NZ composer/arranger Alan Broadbent in Palette from 1979

 

Here's a wonderful and surprising find for me, completely unknown, unheard of, never rereleased so far as I know.  Typical late 1970s fusion with progressive elements, perhaps a little turned towards the jazz big band side, but at least fusiony enough for me to thoroughly enjoy.

Info on the composer, on this release.

Alan Broadbent, MNZM [Member - New Zealand Order of Merit] was born on April 23, 1947 in Auckland, New Zealand. He is a jazz pianist, arranger and composer best known for his work with artists such as Woody Herman, Diane Schuur, Chet Baker, Irene Kral, Sheila Jordan, Charlie Haden, Warne Marsh, Bud Shank, and many others. He studied piano and music theory in his own country, but in the 1960s came to the US to study at the Berklee College of Music. In the 1970s he did both classical and jazz work, but from the eighties onwards he accompanied singers on piano. Later he gained note as an arranger of music and won two Grammies for arrangements he did with Natalie Cole and Shirley Horn.

So you could indeed surmise from this bio that his earliest work, and this one is from 1979 when he was 32 years young, has been oblivionated due to the later work he did as an all-out jazz arranger for the above famous artists, I would go so far as to say, a standard arranger, although from the Palette orchestrations he is definitely original.  Not to the same degree as our two big favorites of course, Yuri Chugonov in the Eastern world and Claus Ogerman in the Western.

As a perfect ex. of what I'm talking about, have a listen to the Mz Liz composition:

Another ex., his Sunrise Song:

There are definitely some cover versions in there, I recognize Stevie's Summer Soft, but the majority I'm going to assume are his creations.  Bravo!

Another problem I suppose, if we can describe it that way, is that his discography is immense and therefore difficult to weed through to find other possible gems, of which I'm reasonably sure there must be some.  The bet that his earliest stuff was golden, though, definitely paid off.  How music loves to favor youth....