Praise Poems Vol. 9

 

Again, the track called The Ring by Diane Elliott feels like it should have been a mega-hit back then when it was released as a single, in  ??  who knows when as it was only rereleased in 2022. 

Talk about an obscurity, it wasn't even released back in the day!

A track called Hey Flicka by Mikael Neumann (Danish-Swedish guitarist and songwriter) impressed me enough that I bought the vinyl from 1973 to rip so I'll be back shortly with that one. Too bad the fusion and funk for the most part ran out from the earliest installments of the Praise Poems series.

And another, The Answer Lies in Love from a 1977 single, an absolutely lovely Bacharach imitation:

This is such a great example of what I'm always talking about, a track beautifully written and performed, very much like countless other Motown hits from the day, similar for ex. to any hit by Curtis Mayfield or Al Green that made it onto the pop charts, and tragically lost in the bottom of a singles crate until some incredibly patient collector, 50 years later, half a century, resuscitated it for this compilatory release--god bless the folks who did this, really. Imagine all the dross and dreck they had to slog through to find the handful of gems that make this worth hearing, but is it ever worth hearing, I think you'll agree, even just judging from the quality of these last few tracks.

That song for sure was a real standout for me.

Praise Poems Vol. 8

 

This one has a few interesting tracks.

They All Seem To Know, to me, seems like it should've been a hit back then, in 1976, oddly though it was put in as a b side:

As requested Geoff Tyus in Continuation, 1979, fresh rip with limited time lossless

 

From discogs:

American pianist, composer and keyboardist, died 7 October 2007.

This was requested and I didn't have much to go on other than the Mt. Vernon composition from the Praise Poems series, which admittedly was wonderful. His first LP from 1979 though is mostly solo piano, which definitely gets a little boring at times. The first two tracks achieve a bit of library feel to them with the more filled out arrangements, as in the first:

Notice the appearance of Joplin's horrific The Entertainer piano piece, made famous at the time by that Robert Redford movie that was big in the 70s. Amazingly, he manages to ruin an already monstrous piece, with boogie-woogie stylings, to make it even more blood-curdling. The second side is all solo piano, partly improvised.

Peter Giger and Family of Percussion from 1976 by request

 

I posted the later album Sunday Palaver, here. To repeat quickly, Swiss Peter Giger was the drummer for the formidable early kraut fusion band Dzyan, that still blows me away when I listen to it today. Other than the first Giger/Lenz/Marron album Beyond, from 1976, the remainder of his material disappoints me. Family of Percussion was founded by Trilok Gurtu and made a bunch of LPs too, but on his own Giger made an album with the same name in 1976 which is the one posted here. So I guess technically this album is not a part of the band FoP's discography at all.

First track called Mistral gives you an indication of this, mostly percussion, some improvisations, not much actual music therefore:

I forgot I posted this one too with Dauner.

Third Stream in Gettin' It Together, 1979 freshly ripped from lovely mint with limited time only lossless

 

These guys hailed from Hershey, Pennsyl. and unusually for an artist from the Praise Poems series they managed to release not just one LP but three, with this rip being the first. Notice however the 1982 follow up Just Friends is filled with the garbage standards I so detest.  And remember the mega-hit Galaxy track from PP 2 was only on a single back in the day (1978), not LP, which I still can't believe.

Information on this release here.  It's instrumental fusion with some great original composition on it, well worth hearing through and more than a steal for the price of the record and the enjoyment it contains. 

Sorcery definitely is some nice hard musical witchcraft, I think you'll agree: