Olli Ahvenlahti - Bandstand (1975). Sweet keys from 70s Finland - a great little set that's filled with jazzy work on electric piano and clavinet! Keyboardist Olli Ahvenlahti has a touch that's as warm and soulful as some of his counterparts on the American fusion scene - an approach that's not nearly as jamming or rock-influenced as some of the other European keyboardists of the 70s, and which is carried off here with a gliding, soaring approach to the groove! Olli's group on the set features trumpet and sax in the frontline - shading in the tunes with qualities similar to some of the most righteous work done on keyboard sets for Muse or Strata East in the 70s - funky one minute, cosmic the next, with tight head arrangements that state the colors of the tunes, then break into freer solos…

2018 five CD clamshell box set by the legendary American band Spirit. Formed in Los Angeles in 1967 from the remnants of The Red Roosters, Spirit was one of the great bands to emerge on the US West Coast in the psychedelic era…

If's last studio album isn't as good as their first albums. After many line-up changes, the band slowly changed their musical direction to more straightforward blues-soul-rock…

Underground psychedelic electric jazz-rock / improv sound with mellow folk-rock moves and homemade / basement atmosphere. Mostly instrumental with some cut-up vocal sounds and effects. A mix of self-penned songs and amazing cover versions of classics like “Summertime”, “Scarborough Fair” or “A Taste Of Honey” turned into hip, extended jams not so far away from the sound of the pioneering psychedelic ballroom bands from San Francisco. Electric & acoustic guitars, bass, drums, flute…
Named after an old Detroit blues LP, Hasting’s Street Opera was formed in Montclair, New Jersey by a group of young friends (Harry Wellott, Gordon Carlisle, Don Hathaway and Chris Nelson) influenced by blues, rock, jazz and the eclectic sounds…

Double Diamond is the sixth album by British jazz-rock group If and the second to be issued in the U.S. on the Metromedia Records label. With only Dick Morrissey left from the original band, the new line-up featured Fi Trench (keyboards) and Pete Arnesen (keyboards), Steve Rosenthal (guitar/lead vocals), Kurt Palomaki (bass) and Cliff Davies (drums)…

With a live version of "Crossroads" going Top 30 for Cream, Songs for a Tailor was released in 1969, showing many more sides of Jack Bruce. George Harrison (again using his L'Angelo Misterioso moniker) appears on the first track, "Never Tell Your Mother She's Out of Tune," though his guitar is not as prominent as the performance on "Badge." The song is bass heavy with Colosseum members Dick Heckstall-Smith and Jon Hiseman providing a different flavor to what Bruce fans had become accustomed to. Hiseman drums on eight of the ten compositions, including "Theme From an Imaginary Western," the second track, and Jack Bruce's greatest hit that never charted. With "just" Chris Spedding on guitar and Jon Hiseman on drums, Bruce paints a masterpiece performing the bass, piano, organ, and vocals…

Double Diamond is the sixth album by British jazz-rock group If and the second to be issued in the U.S. on the Metromedia Records label. With only Dick Morrissey left from the original band, the new line-up featured Fi Trench (keyboards) and Pete Arnesen (keyboards), Steve Rosenthal (guitar/lead vocals), Kurt Palomaki (bass) and Cliff Davies (drums). It was recorded at The Manor recording studios shortly after Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, and released in 1973. In that same year, following the success of the group in Germany, as part of the This is … series, Brain Records (a division of Metronome) brought out a vinyl LP version of Double Diamond for distribution in Germany only, changing the title to This Is If. The track listing is identical in both cases. The original cover design, and possibly the title, is a reference to the beer brand of the same name.

Perhaps most widely known for his contributions to the atmospheric score of Nicolas Roeg's The Man Who Fell To Earth, Japanese composer/percussionist Stomu Yasmashta made a number of albums in the 1970s that trounced the boundaries of jazz fusion, new age music, and old fashioned experimentation. This 2008 release, mastered directly from the original recordings, is the first CD edition of Yamashta's '75 opus, Raindog, a compelling work that includes one track later used in Earth. Fans of Brian Eno will find a kindred (but wholly original) spirit here.

The seven-disc Stanley Clarke anthology, The Complete 1970s Epic Albums Collection, brings together all six of the influential jazz bassist's original albums for Epic. Included here: 1974's Stanley Clarke, 1975's Journey to Love, 1976's School Days, 1978's Modern Man, 1979's I Wanna Play for You, as well as the 1991 concert compilation Live (1976-1977). These are highly recommended jazz, funk, and fusion releases and must-haves for any Clarke fan.

Kuckuck was responsible for releasing many great albums in Germany in the early 1970s, including those by the wonderful Out Of Focus. Featuring Moran Neumuller (vocals, sax, flute), Remigus Dreschler (guitar), Hennes Hering (keyboards), Stephan Wisheu (bass) and Klaus Spori (drums), this legendary Munich based band were contemporaries of acts such as Amon Duul II and recorded three classic and highly collectable albums for the label. Their music is somewhat similar to early British prog but will gradually evolve to a certain jazz-rock while staying very politically and socially conscious (in the typical German style of those years).

The Sons of Champlin released three albums on Capitol Records between 1969 and 1971 (Loosen Up Naturally, The Sons, and Follow Your Heart), none of which was a commercial hit for various reasons, but not for lack of musical quality. This 78-minute CD makes a reasonable selection of the highlights from those LPs, demonstrating that at their best, the Sons were a collection of talented musicians who packed their songs full of good solos that grew out of complicated arrangements. Although they were a part of the psychedelic San Francisco scene of the time, their music never quite fit the mold, leaning much more toward jazz and R&B than, say, the Grateful Dead. the Sons played instruments including saxophones and a vibraphone, not otherwise typical of the San Francisco Sound, and they were less interested in songs than in creating platforms for soloing. They might start a tune like "Love of a Woman" as a gentle, romantic ballad with an acoustic guitar, but midway through that would suddenly give way to a jazzy instrumental section in a different time signature, return to the ballad, then again go off into jazz.

Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the first ever release of "Harrodian Event #1”. Recorded in January 1972, this rare recording features a unique event where seven gifted Progressive musicians came together to record a session of unique experimental music. Keyboard player J. Peter Robinson (a member of Quatermass, later in Brand X), John Gustafson (Bass) had also been in Quatermass and would go on to play with Steve Hackett, Ian Gillan and Roxy Music), Martyn Ford had been an arranger for Barclay James Harvest before working with the major names in rock, Paul Buckmaster had worked with David Bowie, Third Ear Band and many more, whilst Trevor Morais would find fame in Quantum Jump and working with the Penguin Cafe Orchestra…

Esoteric Recordings announce the first ever official UK remastered CD release of First Meeting by Trifle. Formed in late 1969 the band comprised George Bean (vocals, guitar), Patrick Speedy King (bass), Barry Martin (saxophones), John Pritchard (trumpet) and Rod Coombes (drums). Trifle signed to Pye's Dawn imprint in 1970 and their only album was recorded for later that year, by which time the band were joined by trumpet player Dick Cuthell for the recording sessions. In the vein of similar acts such as Manfred Mann Chapter Three and Colosseum, Trifle sought to fuse jazz and rock, also touching on folk styles (as evidenced by the fact that Trifle covered The Dubliners' "Dirty Old Town" (as the B-side to their' Old fashioned Prayer Meeting 'single). Remastered from the original master tapes with two bonus tracks. Includes booklet with restored artwork, photos & liner notes.

Indian Ocean make their foray into Hindi film music for the first time with Black Friday, which is based on the Mumbai bomb blasts in 1993, and the praise the recording has received is fully justified. The uniqueness of this score in which a band provides the music for a full-length feature film lies in the justice provided to the film's theme, in contrast to what is often churned out from a conventional director/lyricist/singer arrangement…

Between Daevid Allen's departure from the band and Pierre Moerlen's official takeover of the band, there is Shamal. This transitional album contains none of the Allen-inspired psychedelia, but also very little of Moerlen's jazz influence. Shamal is, for the most part, a progressive rock album, half vocal, half instrumental. Its most accessible tune, the opening "Wingful of Eyes," had the potential for airplay if only it hadn't been so lengthy…