German (Not Czech) Naima in Morning Part One (1980) and Family Walk (1981)

Naima or Naima New Jazz Quartet, from discogs:

German fusion combo that sound like a Latin-flavoured Toto Blanke cum Contact Trio mix.

I'm not so sure that comparison is quite apt since these guys are not as progressive / free jazz as either of those two outfits, being more like their Czech counterpart posted earlier, perhaps more acoustically inclined.

From the get-go, you get a sweet breezy feeling brought about by the addition of vibes to keys and electric guitars in all-instrumental compositions.  Throughout, the rhythm section keeps things nicely pumping to provide a level of energy you only got back in this period in time, before jazz reverted to acoustic instruments in the 80s.  A nice exemplar would be the title track Morning Part One:





And that's not even the best track here.  Vibraphonist (and principal composer) is Jochen Schmidt.  (Later on he performed on a highly recommended album called Axel Petry Quartett - Discover, this one.  Strong recommendation.  And not expensive.)  The variety is the other aspect, so typical of European jazz, which I love.  As usual we get delicate and tender slow pieces with in this case a flute melodying, on the Wind Song; improvisations are not too long, compositions show a great deal of originality, a slight classical influence pervades, i.e. we get all the best of Euro-jazz.

For their next album, in which they shortened their name considerably, the composers were totally different, and perhaps accordingly it was not quite as impressive.  Songwriting duties were mostly handled by a certain Ernst Schmidt-Breitbach who you can see doesn't appear elsewhere; even though Jochen is still present on vibes, he seems to have run out of ideas, sadly.

Perhaps the best track is the final one called Life Like, though there could be here substance for debate:





Sounding very much like any generic vibes plus electric guitar jazz track of which we've heard so many in these years: 5 years really, 3 posts per week, already 700+ albums...
or to use my wife's favourite comment: this sounds like everything else you've ever played before...
Well, I married her partly for her sense of humour so I can't complain, can I...

Naima Live Session in 1990 [review only]

A comment from a user asked about the quality of this one of which I was unaware and I was intrigued since of course the ones we posted were from the same years, approximately. And indeed we get once again the beautiful European marriage of classical music and fusion that we always expect from the wonderful EU melting pot long before Britain so rudely decided to brexit.  Consider The Special Light:





And wait till you get to the last track-- a tour de force in truth for modern chamber fusionary composition.  Unfortunately preceding that one there are a couple of throwaway jazz standards or songs in the conventional 'swing' instrumental jazzy style that for most of us is so utterly yawn-provoking.  But these make the final track all the more worth your while.

Given this is a CD I will only have a dl briefly.  And thanks for drawing my attention to this little lost gem.  As a bonus and due to requests I will post a brief trip to planet Ramo too before the powers that be demand it be removed.

Impuls' Naima i and II from Czech by request, 1988 and 1990

This is typical Eastern European fusion-- of the kind we all know and love so much.  For example, from the first album, Monika 3:





And from the second, My Old Friend:





And of course, I dedicate this to my old multilingual friend, generous and dedicated and eternally impelled by the love of beauty, who ripped this record for the benefit of all of us: may you one day finish your search and return to us again...  we all miss you so much...

But in the meantime you have left us with your music and, as the great Greek poem said:

"Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales, awake;
For Death, he taketh all away, but them he cannot take."

VA (Transjazz, Naima, Jan Buchar Quartet, Jakub Venzel) in Jazz Magma from Czech, 1986

This record features the four fusion groups Naima (whose albums I strongly recommend everyone seek out), Jakub Venzel, Jan Buchar Quartet, and Transjazz.

From Naima a wonderful composition called The Call that opens side 2 and that happily does not reappear on their I and II albums from 1988 and 1990: