Virgilio Araque Reyes's Jamin In Venez (1980)

Many thanks to my generous friend again for this beautiful slice of high-energy fusion.  Nothing cliche'd or hackneyed in this music.

Colors of the Sun presents the arguments of the band, in a masterfully played rocket propellant of rhythm section fuel the guitarist, the inimitable Rhodes piano and other soloists bang on to your ears with the insistency of

String Summit's One World in Eight, 1981

When you look at the involvement here of famous jazz or fusion musicians you get the feeling it's like a high school reunion.  From discogs:

Bass – Barre Phillips, Bo Stief
Cello – Abdul Wadud
Drums, Percussion – Fredy Studer, Pierre Favre
Engineer – Franz Wagner, Norbert Kloevekorn*
Flugelhorn – Ack van Rooyen
Guitar – Christian Escoudé, Harry Pepl [note that these two have appeared here before, separately, both more than once]
Piano, Synthesizer – Wolfgang Dauner
Trumpet – Ack van Rooyen
Violin – Didier Lockwood, John Blake, Krzesimir Debski

Bringing in so many luminaries does not though lead to a nonlinear multiplication in quality, as is so often the case, with the opposite effect perhaps in evidence.  Dauner once again as he did with the Family of Percussion pulls out his old Trans Tanz composition.


First crazy track called One World in Three (written by the violinists D. Lockwood, Blake and Debski):

Think Tank (Netherlands 1972)

This album is a mixed bag but has some really delightful moments.  It's very much in the well-known Brainbox tradition of Dutch masters of early seventies rock and even borrows for some cover material.  I found this particular track, What's Life, to be really as adhesive as industrial strength velcro to both ears and brain:





Pictures of Youth is of course a Kaz Lux song, probably his best actually, which I "reviewed" way back when with regards to his C.S.  (Which album can be reupped on request.)





I can never get over the wonderful blues notes of the verse, how well those seventh notes work on those chords.  Just brilliance.

Despite the beauty of those two tracks, there is quite a lot of filler to wade through.  Some Killa, Lotsa Filla, as they say...  about crabcakes in New England...

Harris Simon Group's 1980 Swish and New York Connection

Harris Simon was a keyboardist, arranger, and composer who made two stunning records in that year of 1980.  His other output is sparse, sadly.  For me this is jazz at its finest with a great deal of invention, uncompromising u-turns into fusion and classical music, but held together into one comprehensive package of earthly delights.  As well the presence of luminaries such as Billy Cobham, Michael Brecker, and Joe Farrell, couldn't really hurt, right.

From NYC, the magical track Loufiana:





The tenderness of the flute here (Farrell) reminds me so much of the Euro-fusion masters from Poland, France, the Scandinavian countries (Finnforest, the early Björn J:son Lindh, not to mention the Pethman just posted this summer).  Even more impressive is the development of the song compositionally, which is utterly unique.

Equally so is the track called Midday Dreams, from Swish:





Perhaps a bit too easy listening for y'all?  So many years after having forgotten that maligned style, can we not resuscitate it a bit?  I loved it then and I still love it now...

Many thanks to my friend for introducing me to this magnificent artist.

More Klaus Lenz with 1978's Fusion, Here called the Jazz and Rock Machine

We heard Fusion before in another post, though this seems to be different.
Here, the track called Equinox is remarkable:





Information here.  All in all this is not as strong as the chronologically just preceding albums which I first posted long ago, with a slight deterioration in progressive composition.  I refer of course to these two.  Nonetheless, curiosity had us collapse Schrodinger's Cat in this case, could it be a good or a bad album?  Well, turns out to be a superposition of both.  The edgy creative energy seems to be missing from the engine of this machine.  Sigh-- the masterpieces cannot be too many...