Colosseum II was a British band formed in 1975 by the former Colosseum drummer and leader, Jon Hiseman, following the 1974 demise of his band Tempest. Hiseman announced his plan to form the band eventually named Colosseum II in November 1974, but only Gary Moore was named as a member. Rehearsals were due to begin on January 1, 1975, but a permanent unit was not finalised until May 1975. Among musicians who almost made the group were Graham Bell, Duncan Mackay and Mark Clarke. The final line-up was completed by Don Airey, Neil Murray and Mike Starrs.

Wolfgang Dauner has now been highly active on the scene for more than fifty years. Dauner hired top young musicians to be around him for the current upgrade to United 2.0. The second United generation, like the first one, is eagerly researching the crossing points between jazz, rock, funk and world music. Featuring some of the finest avant-garde jazz players from Germany and beyond the Ensemble began life in 1975. Pianist Wolfgang Dauner, initially recruiting musicians from his home base of Stuttgart (then a hotbed of avant-garde jazz), put together a rotating cast of musicians, and shared writing and arranging duties with guitarist Volker Kriegel.

Between the cover art and the overall musical style, McLuhan is highly reminiscent of early underground British progressive rock bands - in particular, echoes of Warm Dust's style can be heard in the use of spoken word and brass instruments to craft a decidedly different texture from the rest of the pack. In fact, they were a US group, offering an intriguing style of progressive rock with fusion-derived flourishes. It's always melodic and nicely done. Definately of interest for fans of Zappa, Canterbury or just anyone who loves complex and rich eclectic yet melodic jazz-fusion with occasional bombastic organs.

Santana's follow-up to its comeback album, Amigos, was another David Rubinson-produced effort that moved back toward more of a Latin rock feel, although it retained an essentially pop focus – "The River" was the first real vocal ballad on a Santana album. If any doubt still existed that the group was no longer a band of equals but a platform for its lead guitarist, the current lineup dispelled that; Carlos Santana was now the only original member of the band left. Although the album went gold, the lack of a hit single hurt the album's commercial standing; its number 27 peak was the lowest yet for a Santana band album.

Live albums are dangerous things. While the good ones capture the raw excitement of a show, all too often they expose a band's weaknesses, the ones that get covered in the studio – a singer who's not so good and instrumentalists who really can't cut it. But Colosseum, by the time they made their live album (the CD version comes with an extra track, "I Can't Live Without You," that wasn't on the original vinyl), were a seasoned outfit with some top-notch performers. In veteran Chris Farlowe they had a blues belter who could also turn his hand to jazz. Dave "Clem" Clempson was a rock guitarist first and foremost, but not limited to that, and bassist Mark Clarke was exactly the elastic foil drummer Jon Hiseman needed in the rhythm section.

Altona's eponymous first album is an excellent example of slightly psychedelic heavy jazz-rock. Founded by former Thrice Mice members singer and sax player Karl Heinz Blumenberg and guitarist Werner von Gosen Altonas first album could be traced as "Thrice Mice deluxe" with still marked ties to Blodwyn Pig. Their musical elaboration shows a much bigger potential and let the band come forward on a higher musical step. The concept of developing a piece of music within processes of group dynamics, which had been so successful with Thrice Mice, was continued. The Freeman Brothers (A Crack in the Cosmic Egg) characterized the album as a hybrid of Birth Control and Creative Rock, occasionally hinting at Eiliff LP comes with insert (Band story and photos). The music is remastered from the original mastertapes.

"Tempi Dispari" is a magical live album from 1974 by the Atomic System variation of The New Trolls, led by guitarist Vittorio De Scalzi after three members left to form what would end up being Ibis. De Scalzi is joined by future Nova keyboards player Renato Rosset, who influences this variation in a more jazzy oriented way than any other New Trolls incarnation. The band play here two side-long suites with side 1 really exploring the Jazz theme and side 2 including a theme from "Concerto Grosso 1" of excellent and innovative music with very heavy Miles Davis-like jazz prog rock influences.

Live05 documents the band at its very best in wonderful European settings with enthusiastic audiences. Besides a stirring take of Jack Bruce's cinematic classic "Theme from an Imaginary Western," the two-disc set includes several of the songs from their seminal albums, including "Rope Ladder to the Moon," "Stormy Monday Blues," "Those Who Are About to Die," "Lost Angeles," and "The Valentyne Suite," which showcases Greenslade's amazing keyboard artistry. Together, the musicians in Colosseum create a powerful mix of rock, blues, and jazz-fusion that transcends all musical barriers.

The Group released one album in 1978 and later evolved to the Pekka Pohjola Group. Double digipak CD. The 2nd disc features an extended studio session with the Sibelius academy orchestra plus two studio outtakes from the original album. Highly influenced by Weather Report and the jazz fusion scene of the 70s, The Group was set up after Pekka Pohjola and Vesa Aaltonen came back to Finland from Sweden. They both played in the Swedish prog/jazz rock band Made in Sweden. As The Group’s guitarist Seppo Tyni remembers, Aaltonen came back to Finland in early 1977 and Pohjola later in the summer. From the early 1977 Aaltonen and Tyni both played in Olli Ahvenlahti Quintet that for example performed at the Finnish Eurovision qualification (though they played as a quartet there)…

The 21st century version of Caravan is here to entertain the die-hard Canterbury heads, and fans of the group should be pleased by some familiar names from the good old days of the '60s and '70s, who appear either as members of the core sextet or as special guests. Pye Hastings, Richard Coughlan, Geoffrey Richardson, Jan Schelhaas, Dave Sinclair, and Jimmy Hastings can all be heard at one point or another on the whimsically named The Unauthorised Breakfast Item, the 2003 CD whose title track references an apparent run-in of sorts with hotel restaurant staff when the band appeared at the 2002 NEARFest in Trenton, New Jersey.