Yopie Item and his Combo 2, Live with Idris Sardi 1976

 

This album features some nice fusion with violin by Idris Sardi, whose page is here.  Similar I guess a bit to Didier Lockwood.

A track called Jali-Jali:

Yopie Item and his Combo 1

 

Some very obscure fusion from Indonesia, from this gentleman named Jopy Item.

With his combo he released three cassette only recordings two of which I'll bring to these pages, the first being this one, year unknown.

Here the music is quite commercially accessible and jazzy, with female vocals. Track A5:

Many thanks to the generous and kind ripper for sharing this!

Red Hot Peppers (NZ) in 3

 

In complete contradistinction to the funky alternative rock band of approx. the same name who I used to love in their heyday of the nineties this is folk, acoustic, pop, and ssw in style, and comes from the late seventies New Zealand, with female vocals, for some pleasant but not demanding listening.

Information is here on discogs, as usual.

Stargazing is the title track of their third album:

It's Only a Matter of Taste, from 1979, by request

Only album from this band, Matter of Taste:

Matter Of Taste came from Gemmrigheim (on the river Neckar, north of Stuttgart), Germany. They were part of that proliferation of rock 'n' soul bands from the late 1970's, bordering on pop, with funky edges and (unusually) a very soulful black female lead singer.

The vocal fusion track Break it Up with its suspended chord intro just knocks it out of the ballpark for me:

We've encountered the beautiful instrumental track Berlin before with its very interesting tritonal chord progression, written by keyboardist Uli Buhl, because he was also a member of the Frederic Rabold Crew, a bunch of fine jazz musicians you might recall from back here:

I love how beautiful he has made the city sound on this piece of music.  Bravo. 

Ryojiro Furusawa Group, Spicy Islands 1978

 

I really enjoyed this album, with information here.  It's a one-off from this particular collaboration, led by drummer Ryojiro Furusawa who I don't anything about of course. As usual we don't mind if anyone can elucidate more in terms of what's worth hearing.  Except the album "At the Room 427" which I didn't like as it's free jazz/improvised. And with a percussionist as leader, that doesn't bode well at all.

Sweet Flags in the Mist: