Janko Nilovic in Rythmes Contemporains, 1972 FLAC limited time only

 

It's possible everyone is familiar with this masterpiece of library orchestral funk/fusion. What always surprised me is that it's the only great album from this composer, at least in my opinion, limiting things to the progressive pov of course.  If there are others out there that (vehemently) disagree, please go ahead and speak your minds.

Composer info here:

Greek-Montenegrin composer, arranger, conductor, keyboardist, percussionist, vocalist and producer, born on May 20th, 1941 in İstanbul, Turkey. French resident since 1960.

He has published many works, most of them on library labels not available for sale to the public. His oeuvre stretches from classical, jazz, and funk to pop, psyche, and easy listening. Also co-founder of Ju Ju Records.

In 2010 Nilovic won a Grammy award for the rap song 'D.O.A.(Death Of Auto-Tune)" along with Shawn Carter, Ernest Wilson, Gary DeCarlo, Dale Frashuer, Paul Leka and Dave Sucky. Producer No I.D. had sampled Nilović's song 'In The Space' for that track on Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3 album Other artists who have sampled Nilovic's work include The Beatnuts and Joey Bada$$. The hip-hop producer Dr. Dre sampled much of Nilović's piece 'Underground Session' for his track 'Loose Cannons' on the Compton (A Soundtrack By Dr. Dre) album.

Information on this particular library is here. 

Note the alternate release called Gentle Giant.

Mouvements Aquatiles:

Bahamas - Le Voyageur Immobile, 1976 France [FLAC limited time only]

 

Another fantastic Magritte-influenced cover.  Will AI one day achieve this level of beauty?  If so, we might say art and human culture might be on its way to extinction, like so many animals in the world we've bullied...

Information here.  This is their only release.  It's a shame, as I really love their delicate, highly professional, and slightly prog-inflected manner of ssw overlaid with luscious harmony vocals.  When you take a look at the credits here, note that bassist / vocalist Didier Batard later appeared on George Jinda's Wheel of Love I posted just a few days ago.

You will note that Motel has a very odd, very original, but interesting melodic line:

The track called Crow, translated from a French version called Norway Samba with entirely different lyrics and a different subject, strangely enough, describes what sounds to me like a world without humans wherein crows are the only animals alive. These English versions appear as bonus tracks on this release.  The lyrics are stunningly gorgeous and really haunted me:

What makes this so breathtaking too is that lovely shimmery, wavy and full electric guitar sound, which is so so gorgeous.

Here's my transcription of the lyrics, likely with multiple errors:

In the journey of the crow, all the old ways became one, Kyrie Eleison

And the chime began to go, soon the last days became known, Kyrie Eleison

And only crows to gaze on, the ashen light upon the sun.

We came to your skies, crow be our name, 

we brought the old cry, crow be our name,

we never came to know why, crow be our name.

We came to learn the old ways, 

and the answer became the last days,

I never knew what love will do.

We saw the wind blow, crow be our name,

we saw the time go, crow be our name,

we fled beyond the black snow, crow be our name,

days flecked like old skin, 

and we learned to give the old sin

we've never seen what fate is for.

We come to your skies, crow be our name,

we bring the old cry: crow be our name,

we come again to know why, crow be our names

so we reveal the old ways

so we be all we are now

sky, make it so and keep us crow--

Post-nuclear apocalypse future?  More likely post-AI apocalypse future, given what's happening today. Did we really need another reason to fear for the end of the world?  

Damn tech giants, and end-stage capitalism.

Until then, we can really love this one-off album of magical songs.

Special EFX (George Jinda) in 2 albums [1984 Special EFX, 1985 Modern Manners] [FLAC limited time only]

 

After that brilliant one-off from George Jinda I was curious to know what he put out following.

This is a mid-1980s smooth fusion band, that I was surprised was quite presentable, at least in their first 2 earliest albums.  Description:

Smooth jazz outfit with a distinctive Latin/African vibe. Formed in 1982 by guitarist Chieli Minucci and drummer/percussionist George Jinda. Having recorded 13 albums they split amicably in 1995 after releasing 'Body Language'. George Jinda retained the use of the Special EFX name and recorded the album 'Here To Stay' before being incapaciated after suffering a stroke in 1997. The Special EFX name was handed back to Chieli Minucci who has since recorded and toured as Chieli Minucci and Special EFX.

Notably, the compositions are interesting and not as generic as one might suppose, for this time period. The closing track I think was written by Jinda, and it's called Katalin:

The next album is just as good, Modern Manners.  From that one, After One Empty Step (cowritten by Jinda and the keyboardist just posted, Szakcsi):

Buttermilk Falls (same two composers, I can't stand that Hungarian name's spelling, lol)

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: