogs doesn't have a general "Opatija" page where the annual releases are listed.  Although this '79 LP is well known among the prog cognoscenti (with Soncna Pot, Den za Den, etc.).

Tracklist with composers (for what it's worth):

A1 Baj, Baj (S. Ilić, Z. Skerl)

A2 Zbog Jedne Davne Melodije (M. Prohaska)

A3 Mili (N. Kalogjera)

A4 Gledam Tvoje Oči (S. Kajtazi, V. Simić)

A5 Ne Mogu Sakriti Svoju Bol (A. Stefanović, S. Vujović)

A6 Okrečem Listove Kalandera (D. Dukić)

A7 Človek, Ki Ga Ni (J. Robežnik)

B1 Vozi Me Vlak V Daljave (J. Privšek)

B2 Jednom U Gradu Tko Zna Kom (A. Vlatković, B. Adamič)

B3 Ako Sada Odeš (S. Mihaljinec)

B4 U Nedelju Ane (A.Kobiljo, L. Kuntarić)

B5 Eden Bakneš  (A. Džakonovski, P. Pešev)

B6 Moma Primorkinja (B. Zenović)

B7 Na Deževen Dan (J. Privšek, J. Robežnik)

The second track is without a doubt the highlight, being inventive fusion:

Back to Uli Harmssen and Jochen Voss with their first album Mother Nature from 1986, Father Harmony, FLAC limited time only

 

Posted the second one here, back in 2016, a decade ago.  Information on this release here.

Voss is a saxophonist, his page.  Uli Harmssen the keyboardist was in Thirsty Moon, I don't recall if they were good versus just ordinary krautrock, probably the latter given it didn't stick in my memory.

Anyways, put the two of them together, and you get some very laid back highly professionally played acoustic music, cross between new age and contemporary jazz-- good for sedation perhaps?

First track, Closed Eyes:

The requested 2025 Runaway Totem feat. Andromaca: Metaphorm Tetraphirm

 

Information here.  Runaway Totem:

Italian progressive Zeuhl rock band. Founded in Riva del Garda, Italy in 1988.

Amazingly this is the 16th release from them, at least acc. to discogs.  This is over a continuous career spanning 38 years though-- if this can be believed!  Surely a record for this blog.

To my ears however, not having listened to it all yet, this latest from them, from 2025, sounds more like psych - electronic than fusion / zeuhl.

Many, many thanks again to the person who generously contributed this...

Cam's Shearer Delight, from Canada 1981

 

Profile:

Cameron Shearer

- Canadian musician (keyboards) Producer and engineer.

- Engineered at Master's Workshop. Rexdale Ontario, Canada

- Winner of Academy Award 1998 - Scientific and Technical Award (Scientific and Engineering Award). To Cameron Shearer, Robert Predovich, John Scott, Mohamed Ken T. Husain for the design and implementation of the Soundmaster Integrated Operations Nucleus operating environment.

- Product Manager, Yamaha

This is his only album, from 1981. Note the similarity of the track titles.

There is a lot of the generic electronic music, eg circus music, polkas, drivel like that. However at least half the tracks are really impressively well composed, for ex., the Mystery of the Woman:

And Power of the Air really shows off his musical education:

Hugely enjoyable (in parts), and oh so rare!

Dutch composer Rogier von Otterloo: Telepathy, Visions, On the Move (1973 to 1975)

 

Note the cigar in his mouth on the last cover photo, and cigarette in his hand on the top one -- he passed away in his 40s of mesothelioma (a type of lung cancer).

First of all I'm going to state, I'm shocked there is still so much amazing music to be discovered from this time period: original, creative, progressive.  And these are perfect examples, which is why I've ramped up the posting to several times a week, to go through my backlog of beautiful music. 

The important thing to understand is that not just in English countries but all over the world there was a hugely fertile feeling for musical composition in those years wherein everything came together perfectly (jazz, rock, classical), and this is where exploring lesser known countries' artists becomes so fruitful, as in this case, where we have a guy who's basically the Dutch Morricone, known primarily as a soundtrack composer in his country.

As usual the brief discogs bio to open:

Pianist, composer, arranger and conductor, born 11 December 1941 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, died 29 January 1988 in Bilthoven, Netherlands. Son of Willem Van Otterloo, father of composer, arranger, saxophonist and conductor Thijs van Otterloo. Probably best known as film music composer for Paul Verhoeven-directed movies Turks Fruit / Turkish Delight (1973) and Soldaat van Oranje / Soldier of Orange (1977). Van Otterloo was Chief Conductor of the Metropole Orkest from September 1st 1980 until his death in 1988.

So as was so common in that decade, in the middle of the 1970s he made these 2 brilliant LPs, all-self-composed, no standards, no filler, no cover versions, called Visions (1974) and On the Move (1975), that I daresay are probably forgotten not just everywhere in the world, but also in his own country. (I'm also going to guess they did poorly commercially, compared to the easy listening LPs full of Beatles and Bacharach hits.) These mix on a basis of orchestral easy listening a bunch of incredible ideas ranging from classical to fusion, maybe a little similar to Peter Wolf's 1980 masterpiece posted here, except that this music has its basis in classical orchestra, versus fusion / jazz.  

Probably the best composition (out of many that stand out) from the former album is 2 of a Kind:

The harmonica is played, obviously, by Toots Thielemans (who else?).  In that piece the original chord changes Rogier came up with are the really amazing aspect.

While from the 1975 On the Move, a track that really stands out is Alfie's Lullaby (his son, not the movie with Michael Caine):

From the 1973 album with pianist Louis van Dyke the track called Moment Supreme is absolutely mind-blowing in its beauty, to me:

This one really reminds me of my old fave Claus Ogerman, esp. in the concerto-like interplay between piano and orchestral passages that echo each other, and the gentle chord structures playing melodies.

One more thing to add, I listened to the 3-CD 'Collected Works' from 2003, and it's absolutely criminal that barely a couple of these masterpiece tracks appeared on there, versus his more generic soundtrack material such as Soldat von Oranje.

Closely examining his discography, you can observe that the majority of his albums are easy listening orchestral LPs almost entirely consisting of cover versions (done presumably to pay the bills), but note also this original composition, the only one, from the 1973 Nuages album, called Sagitta featuring the transcendentally beautiful Rhodes piano sound (here played by Rob Franken):

Surely we all agree it's brilliant?  

Again, that one was left off the Collected Works-- can you imagine??