George Gruntz' Eternal Baroque 1974 by request, plus more

Just as you'd expect you have here instrumental fusion or jazzy renditions of 'cover songs' including baroque or classical compositions plus, surprisingly, Th. Monk, Ch. Mingus, and even Jan Akkerman and one of the Jack Bruce / Pete Brown songs (I Feel Free).  At least no part of Vivaldi's stupid Four Seasons got thrown in there.

I'm not sure the artist needs any sort of introduction, but here it is:

Swiss pianist, composer, arranger and bandleader, born 24 June 1932 in Basel, Switzerland, died 10 January 2013 in Allschwil, Switzerland. Musical Director of the "Schauspielhaus Zürich" from 1970 to 1984.

The fusion fan should be well familiar with him thanks to the Piano Conclave Palais Anthology masterpiece set which came out in 1975 and featured along with Gruntz such keyboard luminaries as Dauner, Van t' Hof, J. Kuhn, etc.  Actually, the biggest Euro-pianists all congregated on that one.  Boy is that one ever brilliant.  Unfortunately nothing before or since really comes close, so far as I know.

What's most remarkable on this set is the highly imaginative and well-written arrangements, so well done in fact that sometimes they completely alter the entire song and transform it into something altogether different like the tired old Monk standard, Blue Monk, thank god in this case. For example  Them Changes, a composition by Buddy Miles:

I put in the other albums he made in the late 70s period. 

I forgot, he made another really amazingly beautiful album, a collaboration with Jasper again who composed most of it, called Fairytale in 1979 which everyone should be familiar with.  Here the lightness of the progressive fusion combined with the imaginative musical ideas and composition just absolutely knocks it out of the ballpark-- again.  As my wife always says at this point, 'sometimes you never even make it into the ballpark.'