Andrei Eshpai - Instrumental Pieces from 1987 and Не Вспоминай from 1986

From 1986, the outstanding and brilliant American big band vocal jazz stylings of Do not Remember:





It always shocked me how well the Russians copied US jazz and fusion.  This is a great example of how they could craft a song that could've become a hit in the United States-- back in the fifties of course.  By 1986, no one really cared much for this style, I believe.  I love the dialogue between the woman, who presumably is asking the man not to remember what happened, and the chorus. (If anyone could translate the lyrics I'd appreciate it greatly.)

Note that Gurbeloshvili's Prelude reappears here in the b1 position in both albums. I guess it was too great a composition not to recycle, repeatedly.  In fact, it's rewritten for acoustic guitar solo rather than sax for the ending of the 1987 album:





The first side of 1987 is mostly classical music and is of less interest here.

The MPS Variation series: 1977, 1979 and 1981

In 1977, the first side is entirely classical music, and boring material at that, while the second is jazz and at times makes you miss side one, which is quite an achievement.

However, A2's amazing Mangelsdorff with Kuhn is a great matchup:





There is an always unfortunate tendency for Joachim to unleash his inner Niagara Falls on those poor ivories, which is a bit dried up here.  At least he is willing to dialogue with Albert, and, very much unlike my wife, not drown him out with protestations, generalizations, and a significantly louder voice in pure decibel measurement.  Anyways here's the full information for this record.


My favourite piece from the 1981 edition is a really advanced but delightful easy listening orchestral composition that I could listen to all day in the elevator:





Which is the sole reason I wanted to look further into this series or rather franchise.  And such it will remain, for now.

Zbigniew Seifert's Passion, 1972 to 1979

From wiki:

Zbigniew Seifert (7 June 1946 – 15 February 1979) was a Polish jazz violinist.

Seifert was born in Kraków, Poland in 1946. He played alto saxophone early in his career and was strongly influenced by John Coltrane. He devoted himself to jazz violin when he started performing with the Tomasz Stańko Quintet in 1970 and became one of the leading modern jazz violinists before he died of cancer at the age of 32.

Have a look at the discography, note his involvement on some of the most seminal and ingenious progressive fusion albums including Dauner's Kunstkopfindianer, Kriegel's Lift, Kuhn's Cinemascope (and Springfever), Mariano's Helen 12 Trees, all of which everyone reading this should be familiar with.

When I reviewed his sadly shortened output I realized I didn't have some of the albums after I got turned off by the overlengthy Kilimanjaro from 1979 and the blandness of Man of the Light (1977) which is for some reason the most well-known of his works.  In particular this one, called Passion, also released the year of his passing, which perhaps should be regarded as a requiem for him, threw me off the chair, as I love to say.  Once again teaching us that we must attempt to complete these discographies.

His Singing Dunes, a modern composition that equals anything I've ever heard in the European classical canon of concert halls, should be his eulogy:

Which is followed but not eclipsed by the equally brilliant compositions Quo Vadis and Escape from the sun...
It should be mentioned that all the arrangement and composition is handled by Zbiggy.
Btw Chris Hinze has a production credit.

The track Laverne from the bottom LP approaches the masterpiece level of Passion:





Unfortunately I didn't find too much else of note in that record, nor in the others posted, setting aside of course his involvement as guest artist on Oregon's amazing 1978 Violin.  There are probably a couple I missed here too, like this one which scared me off.

A man who was at the top of his game, suddenly cut off from his genius by an unfortunate diagnosis-- truly tragic.

I'll remember Zbiggy, indeed...

More from Sergey Gurbeloshvili in 1991: Sorrow of Summer

Information is here.  As expected we are dealing with American style (acoustic) jazz.  Of course I was hoping for another track like "Prelude" that would hit it out of the ballpark, but unfortunately it's night, long past the eighties even, and the park is padlocked forever... and the sorrow of summer is upon us now.

Track B2:

Beyond Brilliant Brazilian Composer Marco Antonio Araujo, RIP

After hearing the Nuevos Aires, including the stunning first album (remember, it's available on itunes) I was reminded of this artist who is musically very similar-- provided the accordion is excised.

These 4 albums, all he produced solo, I've cherished and listened to hundreds of times. They appeal to me in the most profound way with their perfect mix of classical, jazz, and advanced compositions, all soaked throughout with alternating melancholy and passion.  As I've said so many times before, the three great musical inventions of humanity (rock or pop, jazz, classical) are welded together into a whole that goes far beyond what any individual musical style could achieve on its own.  If only the rest of our species could understand what I mean...

From discogs a brief but revealing bio that ends quite tragically:

Marco Antonio Araujo was born August 28, 1949 in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. On 1968 he played in a band called Vox Populi (15), that later would become Som Imaginario. In 1970 and now living in England, he used to be a fan of bands such as: Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Genesis, who would have great influence on his musical production. Within the next few years, Marco Antonio Araujo studied guitar and cello in Rio de Janeiro. In 1977, once again in Belo Horizonte, he joined the symphonic orchestra and soon (1980) his first album, «Influencias» was released. With only six instrumental tracks, he had already achieved an amazing sense of balance and created a personal style. Marco Antonio Araujo is a classic when it comes to Brazilian prog and also a highly recommended artist for anyone who likes both symphonic rock and prog folk. Marco has passed away on January 6, 1986, in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, at the age of 36 due to a brain aneurysm.

Most of the songs are quite long and I am assuming that his first, Influencias, is well known to everyone, so I won't post a sample.  As well I'll have to take down the links in a bit as they are apparently all CD.

Enjoy this outrageous wealth of music...  For me this was like discovering a treasure chest full of the most beautiful and unique jewels.