Landress / Hart Group with Dancing Moments, 1981

The only LP they made, of course, this was briefly reviewed already in the old CD reissue wishlist days-- boy has there been an accumulation of masterpieces since Tom shut down and abandoned that site 2 or more years ago like an old coal mine! Does he know? Does he still follow the new mines of gems we've found?  I doubt it, he would have to reopen the CD wishlist and upload some new spreadsheet lists to Santa Claus care of North Pole:

To be honest, like the Projections album listed a couple of days ago, this light fusion album isn't something I would normally publish separately. However, there is scant info on the internet about it, so now there is at least one entry for the album. This might be a good time to remind everyone that obscure does not necessarily mean rare & expensive. For example, the photo provided here came from an expired ebay auction. The final price? $5. Of course, it only takes two people who want something really bad, to get top dollar on ebay.  According to whatever data I could find, Landress / Hart were a Los Angeles based jazz fusion duo (though a full 4 piece group), one on guitar and the other on keyboards. The latter is the usual smattering of period synthesizers and Rhodes piano. It's all rather pleasant, and played to perfection. Mrs. CDRWL joined me for this listening session and thought it to be a very nice instrumental album as well. These guys were definitely pros who deserved more recognition. Recommended for fusion fans.

Incidentally, Mrs. Progressreviews, when she does join me for listening sessions-- a rarity indeed given she spends so much excess time on her 3 jobs (none of which involves homemaking or housework incidentally)-- usually makes the remark "this sounds like every other album you've ever played for me--" followed by the inevitable, "are you sure you're not just collecting the same album over and over again???" and sure enough, that's a pretty good (amateur) review of this LP, so when I explain this is actually a new album so rare I was told not to share it with anyone she usually answers, "don't you have enough records already?" and as I'm trying to find the right answer to that question which does contain some valid points of argument, she'll throw in the classic "when are you going to give up this crazy hobby finally?"  and as I'm about to explain that this is not likely anytime soon, I hear: "at least take off those stupid headphones you can't even hear your kids yelling for you in the basement!" and of course, activating some parental guilt centre deep inside the "reptilian brain" I am forced to stop listening to the collection of music at that point and attend to some screaming kid fighting over his collection of toys...

In fact it's very similar, as the amateur fan will remark, to all those other US light fusion (but not fuzak!) albums I've posted before like Bellvista's great The Painter and Chateau Breakers and the fabulous Franklin Street Arterial album (posted as a comment somewhere or another, can't remember where). In terms of sheer complexity and originality it's not quite at the level of Franklin Street, or my other big fave Clareon, in terms of dynamism not approaching Spaces Border Station, but I love its pleasantness, and as he said, the superb playing.  Tom himself was very amused by the fact that he found a copy on ebay for a few dollars, before posting his review, but that after some years of (over)hype it was selling in the hundreds.  I guess people caught up with reality eventually (as they will with the climate change situation) and now you can buy a copy for only 100 USD, a bit more appropriately I think.

The wonderfully titled Space Kookie gives you a good idea of why my wife thought the album sounds the same as everything I've ever played:





I guess the repetition of all the music we collect here is almost as bad as the repetition of all her jokes.  But I don't dare tell her that, for obvious reasons.  And I'll surely be in a lot of trouble if she reads today's post, which is as unlikely as the raccoon living in my garage jumping on board the next virgin galactic space flight.

Gary and Stu's ssw-folk 1971 Harlan Fare

Here's a complete change in direction again with a folk and singer-songwriter album in the typical late 60s early 70s style complete with acoustic guitars and some lush but tasteful orchestral makeup as was always applied in those days. Full names of the two artists involved are Gary Sulsh and Stuart Leathwood.  The former also performed in a band called Harlan County which made two albums in those days.  Confusingly this is almost the same as American Jim Ford's 1969 album Harlan Country, or maybe they just borrowed a lot from Ford.  I really don't care-- do you, as Melania would say, since the latter is so generically uninteresting.

The big highlight is the stunningly gorgeous single about a ship called Good Lady Fair:





As usual, I have to wonder if this miracle of songwriting got the credit it deserved back then.  And if not, why it couldn't become a hit on radio today to replace the usual idiotic playlist including Elton John's Candle in the Wind, etc.  Elements that make it a strong no. 1 hit: the slightly childish 'dada-dada' intro hook moving up in whole tones, the simple chords based on variations of 1-4-5, the expressiveness of the chorus sung in its high register and the way that section ends in A minor for a sustained note, creating an unresolved tension until we return to the wordless intro hook, and then of course the subject matter of the song similar to David Crosby's fantastic Wooden Ships about the freedom of sailing away, presumably to a better place.

Luckily it's not the only good song on this album, though certainly it's the only brilliant one.

Aussie Renee Geyer and SUN

From Wikipedia:

Websitewww.reneegeyer.com.au

Renée Rebecca Geyer[1][2] (born 11 September 1953)[3] is an Australian singer who has long been regarded as one of the finest exponents of jazz, soul and R&B idioms.[3][4][5] She had commercial success as a solo artist in Australia, with "It's a Man's Man's World", "Heading in the Right Direction" and "Stares and Whispers" in the 1970s and "Say I Love You" in the 1980s.[6][7] Geyer has also been an internationally respected and sought-after backing vocalist, whose session credits include work with Sting,[3] Chaka Khan, Toni Childs and Joe Cocker.[4][7][8]

In 2000, her autobiography, Confessions of a Difficult Woman, co-written with music journalist Ed Nimmervoll, was published.[3][9] In her candid book, Geyer detailed her drug addictions, sex life and career in music.[10] She described herself as "a white Hungarian Jew from Australia sounding like a 65-year-old black man from Alabama".[9][11][12] She spent more than ten years based in the United States but had little chart success there.[4] Geyer returned to Australia in the mid-1990s and her career has continued into the 21st century with her 2003 album, Tenderland, which peaked at #11 on the ARIA albums charts.

In her early days she made a semi-prog album whose artist name was Sun (1972).  Subsequently she made a string of interesting albums in the 70s period which starting in the ssw tradition with a ton of cover versions moved on to the more natural bluesy pop style she was clearly most adept at.  Her best work without a doubt under the moniker of "Renee Geyer Band" was Ready to Deal (1975), to me, really a masterpiece of excellent songwriting with the influence of progressive, interesting and original songwriting in evidence everywhere and throughout.  Her big radio hit the 'famous' Heading in the Right Direction, a classic 70s song I'm sure no one has heard here, actually has its own wikipedia page!  (Incidentally, at Xmas time they usually solicit donations there and because I use them, though I will never admit it, constantly at work for quick reference, I always donate quite a bit of money.  It's still free and it's still amazing and I hope, truly, it never ends.)

The last track of SUN:





From Ready to Deal:





Here you can see how a relatively conventional funk-blues composition has been beautified with some interesting chords and a highly unusual bridge.  Well done-- the kind of crafty pop gem rarely heard today.

Olli Ahvenlahti, in 1981 with Based on a Novel, plus the others

This pianist who I mentioned in connection with Jazz-Liisa is well known for his mid-70s ECM-like fusion albums The Poet (1976) and Bandstand (1975), but this 1981 release I felt was his best with its interesting depth and the wide range of its emotions and it's much less known.  So here it is.

From discogs:

Born 6 August 1949, Olli Ahvenlahti, a pianist, composer, and conductor, has been one of the leading Finnish Jazz artists since the 70s. He has recorded with several artists and groups, like UMO Jazz Orchestra.

Actually he also appeared in Unisono, Jukka Hauru and Superkings (remember?), Mircea Stan Quintet (from the Jazz-Liisa collection), and The Group, the famous Pekka Pohjola project.  (Hey I forgot about Pohjola, the best of all Finnish composers, in connection with the Pop-Liisa / Jazz-Liisa.)

The sweet composition of Chorale:





And the phenomenal title track:





Note the expressiveness of the theme played on bass flute (by our beloved Aaltonen!).  A beautiful novel indeed, dark and tragic but full of heart.

Finally, the next album after this one is a vocal slightly pop inflected album with presumably lyrics by the great writer and Nobel prizewinner (along with Bob Dylan) Hermann Hesse.  I include it for 'completeness' sake.

More from the KOM group (i.e. Kom-Teatteri) from 1973 to 1979

I spoke too soon when I said there was no more from the Kom Quartet.  Lucky for all of us.

Kom was / is a theatre in Helsinki, apparently still open to this day.  Amazingly, our beloved maniac Jukka Hauru performed on some of these records (specifically, the 74, 75 & 77) and for this reason alone they are supremely interesting.  Recall Eero Ojanen, the other part of the Kom Quartet on Jazz-Liisa-- he was involved as composer in residence (among others) during this period.  Here in this post we have the 1973 Torpedo, then 1974, 1975, 1977 (with Agit Prop) and 1979 albums from them.  (For reference, the Jazz-Liisa recording was made in 1975).

The first album I have for you from 1973 called Torpedo is a silly mix of chanted tangos and political folk in the usual simplistic tradition of these compositions here written mostly by one Kaj Chydenius, thank god this genre died an early death (except of course in Germany).  I can only imagine what infantile drivel they are singing about-- and I certainly can't fathom why tangos would be an appropriate vehicle for political commentary.  Too bad the cops didn't shut down the theatre at that time, for inciting revolution with excessive mediocrity.  However, you instantly notice the compositions by Eero Ojanen as they shine through with a very clear and gentle light, unfortunately there are only 2 of those.  Still, they are not even good enough to show internet archive as samples.

The 1974 album continues on with the Brechtian tangos and political chants but augmented with the curious and herein puzzling addition of Jukka Hauru, with Eero on the piano and augmented as well with a lot of spoken passages and 'comedy' bits-- lucky audience!  From discogs:

A (theatrical) tribute to the Chilean folk singer Victor Jara, murdered by the military forces at Chile Stadium, Santiago on September 16, 1973 during the violent aftermath of a coup d'etat. 
Song B4 is partially based on Victor Jara's song Plegaria a un labrador [Finnish: Maamiehen rukous]. All the songs are included in Matti Rossi's published collection of poems "Soi kivinen lanka."

So in this case, I should take back what I declared earlier, perhaps the words are worth listening to.  Luckily, I don't understand Finnish.  Musically though we can't help but be disappointed if we are here occupying ourselves 99% with a progressive music blog so again there is virtually nothing to sample out for you and the internet archive.  As an aside, I recommend reading about the subject of the dictatorship of Pinochet (helped into power by the Nixon administration) in those awful days in Chile as an instructive example of a classic authoritarian government, its tragic history including the suffering of its people, and its disastrous economic consequences-- for the citizens that is, not the people in power.  They always do very well financially.

Finally in 1975 Jukka Hauru comes to the fore in the mix and is given compositional rights, whilst his friend Eero Ojanen pulls out an electric, not acoustic piano.  Here just like with the Jazz-Liisa Kom Quartet, every track can be sampled for you so I'll just play track 1 wherein from the first delectable Jukka guitar lick you know you're in for something special:





It's more than a little shocking to me that such a well-known progressive fusioneer should have unknown music sitting out there, unknown until now, until this very day, for the vast majority of us fans.  This is slightly tempered by the fact that half the album, or three of the songs appear (though in significantly different forms) on the Jazz-Liisa.

Moving on to 1977's LP the Kom assembly joins forces with political puppets Agit Prop (who I have always hated) but they continue beautifully with the fusion sounds, it's not clear to me whether or not Jukka is on this one but it sure sounds like he is.  Maybe someone can tell us who has compositional credits.  It's phenomenal from start to finish, it cohesively unites as a whole work / electric symphony or chorale of fusion augmented with the vocals on every track and I expect to spend hours enjoying it to the total dismay of my wife and kids:





Well, my usual comments apply, why is this work not performed at the local symphony halls all over N. America or Europe instead of the same tired old canon of ancient European composers?  And every time I make the mistake of attending one of those concerts and look around I'm dismayed by the fact that in 20 years their audience will all be dead.  I'm reminded of that time I saw a 75 year old man at intermission open a bunch of those tiny half ounce 2% milk containers for pouring into coffee and drink them one after the other, so happy he got a free room temperature cup of milk, as bystanders laughed and stared, completely oblivious to the theatricality of his own senile idiocy. So to me that's a classic classical music fan.

Finally by 1979 Jukka is out, kicked out presumably for being too musically brilliant, and the simplicity of Chydenius and his dumb tangos is back in.  There are even cover versions of Brecht-Weill songs (from the tired old threepenny opera!!)--  they couldn't come up with enough compositions to fill up an album.  We have a complete reversion or rather relapse back into the unintelligent political rock style in its most childish form, as if fusion had never happened.  A metaphor for the whole of human existence surely, the rise and fall of all human activities, a curve that we are set to follow as a whole, as a species, in all inevitability.


But at least we have two brilliant masterpieces more to explore, thanks to this crazy guy: