Gene Harris, Part 2: 1976 In a Special Way, 1977 Tone Tantrum, 1982 Hot Lips

 

For myself his best album is 1976's In a Special Way, with features the intensely emotional and very European fusion sounding Soft Cycles (plus a whole ton of other goodies):

From 1977's slightly more disappointing Tone Tantrum, Cristo Redentor:

As one might have expected, 1982's Hot Lips is no longer fusion and just commercial simple funk soul.

Note that someone requested his 1984 album Nature's Way which I was not able to find-- anyone have it perchance?

Blue Denim Deals without the Arms - Armed Forces Day [1979], By Request

 

Definitely an experimental mish mash of improvisation and just sounds, plus, of course, polka.

Information discogged here for the band, for the LP.

All pieces are improvisations. Recorded Summer 1977 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA.

First track, Armature:

Gene Harris, Part 1: 1974 Astral Signal, 1975 Nexus

 

Quite a huge and extensive discography, especially when you check out the bands he played with, principally The Three Sounds here.  For himself alone, the description:

American jazz pianist and keyboard player -- born 1 September 1933 in Benton Harbor, Michigan, USA

-- died 16 January 2000 in Boise, Idaho, USA.

The music is quite light and approachable, enjoyable fusion / melodic soul jazz, all or mostly instrumental, with little intensity, a lot of groove and keyboarding (I mean that in comparison to Chick Corea's Romantic Warrior, for ex.).

From 1974's Astralsignal, Summer (the first time):

From 1975's Nexus, Sauda:

Note that someone requested his 1984 album Nature's Way which I was not able to find-- anyone have it perchance?

Joel Horwitz with The Planets, recorded 1978, By Request

 

Minimal information on this one here on discogs.  Seems to have been recorded in 1978 which makes sense based on the quality of the music.  Very interesting find though, and beautifully played too.

I have to apologize first off because the tracks all run into each other, but because of my acquired attention deficit I won't listen to a 20 minute long rip without fast forward, so I split the individual pieces up, sometimes not quite successfully at the joins or transitions.

A2, Sol: present a great introduction to the rest of the work, which to be honest is quite similar to the scifi atmosphere of Cybernation Dark Plane:

Track B2's Jupiter, with vocals, really knocks it out of the prog ballpark (wherever that ballpark may be but it's for sure not crowded in the stands):

B4's Uranus is quite lovely with its incandescent, synthy shimmering chord changes, reminding me of my fave Alan Hawkshaw at his greatest:

As usual we must mourn the demotion of poor Pluto, who is no longer considered a bona fide planet. (There are too many similar sized bodies occuping the same orbit as him.)

Thanks so much to OC for requesting this treasure and I hope everyone out there is able to enjoy it, in his words:

Activate heat shields, there's a cosmic UFO on the radar!
This is a real interstellar trip :)
...a full eclipse for the ears as we are treated to this rare planetary alignment! By the time we reach 'Earth And Moon',
it's full lightspeed>>>>call in the droids, check the star-charts,
is that the Intergalactic Touring Band over there on the dark side of the moon?
We pass Phobos and there's a strange-magic lightdream path and then - BAM! holy prog-bomb!! Warrior on the edge of time warpdrive 9 in the MasterShip, a cosmic mud elephant wading through the sea of stardust!>>>>>>>
...having landed in a warm constellation, you know, just beam me up over there, second star from the right, in the hearts of space :)
Endless Thanks for this rare gem of pure cosmos, tinsel-of-genius grooves!!!

Steve Carr and Brent Brace With David Benoit & Luther Hughes - Into The Reeds (LP rip, FLAC limited time)

 

I posted David Benoit earlier here, and I thoroughly enjoyed his light proggy fusion style, similar to so many others reviewedin the past like Neil Larsen, Full Moon, etc. He handles most of the composition here, as was the case of last post's Joe Cool.

Overall information here for this LP.

First track, called Dreams:

By the way, some beautiful surprise rips coming up soon after this one.