The best fusion library I know: 'Impulse' 1976 with Brian Miller, Frank Ricotti, Stan Sulzman, et al.

Says the generic blurb:

"Strong Themes Suitable for Film, Radio and TV with easy cutting points"

Here's the blurb I'd write:

"Beyond-brilliant miraculous fusion masterpieces that will stand the test of time for billions of years to come"

First up, information here.  Simply an outrageous set of instrumental compositions, shockingly well-written and progressive and original, and for once 'all killer, no filler' with no boring improvisation, just composition.  Similar to the much longer and tiny bite-sized brilliance of the other great fusion library masterpiece, Ceccarelli's Rythmes from 1976, it's hard to believe there's so much incredible thought that went into this virtually unknown LP that must have passed completely unnoticed back in the day.

The standout is keyboardist Brian Miller, a man who for me achieved his own self-actualized climactic heights of brilliance in the two-album band Turning Point released in the late 1970s, but who also was in Isotope and the much-worse Rock Workshop.  Consider Alpaca:

Stan Sulzmann has appeared on this blog before, most recently here, and his track called Sojan is also amazing:

The album closes out with one by Frank Ricotti too!

Have Sounds Will Travel, with Frank Ricotti, Tony Hymas, Sulzmann, and Les Hurdle

Just a wonderful library that I should have known of but didn't, with artists we have seen and reviewed here before including Ricotti, Hymas (Aspects of Paragonne), and Sulzmann.  Generic albeit sparse information is here on the database.

Under Pressure:





But the album ranges all over the map with the funk, fusion, wonderful beats, and inventive compositions we expect from the best library music, recalling almost the best of Hawkshaw.
Note however that the second side is markedly less impressive with far more generic compositions.

I threw in some more Tony Hymas (The Age of Discovery) and more Ricotti (Vibes, the album I loved so much, and No Title 1982) so four altogether.

Fourmenonly (Herbert Joos), Michael Gibbs, Jim Hall, Volker Kriegel in the 1973 NDR Jazzworkshop

The number of luminaries here is quite astonishing as can be said by the tags next door to the right, but plus that, all of the following appear: Michael Naura, John Taylor, Peter Giger, Eberhard Weber, Stan Sulzmann, Kenny Wheeler, Norma Winstone, et al.  Think of how many of these artists, perhaps all of them, have appeared in some album or another featured on this blog!!

Herbert Joos and Fourmenonly have a track written by the former called Count Down. It's a free jazz piece and will appeal to those who have a taste for that inchoate genre.  Certainly the Daybreak album from his was a huge fan favourite here on this blog.

Michael Gibbs is one artist not previously mentioned whose work I've loved dearly due to its highly well written nature, particularly in Chrome Waterfall Orchestra and In the Public Interest.  Or let's not forget the formidable work Just Ahead from 1972's Mike Gibbs Band, an album I've listened to all my life and keep on discovering more beauty in.  (Unfortunately the other mid-70s album which was a homage to Shakespeare called Will's Power was quite disappointing for me).  (I can post all the Mike Gibbs albums if there's interest.)  He presents us here with three pieces, the first of which is the gorgeous Mother of the Dead Man by Carla Bley, which appeared earlier in the aforementioned live Just Ahead.  The other two are his own compositions called Just A Head [sic] and Fanfare, which first appeared in Tanglewood 63, not a bad album, though not comparable to the previously mentioned 70s masterpieces.

As usual, there is a throwaway jazz number which is the Jim Hall Group's Body and Soul interpretation, and equally as usual, I have to write the same comments about the sheer excruciating boringness of ordinary jazz standards, the nightmare of having to hear them millions of times in one's lifetime, like Paul McCartney's grotesque Yesterday, etc., etc.

Then this nice big thanksgiving dinner closes out with the beautiful Volker Kriegel group and a composition by Eberhard Weber called Electric Blue-- not quite as strong a dessert as one would have liked unfortunately, since it turns into a very mushy free-for-all improvisation after about the two minute mark-- making the proportion of written material to wanker material about 1 to 100.  And it's 18 minutes and 40 seconds long!!


FULL CREDITS AND SAMPLE:

A1 Fourmenonly - Count Down [Comp. by Herbert Joos]

Bass Clarinet, Flute – Wilfried Eichhorn
Drums, Flute – Rudi Theilmann
Engineer – Hans-Heinrich Breitkreuz
Piano, Flute – Helmut Zimmer

A2 Michael Gibbs Orchestra - Mother Of The Dead Man [by Carla Bley]





A3 Michael Gibbs Orchestra - Just A Head [by Mike Gibbs]

A4 Michael Gibbs Orchestra - Fanfare [by Mike Gibbs]

A2 to A4 Credits
Bass Guitar – Roy Babbington (tracks: A2 to A4)
Bass Trombone – Geoff Perkins (tracks: A2 to A4)
Concert Grand Piano – Dave MacRae (tracks: A2 to A4)
Conductor – Michael Gibbs (tracks: A2 to A4)
Drums – John Marshall (tracks: A2 to A4)
Engineer – Werner Münchmeyer (tracks: A2 to A4)
Piano, Organ – John Taylor (2) (tracks: A2 to A4)
Producer – Michael Naura
Production Manager – Karl-Heinz Schlüter
Saxophone, Flute – Brian Smith (tracks: A2 to A4), Ray Warleigh (tracks: A2 to A4), Stan Sulzmann (tracks: A2 to A4)
Trombone – Chris Pyne (tracks: A2 to A4)
Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Henry Lowther (tracks: A2 to A4), Kenny Wheeler (tracks: A2 to A4)
Vibraphone, Percussion – Frank Ricotti (tracks: A2 to A4)
Vocals – Norma Winstone (tracks: A2 to A4)


B1 Jim Hall Workshop Group - Body And Soul [comp. by who cares?]
Bass – Red Mitchell
Drums – Daniel Humair
Engineer – Günter Simon
Guitar – Jim Hall

B2 Volker Kriegel Workshop Group - Electric Blue [comp. by Eberhard Weber]
Cello – Peter Warren
Bass – Eberhard Weber
Drums – Joe Nay
Engineer – Hans-Heinrich Breitkreuz
Guitar – Volker Kriegel
Percussion – Peter Giger
Piano – John Taylor (2)
Saxophone, Piccolo Flute – Stan Sulzmann
Violin – Zbigniew Seifert

Aspects of Paragonne, from 1987 (Tony Hymas, Stan Sulzmann, John Taylor, Frank Ricotti, and Chris Lawrence...)

I featured some Tony Hymas - Stan Sulzmann material before, this album also has John Taylor on piano on some tracks and the legendary Frank Ricotti on percussion and vibes.  Despite the late date this is very much a part of the seventies spirit of fusion and progressive jazz.  It is without a doubt superior to the preceding "Insight" library album, although it appeared the next year, it might be that this combination of artists just felt like hitting gold again or were nostalgic for the classic sound of old, as indeed am I.

I wonder if "Monica and the Pirate" is a homage to Soft Machine's gorgeous "Chloe and the Pirates:"



And the "Aggression and Regression" track provides stunning chords (essentially, G sus, but with added G sharp, etc.) on top of a screwed-up scale of D - E - Fsharp - Gsharp - A - B - return to C.  Quite a shocking scale and chord to complement it.  Not in the Greek classification of scales, I believe.




The last track, "Before and After Zara" with the beautiful flute of Sulzmann really sounds like it came from a late seventies record, there's nothing to indicate the year of 1987 here, not at all:



There's the kind of nostalgia I like, the kind that delves 30-40 years into the past...

More library: Tony Hymas and Stan Sulzmann in KPM 1367: Insight, from 1986

Both Hymas and Sulzmann were luminaries in the Brit jazz scene.  If you look at their discographies you'll see they performed together in a few albums, I'll try to go through the ones that I know of.  First of all, Tony Hymas I've presented before in the Wessex Tales album as a composer and you'll notice similar material to that one on side one.  "Face to Face" I believe was presented by dusty shelf, the great library blog.  Their big collaborative masterpiece is the oddly-named record "Krark" from 1979-- just a gorgeous progressive-fusion album full of intense ideas and often featuring the odd pairing of saxophones and synthesizers which we heard before in the "SOS" album once posted on prognotfrog.

Stan Sulzmann was not quite as prolific as Tony Hymas as you can see from his discography.  The pair collaborated on two library albums (as far as I know, which is not much admittedly) of which this is the more disappointing, the first one, called Have Sounds will Travel, is a fantastic little funky library masterpiece, at least the first side is, because the second side doesn't involve these two musicians, instead feat. a very disappointing Les Hurdle and Frank Ricotti who almost is slumbering on this effort.  In regards to this album a lot depends on whether you have a taste for the eighties style, the drum machine, the reverbed chord, etc.

Here's a {slightly} well-written track that gives you a bit of an idea:

Now think back to that time in the mid eighties when CDs were about to blow away all this vinyl into the stratosphere... and fast forward to today, when we resuscitate this lost material for a tiny few people who appreciate this lost art form...