This particular concert, recorded in Bourges in 1979, stands out as a moment of grace, partly due to its extreme tension and the risks taken collectively, which the audience still reminisces of to this day.

Cecil Taylor - Michigan State University, April 15th 1976 (2015) {Hi Hat HHCD005}
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© 1976, 2015 Hi Hat | HHCD005
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Modern Creative / Piano

Capturing the groundbreaking Cecil Taylor Unit's second set at the Power Center, Michigan State University at Ann Arbor, on Thursday, April 15th 1976, this document was recorded for broadcast on WCBN-FM's Jazz Alive program. Featuring Taylor on piano, backed by his long-term sideman Jimmy Lyons (alto sax), David S. Ware (tenor sax), Raphe Malik (trumpet), and Marc Edwards (drums), it offers a fascinating glimpse into Taylor's uncompromising vision, and is presented here in its entirety, with digitally remastered sound, background notes, and rare images.

Svalutation is the 16th album by Italian singer Adriano Celentano, issued in 1976. The word "svalutation" is a mock English word coined after the Italian "svalutazione", which correctly translates to "devaluation", and the title track ironizes on the Italian economical and political crisis of the time…

Originally unveiled in December 1975, T.N.T. was the second AC/DC album released in their native Australia, but is often overlooked outside the Land Down Under because its best tracks were later combined with those from the band's first domestic album, High Voltage, for reissue as their international debut from 1976 – also entitled High Voltage…

Obscure British psychedelic quartet based in London who played the Marquee, among other clubs, in 1969. Their only album, released around 1970 on the German Metronome label, is rumored to have been produced by Rod Stewart.

Liberated Fantasies is the eighth studio album by American keyboardist George Duke. It was recorded and mixed by Kerry McNabb at Paramount Recording Studios in Hollywood, California in 1976 and released through MPS Records, making it Duke's seventh and final album for the label. The album features contributions from Alphonso Johnson and Leon "Ndugu" Chancler with guest appearances from several musicians, including vocalist Napoleon Murphy Brock, guitarist Daryl Stuermer, percussionists Airto Moreira and Emil Richards. The closing album in this MPS box set continues George Duke’s tendency to couple his fusion world with accessible R&B songs. Once again he shows a discernable vocal development. In Tryin’ And Cryin the Californian together with rock singer Napoleon Brock overlay multiple vocal tracks.

The second recording and first studio set by the L.A. Four matched together Bud Shank on alto and flute, guitarist Laurindo Almeida, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Shelly Manne for a diverse yet consistently enjoyable program. The selections range from "Dindi" and "Manteca" to "St. Thomas" and a 13-minute exploration of "Concierto de Aranjuez." As usual, the band mixes together bossa nova and Brazilian jazz, some touches of classical music, and cool-toned bop. Recommended as a strong example of the group's appealing sound.

Steve Lacy - Scratching the Seventies / Dreams (1996) {3CD Set, Saravah SHL2082 rec 1969-1977}
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© 1969-77, 1996 Saravah | SHL 2082
Jazz / Contemporary Jazz / Post Bop / Saxophone

This gives a good picture of Lacy's range in the 1970s. Solos, some very stretched out ensemble work, some of the best Aebi I've heard. There's even a snippet of Lacy playing Satie––if you visit the Satie Museum in Honfleur you'll heard a beauteous solo of his, and he played Satie in a few European concerts, recordings of which exist and should be issued. The three-CD box set that makes up Scratching the Seventies/Dreams represents Steve Lacy's first expatriate records in Paris beginning with sessions in June of 1969 and concluding in 1977 with six of the seven members of the Steve Lacy Septet (pianist Bobby Few was not yet on board). Here, five complete albums tell the story of that decade in the musical aesthetic of Steve Lacy's development as an artist as well as a composer and bandleader.

Don "Sugar Cane" Harris - Cup Full of Dreams (1973) {MPS–Promising Music 441152CD rel 2011}
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© 1973, 2011 MPS Records / Promising Music | 441152 CD
Jazz / Rock / Jazz Rock / Blues Rock / Violin

Blues violinist Sugarcane Harris is on fire during this 1973 studio session for BASF, which features many of his regular collaborators of the period. Harris, who wrote all of the material heard on the date, mixes elements of jazz, country, and rock into his brand of blues. He is brilliant in the midtempo blues "Runnin' Away," though none of the solos that follow measure up to the leader's. "Hattie's Bathtub" is a catchy blues waltz. But it is the extended composition "Cup Full of Dreams" that showcases Harris' lyricism on his instrument. One amusing aspect of the LP is the obvious presence of guitarist Harvey Mandel, who evidently could not be named for contractual reasons, though his photo is barely disguised with an old-fashioned black bar over his eyes. Just a few years after this record was released, poor health put an end to the violinist's career.

Polish violinist, saxophonist and composer Michal Urbaniak played a major role in the development of jazz fusion in the 1970s and 80s. While working in Scandinavia in the 1960’s he met his future wife, Polish singer Urszula Dudziak and formed the foundation of what would later become the group that would stamp its imprint on the jazz world, Michal Urbaniak’s Fusion. Urbaniak moved to New York in 1973. His popularity on the NY scene garnered him a contract with Columbia records and concerts at the Village Vanguard and Carnegie Hall. Blending music from his Polish and European roots with the funk and fusion of the Big Apple impelled American and international jazz musicians to experiment with mixing various ethnic musical forms with jazz.

Kollektiv - Live 1973 (2005) {Long Hair Music LHC 00040}
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© 1973, 2005 Long Hair Music | LHC 00040
Jazz / Jazz Rock / Krautrock / Psychedelic Jazz

In the liner notes the band tells us the significance of the name KOLLEKTIV. We "share the same aims and values, not just with regard to music. We do not seperate into soloist and accompanist (rhythm slave). Each musician and each instrument has the same rights. Our pieces aren't individual compositions; they are born out of and grow through creative collaboration. After all, our name is saying : we are our own roadies, manager, technicians, bus driver, record producers and article writers, and three of us share the same birthday." Another important revelation in their liner notes is : "The structure of our music is more simple than usual jazz, instead we pay more attention to sounds and moods. We mainly do improvisations. Even the themes and arranged parts were once improvised."

Clifford Jordan - Glass Bead Games (1973) {Strata-East–Bellaphon 660-51-017 rel 1993}
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© 1973, 1993 Strata-East / Bellaphon | 660-51-017
Jazz / Hard Bop / Post Bop / Saxophone

Glass Bead Games is arguably the crown jewel of the Strata East movement, an amorphous genre that treads an unusual path between post-bop, 70's avant-garde and spiritual jazz, with a groove. Glass Bead Games is full of revelations at many levels. First, the decade of the 1970s did produce genuinely creative, "human" new music flowing from the jazz mainstream.

John Prine - Crooked Piece of Time: The Atlantic and Asylum Albums 1971-1980 (2020) {Rhino–Elektra Set}
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© 1971-80, 2020 Rhino / Elektra Catalog Group
Folk / Singer-Songwriter / Country / Contemporary Folk / Progressive Folk

The 7xCD release Crooked Piece of Time, out October 23 via Rhino, will gather the late singer-songwriter’s first seven albums, beginning with his 1971 self-title debut and ending with 1980’s Storm Windows, according to Rolling Stone. The boxset, named after a song from 1978’s Bruised Orange, covers Prine’s entire output for Atlantic and Asylum Records. After the release of these albums, he would go on to form Oh Boy Records.

Medicine Head - New Bottles Old Medicine (1970) {Dandelion–Cherry Red CDMRED314 rel 2007}
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© 1970, 2007 Dandelion Records / Cherry Red Records | CD MRED 314
Rock / Blues Rock / British Blues

When, in early 1970, legendary Radio 1 DJ John Peel ventured up to Wolverhampton’s Lafayette club to do a gig, he came upon two guys who called themselves Medicine Head, the uniquely configured duo of John Fiddler and Peter Hope-Evans. So impressed was Peel that he signed Medicine Head to his label, Dandelion Records and later that year released “New Bottles, Old Medicine” the 1st of three studio albums that Medicine Head would release on the revered label. The walrus-moustached Fiddler would simultaneously sing, play guitar and operate a bass drum and hi-hat cymbal with his foot, augmented by the equally hirsute Hope-Evans on harmonica, jaws harp, mouth bow and strange concoctions of percussion.

Weather Report - The Legendary Live Tapes: 1978-1981 (2015) {4CD Set, Columbia–Legacy 88875141272}
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© 1978-81, 2015 Columbia / Legacy / Sony Music | 88875141272
Jazz / Fusion / Jazz Rock / Electric Jazz

These four discs offer completely unreleased performances by the Weather Report lineup of keyboardist Joe Zawinul, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, bassist Jaco Pastorius, drummer Peter Erskine, and a bit later, percussionist Bobby Thomas, Jr. It was compiled for release by Erskine (whose historical essay and annotated track notes are fantastic) and Tony Zawinul, Joe's son. These are mostly soundboard cassettes made by WR's longtime live sound engineer Brian Risner, with choice audience tapes and commercial mobile rig selections mixed in. While it (mostly) sounds like an excellent bootleg, the sound here is remarkable given the root sources. Similar to 2002's Live and Unreleased, the material is not arranged chronologically.