Puppenhaus - Jazz Mach Spazz [1973]

well, hello to all again..
It's been quite some time since i last put something new here. Too busy, no... a little bit bored, a little bit not believing that anyone stil uses blogs as a way to discover ''new'' music.
Anyway, This time you are to be treated with a remarkable one off album outfit called Puppenhaus.
I had found this years back when i was endlessly searching for something good, progish, and i happend to bump on this gem. Never heard it till a few months before as i thought then, it was a prog rock album, but when i rushed through it i heard sax, flutes and an overall jazz feel i didn't want at the time.
Now, a few months back , i was trying to think jazzy record to listen, and out of nowhere THIS came to mind. So i push play and by the second track i was awstrack. Instead of a jazz/rock 70's thing, this was something different.. Reminded me of the Soft Machine's Third album jazzness along repetitive patterns, along with Frip/wetton/brufford King Crimson aesthetics, the monstreus Fender Precision sound is there. the jam thing that the trio did at the time is there and quite strong!! The creativity of the people involved is something to be ecpected from a bunch of hippie musicians living, rehearsing and writing music in a ''artistic'' commune.
Melodic passages bled harmonically with furious outrages, intense playing, and fantastic thematic changes in a mixture of jazz and progressive rock, after all this is a progressive rock album trying to sound jazzy (and succeding i might say), not the other way around. After all the titles says it all.
Jazz Mach Spazz ''jazz makes fun'' in loose translation.
I highly recomended.

Oh i forgot to mention that while my first hearing session, i was searching online for the CD version of this, and when the album finished i just pushed Purchase on ebay and that sums it up, don't you think?

Have FUN with jazz then.

Tracks:
All tracks written by Puppenhaus.
01. Anfang - 10:38
02. Jazz macht Spazz - 7:52
03. Swingende Elefantenkompanie - 10:44
04. Let the pig out - 5:58
05. Improvisationen - 17:02
Bonuses:
06. Fünfmal Schnitzel mit Pommes Frites - 11:54
07. Sabanone - 13:18

Personnel:
- Frank Fischer - bass
- Berthold "Bea" Maier - drums
- Büdi Siebert - flute, saxophone
- Herbert Binder Krebs - guitar
- Thomas Rabenschlag - keyboards

Gong - Expresso II [1978]

Now many of you may be familiar with the Progressive/Psychedelic band Gong, these two posts are something entirely different. After Band leader Daevid Allen left the band Pierre Moerlen the band's drummer at the time took the leadership and formed a band a lot more jazz oriented band with a much more percussion sound having two amazing vibraphone players and a percussionist. This led for me to the production of two of the most significant, mind blowing and pioneering records in Jazz/Rock history. Gazeuse! and Expresso II. Up until today i find nothing like these two records. The individual talents (and believe me you will be amazed by each and every persons playability and ideas) combined with fantastic ideas and song structures led by the fierce drumming of Moerlen and the vibraphones make these two albums in my humble opinion the two greatest jazz/rock albums ive ever heard. More rock-ish than Weather Report, more Jazzy than Mahavishnu Orchestra. Take a listen and see for your selves.

Studio Album, released in 1978

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Heavy Tune (6:22)
2. Golden Dilemma (4:51)
3. Sleepy (7:17)
4. Soli )7:37)
5. Boring (6:23)
6. Three Blind Mice (4:47)

Total Time: 37:17

Line-up / Musicians

- Mireille Bauer / marimbas, vibraphone
- Francois Causse / congas
- Allan Holdsworth / rhythm guitar
- Bon Lozaga / acoustic guitar
- Benoit Moerlen / glockenspiel, vibes, xylophone, tubular bells, claves
- Pierre Moerlen / drums, glockenspiel, xylophone, tubular bells, timpani
- Hansford Rowe / bass, rhythm guitar
- Mick Taylor / electric guitar
- Darryl Way / violin

Enjoy it

Gong - Gazeuse! [1976]

Now many of you may be familiar with the Progressive/Psychedelic band Gong, these two posts are something entirely different. After Band leader Daevid Allen left the band Pierre Moerlen the band's drummer at the time took the leadership and formed a band a lot more jazz oriented band with a much more percussion sound having two amazing vibraphone players and a percussionist. This led for me to the production of two of the most significant, mind blowing and pioneering records in Jazz/Rock history. Gazeuse! and Expresso II. Up until today i find nothing like these two records. The individual talents (and believe me you will be amazed by each and every persons playability and ideas) combined with fantastic ideas and song structures led by the fierce drumming of Moerlen and the vibraphones make these two albums in my humble opinion the two greatest jazz/rock albums ive ever heard. More rock-ish than Weather Report, more Jazzy than Mahavishnu Orchestra. Take a listen and see for your selves.



Studio Album, released in 1976

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Expresso (5:58)
2. Night Illusion (3:42)
3. Percolations, Part 1 + Part 2 (10:00)
4. Shadows Of (7:48)
5. Esnuria (8:00)
6. Mireille (4:10)

Total Time: 39:38

Line-up / Musicians

- Mireille Bauer / marimba, vibraphone, glock, toms
- Allan Holdsworth / electric guitar, acoustic guitar, violin, pedal steel guitar
- Didier Malherbe / Tenor sax, flute
- Benoit Moerlen / vibra
- Pierre Moerlen / drums, glock, vibra, marimba, timpani
- Francis Moze / Fretless bass, gong, acoustic & electric piano

Enjoy it

Chick Corea Electric Band - Eye Of The Beholder (1988)

Always thought that Chick Corea Electric Band's best album was Beneath The Mask (if you are not familiar with this album and you dig fusion music definitely chack it out). That was until i heard this album. And it is trully an amazing Jazz/Rock record.The line up the same till then, with the talents of John Patitucci on bass, Dave Weckl on Drums, Frank Gambale on guitars and Eric Marienthal on sax. Easily the best of the Elektric Band outings, the writing is really strong, melodic and complex. Eye Of The Beholder is more on the jazzy side of things unlike the albums they wrote after this one (Inside Out & Beneath The Mask) walking on fusion grounds. It has i believe more of a soundtrack feel, with lots of Corea's Piano work being the lead instrument,small piano passages with sax melodies between the main songs. It is more laid back and soft in it's whole having even acoustic guitars from Gambale but has the moments where it gets ''louder'' and more aggressive.
Truly magnificent work here!

Songs / Tracks Listing
1. Home universe (2:46)
2. Eternal child (4:50)
3. Forgotten past (3:00)
4. Passage (4:53)
5. Beauty (7:48)
6. Cascade_part 1 (2:00)
7. Cascade_part 2 (5:08)
8. Trance dance (5:50)
9. eye of the beholder (6:32)
10. Ezinda (6:54)
11. Amnesia (3:30)

Total Time 53:30


Line-up / Musicians
- Chic Corea / acoustic piano
- Dave Weckl / drums
- John Patitucci / bass
- Eric Marienthal / saxophone
- Frank Gambale / guitar


Enjoy it

Forgas Band Phenomena - Soleil 12 (2007)

Now for my secong post.Well this is one of my favorite instrumental prog rock albums just like the above post Atlas from Sweden (hope you liked it).Forgas Band Phenomena is a french octet with drummer Patrick Forgas as the leader.Their music a blend of canterbury and jazz-rock wich is in one way unique.The melodies and riffs stick to your head from the very first.

Bandleader Patrick Forgas has been described as 'the French answer to the Canterbury scene', and this album of his is proudly marketed as: 'for fans of Soft Machine, Pierre Moerlen's Gong, Bruford, National Health.I agree on that.

True, the music on SOLEIL 12 often resembles THIRD (and BUNDLES) era Soft Machine, and it will also remind you of Pierre Moerlen's Gong at their gentlest (especially of the Gong albums that came after EXPRESSO II). Forgas reveals a familiar preference for unhurried, repetitive, riff-driven compositions. His drumming style is close to Pierre Moerlen's. The sound of three brass players (trumpet and saxes) playing the main themes in unison is unmistakably Soft-Machine like.lead guitarist Sylvain Ducloux tends to sound like a typical Allan Holdsworth-disciple.Also an excellent work from the violinist Frédéric Norel!

These four trakcs on the album are played Live! Yes that is correct, Live performance played unmistakably well, almost like studio-like version.

It's trully a gem!

Live, released in 2005

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Soleil 12 (9:22)
2. Coup De Théâtre (34:47)
3. Éclipse (8:16)
4. Pievre à la Pluie (18:18)

Total Time: 70:43

Line-up / Musicians

- Patrick Forgas / drums
- Sylvain Ducloux / guitar
- Igor Brover / keyboards
- Kengo Mochizuki / bass
- Frédéric Norel / violin
- Stanislas De Nussac / Tenor & Soprano saxophones
- Denis Guivarch / Alto saxophone
- Sylvain Gontard / trumpet, flugelhorn

Download

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