Originally Posted by tore (Post 869943)

Return to Forever - Romantic Warrior (1976)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vFStmePm1x...ticWarrior.jpg

This is a fusion album and arguably the most popular in the Return to Forever discography, the band led by keyboardist Chick Corea who previously played with Miles Davis. The line-up here is incredible, Chick Corea on keyboards, Al Di Meola on guitar, Stanley Clarke on bass and Lenny White on drums. Unlike a lot of the improv-flavoured fusion out there, this album is incredibly composed with complex arrangements played with amazing skill. The production is also damn near-perfect!

Supposedly, after recording it, they figured this was as good as they could get and so this was the last RTF album with that line-up, similar to why Bill Bruford left Yes after Close to the Edge.

I obviously know this one, but I'd like to get to know it even better. You should as well!

Originally Posted by tore

Gong - Gazeuse! (1976)

http://www.oocities.com/henryviktorpetersen/gazeuse.gif

The core of Gong is, roughly speaking, a Canterbury band that plays psychedelic rock/prog about some guy's search for eastern type enlightment and which also include space travelling tea pots, clever metaphors for taking drugs and a certain kind of english humour .. or something along those lines. However, some side projects have budded off Gong that may not be described by those same things. Some time in the 70s, guitarist Daevid Allen said a wall of force prevented him to go on stage and left the band. Other core members left as well and the drummer Pierre Moerlen gained control of the band. What he did was turn Gong into a jazz fusion band and the debut of this line-up is Gazeuse!, also known as Expresso in America.

Although that might not sound like the best premise for a new album, the result is actually pretty sweet. Besides Moerlen, the album includes famous Canterbury guitarist Allan Holdsworth and early Magma bassist Francis Moze, among others. Something interesting about the album is the amount of percussion instruments dominating the sound, like vibraphone, marimba and glockenspiel. Together, they make for a very melodic album with a distinct sound not quite like anything else I've heard.

After a while, this line-up budded off the Gong band under the name "Pierre Moerlen's Gong", becoming an independent band project alongside the old Gong as Daevid Allen and his cronies were re-united. Thus this album could be regarded as Pierre Moerlen's Gong's debut rather than a Gong album. But anyways, those who are interested in fusion or have heard some of Gong's earlier material, but not this, should definetly check it out. Recommended!

Originally Posted by Anteater

http://img12.nnm.ru/a/e/0/4/9/ae0494...0408b_full.jpg
Soft Machine - Fourth (1971)

One of the original Canterbury bands and quite influential in the realm of jazz music in general, the Softs were a prodigious outfit that changed members quite often throughout the 70's, but were most well known in the earliest part of the decade for the talents of bassist Hugh Hopper, organist Mike Ratledge and drummer Robert Wyatt (who occasionally sang, but not often). Fourth was the last of the Softs' albums where this lineup was still intact, as well as being the final album featuring Wyatt. Not going to mince words, but there's a hell of a lot to like here, and it's as great a place as any to start for those who A. Don't know much about these guys or B. If you have even the most rudimentary interest in top class proggy jazz. Recommended!

Originally Posted by eric generic (Post 978718)

we haven't tackled this yet have we?

Originally Posted by philster (Post 980522)

Hei guys,

Thanks for all the great suggestions above. I, as a newbie to both prog and fusion, wonder about bands with female singers or musicians. Does anybody have a suggestion regarding that? Maybe it's also possible to compile polls with topics, e.g. collect four or five albums with female singers, or from a certain year, or from a certain band/musician, with/without vocalist....