Back with Jun Fukamachi's OST Mishione from 1980 and probably the last from him here

Oh boy do I love Jun Fukamachi.

This past spring and summer I listened to all his records again over and over and explored every hidden crevice and nuance in his works.  So it was important to me to collect all the tangential materials from this period, such as the early lyrical albums I posted, and more importantly the undigitized elements, such as this album, that were always far away in hard to reach places (like Japan).  The sound sample from the discogs database page for this record, in particular, sounded really attractive, you can hear it for yourself here.

Unfortunately, because the tracks are side-long for both a and b, I still haven't yet identified where that theme song type passage appears on the record, and that is partly due to my lack of patience made much worse by advancing age and loss of the ability to multitask.  The movie itself you can watch, and enjoy, if you are able to understand Japanese on-- where do you think? youtube.  But this must be one of the few times where a movie cannot be found, even in synopsis form, on imdb.

Listening to Fukamachi in detail, so to speak, only convinced me what an unrecognized genius he was, especially in this period of the early 80s when Daisy Chain and Woman with Red Hat came out, and on to Alien (which I included in one of those big packages earlier).  He was at least as inventive a composer and magnificent as keyboardist in the progressive fusion genre as the better known German Joachim Kuhn and Dutch Jasper Van't Hof and that sure ain't fair.  In particular, unlike the North American artists of a similar caliber like Herbie Hancock or Chick Corea, he had that flair for very emotional expression, dramatic musical movements, and symphonic-style (classical) composition (and you can find all these components in the soundtrack to Mishione) which as I've said repeatedly are usually European hallmarks.

Anyways, with this I think we can finally close the big musical book on the brilliant Jun Fukamachi's discography.  At least for now.

1946-2010, RIP Jun Fukamachi.

Fukamachi and Wada together in Digit Cafe 2005 and Super Duo Live 2022

 

Just when you think you've escaped the Jun Fukamachi addiction, you get sucked back in.  Oddly enough these came up when I begged my wife to find some of his music on the abhorrent spotify streaming service which I would never get a subscription for (because it pays artists infinitesimal royalties).

Way back when I tried to post most of his 'earlier' stuff then we found the later stuff was almost universally great too.   This came out much more recently, but note that Wada played with Fukamachi in the latter's fusion band Keep, discogged here.  I think I put up that stuff way back too?

Fukamachi passed away in 2010, so amazingly the 2005 Digit Cafe (not databased on discogs) was recorded / released when he was almost 60 years old! hard to believe he was still so proficient and virtuoso, but sad that he passed only 5 years later which seems way too young.

Unfortunately it isn't clear who the composers were on these 2, but I'm guessing it's mostly the keyboardist.  The 2 CDs have almost the same tracks but a few are different, with Digit Cafe being nice for me because studio and the Super Duo Live, info here, disappointing for me, for the same exact reason.

The title track is I think classic Fukamachi:

While the dissonant arpeggios of Accomplice, this time the live version, are out of the ballpark, as usual for anything JF related:

There is one drawback, at least for me, probably not for everyone, the improvs are way way too long and make each track almost annoying, a tendency which obviously was taken to an extreme on the live.

Back to Jun Fukamachi with his first two SSW albums (1971-1972)

The two first albums from this fusioneer star traveller were in fact within the singer-songwriter genre along the lines of solo McCartney (minus guitar) or Elton John (minus the country and blues), or, most similarly, the earlier Ken Narita masterpiece I posted not that long ago.  Though I shall then be brutally honest and declare that Fukamachi as rock/pop singer was simply not as strong altogether, surprisingly, perhaps explaining why he changed lanes into high speed fusion in the mid-70s.

So you can quickly get an impression on your own here's the second track from the 1971 album, notice the acoustic piano plus vocals style, enhanced by some nice fuzzy guitar colors:





Listening to this again it just amazes me what a profound influence Paul McCartney had on pop music.  Note the echoey vocals (a la Wyatt on Soft Machine) in the middle too. The whole album follows along the same lines really, with occasional discrepancies of more bluesy or symphonic (added strings) compositions, some slight jazz touches here and there, definitely no fusion to be found.  Nothing too stand-out-ish though.

The second album sadly continues in the same medi-mediocre vein. On track a2, the standard, very disappointing downgoing A minor chord progression (the Stairway to Heaven / While my Guitar Gently Weeps progression) aided by a nicely arranged string section, is mitigated by a very emotional chorus sung quite beautifully in the centre of this short piece:

Again, move along folks, there's no fusion to be seen here. Not that I mind well-written pop rock, there's been tons of excellent Japanese songwriting in this blog before (Tranzam, the School Band) as I'm sure you'll all agree.

Notice that it wasn't until 1975 that the fusion Saturn V exploded off the launch pad, leading to an almost unbroken decade of masterpieces from "Introducing Jun Fukamachi" to 1985's "Alien" progressive masterpiece.

Someone asked to have those big packages of semi-compleat material shot up into the cybersphere again and I'll do that so you can get everything I have in three, except these 2 albums, and except some more of the missing Fukamachi albums from that glory period which will be coming here very shortly...

Jun Fukamachi plays on the completely unknown cassette Daisy Chain, from 1983, recommended

A famous keyboardist who was also quite prolific in the era, and a lost and unknown cassette... is it like having heaven on a stick? On several tracks you will notice he achieves an impressive Jasper van t'hof-like complex meld of fusion and synthesizer melodiousness in perfect harmony.  He seems to be playing on multiple keyboards (overdubbed) with the occasional guitar accompaniment, occasionally solo, and on some tracks including rhythm section, but the result is quite enticingly full and appreciably fusion. 

As far as I can tell this wasn't released to LP, nor does it appear in the list of his releases.  What luck to have it unearthed by our wonderful musical miners...





Will these old wonders never cease?

I'll include all the other Fukamachi albums that I have on file, there are I think 20 in total, three separate files to download for limited time only. 

Albums are the following: 1975 Rokyu, 1975 Introducing, 1976 Spiral Steps, 1976 Fukamachi at Steinway (possibly incomplete), 1977 Triangle session, 1977 Sgt. Peppers, 1977 Sea of Dirac, 1977 Second Phase, 1978 Tokyo Fusion Night, 1978 On the Move, 1978 New York all stars live, 1978 Dream of Heike, 1978 Evening Star, 1980 Quark, 1982 Synth Fantasy, 1982 Solo Vol. 1, 1982 The Keep - DG, 1983 The Keep - Rockin, 1985 Alien, 1986 Nicole.

Pay attention to the 1978 Dream album, it's masterful, and probably his best work.

S. Nakamura next in in Paradigm Shift, in 3 albums (1985 to 1989)

Not much info on the discogs page here.  The genre / style for the first ST album is described as "Electronic, Rock, Ambient, Synth-pop, Abstract, AOR" in reality, it's progressive fusion with electronic additions throughout, similar perhaps to the later 1980s Omura albums just posted, or the later Kazumi Watanabe albums like To Chi Ka or even old favourite Fukamachi in his 80s cartoon or video game related phase, like on Queen Emereldus. 

There is a nice alternation between more high energy dissonant King Crimson-derived riffing and gentler piano pieces, for ex. consider this sample from the first album called Nostalgia which let's admit it is almost as good as material by our great master Jun Fukamachi, especially with the application of synth elements on top of acoustic piano:

 

Incidentally note that the composer is the keyboardist called Makoto Matsushita.

Here and there we also encounter vocal tracks with some pop or commercial leanings, understandably.

Actually all 3 of the releases are worth hearing with only a little dip in quality for the last one which came in 1989.  

The second album has the lovely title of "The Rain Child and the River King" sounding a bit like a fairy tale. But again on discogs the genre description sounds totally mixed up.

The track inappropriately called The Naked Girl with the Fever Drum really blew me away and hopefully yourself too, that descending chromatic riff and the furious fast energy they employ in slamming it out is just mindboggling, as well note the middle passage with the KC-like spacey sounds:

From the third and last, it's obvious they take music composition seriously from the track called "Etude #1, Water Lily:"

Zerosen's Asphalt (1976) and Sunrise (1977)

This band, highly adept at library-style light fusion, similar perhaps to Golden Section (though not as good) or Tranzam, made three albums apparently in this period: it's hard to know if the database is complete.  There are some tracks with female vocals (this person), in fact on Asphalt the singer sounds a lot like the Fukamachi-related Martha Miyake in hoarseness especially.  Distantly, maybe to the wonderful and powerful yet nameless Crystal Ship singer.

Anyways, the last track of Asphalt, with its opening resembling the phenomenal Encounter with UFO:





Moving forward from the opening one must admit there is less to hang on to than one would have hoped, really.  One is also surprised to be archaically referred to as 'one'.  Note the professionalism though of the musicians, and the overall library album sound.

I haven't heard the second album, apparently quite rare anyways, but their third Sunrise is definitely superior to the first.  The track called Work Out must be an early indication of exactly when the leggings and headbands 'aerobics craze' fell upon the Western world like a stinking sweaty towel:





Ah, the memory of watching young women in tight leotards and 'big hair' doing aerobics on tv...
Note the intro which my wife so astutely pointed out seems copied from George Benson with his trademark guitar frills in third intervals.  For once I had to admit she was right.  Unlike the Asphalt track, there is a little more to be excited about here overall when the song finally takes its clothes off with the disco rhythm.

In terms of the vocal tracks, the jazzy tune Why he never knows is the one that reminded me of Fukamachi cum (that's a latin word) Miyake:

More Jun Fukamachi, unbelievably, with the OST Fire Bird from 1978

It's always hard to believe there's more 1970s Fukamachi to rip though by now I should stop expressing surprise.  This performance, unfortunately, is by the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra with compositions by Jun, lacking his signature synthesizer brilliance and ambiance.  In that sense it resembles the modern music composed passages in the Woman with the Red Hat, that one of course was tempered by the fact it also had the classic 70s instrumental library/soundtrack European sound.

On the second track surprisingly a synthesizer shows up in the middle passage and is duly integrated:





However for most people the unrelenting classic orchestral sound with loud tympani instead of percussion and ever-squeaky string section unrelieved by the warm human touch of guitar and/or keyboards is a bit much.  Perhaps the descent from the ivory tower university classical stratosphere can be most appreciated in track A4:





But I'm so grateful to hear fresh examples of this brilliant, brilliant man.

Some favourites in different genres from within this blog...

The above is a painting/collage that I bought long ago and sits hanging above my turntable-computer set up and that, obviously, resembles the room full of books and records plus CDRs, DVDs, and backup hard drives it looks down upon.

Many many years ago, perhaps decades, perhaps in the nineteen fifties, the commenter asked me for my favourite blog posts.  It's a hard task to carry out, for the usual reasons: I barely remember what I did a week ago, what would you expect going back the 7 years I've done this crazy thing? But of course the biggest problem is that, as my wife said, it's the same album I just keep collecting over and over again.

Nonetheless it sure makes sense to close out this year of 2020, that so many have already said deserves to be entirely forgotten and erased from humanity's collective memory.

The other problem is that I've been more busy with work this year since the pandemic began and for this sadly I count myself lucky when I hear so many stories of people who have suffered through the opposite, particularly all those in the artistic and hospitality industries.  And no I don't work for amazon.com and the (new) emperor of the world Mr. Bezos currently with ownership of 70% of the milky way galaxy.

I will go by categories of which chamber prog (classical music-influenced prog), not surprisingly, is the longest.

It would be nice if people would assemble their own list of favourites, not necessarily from out of this blog, but secondly, post their final requests to close out the year.  More on that at the end.

I give you links back to the blog, but if there are missing uploads obviously I will repair and reup anything.  I don't mind having functioning links for all the music here, which will last hopefully a while, by god's grace, or rather, by the gods of silicon valley's grace.

PROGRESSIVE FUSION:

Don Mock's Mock One-- his speed of light was hugely underrated, I enjoyed that one immensely as well:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2016/06/don-mock-flying-at-mock-one-in-1978.html

Mike Santiago Entity:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2015/01/mike-santiago-entity-white-trees-usa.html

and the other Mike, Mike Warren and Survival Kit (posted in comments below)

Aussie First Light:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-first-light-from-down-under-in-1978.html

and Aussie Alpha Omega:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2019/10/alpha-omega-1976-by-request.html

Gulgowski's Soundcheck:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2016/04/rory-vincent-sings-music-of-wlodek.html

Of course, all the myriad and incomparables of Jun Fukamachi (multiple posts exist all over the place):

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2018/04/jun-fukamachi-plays-on-completely.html

Impressionistic Masahiko Satoh a close second:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2019/12/yet-another-japanese-fusionary-genius.html

Fellow Space Traveller James Vincent (possibly the most referenced artist in my blogposts):

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-remainder-of-james-vincents.html

Bright Sun's Fenyes Nap:
https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2014/01/bright-suns-fenyes-nap-from-hungary.html

German Nimbus, the most wanted album of the decade:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2018/03/happy-easter-and-nimbus-1980-by.html

LIGHTER FUSION:

Michel Madore

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2020/02/michel-madores-le-komuso-cordes-from.html

Jukka Linkola
https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2014/03/jukka-linkola-octets-proto-funk-from.html

(And his Banana masterpiece which was ripped for pnf in the past)

The Three Simon and Bard:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2017/01/simon-bard-featuring-larry-coryell-in.html

College Kid Peter Berkow:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2013/12/heres-huge-pre-xmas-gem-for-all-you.html
https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2017/01/more-peter-berkow-with-thesis-from-1975.html

Fred Taylor's Court of Circe (note artist's appearance in the comments!):

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2014/07/1982-usa-fred-taylors-court-of-circe.html

All the wonderful joys of Paul Winter and his Consort:
https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-early-years-of-paul-winter-consort.html

GENRE GRAND FUNK ROCK (i.e. not necessarily prog):

The best of 'em all Baby Grand:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2018/03/pomp-rockers-baby-grand-in-1977-and-1978.html

Ambush, my personal favourite:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2020/07/ambush-redux.html

Starbound Lady's Kickin' still:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2014/01/kickin-and-starbound-lady-usa-nebraska.html

Astoundingly prolific Raul Porchetto (really, prog):

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2020/03/raul-porchetto-from-1972-to-1980.html

Daddy Warbucks, the tax scam man:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2015/07/daddy-warbucks-another-brilliant-tax.html

Crazy nuthead (turned preacher, recall) Karlos Steinblast & No. 1 hard rock:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2019/01/karlos-p-steinblast-compleat.html

Frank Robson's Two:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2014/05/frank-robson-st-1974.html

Fish Co., the most underrated unknown pop album ever made:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2015/09/fish-cos-1978-beneath-laughter.html

Sand's astounding West Coast rock (note artist appearance in comments!):

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2015/05/us-west-coast-sands-1976-effort-head-in.html

The Exceptions - Simply Us, simply unparalleled:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-exceptions-simply-us-from-wonderful.html

GENRE TRUE PROGRESSIVE ROCK:

Level F (note the artists' commentary!):

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2020/09/level-f-stitch-in-time-recorded-1975.html

Ginga Rale Band, of course:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2015/06/ginga-rale-bands-1980-wir-bedauern-true.html

Mo's First Time:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-amazing-mos-first-album-from-1976.html

Genre's Commercial Success:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2014/03/genre-commercial-success-from-1978-new.html

XALPH:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2019/05/french-zeuhl-band-xalph-1974-1981.html

The Individual's Trauma:
https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-individuals-trauma-usa-1980-minor.html

Gerardo Batiz's multiple oeuvres:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2016/07/isla-from-gerardo-batiz-1981-plus-bonus.html

Tommy Korberg plus Stefan Nilsson in Blixtlas (below).

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2013/10/tommy-korberg-stefan-nilsson-blixtlas.html

An beautiful and ancient old post, Wisse Scheper Topaz:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2013/10/wisse-scheper-topaz-net-1972.html

Evergreen State College albums:
https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-evergreen-state-college-music.html

Melisma's Like Trolls (note again artist-related comments)

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2015/04/next-masterwork-melismas-magnificent.html

And might as well include the two from Marie-Claire Seguin, though some will object:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2020/12/maire-claire-seguins-two-masterpieces.html

GENRE PROGRESSIVE CHAMBER or PROG-CLASSICAL, a personal favourite:

Doug Lofstrom's Music:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2017/01/doug-lofstroms-music-composition-from.html

Peter Wolf's Tutti:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2018/10/austrian-composer-peter-wolf-and.html

Joxifications, see below

Marco Antonio Araujo, RIP:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2017/08/beyond-brilliant-brazilian-composer.html

The wonderful commenter who found Nuevos Aires's 3:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2017/08/nuevos-aires-from-buenos-aires.html

Membrillar:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2017/06/membrillar-1984-argentina.html

Iviron (pnf) see below

Roger Kellaway's Cello Quartet, one of my favourite albums of all time, see below

Claus Ogerman in review:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2020/08/a-review-of-most-of-claus-ogermans.html

Thanks to the commenter who drew my attention to the recent CD Across the Crystal Sea which has brought me no end of joy in the last few months!

Rafiq Babayev, note there are 2 posts:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2019/06/azerbaijan-composer-rafiq-babayev.html

Yuri Chugonov, wow thanks a million to the guy who posted those!! Truly the single most underrated composer I've ever encountered:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-remarkable-lost-composerarranger.html

Igor Nazaruk's Forest Awakens (pnf), see below

Igor Brill's 3:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-amazing-igor-bril-or-brill-and-his.html

Lothlorien's 2:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2015/08/lothloriens-two-lps-st-1980-and-spaces.html

Marcia Meyer:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2015/01/marcia-meyers-magnificent-oeuvre-part-2.html

Albert Alan Owen's Keyboard and Strings Music

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2019/04/albert-alan-owens-keyboards-and-strings.html

And a big surprise for me, not knowing anything about this, having only known his jazz efforts: Keith Jarrett's masterful progressive fusion orchestral work Luminessence (1975), see below.

GENRE THE BELOVED LIBRARY MUSIC:

Modern Sound Quartet's 3:
https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2015/07/flp-116-modern-sound-quartets-1976.html
Gianni Marchetti (multiple posts), of course:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2016/03/gianni-marchettis-stunning-work.html

Oscar Rocchi and Magic Keys, of course:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2019/02/oscar-rocchis-magic-keys.html

The two from Marco Persichetti:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2020/12/persichetti-part-two-noi-quattro-from.html

Luciani's Aspetti della Natura:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2015/03/an-upgrade-of-melchiori-and-lucianis.html

Brandenburg:
https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-rias-orchestra-cond-by-helmuth.html
Jean-Pierre Bouquet's Classique et Moderne, see below.

And of course, all the myriad of April Orchestra from 1 to 1095, which you can still look up if you forgot them.

An unclassifiable favourite is Haitians Gerald Merceron and Mushi Widmaier, who appeared multiple times here, but especially for Merceron's masterpiece in 1979:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2015/10/return-to-haiti-1978s-lenergie.html

And Mushi's lovely and beloved masterpiece from 1983:

https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2015/04/mushi-lakansyels-absolutely-genius-kote.html

This LP was rereleased, thank god, just after it was last seen selling in the hundreds of dollars.

I bought a copy for 60 euros back then in 2015.

And this Xmas I'm going to do something I've never done before.  I'm going to ask you to post requests and this time I will try to fulfill as many as I can: gods of prog, selfish vinyl collectors, and lossless lovers be damned.  Well, it may turn out I'll chicken out here and there, in order not to annoy those powers that be who have been so generous with me in the past. 

So I guess this will be on a case by case basis, as the corporate people love to say. We'll try to onboard as many of you as possible and empower you all so reach out to me to connect for some face time so we can leverage this post and I'll give 110 percent so we're all on the same page on improving our metrics on best practices and everyone really just try to think outside that box.  Because that box, of course, is completely empty.

Merry Xmas.  OOPS sorry I meant Happy Holidays.  

Oh well: it is what it is.

(Prism and Keep Guitarist) Akira Wada in 3 albums [1981 The Guitar, 1983 Out and about, 1985 Yellow Moon]

 

Discogged:

Japanese fusion guitarist. Born August 26, 1956 in Tokyo. Passed away March 28, 2021.

In Groups:

Akira Wada With Friends, ExhiVision, Keep, Prism (9), W.I.N.S, Duologue

Probably it would be fair to say the 2 bands, Keep (founded by our beloved Fukamachi) and the very prolific Prism, were a bit more progressive with their fusionary outpourings, than Wada's solo material.  People should check those out if they haven't already of course.

From the first album, which features the unbelievable oddity of having side one as regular instrumentals and side two identical songs with backing parts lacking the melodies for 'karaoke' purposes, Oneness Cry:

You can discern immediately we are dealing with the standard Japanese instr. fusion sound of that era we have heard so many times before.  In terms of commercialese, smooth, light fuzak, this is solidly middle of the dial between say 80s David Sanborn and Masahiko Satoh on the other more progressive end.  At least the energy is quite intense and all melodies are played by his wonderfully crisp and clean electric guitar.  (He plays a Fenderish guitar which, according to AI is "a signature model from P-PROJECT by Fernandes, custom made.")

The super-lovely You from the second album:

The third album is an odd mix, being electric guitar melodies on top of orchestral arrangements, all instrumental (apart from a relatively trite song for a certain Julia) as usual.  Surprisingly, it contains the best compositions in my opinion, and they sound like extensions of the last track You from the 2nd.

Last track on the 3rd, Cresendo [sic]: 

Note that after this one the next release came out in the 1990s so I didn't bother listening to it.

(Yet) Another Japanese Fusionary Genius: Masahiko Satoh, Part One

I'm very excited about this one.  This is why it's in the lead-up to Christmas.

The next few posts are dedicated to this remarkable artist who made a string of formidable fusion works in the late seventies-early eighties period, sometimes equalling our old favourite and everyone's favourite I believe, Jun Fukamachi, at least here and there.  The overall sound is actually very similar to the two LPs I posted not too long ago late this past summer from countryman Masanori Sasaji and I hope everyone is not yet tired of those amazing tracks.  Or, if you are, get ready for some more amazing music to listen to, blessed with a very original and emotional sound combining the ultimate excitement of electric fusion from the American side with the depth of feeling and resonance that I've often said is a hallmark of the European masters of the art, plus of course, the brilliant classical education that puts it over the edge for me, with the addition of complex chord progressions, polytonalities, etc.

First of all in his discography you can remark that he spent a lot of time in the early years treading water in that awful swamplike morass of jazz standards that was obligatory for the jazz musician of the time before fusion exploded on the scene.  Just as confusing to me is the fact he played in so many different bands, usually one-off, which I don't know anything at all about.  I would certainly out of habit discard the solo piano albums and the ones classified as free jazz, but that still leaves us quite a few to wade through.

Anyways for part one I stuck to two from 1979 and 1980 that are very similar to the Sasaji works, All in-All out, and Chagall Blue.  From the former absolutely incredible high-energy fusionary masterpiece, which incidentally far exceeds more famous works by Mahavishnu or Patrick Moraz' Story of I, or even most Herbie Hancock mid-70s fusion works, the track called Moth Ball highlights the kinds of crazy ideas this album is chock-full of like a Kellogg's breakfast cereal stuffed with sugar:





And one of the highlights of his works is that he is equally at home with ballads and tender music as he is with the dense-with-energy stuff.

Moving on to the second album, we have mostly a trio with the grand piano and rhythm section added, but here and there you'll notice some cello and violin melodies for some very beautiful, characteristically Euro-fusion effects.  For those who are familiar with the classical piano repertoire, the Impressionistic Dusk is simply a phenomenal homage to Debussy/Ravel (of course, their piano compositions were so similar):





I'm reminded of two other artists/albums with similarly perfect piano compositions, the Japanese work Inada Bemi Family's side one, an immortal masterpiece for me, and the Rena Rama called New Album, wherein the track called Gestalt simply blew me away, and in fact, still does.
More to come.

Dave Grusin (the famous guy) in a rare jazz album Don't Touch (1977)

A really really odd drawing for the cover, quite bizarre and perhaps attempting to be erotic, but to me it doesn't work.
Information here.  The contents are bizarre too, since I assumed they would be fusion given all the other material he was putting out in the mid to late seventies. But I was wrong, it's just trio format acoustic piano jazz covers of standards--the bane of my early jazz days.

There's a lot of really good music though in his fusioneer explorations, particularly in the 1976 Discovered Again album, which has plenty of wonderful compositions, the Sun Song with its nice Keith Jarrett-like piano chords plus vibes covers a lot of new and interesting compositional territory, I think:




Like with Jun Fukamachi, I put all the stuff together into one large file for limited time only use.
The albums are as follows: 1969 Winning (OST), 1975 Eric (OST), 1976 Discovered Again, 1977 One of a kind, 1977 Don't Touch, 1980 Live in Japan, 1980 Mountain Dance, 1982 LA dream band, 1982 Out of the shadows, 1984 Night Lines, 1989 Fabulous Baker Boys (OST) both album and movie which I really loved back in the day, 11 in total. 1.1 GB coincidentally.
Obviously I left out the execrable Tootsie.  The early soundtracks are really good though, with some well-composed music, sometimes very generic.  The Live in Japan and LA dream band are definitely worth hearing too.  Not the Theme from St. Elsewhere-- boy does that one make me want to puke. Takes you right back, doesn't it?  Chariots of Fire, Theme from St. Elsewhere, Theme from On Golden Pond...

Hiroyuki Namba / Nanba, 4 albums (1979-1984)

There is an extensive bio on rym, which you can read if interested.  I am not sure why that turn of events would ever come to pass.  Suffice it to say he made some remarkable music in this period, very reminiscent of the earlier posted (but perhaps a bit superior overall) Masanori Sasaji.  The latter in particular used to very good effect his classical music education to provide some really interesting creative directions.  Namba, on the other hand, is more straight electronics-soundtrack-fusion in style,  I'm sure you know what I mean by that genre, often descending into the light fuzak territory, for which he can't be reproached given this was the apocalyptic trend in the early 80s.

On the 1982 album the Jun Fukamachi aspects of the fusion are both undeniable and irresistible:





While later, on the 1984 opener called Prologue, it feels like the good ol' days of prog rock could last forever:





Though in reality, like Gatsby's dream or Ronald Reagan's 'Morning in America again', those days were already dead and long gone, never to return again.