George Jinda's 1976 fusionary masterpiece The Wheel of Love

 

A few French posts, starting with this beautiful classic of gallic fusion which to my eyes / ears is highly underrated and neglected.

George Jinda:

Hungarian percussionist, born in Budapest, Hungary, passed away January 11, 2002

He was in the wonderful early French fusion band Speed Limit, along with keyboardist Jean-Louis Bucchi who reappears here.  Jean-Louis was posted on this blog before with his library LP, Reportages.  He made the gorgeous Sunflower in 1978, one of the touchstones for me of advanced French progressive music. 

His Nostalgia composition for this LP is equally amazing, and he is responsible for contributing 4 tracks to this release:

The way his musical mind works in that composition just awes me totally, the originality and beauty of it.

American Vogue, which was written by bassist Didier Batard, who will show up again shortly:

Absolution, which was written by beloved sax player Jeff / Yoch'ko Seffer (who appeared many times on this blog, most recently back here):

Apart from these contributors, there are 3 tracks here which were written by Jinda himself.

Kazimierz Jonkisz Quintet in 1980's Tiritaka

 

I found this nice Polish fusion album from 1980 in connection with String Connection, who were posted back here.  Information on this one on this page.

Sample track, Tuohitorvi:

Szakcsi - Sa-Chi, 1988

Pianist who was also in Saturnus, this is a lovely synthesizer / keyboard album from 1988 with a lot of nice sounds and melancholy moods.

The attractive Ria:

And hopefully you'll agree that the shimmering synth chords under the tinkling high-treble grand piano melody is really atmospherically gorgeous, almost soundtrack-like of course, in Orange and Black:

The Sounds Of Synanon / The Synanon Choir – The Prince Of Peace: A Rock-Jazz Cantata [1969] by request, FLAC limited time only

 

As discogs indicates, this group is a:

Group connected to the drug rehabilitation program.

Wikipedia entry here, where it's described as a cult and a typical one at that, with the usual child abuse, forcible confinement, ridiculous messianic leader and gradual descent into violence as the group believes it's above the law.  Amazing how common the story was and still is, and to this day there are countless such cults in existence all over the world I'm sure.

With LP Notes:

Rush released by Epic Records the soundtrack of the color television special "The'Prince of Peace" to coincide with the show's national premiere on the Metromedia Network on Sunday, June 8, 1969.

Unfortunately I would say the music is very straightforward jazz-rock composing, similar to the style in the 1960s of jazz operas.  Sample, Quiet Sky:

Note that the music was composed by someone called Greg Dykes.

Iconoclasta - Concierto Anniversario, 35 years (2022) with FLAC limited time only

 

Likely everyone knows these Mexican (instrumental, electric guitar-based) prog rockers who began in the 1980s, discographed here.  This request is a live 2-CD from 2022, we're looking as well for later releases Alter Ego (2023) and Orden in Caos (2025) (the latest releases that is).

Sample track, during which you'll notice the excellent recording quality, La Etica del Verdugo: