A discovery of the mighty osurec again: British Iguazu from 1984

A fantastic latin-tinged advanced fusion record from the UK (and not Brazil as one would expect), this is the mastermind of a guitarist called Dominic Miller.  One can see from the photo that it's the same individual, and note the mention of 'his work with Sting' on discogs.

It is absolutely tragic that this gorgeous record is thus forgotten, not even known among the collectors.  Check out his playing on this track:






I think you'll agree, not just the inventive composition, but the delicatesse of the acoustically played intro and subsequently the general progression, the buildup and momentum he creates through a six minute long song (particularly with that almost-exclaimed repeat bass pattern of F-C-G) really testify to his artistic genius.

Next Masterwork: Melisma's magnificent Like Trolls, 1978 and the story of the composers...

When I saw this LP up for sale on ebay, I truly jumped out of my chair and yelled to my wife "I can't believe it!  One of the rarest and most sought after vinyl treasures for sale on ebay!" to which she replied, "didn't you just buy one of those last week?"

I was prepared to pay several hundred dollars for it much to the shock of my wife, who answered with "OK I guess I'm going to buy some new pants for the boys from j. crew."  But to her relief, as well as mine and the credit line's, it wasn't so much after all.  Which was a surprise for me, because this music is absolute progressive heaven, with classical, jazz, songwriting, folk elements, all mixed together into a very cohesively gorgeous whole.  Like I said with regards to Inada Bemi family, this record goes to the heart of what progressive truly is.


First of all, there are two composers here.  The first is one John Simon, from Philly:

John Simon was born in Philadelphia, PA, where he has studied piano since the age of 8. He received both a Bachelors (1976) and Masters Degree (1978) in Music Composition at the Ester Boyer College of Music at Temple University in Philadelphia. John studied classical piano performance with Sophia Melvin and composition with Clifford Taylor, Robert Morgan and Paul Epstein. He founded the Temple University Electronic Music Studio, where he taught graduate and undergraduate classes in Electronic Music. Using a large “C” Series Moog modular synthesizer, John’s many compositions explored the avant-garde of the electronic genre.  John wrote the score for the film Forever Furness, produced by Robert Steele, which won first prize for music in the film competition sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  In the 1970's, John played swing and bluegrass upright bass for seven years with The Skookil Express. The Skookil Express played throughout the Philadelphia area, and were featured at the Philadelphia Folk Festival.

With fellow musicians drawn from the halls of the Ester Boyer College of Music John formed the group Melisma, which performed extensively throughout the Philadelphia area in the 70's, and cut an album, now a collector's item, Like Trolls. The group performed original songs, with a strong emphasis on vocal harmonies. Melisma was very eclectic, performing material ranging from Renaissance madrigals to be-bop, from Leonard Bernstein to Joni Mitchell.

In 1979, John moved to Mendocino County, Northern California, where he formed the jazz fusion group Synaps from 1982 through 1987. Synaps featured jazz vocalist Paula Samonte and performed original music composed by John. His passion for creativity has driven him to form and join many groups exploring original and experimental music. He produced several CDs and was a founding member of the group The Fourth Stream, a modern jazz ensemble featuring many of his compositions.

John was a member of the faculty at Sonoma State University for seven years, and continues to teach at the Santa Rosa Junior College for his fifth year, teaching jazz piano as well as jazz vocal repertoire and accompaniment techniques. He is in his eighth year as music director for Saint Francis Solano Catholic Church in Sonoma. 

Those other groups sound very interesting: Synaps, and Fourth Stream.



Now let's move on to the gentleman who wrote the majority of the music here.  His name was Robert Marcelonis.  And I say was, because check out the biography on wiki:

Robert ("Bob") Marcelonis (2 June 1953 to 30 March 1995) was an American musician and artist, based in Philadelphia.  Marcelonis was known in the Philadelphia arts community as a songwriter, playwright and founder of several improvisational comedy groups. Naturally gifted and raised in a religious family, Bob had composed Masses, Ave Maria's and commemorative pieces for the canonization of Saint John Neumann. He sang in the choir of the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. As well as playing various instruments, composing and orchestrating, Bob had an incredible voice and a natural singing ability. He graduated from Temple University's School of Music in May 1975, as a music composition major.  He was interested in of all types of music and cultures, which would often influence his musical compositions. Though classically trained, he participated in the folk festival every year. And as well as masses, wrote inane lyrics and silly songs, always happy to make people laugh or to laugh himself.  As is often the case with artists, Marcelonis had to find work outside of the arts in order to make ends meet. He became an accomplished computer systems analyst in a matter of months through self-study and was able to maintain a comfortable lifestyle through this work.

During the late-1970s and early-1980s Marcelonis wrote scores of songs and played the local coffeehouse circuit both as a solo act and with his band, Melisma. He lived for several years during the late-1970s and early-1980s in Los Angeles where he worked with "The Groundlings" learning the craft of improvisational comedy.  His mother was diagnosed with cancer just as Bob was starting to break through in both his musical and comedic talents. He returned home to Germantown, in Philadelphia, to care for his mother until she died. He remained in the home where he grew up never returning to California.  Upon returning home to Philadelphia he soon started his own series of improv groups. Some of the descendants of these groups are still performing in Philadelphia and other areas, to this day. 

In the early-1990s, Bob's life would change drastically when he learned he was HIV positive. Bob fought hard for his life but came to accept his pending death as certain, as his illness would infiltrate his body and he would get AIDS, suffering greatly. At first he feared admitting his illness and losing his family and friends. But in the end, pure love overcame fear and as he told each of his family and friends, all embraced him and all were with him to the very end.

Bob Marcelonis, you were a true songwriting genius.  Let this beautiful music be your epitaph forever.





Miracles -- 
I never imagined the colors of the day
They find the magic hidden in a place where dreams can play a part
It really isn't foolish to believe if I reach into my heart
And give you everything you are to me--

Everybody's life goes on, like a melancholy song
The voice in the night, simple and bright, calling you
People see me differently, not the way that you see me
The things we allow to come between us the world will say, 
Miracles --
...

B3 (Tryin' to Reach You)

I love the ending on the major chord, from a song in minor key.  Great effect.


From discogs:

Band – Bob Beyer, Bob Marcelonis, John Simon, Larry MacOnaghy, Laurie Lipson, Leslie Hall

Bass – Bill Zinno
Engineer – Gene Leone
Guitar – Tom McAnulty
Lead Vocals – Melisma
Piano – Denny Matkosky
Producer – Larry Maconaghy
Saxophone – Murray Middleman


And one of the most stunningly inventively written song, Reunion:





When a great artist like Marcelonis is able to create such gorgeous work that gives us so much happiness and pleasure, so many years after he has passed, who is to say there is no such thing as an eternal soul?

Mushi & Lakansyel's absolutely genius Koté Ou? from 1983, Haiti: another masterpiece!

This is a masterpiece of progressive Brazilian-style soft jazz that I never knew even existed until it came up for sale.  To find such gorgeous music and songwriting after such a long time looking for rarities as usual just stuns me.  It stands comparison to the best work of Milton Nascimento, the great Brazilian composer songwriter, with the added edge of progressive dissonance that takes it right over the top as far as I'm concerned.  Of course, having been released in Haiti, 1983, what chance was there for any commercial success?  Today of course, it is still regarded as a failed state, particularly since it was destroyed by the horrible 2010 earthquake and previous hurricanes and as usual not as much aid has been forthcoming as would seem to be necessary on moral grounds-- more and more powerful hurricanes being obviously one of the forecasts for the coming era of climate change.  But why is it such a failed state, the pre-eminent one in the Western hemisphere?  Why, indeed...

Well, few people are aware of the true story of why.  It turns out Haiti and the other Caribbean Islands were some of the first fully colonized spaces after Europe 'discovered' the Americas.  And the reason is obvious, they were islands and easy to dominate.  So of course their first thought was to turn them into huge farms, which we call plantations now, and who would work on these?  Well, the natives, initially.  But they were such slavemasters that they quickly ran out of manpower.  So the solution, obviously, was to import slaves from Africa.  For hundreds of years in fact, Africans worked those European farms to make sugar for Europeans.  And to make their owners rich.  Well, one day the whole country of slaves rose in revolt and said, no more, we will now control our country ourselves, get out, what you have been doing is plainly wrong.  The Westerners were forced to leave.  Instead, an island full of ex-slaves became a country.  Unfortunately, for punishment the 'civilized world' decided they would never help Haiti again, particularly, the United States, so close by, refused any aid, and moreover took delight in tampering with the politics of the country for its own selfish purposes.  And this situation continued-- for centuries.  What about the natives, why are there no natives (i.e, what are called American Indians) such as one sees commonly in Mexico and S. America?  They killed them all off, or rather, they all died.  You will not see any native people on Haiti anymore. What is different about this country is that the subjugation lasted so long.  For so many generations, there were only slaves and masters, unlike for ex. in Africa where the colonial era (setting aside the slave trade previous) lasted only one or two centuries.  As well, the island was fully depredated, there was nothing left, not even trees, to fall back on, unlike the case in North American where rich natural resources could be re-exploited upon independence.  So let's say it again, 'why is Haiti such a failed state, what's wrong with those people?'...   Imagine a man wrongly accused of murder, thrown into jail, who spends decades or even most of his life in solitary confinement.  One day the error is discovered, perhaps exonerated through DNA testing, the miscarriage of justice is reversed, and he is freed (such as is quite common in the United States).  Will this man become a productive member of our society now?  Of course not, moreover, it's quite possible he never will, he has been too severely traumatized-- he will never be the same again.


There is a lot of info on this page.  Apparently it was released to CD but these are now out of print as well.  A few points, notice that the lyrics are by Ralph Boncy (who is also exec. producer).  The 'other' artist, Lakansyel, sounds to me like pidgin French for rainbow, perhaps it's the name of the group?  Notice also that Widmaier's brother Joel is singing here, he is the one with the fabulous voice on the vocal tracks (half the tracks are instrumentals).  He also plays percussions, with Mushi playing keys.

At the bottom:  "This album is dedicated to Philippe and Chantal (his children?)."  Bonjour Soleil, Bonjour Misère:





And the last (title) track is shockingly progressive, showing what a talented composer this Mr. Mushi Widmaier was... tragically so, since this appears to be his sole output.





Check out how much the harmony vocals recall Milton Nascimento's classic use of the below-third interval, as opposed to rock's use of the above third or fourth started by the Beatles long ago.  As well note the amazing falsetto vibrato of the stunning vocalist who sustains the notes with almost no effort (presumably Joel).

And spare a thought for those poor people of Haiti, who have seen no end of suffering for 400 years or so, and still do not, thanks to the recent earthquake.  It is so important for us in the West to understand they are poor because they made us rich.  You cannot be wealthy without someone else being poor-- currency is a purely relational thing.
And wouldn't it be easy to get rich by using unpaid slaves to work a farm the size of an island-- for 300 years?

              ________________________


The more I listen to this the more it sounds like an old friend from childhood, something so familiar I feel like I 've listened to it all my life, like those summers at the beach spent in days long ago passed, or in Paul Verlaine's words, like voices you loved now silenced, with its tropical warmth and the sun and sadness shining down, with side a introducing us to a sunrise and a morning full of light and sound, with side b passing to afternoon and the final track with its bird calls closing with sunset over the ocean and streaks of color in the distance among the clouds...  This man surely put all his heart and soul into this work and asks us all to please, accept the gift of his soul with grace...

Nothing better than some Eastern European fusion (and sausage): Debreceni Jazz Együttes, Hungary,1979

Look at that fantastic cover art!!  doesn't it make you want to scream?
OK, maybe not.
Just take a deep breath here.

I will never forget my (Austrian) mother's sausage called the debreceni and so when I saw this title I jumped and laughed thinking I must buy this.  Of course the Great Google  not only informs us of the nature of this double entendre par excellence processed meat, it also tells us it's a soccer team a semi-nude woman, and a man with a WC Fields nose.

I was hoping this was going to be as good as Bright Sun which if you recall was such a masterpiece: synthesizing folk fusion and classical elements, and with such dark lyrics as well...  Well this is more in the straightforward jazz style, on the dial from Charlie Parker jazz to Soft machine fusion we're at one point five units in the jazz direction here, whatever the heck that means.  It's a bit jazzier than Polish Crash, and much less fusionoid than Christy Doran's Om.

A little surprisingly we don't see much Bartok influence such as was universal in Hungarian fusion and prog of this era.  I would go so far as to say it's a shame there isn't a little more dissonance to spice it up here.  Nonetheless a very enjoyable outing from behind the Iron Studio Curtain of 1979.

The last track is a formidable number especially with the gorgeously fluid electric piano sound we love oh so much. Starting with that abominable chord change that I mentioned before absolutely drives me bonkers due to its overuse in any kind of "spanish" music, I speak of the dreaded Eminor-F-G progression, sometimes modulated to other keys like Gm-Aflat-Bflat but in this case in the most facile and retarded E minor (I guess its ease on the acoustic guitar for flamenco is the reason behind this) anyhow, starting with this unpromising basis check out how the band moves into far more interesting and atmospheric territory:





And look at that amazing painting again.  These Eastern Europeans were such absolute masters at impressive cover art...

And note the involvement of Simeon Shterev, featured before.

Gérard Pisani's 1975 solo work, Le Loup Des Steppes

Gérard Pisani (aka Gerry Zipanar) was in the famed French proto-prog rock band Martin Circus.  (He was the horn or sax player, and plays these instruments here.)  The record carries interest for us as it is his mid-seventies solo outing, and his only solo work as far as I know, it turns out that it is in chansonnier pop style with a great deal of balladic tenderness, or, as my college friend used to call it, it's 'makeout music' which is quite appropriate an appellation.  Nonetheless, no song is quite as remarkable as the Mimi opus by Xavier Gernet which I played over and over again back in the day, a year ago I guess.  But there are some nice ones.  For example, the closer, called "Pas Besoin De Prévenir":





His ex never finished the painting on his kitchen wall, so she can come over anytime, the door is open, no need for warning.

Here and there one hears echos of what he brought to the Martin Circus style, e.g. the track B2 Ce Jour Là wherein some rock chords pass into a minor second chord change that is rather interesting, at least for the brief flash of an aural moment.

I also really came to like the second song, about taking things as they come in life, good or bad, though the chord changes here are quite simplistically diatonic, major sevenths:





Nonetheless, this song really got under my skin, mostly on account of what the singer is saying, and I spent a whole evening playing it over and over again-- for my poor unfortunate family...
I hear:

"but, really it has no importance
you have to take existence
as if there were no difference...

when someone holds out their hand
be the friend you wish you had...

you could count on your fingers
all the people who really wish you well...
they are like dogs, they bark,
but they don't remain long anyways

I don't know anymore
where is the good, where is the bad?

really it has no importance
you have to take existence
as if there were no difference..."


In the last stanza it sounds as if he is speaking to a child-- is it a jaded adult talking about life or is it as I believe, the deeper idea that you can never have good without bad and bad without good in life? My suspicion, just because of the proximity of the Annapurna song, is that it's a French attempt at an Eastern, buddhist message.  But I like that there are many interpretations to the song.

Clearly this was his attempt at true commercial success.  Did it succeed?  One thing I do know, it won't succeed today, not with youtube and Kate Perry and Justin Bieber as competition...