Riku Niemi & Severi Pyysalo in Marimba and Vibes

Very similar to the Playful post but with different instrumentation, this is remarkably well composed music for such simple arrangement.  The information can be found here.  It's very reminiscent in the intelligence of the composition and laidback melancholy aspects to my old ECM favourite Gallery which featured Paul McCandless but was mostly written by vibes player David Samuels-- every year I go back to that one to listen and enjoy it again.

For e.g. Private Solitude:

Of course if you suffer from insomnia, perhaps because of this danged pandemic carrying on for far too long, the track called Pleasant Dreams surely should cure you, at least of the former though never the latter unless perhaps you're sedated in an ICU somewhere:

Mark 'Moogy' Klingman Part 2 (1978)

 

The 2nd album it turns out is more polished and all over better than the first one, I should have reserved judgement instead of rushing to condemn him.  Info is here.  It's similar to the case with Allee Willis who started off so rough and Laura Nyro-like but developed into a really accomplished professional songwriter later in the decade of the seventies.  The voice has improved quite a bit from the earlier Cocker fake and at times is almost croonerish, like a simple man's Sinatra.  

Consider first the highly approachable Bessie track:

Of course, there's bound to be the throwaway tracks which for me are the kind of bluesy or boogie-woogie ones that are so easy any child could put together, or the ones with the really simplistic chord progressions everyone learns from the beginning of any kind of rock school education. Amazingly those are often the most popular songs among the public

When you take a look at the database you might be shocked to see that in addition to Todd Rundgren who again appears here, credited as engineer, there is Randy Brecker on horns, Rick Derringer, David Earle Johnson, and, insanely, Jan Hammer, though I'm sure each of these guys only does guest appearances on certain tracks.

Equally shocking is a (sadly short) composed instrumental track called Blue Mother that sounds like it should have come from a Stackridge album:

Please note that the youtube link provided by the commenter on the last moogy post includes bonus tracks from later and/or unreleased stuff, I would love to know how he found those.

An album deserving to be better known, thanks for the request again.  

It's good.

Andreas Willers and Gebhard Ullmann in Playful (1985), by request

 A mix of free jazz \ contemporary jazz, and more gentle stuff, relaxing to the point of somnolence, like so much acoustic material from Germany.  This country in particular seems to have had a real predilection for the really sedative type music, so often featuring dueling acoustic guitars, I believe I've posted a number of those myself on this blog in the past, such as the Kroton Blue Sun work, and will too, in the future, in all likelihood.

Info here.  Other than this, I don't see too much interesting in the database, perhaps someone can correct me.  Sample, Juliusstrasse 25:

ADDENDUM:

Both musicians are great seekers, always on a journey of sound.

This is what jazz enthusiasts appreciate internationally.

Short review:

For many years, the most famous prize for jazz musicians in Germany was the

"SWR Jazz Prize"

(SWR = Südwestrundfunk - a state broadcasting company for the states of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate).

In 1987, Gebhard Ullmann and Andreas Willers were also awarded this prize.

30 years later, in 2017, the "Berlin Jazz Prize" (initiated by the radio station RBB and the cultural senate of the Berlin state government) was established for the first time, endowed with 15,000 euros.

And who was the first winner of this newly created prize? The saxophonist, bass clarinettist and flutist Gebhard Ullmann!

Today, he is one of the most important initiators of Berlin's diverse jazz - and in great demand on both sides of the Atlantic.

With his quintet "Basement Research", which has existed for over 20 years, or the quartet "Conference Call", he stands for an internationalisation that is a tradition in jazz. Especially between free improvisation and new music concepts, the terrain that Ullmann also explores in numerous other formations.

„mikroPULS" is his current formation with whom he goes on adventures into unknown realms.

The famous literary critic Gregor Dotzauer wrote in DER TAGESSPIEGEL (June 23, 2017): "They are on the trail of microtonal processes that combine with an energetic jazz pulse. Ullmann's tenor saxophone and Hans Lüdemann's quarter-tone keyboard create swirling and swirling lines on the melodic axis, while double bassist Oliver Potratz and drummer Eric Schafer drive in between with hard-edged rhythms and disentangle them again in the metrically free. A fascinating interweaving of precision and imprecision."

The LP "Playful" was a great success in 1985. This vinyl was the first musical footprint that made Gebhard Ullmann and Andreas Willers became known. Since then they have been successful as daring and at the same time well-tempered individualists of their generation.

An LP to indulge in as well as an invitation to listen closely.

(From a commentator)

US Arsenal, 1981 (?)

Hot on the heels of the Spectre from just earlier this week or perhaps last week, who knows anymore, another very raw US eighties hard rock / AOR album missing from everywhere makes it appearance.  This one being much cheaper you can purchase a copy for 200 to 500 dollars, but why dare the Wrath of Wife?  Admittedly, the ripping process has not been done up to our exceptional standards here but it's a tough call whether or not to lay down that much money on this music...  not to mention that it's also criminally short, being even less than 30 minutes in length.  I think this one too was once requested somewhere... sometime...

First track:

Long-awaited Roberto Anselmi's Sensazioni, from 1981

I guess not to be confused with the other Anselmi, namely Swiss Renato who appeared a few times to much acclaim last time with For His Friends, Roberto has appeared here too with the widely available Strumentali.  As I always love to say it's not a little shocking that these lost Italian library records are so expensive, compared to those from other countries. Anyways, this is also somewhat generic library, but very slightly less generic than the preceding Peter Patzer, so yes, maybe it's worth spending 400 euros on.  Currently, not even for sale on discogs.  Giovane Amore: