Some LPs from library composer Douglas Wood

 

Sparse Info:

Real Name: Douglas A. Wood

Profile: Composer/arranger of library music, soundtracks and TV recordings.

You can see from the above listings he was massively prolific after 1976.

All of the music that I've heard can be appropriately described as library music, I will avoid the use of the word 'generic' as it leads to assumptions about quality that are perhaps unjustified, depending on opinions and tastes.

An idea of his style of composition from the People's Progress Suite, called Feeling Fine:

Quiet Zone, with its amazing Hammond organ:

I have these two in flac, Pastoral and Light Activity Rock and Jazz, and Peoples Progress Positive Charge (with Joe Antel).  Then in mp3, Synthesizer (more of the same), and Panorama from Omnimusic (orchestral soundtrack music) instead.  So four in total.

A request was made for the work with Lee Greenblat called Edge of the World / Rainy Days, anyone can share for us?

Brian Chatton's Vapour Trails (1980) [NO FLAC]

 

Brian Chatton:

Real Name: Brian Charles Chatton

Profile: born 19 July 1948, in Bolton, Lancashire.

In Groups: Boys Don't Cry, Flaming Youth, Hickory (4), Jackson Heights, Snafu (6), The Warriors (3)

I found this record while I was checking the artists behind the relatively unknown band, Jackson Heights, who I will likely also post soon.

Info on this particular album here.

Again, typical library music, example, Smooth Touch; note the lovely development of the basic theme:

Wolfgang Schuter Combo's Hangover [FLAC limited time only]

  

The whole album is gorgeous from beginning to end, a relative rarity for a 'contemporary jazz' type release, not fusion.  It's semi-fusion you could say, all instrumental, with vibes playing the melodies for the most part, electric guitar but a highly unfuzzy toned-down sound, electric piano, but again lightly played.

The almost preternaturally lovely Sun Up composition:

Another gorgeous one, Time and Tide:

Back to Bob Moses: Bittersuite in the Ozone, When Elephants Dream of Music, Visit with the Great Spirit

 

Brief description on discogs:

Real Name: Robert Laurence Moses

Profile: Jazz drummer/percussionist/composer, born January 28, 1948 in New York City. Also known as Rahbaat Rakhalam Ntumba Moses.

First of all notice the stunning cover art.  Boy do I miss when LPs had such beautiful paintings or graphics to admire.

Tributaries, from 1978, was posted back here (as a request), and it was surely wonderful.  Because of the involvement of keyboardist Richard Sussman I sought out his later Evolution suite, posted here, which was hugely impressive for me.  In general Bob Moses' music is in a similar vein, with a basis of elegant fusion and contemporary jazz plus a lot of modern dissonant, polytonal music, along the lines of Stravinsky influences.  The first one was Bittersuite in the Ozone (1975), which I've always loved dearly.  These compositions are all by him (of course).  

Especially noteworthy is the track called "Message to the Music Bizness," and we can conclude clearly what the message was given the strangeness of the arrangement:

From Tributaries, the title track composed by Sussman:

Moving on to the eighties there was no compromising with popular culture, just as you'd expect from this genius.  The 1982 album When Elephants Dream of Music is still incredible, from that one, Trevor:

By 1984's Visit with the Great Spirit, still no evidence whatsoever he was going to compromise with the 'music bizness' as you can discern from that one's title track:

Wonderful stuff!  And so uncompromising an artist.

Alan Parker & Alan Hawkshaw - Black Pearl (1973)(FLAC)

 

Album info here.

From the first side called Modern Orchestral Themes, Alan Hawkshaw's Collect:

All composed by him on that side.  

The second side is Moody Group Sounds, all by Alan Parker.  His Melody and Lace is great:

VA - Hogan, The Hawk And Dirty John Crown from 1972 [FLAC limited time]

 

A mixed bag with a great title of course, sounding quite a bit like the soundtrack of a blaxploitation movie from the early 1970s with the funky fusion and smoother orchestral numbers.  Information can be found here.

Gordon Grant's great Scorch:

For a lighter number, Simon Haseley's Hogan Baby sounds more than a little indebted to B. Bacharach to my ears (he appeared on the Electric Bird album too):

Alan Parker appears here too, remember he made the brilliant Rock Machine (with Hawkshaw) I posted here.

VA - The All-American Powerhouse (1976) [FLAC limited time only]

 

Back again with more of the amazing Alan Hawkshaw.  Info here. His Speed Run:

Listen all the way to the stunning closing out of the song.

Unfortunately not all good tracks on this typical library, though there are other really interesting compositions, mostly from the aforementioned Hawkshaw.

VA - New Blood (1973) [FLAC limited time only]

 

Unusually, no back cover scan.  One of the first times this has happened, not that it necessarily matters much for these libraries.  Information can be found here, and you will be delighted to see Alan Parker and Hawkshaw appear.  The latter is like Francis Monkman or J. Fukumachi, whereby I always say everything they touched turned to gold.  True geniuses.  I've mentioned Hawkshaw here and there quite frequently, most recently here when he passed away, RIP.

Anyways, on this LP Alan (the Hawkshaw!) again knocks it out of the ballpark with his beautiful contribution called High Driver:

There's so much interesting sound and complexity to that little 3 minute plus composition, it just astounds.  What a creative genius!

Subsequently found back cover, thanks to commenter (on the left)

Piranha Gundan 1977, by request, FLAC limited time only

 

Info appears in Japanese here.   Kind of a glimpse of some information on this alt. release page.

Overall I found this to be relatively ordinary rock songwriting, opener here as a sample:

Track 8 present some interesting sounds and dimensionality:

There is a lot of weird shouting / odd Japanese cultural oddity in here too, appealing presumably to the native audience, as if we were watching either sumo or kabuki.

Francesco Cabiati's Mirage, 1979, by request

 

Info here on this page. You can see there is not a lot of material from him apart from this LP.

Typical Italian prog along the lines of F. Battiato, or Sensations Fix.

Sample, Chok:

Music Factory's 1974 Scoop! [FLAC limited time only]

It appears there are quite a few music factories in the music industry's many years of operation, as one might expect given the name, but this combination only released one library in 1974.  You can see databased on that page that this combo comprises my old fave John Fiddy, plus Brian Dee, Terry Cox, and Clive Hicks.

John Fiddy is responsible for the lovely lilting pop sound of Lorraine:

 Brian Dee and Manhattan Tower:

I love John Fiddy's albums Softly, and Pastoral Scenes.  Two of my favorite libraries of all time.  This one is interesting but not as good.

More from Simon Park: Good Company (1975); Stretch (1976) [FLAC limited time only]

These albums are very similar to the previously posted Bird one, but perhaps slightly less inspired overall.  Overall I was more disappointed with Good Company, but from Stretch with the brilliant graphic cover, the very pleasant Daffodil:

Again, not sure if there's more of interest in there, but I stopped before breaching the 1980 barrier.

By Request, Arjuna's La Montagna Sacra from 1999

 

This one definitely sounds like it should have appeared in the late 70s Italian prog scene, and seems very indebted to it.  It might be a second album from Maxophone or Triade or something like that.

Information page with scant results here for the artist, and here for the release.

The Genesis / Maxophone influence is evident here on the sweet Song for Timothy:

Then the next track brings out the traditional flute sound of the prog classics on top of dissonant electric guitar clangings:

So an interesting suggestion to listen to.

Back to library albums in a bit.

Simon Park's 1974 Electric Bird [FLAC limited time]

 

That's a great cover too with the turkey. Should've waited until Thanksgiving.

Simon Park:

Composer (b. 13 March 1946, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, England).

Son of architect Ronald Stewart Park (1921-1985) and Cynthia Mary Briggs (1 August 1921, Leicester-14 August 1946, London).

This wonderful album came out in 1974, and has some great instrumental compositions with a basic lineup of electric piano, guitar, plus rhythm.  Most of his discography looks like it's easy listening playing standards or orchestral music, for ex. soundstracks for movies.  Samples, Bells:

Slow Ride:

Pierpaolo Bibbo, Part 2: 2012 Genemesi, 2018 Via Lattea [nonFLAC]

His much later follow up albums were not quite as delicate as the first one, with the addition of electric guitars, electronics, vocals, and usually driving beats.  First track of Genemesi, as a sample:

From 2018's Via Lattea, a vocals track that closes out the CD:

 

Pierpaolo Bibbo, Part 1: 1980's Diapason [FLAC limited time only]

 

 

Discographed here. 

Italian singer/songwriter born in Cagliari, 20th February 1954.

Not as much output as the earlier posted Italian keyboardist Pepe Maina, but still quite good and in the same vein.  He plays all the instruments and the music flows quite beautifully in the typical electronic / prog Italian way.

A diapason is a tuning fork, btw.

Contaminazione:

Timing N° 8 - Roger Bourdin - Confidences D'Un Flutiste [flac available limited time]

 

A nice little flute library record, Roger Bourdin:

French flautist and pianist, born 27 January 1923 in Mulhouse, France and died 23 September 1976 in Versailles, France.

His output was mostly classical, but there were some library albums.  This one came out in1976.  It gets the full orchestral arrangement treatment behind the melodies.

Here are some sample tracks, Meditation, with its echoes of E. Satie (Gymnopedies):

You can see the resemblance to, for example, the early April Orchestra material, which we adored so much in years past.

Another pretty track, Sensibilite:

Probably he made more interesting music, which I am not aware of.

More from Midas Touch [No FLACs]

 

I listened to the rest of their albums so that you wouldn't have to, searching for more diamonds in the rough, but was rather disappointed: only the sequel has some interesting tracks: Earth Shaker from 1976.  In particular the title track is really a shocker for a library album, would love to know who wrote it-- presumably David Thompson?

For a change of pace, Country Matters from the same album:

Sadly thereafter the LPs start to get far more generic--which I know many people love, so I won't make any more comments.  From Medium Rare (1977), Love of Life:

From Industrial (1978), Good Articulation, which does feature some ingenious chord changes on top of the funky groove:

From Melting Pot (1980), Bullworker:

Anyways you get the idea here.  A lot to digest if you're being exposed to this dish for the first time.

Midas Touch's 1974 The Heavy and Light Group Activity [FLAC limited time only]

 

Midas Touch:

Progressive rock and jazz band, who recorded for library recordings.

The band consisted of composer, conductor and keyboardist Harry Rabinowitz, composer and guitarist Martin Kershaw, composer, bassist and guitarist Dave Richmond and composer, drummer and percussionist Harold Fisher.

Looks like they made 7 albums in total, this being their first.  Some really nice progressive library stuff in here. Surprised I never encountered it before (as usual).

Frenzy:

Sulphur Flowers:

Dave Richmond and Harold Fisher in Tools of the Trade

 

Dave Richmond:

David Henry Richmond

Profile: British rock bassist. Born Brighton, England 1940.

Aliases: Raithe Thompson

In Groups: Collage (6), Eric Winstone & His Orchestra, Les Reed And His Orchestra, Manfred Mann, Midas Touch, The Chitinous Ensemble, The Gentle Rain, The John Barry Seven, The Judd Proctor Sextet, Wally Asp, Wasp (8)

Note that we encountered him before in relation to the Chitinous here.

The absolutely gorgeous sound of Dave Richmond's Chain Saw with the bizarrely progressive patterns that weave through this short 3 minute composition just leave me in awe, at what people can create and what people can fashion into a beautiful whole:

And surprisingly there are many other great tracks on here, mostly on the first side from Dave.

Information on the second side's composer, drummer Harold Fisher here.  His Water Reactor has a great holy groove to it:

Doc Severinsen (Tonight Show Bandleader) in several from the 1970s

 

Huge discography, of course.  People of North American would remember him well from his appearances on Carson's Tonight Show where he was the longstanding bandleader.  Note that he made quite a few unreleased LPs with college bands and high school bands.

Carl Hilding "Doc" Severinsen (born July 7, 1927 in Arlington, Oregon, USA) is an American pop and jazz trumpeter.

In 1949, Severinsen landed a job as a studio musician for NBC, where he accompanied Steve Allen, Eddie Fisher, Dinah Shore, and Kate Smith. The leader of The Tonight Show Band, Skitch Henderson, asked him to be first-chair trumpeter in 1962, and five years later Severinsen was leading the band. Under Severinsen's direction, The Tonight Show Band became a well-known big band in America. Severinsen became one of the most popular bandleaders, appearing almost every night on television. He led the band during commercials and while guests were introduced.

During the early 1960s, Severinsen began recording big band albums, then moved toward instrumental pop music by the end of the decade. In the 1970s he recorded jazz funk, then disco, finding hits with "Night Journey" and "I Wanna Be With You". He released an album with the jazz fusion group Xebron in 1985. During the next year, he recorded The Tonight Show Band with Doc Severinsen which won the Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance. After Carson retired in 1992, he toured with some of the band's members, including Conte Candoli, Snooky Young, Bill Perkins, Ernie Watts, Ross Tompkins, and Ed Shaughnessy.

We have here the most interesting albums selected from the 1970s, that is, those lacking standards and the big band sound, plus more into fusion / funky stuff.

From the 1971 work Brass Roots, Psalm 150 is not quite at the highest level of composition like Don Sebesky's Psalm from Giant Box, posted back here as you might recall, but it's still well worth hearing:

The collaboration with H. Mancini Called Brass on Ivory (1972) features the really really underrated Soldier in the Rain composition by the latter which I've always dearly loved, more than Love Story for sure:

An all instrumental track called Now and Then really grew on me, from Night Journey (1976), while Brand New Thing (1977) is quite similar in sound so I didn't extract a sample from that one.

Captain Daylight, from the much smoother and more polished but nonetheless interesting Xebron album from 1985:

That composition is by guitarist Tom Rizzo, databased here.