The Band Dreams from 1970-1971

A lovely reference to Magritte adapted with the band members' images on top, in contrast on the bottom painting, I suppose inspired by The Beatles' Yellow Submarine (and so many other cartoons of the era), they are pied-piper-like entering what seems like a landscape of mountainous vulvas (?) equipped with eyes.  The back cover which usually explains the imagery doesn't quite elucidate the meaning of it here.  Nonetheless, the 2nd album drawing is very interesting to study and would have been even more so as a 33 cm piece of cardboard held in 2 hands.

From discogs:

Jazz-rock group formed by Jeff Kent and Doug Lubahn, whose line-up included John Abercrombie, The Brecker Brothers and Billy Cobham. The group made two albums, Dreams (1970) and Imagine My Surprise (1971).

I have to confess to being quite ignorant because I'd never heard them before despite that astonishing lineup of superstars. We've covered Brecker Bros in the past and genius guitarist John Abercrombie, and Billy Cobham was mentioned in regards to Glass Menagerie here, and earlier, in a German collaboration here. Who knows in how many other places these guys have popped up already.  Particularly surprising to me is the presence of Breckers since there is very little jazz rock in here in comparison with say BST, mostly just pop rock and songwriting, though overall the quality is not bad.  From the first album, The Maryanne:

On the second album there is a song that absolutely entranced me with its clever patterns and intricate melody, reminding me a lot of the some of the best Brian Wilson tunes like Surfs Up.  It's called Just Be Ourselves, and it goes like this:

I still can't get over how interesting the melody is as well as the way the song develops throughout its length. Note that it was written by this guy (Don Grolnick) who subsequently was in the Steps group with Breckers.

The two founding members, who are Jeff Kent and Doug Lubahn, so far as I know didn't make more interesting albums. Wouldn't be surprised if someone proved me wrong, of course.