The compleat Allegro Jazz Ensemble, 1980 to 1986: Contrasts, In This World, Golden Mean, and Sphinx

Very similar to the Boomerang albums from before, this large fusion ensemble produced 4 records featuring long tracks with overlong improvisation and less chamber music than one would expect considering the country of origin.  Of course there is always the classical influence here and there, but not to the same degree as for example Jazz Celula or any other Eastern EU fusion outfit.

Most of the tracks are too big to load up for free listening, but here's a lovely little composition full of interesting fusion textures from the second album, specifically it's In This World's Movement III:





From the first, the Concertino II:





More Russian music to come, for our friends in the white house.

Francis Monkman's missing album Dweller on the Threshold from 1981 [temporary only]

I guess I wasn't as complete as I thought in the Monkman catalogue, suddenly there appeared this release from 1981.  And as you know we here believe in completeness, given that there can be such surprises when you follow like an ant the scent trail of these wonderfully inventive artists who had such progressive potential within them from the very start, think my favourite, Orexis and Georg Lawall...

It's a bit shocking to see the level of star involvement in the musicians' list here, with (on some tracks) Ironton, Darryl Way on violin, Andy Latimer on bass, Bryan Ferry, Michael Giles (originally in KC of course) on drums.

A far-too positive review appears on progressor (first paragraph):

A solo album of the well-known multi-instrumentalist (Curved Air, 801, Sky), one of those underestimated works of the early 80s, the darkest time in the whole history of progressive, a time of the reign of the punk and disco stuff. The contributors also include such famous people as Andy Latimer of Camel and Julia Rathbone - a permanent female singer for Monkman's solo. Also, on Monkman's latest album of 1998 the lead vocals are from the two of them (by the way, their voices haven't changed for all those years: a kind of severe vocal from Maestro himself and a light, dramatic Julia's voice). As it is the case with the most progressive performers at the time, Monkman did add the modern electric sound. However, contrary to the prog musicians that turned to that path, the bright, fashionable synth flashes and accentuated rhythm guitar riffs here don't disappoint, quite conversely, they bring forward openly progressive themes and arrangements.


Best track is b3's The Glamour Of Magnetic Attraction Pulu Pshu with its really oddball melody, though the background 'throbbing' (to use the mandatory word in music reviews) rhythm section is a little too derivative (80s copycat) for my tastes.





I was really puzzled over the overall theme which makes this evidently a concept album, I thought maybe commissioned for a ballet or something, until I noticed some scans of liner notes on ebay and realized there is an insert here, on the record cover, which explains the thought processes.
Odd then that it ends with the christian psalm 23 (The Lord is my Shepherd).

From 'Ponder on This' a compilation from the writings of Alex Bailey and the Tibetan Master Djuchal Khul, reproduced by kind permission of the Lucas Trust.

Humanity is the Disciple-- the Time is Now

The Dalai Lama joins Duran Duran-- interesting.

More lovely Gianni Sposito with two late 80s soundtracks [temporary only]

If it can be believed, there is even better music from him waiting to be discovered, this one was hiding under an anglicized version of his name, as John Sposito-- pretty tricky...  Two libraries have been presented so far, Denebola and Cosmo Graffiti, with lots more priced out of arm's reach at least for the moment.

So, clearly you can see in the credits tracks 1 to 5 were from the former movie (in the above title) and tracks 6 to 13 from the latter, all composed and arranged by Sposito.  Adding together the times for the first handful reveals the obvious fact half of the original OST LP is missing, presumably the orchestral fillers or pop songs?  It would be nice to know if there weren't some treasures left out, though it seems the composer had a hand in this CD Remaster.

Let's hear the theme, the first magnificent track:





Pretty amazing and advanced compositional mastery here I think you'll agree.  And the fifth track (Pamela Loredana), the last drawn from this first movie, is also stunning, recalling all the wonderful and most beautiful library keyboard compositions of the past masters such as Rocchi, Tallino, Fusco, or one I haven't featured whom I dearly love, Persichetti.

Turning our attention now to that great database imdb, we can see the storyline of the first movie:

After a car incident, in which he lost his wife, a musician remains paralytic on a wheelchair. He retires in a lonely villa. Incidentally together with him in the villa there are also a bisexual, a lesbian and a vicious kid. The lascivious atmosphere drives all the protagonists into depraved games. But the pain for the loss couldn't be medicated.  

So many many Euro-movies were made of the same (lazy) plot: Decameron-like isolation in a beautifully set villa in the countryside leads to, for some reason, only nubile women wandering around naked among old men who, after reciting poetry, get their pick of the genitalia on offer...  Incidentally one that really stuck in my mind for my whole life, due to its outrageously sadistic treatment of the same theme, is Pasolino's movie Salo or 120 Days of Sodom wherein the setting instead is fascist Italy (I see from wikipedia it was "the 65th scariest film ever made [according to] the Chicago Film Critics Association in 2006").

Moving on to the next movie, as you can tell from the poster a horror movie, another style like softcore porn at which the Italians really excelled, recalling the Romans and their circuses, I think the exigencies of the genre unfortunately led to a simplification of the music-- definitely this is not at Goblin level (I guess, few are).

A family of 4 makes a long drive to Aunt Martha's house to visit her for the first time in years.  Only she isn't there.  Just the caretaker and his message that she will appear the next day... if they survive the night.  And survive Death Doomed:







(Incidentally on the CD the year 1987 appears, in the imdb it's 1988)

Nuevos Aires from Buenos Aires

Here is another stunning lost discovery recently unearthed to my total surprise from a friend in Brazil, who has added all the information to be found below.   Stylistically, this greatly resembles the recent Membrillar I posted, or perhaps Virgilio's Jamin from long ago.  A full discography of the band is present on their guitarist Fernando Egozcue's web page, where more recent music is available for purchase.  Oddly enough he has changed the wonderful cover of the first record there, the gorgeous 19th century woodcut style surrealistic original can be seen here.

From my friend:

Nuevos Aires were a fusion of Tango, Rock and Jazz: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tango_music

Spanish language has lots more info: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tango#Melod.C3.ADa

The name of the first album [i.e. music from the city of new airs], that is the only album released in a cd edition [in fact it's even available for purchase on itunes] is from 1983 just before the Malvinas/Falklands war and the end of the dictatorship and the political persecutions.  Hence the "new airs," with a play of course on the Argentinian city of Buenos Aires.

The second album is the one here, and it's a ST.  First here are the tracks along with compositional credits and some notes:

Lado (side) A:

Viejos Aires (Egozcue) (the opposite of the group name old/new air, that's why its in capitals too, an allusion to the city of Buenos Aires)
Tema para Tortuga (MÈndez) (theme to Tortuga [island?])
Agua y Vino (Egozcue) (water and wine)
Primavera de un martes (MÈndez) (Spring [season] of a Tuesday or, perhaps, A Tuesday's Spring)
Los Mudos (Egozcue) (the mutes)

Lado B:

El sussurro de la luna (MÈndez) (the whisper of the moon)
Cupa (Egozcue)  (I don't know if it is the meaning of the name of the song Cupa, but the only Spanish explanation I've found was the top of a funerary monument)
Luna de luz de mercurio (Infancia) (MÈndez) (moon of a mercury light (childhood))
Fresco y dulce (Egozcue) (Fresh and Sweet)
Morder en el alma (MÈndez) (To bite in the Soul)

The Group is:
Claudio Mendez: piano and keyboards.
Andy Aegerter: drums and perc.
Fernando Egozcue: ac. and electric guitars
Pablo Sanchez: ac. and electric basses

Musicos invitados (guest musicians):
Daniel Binelli: bandoneón [The traditional Tango instrument, teamed with violin and piano, or at least an acoustic bass]. In certain groups the accordion (with keys) replaces the bandoneón and the piano.
Marcelo Moguilevsky: tenor sax
Cacho Tejera: congas

Producido por Litto Nebbia y Nuevos Aires
Grabado en estudio del Nuevo Mundo, enero de 1989 (recorded January 89)
Discos Melopea DMGN 002

Track one, the old aires:

Note the involvement of Litto Nebbia, who made a quintessential masterpiece of sung prog, but only one as far as I know, in his "seller of promises."

As I said, the first album is available on itunes for purchase, while the third, 1990 album, from this side of the world, we know nothing about it and I would love to get my hands on a copy to rip...
Please contact me if you want to sell a copy.

Wally Shorts' Turquoise, early 80s (?)

Probably one of my favourite keyboards album of all time, although the mysterious Wally Shorts plays flute on this all-instrumental dreamlike escapade from the Netherlands.  In some respects this is typical of a lot of other albums from the same country, some of which I've featured before here or here. Really scarce information, undoubtedly some reader will help, so for now I'll focus on the music.

Particularly celestial are the digital strings in the background of the title track, but using an acoustic bass soloing as well as a guitar improvising on the other channel to complement the flute's sustained notes which hold it all together in the middle, is without a doubt unique.  Then, another quieter flute adds texture on the guitar side later on:





You really feel like you're floating on a cloud on a beautiful day, perfect for the time of year.  It's that kind of textural feel that is totally missing from any music from any other period, setting aside modern classical music which is anyways lacking in the electronic instrument dimension.

In the next track, Carousel of Love, a relatively simple 1-2 chord change provides more substrate for the utter beauty of the flute melody:





And I promise you'll find several other great gemstones and sparkling colours in here.  As a whole it reminds me of another big favourite, Bjorn J-son Lindh's (only, in my opinion) compositional masterpiece called Bike Voyage II.  Everything comes together with strong songwriting, beauty a plenty, and a kind of musical consensus going all in the right direction.  (Which was fated to end so abruptly when the seventies page turned over to the eighties.)