Uno Naissoo's 1978 Malestusi Kodust, by request [FLAC limited]

 

Some gorgeous chamber fusion from Eastern Europe.  Info on the LP here, on the composer here:

Uno Naissoo (1928–1980) is a significant Estonian composer used to write symphonic, jazz and pop music. The father of Tõnu Naissoo.

Despite the above, very little has been compiled in the discography, presumably it's lost within the borders of his home country similar to the case of Rafiq Babyev who was from Azerbaijian.

From the 1978 work, I love the Kontrastid composition:

I found an interesting later work, Dedication, from 1995, in which the son plays (on keyboards) the music of the father from 20 years back, the Meditation from that one:

Robert Blennerhed's Seven from 1994

 

Robert Blennerhed's page with very little information.

Guitar-driven fusion here with a lot of potency, consider the opener called Royal Road:

Another one called God must really be busy these days:

I love the serpentine complexity of that riffing.

Aleksander Rjabov and his Friend's Conversations

 

Aleksander Rjabov:

Estonian clarinetist, jazz and chamber musician, conductor, arranger and pedagogue, born in 1928. An ensemble "Synthesis" conducted by Rjabov was one the first combos that started to synthesize different music styles - like jazz and classical music. Aleksander Rjabov died in 2005.

1983's Synthesis album is for me one of the best prog fusion albums from Eastern Europe outside Russia.  I'll include it below.  Some of the music was written by Uno Naissoo, whose own stuff is amazing. 

On this more intimate chamber outing he replays some of the compositions on clarinet but there are many more additional tunes.

A couple that were not on the original Synthesis (I think) are the very jazzy Miniature

Giving you an idea of the melding of jazz and classical elements here and The Swirl

Richard Harvey's A New Way of Seeing, 1978

Really beautiful artwork of course.

I guess, after playing keyboards and flutes in famed renaissance prog band Gryphon, Richard Harvey became primarily a library composer, but in 1979 he made this concept-like album, with perhaps less of the creative prog spirit than the earlier Gryphons unfortunately, nonetheless interesting on that basis alone.  Information here, note:

This record was distributed by ICL to their staff and business partners, so it was not available in the shops.

As for "ICL" this was:

International Computers Limited (ICL) was a British computer hardware, software and computer services company that operated from 1968 until 2002.

You can see the album is made up of 4 lengthy compositions each roughly 10 min's long, the title one:

Last of Tim Weisberg, No Resemblance Whatsoever from 1995 with Dan Fogelberg

 

Well, never say never again, like Sean Connery, because curiosity drove me to listen to this one after giving up on the 1980s, and it wasn't disappointing.

The wholly gentle album (CD) opens with the instrumental Country Clare:

It pretty much picks up where Twins left off, shockingly so, given the mid-1990s times, when, you might recall, the world was ruled by grunge, electronica, raves and slam-dancing in mosh pits which even this writer used to do every weekend, despite his mellowed out, postparental current status.

On this page, you can see most of the album was composed by Dan with 2 songs credited to Jesse Colin Young, who I never heard of before.

Another lovely composition (by Dan) called Stasia:

They really released this CD in the year 1995???

Enjoy.  But that should be it for Tim.  Thanks for the great music!

Tim Weisberg, Part 4: 1979 Night-Rider, 1979 Tip of the Weisberg [compilation], 1980 Party of One, 1981 Travelin' Light

 

Yes, the cover art gets a little ridiculous by the time of "Tip of the Weisberg," admittedly.

And also, given the year, on 1979's Night-Rider! you can expect some very smooth commercialese style fuzak.  Consider Shadows in the Wind recalling very much Dave Grusin and the theme from Taxi, for ex:

Title track of Party of One sounds completely out of place for the year 1980 showing some people, thank god, just don't want to keep up with the zeitgeist:

1981's installment called Travelin' Light has its songwriting credits, quite a mix, on this page.  A very little track called Audrey, written by (someone called) John Jarvis:

After the 1981 album, he went on to make 5 more I didn't bother to listen to, though they might very well be good as his output, consistently, has been worth hearing throughout the decade.  But I didn't have the courage or stamina to pursue the matter any further.

Tim Weisberg, Part 3: 1975 Listen to the City, 1976 Live at Last! 1978, Twin Sons of a Different Mother [with Dan Fogelberg]

 

From 1975's Listen to the City, Nikki's Waltz:

Then of course the obligatory live album which came out in 1975, then he teamed up with Fogelberg, who composed most of the record, for their twins album from 1978.   Here Neil Larsen, featured before on this blog, plays keys.

The incredibly gorgeous and emotional song Since You Asked is a Judy Collins composition, but the arrangement here is superior to Judy's original simplistic folky version, at least in my opinion.  On google, the note: This song is noted as the first song she ever wrote, inspired by a conversation with Leonard Cohen:

Really nice stuff.  Worth going to sleep with?

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: