Tim Weisberg, Part 2: 1973 Dreamspeaker, 1974's "4"

 

More along the same lines, slightly more uptempo compared to the folky mellow stuff on the first 2 LPs.

Scrabbly Y from the 1973 Dreamspeaker work, composed by the Weisberg + Blessing collab:

From the 4th album which came out in 1974, Californian memory Sand Castles, this time written by the guitarist Todd Robinson:

So basically, more of the same mellow stuff.  And more mellowness to come.

Tim Weisberg, Part 1: 1971 ST, 1972 Hurtwood Edge

Here's another truly unfairly unknown, forgotten artist.  Discography here.

Real Name: Timothy Jules Weisberg

American jazz flutist and composer, born Jan. 1,1943 in Hollywood, California.

First album came out in 1971 and has credits for compositions here (some pages are lacking those writing credits).  Note there are a couple of cover songs, not so unexpected.  The vibes player whose unbelievable name is Lynn Blessing cowrote or wrote many of the tracks with Tim.  The music which is instrumental of course is very light and approachable in general but, to my surprise, many, sometimes a majority of the songs are interesting beyond the usual expected simplicity of the easy listening arrangements, with Tim's flute gently playing above the typical accompaniment (rhythm section, piano, guitar, vibes).  Occasionally the production is a little more fleshed out (on some albums) but usually it's the straightforward backing you'd expect, without orchestral arrangements.  

Starting with this ST 1971 LP he went on to put out album after album roughly yearly until the end of the 80s and even thereafter, into the grunge decade of the 90s.  Of course, I didn't form an opinion of those later ones since I didn't have the courage to listen to them.

Anyways let's start from the beginning, from more than half a century ago, way way back in 1971.  

Sunshine in Her Hair is an original composition, by Lynn Blessing:

The credits for his second album from 1972 can be found on this particular page.

Is Hurtwood Edge referencing the place in the UK where Eric Clapton's house was? (see here).
Title track is by drummer Jim Gordon:

 

Another truly lovely composition called Summers Past (which is credited to Lynn Blessing and Tim):

Lots more to come.

Henry Debich again with Horyzonty 1978, released 2021 [FLAC limited time only]

This is a compilation of his music from the earlier records. It's possible I posted them all before but I'm not sure.  Information discogged here.

Certainly we know the ethereally lovely track called Amfora from before:

Paladin in 3 (1971 Paladin, 1972 Charge!, 2002 Jazzattack)

 

Recommended by a commenter, they put out 2 album in the early 70s of proto-fusion jazz-rock, proto-prog, then another one in the same style later in the early 2000s.  Discographed here, note the comment 'not to be confused with the US Paladin.'

Obviously the fantastical cover art from Roger Dean is easy to recognize.

Third World, from the first album:

Alex Harvey New Band's The Mafia Stole my Guitar, from 1979

The keyboardist was Tommy Eyre, who was one of the composers on the fabulous Riff Raff prog band posted just a couple of weeks ago back here.  Throughout the decade he played mostly with Alex Harvey the guitarist whose original namesake band in the early 70s was given  the modifier Sensational, discographed here, and they existed from 1973 to 1978, so presumably this album continues straight on after the earlier ones, without the modifier of course which by then was superfluous.  

I personally was never impressed with the Alex Harvey LPs though they are sometimes described as prog, really more glam rock or generic rock with that ridiculous British sense of humor or rather nonsense of humor.  Anyways in this 1979 outing Alex plays mostly electric guitar based fusion, with a minimum of attempts at singing.  The quality is fair to good, we are definitely not talking about masterpiece level like Big Jim Sullivan or Jeff Beck's Blow by Blow, or Ray Russell, though the basic sound and feel are similar.

The opener, Don's Delight:

Wait for me, Mama, a track where Alex brings out his semiridiculous vocals:

Back to an earlier Sadao Watanabe with 1969's Pastoral [FLAC limited time only]

 

This one is very light listening, especially given the pared-down simplicity of the band, please refer to information databased here.  

I've posted a lot from him before, here in one big package, and here (Birds of Passage) and he's definitely a perennial favorite given the number of times I've reuploaded the package.  I guess he only got into fusion later in the seventies and definitely after this album.

I thought the Tokyo Suite would've been a huge standout given the excitement, variety, and massiveness of the city but it's surprisingly indolent and somniferous in sound.  It could've used a fusionary treatment with more a fleshed-out orchestral arrangement, for sure.  The most beautiful composition is definitely 

Someday in Suburbs:

A note regarding the record:

Recorded June 24 and July 9, 1969 at Toshi Center Hall, Akasaka, Tokyo, Japan.

Mad Sheer Khan's Talisman 1996 by request, FLAC limited time

 

The guitarist and composer for well known one-off French prog band Rahmann, an absolute genius mixed fusion/zeuhl work, is name is Mahamad Hadi.  Under the alias Mad Sheer Kahn:

Born in Algiers in 1955, of mixed Persian and Arabic origin, resides in France. Formed his first group in 1975. In 1981, he formed a duo and adopted an image that was quite rare for the time: he spent the 1980s swathed in a turban, deliberately going against what was then the normal practice. His unconventional appearance did not deter the critics, who responded enthusiastically to his playings.

In 1982 the well-known English magazine New Musical Express listed him among the ten best guitarists in the world. During this period he was in fact living in London, where he worked with Velvet Underground's muse, Nico, on the albums Drama of Exile 1 &2, and was acclaimed for his virtuosity.

You can also see on that page, as well as under Hadi, he has quite a discography.

This album is a mixture of ethnic folk with electronic and a lot of sitars.  Very little info on the database page here.

Sample, Angel in the Bath:

Osamu Shoji's Jataka from 1978 [FLACs]

 

Osamu Shoji:

Japanese composer, arranger and synthesizer player. Born September 6, 1932. Died April 30, 2018.

Related entity: Shoji Studio.

With regards to Jataka released in 1978 you can observe from this page it seems to be all composed and played by him, similar to artists like Wendy Carlos.  So far as I can tell it's also different from the remainder of his output in that it's not made up of cover songs.

Overall it's similar to my beloved Fumitaka Anzai work posted back here, but not as creative and progressive, more of the standard electronic synthesizer fiddling.  Title track gives you an idea:

British Riff Raff in 3

 

It's so rare for me to not have heard something really genuinely prog rock at this late stage in the game, but here's a band I was completely unaware of, so far as I know.  Of course, I'm old enough that memory is starting to become a problem (starting? my wife would say).

Info here.

Riff Raff was a British progressive rock band formed by keyboardist Tommy Eyre in 1972. The band was a continuation on the back of drummers (and Harrow School of Art friends) Rod Coombes and Joe Czarnecki's (aka Joe Peter)'s project originally called 'Crikey' which started in 1969 and completed in 1970, when Coombes had to accept growing tour commitments with Juicy Lucy. These sessions comprised half of the Riff Raff album Outside Looking In, in which Coombes wrote half the songs.

Riff Raff later went on to release two albums to lukewarm response; however, their use of jazz and hard-edged rock garnered them a large underground following. Riff Raff also released the single "Copper Kettle".

PS I'm missing Copper Kettle, if anyone has it to share?  Also not available on youtube, surprisingly.

From the first ST album, Dreaming with its unusual chords as might be expected from the title:

The magically beautiful and mysterious Tom's Song from Original Man, which reminds me a lot of the utterly ethereal weirdness of Fred Israel's Fashions of the Moon:

It absolutely shocked me the way he mixes the piano chords on their own not so strange with the keyboard strings playing completely inappropriate chords in the background-- completely bizarre, but compellingly beautiful in that typically intellectually advanced progressive way.

The other compelling thing about this album, released 1974, is that it's strong from beginning to end, there is no filler, no pandering to commercial tastes, everything purely progressive.  I love the standard description above 'released to lukewarm response...' when in reality the creative spirit for me is so compelling here.

As usual I have to mention the gorgeous cover painting of the Original Man album.  Wow!!  The artwork is from Dick Whitbread, who I note made a bunch of other beautiful covers, like Julie Tippetts Sunset Glow and Elton Dean Ninesense Oh for the edge which you can see here.

German Odin with new (old) material [flacs limited time]

 

I've always loved this band who sadly only put out one great prog album full of wonderful compositions and a marvelous cover, in 1972.  It was nice to see there is more to listen to, though it's the typical 'unreleased' live material with a lot of cover songs (Neil Young's Ohio, Peaches en Regalia, 20th c. Schizoid) and poor quality recordings.  Nonetheless, well worth exploring I think, with flacs available for us, to boot.

From SWF Sessions, [Frank Zappa's] Oh No:

Patty Pravo from 1976

Patty Pavro:

Real Name: Nicoletta Strambelli

Profile: Italian singer born 9 April 1948 in Venice, Italy.

Diva, counted since the sixties as one of the greatest interpreters of Italian music, boasts a chameleon-like career that has seen her go through various musical styles, continually reinventing her image: from idol beat to sophisticated interpreter of Italian and French songwriters, then experimenter of rock in its various forms. The album "Biafra" (1976) brought unknown genres to Italy such as the Funk and the new wave. Successes like La bambola (1968), Pazza idea (1973), Pensiero stupendo (1978) and ... E dimmi che non vuoi morire (1997) have marked the history of European pop.

The contrast between the peculiar low and sensual timbre and the filiform beauty, the imperious force of the personality, the provocations and the excesses have made her an icon of elegance and transgression, which has contributed to the evolution of the costume by distorting every canon linked to the figure of the female interpreter in Italy.

I am not so sure there is much for the prog rock fan to cling to here, as her output seems to me to be mostly basic singer songwriter stuff.  Perhaps the 1976 album is the most proggy, consider Sconosciuti Cieli:

Note the highly emotional songwriting, with the 'trappings' of a prog basis, eg synths + allied instrumentation, etc. but lacking a bit of the complexity.

Leo Nero's Vero from 1977 [flac limited time only]

Info on this dude here.  Note he had a follow up album in 1980, described as new wave.

It was recommended by a commenter and I finally got a chance to listen, definitely I would recommend hearing it.  Most of it is straightforward late 1970s singer songwriter stuff very emotional, piano based, along the lines of David Bowie circa. Young Americans, but without the guitar and funk, or Lou Reed as on the Berlin album, some of it quite ordinary.

A lovely instrumental called La Bambola Rota:

Some lovely Gentle Giant style dissonance in the Tastiere Isteriche:

Multiple Chikara Ueda albums [17 total]

 

Many thanks to the commenter who uploaded all these.  Of the ones that I recognize as not available before there's the Funk Beethoven, the Disco ones, Mellow Wonder, and Funpico, but I'm not a Chikara Ueda expert and I wouldn't know if these were common or rare.  I think there have been multiple posts on him on this blog before as well (4 before this one).

Anyways, thanks a million for assembling these and sharing them!  I will listen to them a few at a time, or even fewer, because I find it a bit generic and therefore exhausting but I know there are plenty of fans out there.

The link will probably expire quickly, go ahead and request reups.

Obviously, I didn't bother to post all the album covers since there are 17 in total in the package.

More of the crazy Tie Break from 1995, with Jorgos Skolias, cassette

 

I posted their stuff in 3 separate installments, here with 1989, here with 1990's cassette Duch, here with 1991's Gin Gi Lob.  They never strayed from the wild progressive mixture of uptempo nuttiness vocals plus angular dissonant music.  I think this one completes their 1990s oeuvre, assuming the Retrospective is a compilation.

A track called odszukany w cieniu gives you a clear idea of the totality, and note that the music accompanies spoken poetry from Polish poet / priest Jan Twardowski:

A track called Telefon milczy sounds like the Super Freego from recently:

Shockingly uncompromising music for 1995, I'd say.