Norman Connors 1972 Dance of Magic, 1973 Dark of Light, 1974 Love from the Sun, 1975 Slewfoot

 

Some nice classic mid-seventies fusion, I was surprised I never heard this artist before, despite obviously the stellar involvement of Herbie Hancock, Stanley Clarke, Eddie Henderson, etc.  Here are the first 4 albums.

Brief bio:

American jazz drummer, composer, arranger, producer, and artist.

Born: 1 March 1947 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Connors was born and raised in Philadelphia, having an interest in jazz from an early age when he began playing drums. At elementary school he was exposed to jazz extensively, becoming heavily influenced by drummer Lex Humphries – the younger brother of bassist and Jazz-Messenger player, Spanky DeBrest. Once sitting-in for Elvin Jones at a John Coltrane performance he attended while in middle school, Connors went on to study music at Temple University and Juilliard.

His first recording was for Archie Shepp's "The Magic Of Ju-Ju" (1967), then continuing by playing with Pharoah Sanders for the next few years, before signing to Buddah Records sublabel Cobblestone, where he recorded his first release as a bandleader with album "Dance Of Magic" (1972). Connors began to focus more on R'n'B material in the mid-1970s after signing with Buddah Records, later becoming the label's A&R manager.

He went on to lead jazz recordings with Carlos Garnett, Gary Bartz, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Herbie Hancock. In the mid-1970s, when turning to sophisticated R'n'B and soul material, he recorded work featuring guest singers such as Michael Henderson, Jean Carn, Phyllis Hyman, Al Johnson, Jones Girls, among others, with his work becoming a main staple of jazz-fusion and jazz dance followers, with tracks including "Mother Of The Future" from album "Slew Foot" (1974), "Captain Connors" from album "This Is Your Life" (1977), et al.

From 1973's Dark of Light, the absolutely gorgeous emotional and complexity of Twilight Zone:

From 1974's Slewfoot, another meditative composition called Dreams:

T. Lavitz and Players, USA 1987

 

T. Lavitz has appeared here on this blog before, with his solo output, with Electric Tigers, with Jeff Berlin.

Bio:

American jazz-rock/fusion keyboardist, composer and producer (Lakewood, NJ, 16 April 1956 - 7 October 2010). Commonly known as just "T", he started intensive studies of classical and jazz piano at age seven. By twenty-two, he was asked to joiin the band Dixie Dregs.

So the music is typical smooth late US fusion like all of the above.  This album is from 1987 and features Berlin as well.

Here's a fine track called Crystal:

Jean Schultheis' Hot Time 1976

 

Drummer Schultheis appeared on the Christian Gaubert album, this is his contribution to the library music library.  He was also on the Chez Jean-Claude Petit 1974 library posted back here.

Databased here.  It presents a nice mix of fusion and library tracks.

African Reverie:

Cosmic Labyrinthe:

Ageness from Finland, Post-Scarab: 1992 Showing Paces, 1995 Rituals, 1997 Imageness, 2009 Songs from the Liar's Lair [limited time only]

 

Similar in style to well known Swiss neoprog band, Flame Dream.  But just what you'd expect from the semi-prog band Scarab continuing forth into the dreaded 1980s and onwards to the glorious 1990s.

However, as neo it's quite good, consider New World Anthem from the first, with the great Gabriel impersonation, complete with ridiculous lyrics plus silly voices near the end:

As usual, it amazes me this came out in the same year Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and alternative broke through and made a clean sweep through 90 percent of the music scene.

From the 2009 Liar's Lair, the Sons of Madness to me at least sounds imitably like old Flame Dream:

Scarab, from Finland 1983 [Pre-Ageness] [limited time only]

 

Ageness:

Finnish 1990s prog band with former members of Scarab.

Scarab:

Prog band from Finland.

This 1983 album has a nice pleasing classic prog sound, maybe a little like classic countrymate band Fantasia transported forward into the days of neoprog and Marillion.  It's definitely a dramatic cover for something that sounds nothing too dramatic or creepy that would warrant a skull in front of a heart, but good for them for going all out with the surreal art.

Asylum 32 has a nice tritonal feeling, but doesn't develop very far into progressive territory, it's nothing at all like old classic Rhea Sad Sorceress though it covers similar harmonic and lyrical territory:

(Note that this composition was, not surprisingly, recycled for the first Ageness album, 1992's Showing Paces.)

Another ex., For her Son:

So it's wonderful that there is almost no digital 80s influence, like my old 1980 favourite Prisma, which although beyond this in complexity is quite similar in terms of overall sound.

Very competently played and sung though, tight and pleasing in terms of the playing, at least for neoprog.  The thing about that style is, the closest it resembles real prog is in the way it imitates Peter Gabriel's nasally, staccato and affected style of singing, in that order.  Otherwise the chord progressions are ordinary, there are no sudden changes, no classical importations, no fusion, no jazzy parts, definitely no dissonances or minor seconds, no mix of acoustic with hard parts.  If they included those things, we would surely call it real prog, not neoprog.  But that's just my opinion.

Mortal Wings of Sin, a bonus track not on the original release, reminds me a lot of the German prog I've posted here before, like Iskander's Boheme, in sound that is, not necessarily in masterpieceness:

Listing for reissue with live bonus tracks is here.  This is the copy I have to share.  Unfortunately the live tracks suffer from poor recordings, which interferes with my enjoyment, personally.  However, a violin appears here and there, similar to Kansas or UK's Curved Air, other Darryl Way, etc.