International Jazz Consensus - Beak to Beak, 1981

Information with credits for composition can be found on discog's page. 

This band only made the one album, which is for sure in the contemporary jazz genre.

Note the presence of Austrian composer Roidinger who we have encountered I think numerous times before here on this blog (for ex. here and his incredible, brilliantly wonderful computer project here-- if you missed it be sure to have a listen to this composition).

Delphi, a composition by their guitarist John Thomas Williams:

I'll get to his own stuff next.

Danied Bechet's Songs to my Father, 1979

Daniel Bechet, percussionist:

French percussionist born on April 3, 1954 in Paris, France. He has worked with the french artist Laurent Garnier. He is the son of the famous jazzman Sidney Bechet. Also, he is a conductor of Daniel Sidney Bechet Jazz Band and Daniel Bechet Quartet.

I guess this album is the only one he put out under his own name, too bad, because it's really fine and smooth fusion, not progressive really,  more in the easy fusion realm of things. I really love the meditative aspects of Night Clouds:

Oui de Song for another example of his style:

Jose Roberto Bertrami from Azymuth, Blue Wave (1983), Dreams are Real (1986)

 

He was the main composer in the Brazilian band Azymuth featured before. On his own, quite a few additional releases which are highly similar in style, ie smooth instrumental fusion with latin tinges.

The nice composition called Parati:

Brazilian fusion band Azymuth in 3 LPs

Information here.  Very smooth fusion here.

Info:

Brazilian group started out in the early 1970s as Grupo Seleção, a cover band. In 1973 they changed the band's name to Azymuth, inspired by a Marcos & Paulo Sérgio Valle song. (They also backed Marcos Valle on his Previsão Do Tempo album released in 1973.) In 1975 they released their first album, initially titled Azimüth. It featured the hit Linha Do Horizonte. In 1976 they scored another minor hit with Melô Da Cuíca ; Jazz Carnival, taken from the 1979 album Light As A Feather, was another hit, and 1980's Dear Limmertz also became a popular staple. The trio moved to the United States in the early 1980s, producing a number of albums that never came out in Brazil, and placing their bets on a mix of samba, funk and jazz that they defined as MPB-jazz (referring to Música Popular Brasileira). The main composer, keyboardist J. R. Bertrami, left the group in 1988, and was replaced by Jota Moraes [see previous post] and Marinho Boffa, but returned in the middle of the following decade, when the group signed with the label Far Out. After Bertrami died in 2012 keyboardist Kiko Continentino joined drummer Ivan "Mamão" Conti and bassist Alex Malheiros to continue the band.

From 1977, Tarde:

I think Light as a Feather is the best work, from that one, Ave. das Manguieiras:

German band Inquire - The Neck Pillow from 2020

 

A 'recent' band that is already 23 years old now, it's squarely in the German symphonic rock tradition like the old classics Neuschwanstein, Eloy, etc., there's so much in that vein. In my opinion their attempts are worthy but they are not quite as intensely creative and original as the previous posting.

Info here. For me the best track and perhaps most exemplary is the oddly titled Swidwim: