RAY BARRETTO — Eye of the Beholder (1977-2004) RM | Fusion Best Collection 1000 Series | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Many pure salsa and Latin jazz fans have a difficult time with Ray Barretto's Atlantic Records period in the late 1970s because he was making a deliberate run at the crossover jazz/dance music charts. Who better to strive for such a thing? Barretto established his bona fides in jazz two decades earlier -- and returned to them time and again until the end of his life. He was also one of the prime innovators in New York's salsa explosion, and even played on pop records as a sideman. His credits are book-length. This set from 1977 has dated well. A very large cast date, it features Stix Hooper, Joe Sample, and Wilton Felder of the Crusaders, as well as a host of West Coast session players from the pop, jazz, and Latin worlds: saxophonist Pete Christlieb, trumpeter Louis "Perico" Ortiz, trombonist Garnett Brown, drummers Terry Bozzio and Angel "Cachete" Maldonado, guitarist Ray Gomez, and bassist Jeff Berlin are just a few of the players who appear. The vibe here is more jazz-funk than fusion or salsa. It features loads of keyboards to balance the percussion load, making it more accessible to non-Latin fans, though the grooves balance the smooth with the steamy. The best tracks are "Here We Go Again," Leti," and "Tumbao Africano," while "Señor Funk" and "Expresso" are fine songs as well.    
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <- 
Tracklist :
1    Here We Go Again 4:59
Baritone Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Bill Green
Bass – Wilton Felder
Guitar – Barry Finnerty
Keyboards – Joe Sample
Tenor Saxophone – Pete Christalieb
Trombone – Garnett Brown
Written-By – J. Sample
2    Señor Funk 4:44
Baritone Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Roger Rosenberg
Bass – Jeff Berlin
Drums – Steve Ferrone, Terry Bozzio
Guitar – Marcus Fiorillo
Keyboards – Gil Goldstein, Joe Sample
Tenor Saxophone – Todd Anderson
Trombone – Reinaldo Jorge
Written-By – M. Fiorillo
3    Eye Of The Beholder 4:25
Baritone Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Roger Rosenberg
Bass – Jeff Berlin
Drums – Steve Ferrone
Guitar – Marcus Fiorillo
Keyboards – Gil Goldstein
Tenor Saxophone – Todd Anderson
Trombone – Reinaldo Jorge
Written-By – G. Goldstein
4    Salsa-Con-Fusion 6:10
Baritone Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Bill Green
Bass – Wilton Felder
Drums – Terry Bozzio
Guitar – Barry Finnerty
Keyboards – Joe Sample
Tenor Saxophone – Pete Christalieb
Trombone – Garnett Brown
Trumpet – Gene Goe
Written-By – B. Finnerty
5    Numero Uno 4:47
Baritone Saxophone – Bill Green
Drums – Steve Ferrone
Keyboards – Joe Sample
Tenor Saxophone – Pete Christalieb
Trombone – Garnett Brown
Written-By – W. Felder
6    Expresso 4:05
Baritone Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Roger Rosenberg
Bass – Jeff Berlin
Drums – Steve Ferrone
Guitar – Marcus Fiorillo
Keyboards – Gil Goldstein
Tenor Saxophone – Todd Anderson
Trombone – Reinaldo Jorge
Written-By – G. Goldstein
7    Leti 6:59
Baritone Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Roger Rosenberg
Bass – Jeff Berlin
Drums – Steve Ferrone
Guitar – Marcus Fiorillo
Keyboards – Gil Goldstein, Joe Sample
Percussion – Rafael Cruz
Tenor Saxophone – Todd Anderson
Trombone – Reinaldo Jorge
Written-By – G. Edgehill
8    Tumbao Africano 4:28
Baritone Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Roger Rosenberg
Bass – Jeff Berlin
Bata – Angel Maldonado, Ray Romero
Drums – Steve Ferrone
Keyboards – Eddy Martinez
Lead Guitar – Ray Gomez
Percussion – Rafael Cruz
Synthesizer – Clifford Carter
Tenor Saxophone – Todd Anderson
Timbales – Jimmy Delgado
Trombone – Reinaldo Jorge
Trumpet – Luis "Perico" Ortiz
Written-By – R. Barretto

GIL EVANS – Tokyo Concert (1976-1990) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Tracklist & Credits :

ALLAN HOLDSWORTH — Road Games (1983-2001) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Short but sweet: this 24-plus-minute re-release of an '80s-era solo effort originally appeared as a vinyl EP, and has never before been issued on CD. It is a unique mix of great vocals with a more rocking, bluesy, and jazzy quasi-mainstream song-themed balladic thrust. This release showcases Allan Holdsworth playing less "out there." Don't misunderstand -- the guitar is amazing: multi-voiced, fusion-fired, ethereally chorded, delightfully crystalline clear, note-flourished, and swooningly embellished. Add in the vocals of Jack Bruce for that Cream flashback or the I.O.U. band feel of Paul Williams' crooning, back to back with killer bass by Jeff Berlin and tastefully poised drums by Chad Wackerman, and you have fusion-rock bliss.Holdsworth addicts have waited a very long time for this to appear in the CD format. So go for it. It sounds great all over again. The original album cover graphics and notes are included. John W. Patterson

Tracklist :

1 Three Sheets To The Wind 4:15

Written-By – Allan Holdsworth

2 Road Games 4:15

Written-By – Allan Holdsworth, Paul Williams

3 Water On The Brain Pt. II 2:44

Written-By – Allan Holdsworth

4 Tokyo Dream 4:03

Written-By – Allan Holdsworth

5 Was There? 4:07

Written-By – Allan Holdsworth, Paul Williams

6 Material Real 4:44

Written-By – Allan Holdsworth, Paul Williams

Credits:

Bass Guitar – Jeff Berlin

Drums – Chad Wackerman

Guest, Backing Vocals – Joe Turano, Paul Korda, Paul Williams 

Guest, Lead Vocals – Paul Williams (tracks: 2)

Guest, Vocals – Jack Bruce

Guitar – Allan Holdsworth

BILL BRUFORD - Feels Good To Me (1978) lp [24bits-96hz] FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

This is the first solo date by drummer Bill Bruford after the first demise of King Crimson. Feels Good to Me goes far beyond the usual prog rock conceits of its time, and enters fully into the compositional structures and improvisational dynamics of jazz. Here he surrounds himself with various mates from the Canterbury scene -- guitarists Allan Holdsworth (Soft Machine and Tony Williams' Lifetime) and John Goodsall (Brand X), bassist Jeff Berlin, keyboardist Dave Stewart, and ECM flügelhorn stalwart Kenny Wheeler. He also enlisted the enigmatic vocal prowess of poet, singer, and songwriter Annette Peacock.
The opener, "Beelzebub," is a furious staccato workout. Holdsworth trades eights with Bruford and Berlin executes loping basslines as Stewart waxes painterly with both organ and synthesizer. It's knotty and stops on a dime before charging into a beautiful solo by Holdsworth and resolving itself with the ensemble restating the theme. "Back to the Beginning" has one of four vocal performances by Peacock. It's a jazz tune -- funky, syncopated, and heavily and wildly lyrical both in groove and meter. It's a song about addictions and, given Peacock's sultry treatment, it's hard to tell if they are chemical, material, or sexual. The band works hard staying behind the singer but can't help but overshadow her.
On the two-part "Seems Like a Lifetime Ago," musical schizophrenia sets in. After a colorful pastoral intro, Peacock glides beautifully through Bruford's lyric of forlorn reverie accompanied by a gorgeous Wheeler solo. Then "Part Two" begins with her growling out the refrain and the band taking off for parts unknown. Hard funky rhythms call Holdsworth's lead guitar to move flat up against Bruford's frenetic drumming. They challenge each other dynamically as the rest of the rhythm section nervously dances around them. Holdsworth finally grabs the lead and plays a solo that is nothing short of breathtaking, giving way to a restatement of the theme and Bruford opening up the harmonic structure before bringing it to a transcendent close two minutes later. The album's six instrumentals are tight: they hold improvisational breaks to the limits of compositional dictation rather than vice versa. The most beautiful, "Either End of August," features Stewart and Wheeler playing unusual yet melodic solos that entwine with each other as the rest of the band struggles to keep the drama out of the music. They don't succeed entirely and the track is all the better for it.
The set closes with "Adios a la Pasada (Goodbye to the Past)," a collaboration between Peacock and Bruford. It's on Peacock's favorite theme: to emerge from love scraped and beaten, yet resolved to keep an open heart. The opening is spare and strange, coated with whispering keyboards and bass haunting the artist's every word. Then Bruford majestically leads the band, soaring into the heart of her lyric, "What it is/Is this/Is what it is/Forgive yourselves/Release yourselves from the past." The music opens up an entirely new sonic dimension, as if history, both musical and emotional, was being rewritten. And it was. Bruford has yet to issue a solo recording as powerful as Feels Good to Me.  by Thom Jurek  
Tracklist:
A1 - Beelzebub 3:16
Written-By - Bill Bruford
A2 - Back To The Beginning 7:09
Words By, Music By - Bill Bruford
A3 - Seems Like A Lifetime Ago (Part One) 2:30
Words By, Music By - Bill Bruford
A4 - Seems Like A Lifetime Ago (Part Two) 4:25
Written-By - Bill Bruford
A5 - Sample And Hold 5:12
Written-By - Bill Bruford, Dave Stewart
B1- Feels Good To Me 3:49
Guitar [Additional] - John Goodsall / Written-By - Bill Bruford
B2 - Either End Of August 5:27
Written-By - Bill Bruford
B3 - If You Can't The Heat 3:20
Written-By - Bill Bruford, Dave Stewart
B4 - Springtime In Siberia 2:43
Written-By - Bill Bruford, Dave Stewart
B5 - Adios A La Pasada (Goodbye To The Past) 7:56
Music By - Bill Bruford / Words By - Annette Peacock
Credits
Bass – Jeff Berlin
Featuring [With], Flugelhorn – Kenny Wheeler
Guitar – Allan Holdsworth
Keyboards – Dave Stewart
Percussion [Tuned And Untuned Percussion], Drums [Kit Drums] – Bill Bruford
Vocals – Annette Peacock
 

BRUFORD - One of a Kind (1979) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Bill Bruford ended his brief affair with U.K. and condensed his original outfit to a quartet, releasing a second album of sinewy, celebratory jazz/rock fusion, One of a Kind. Good-humored twists and turns abound in the music, punctuated by Bruford's steadying if slightly subversive rhythms, Allan Holdsworth's flashes of fire, Jeff Berlin's insistent bass, and Dave Stewart's remarkably colorful keyboards. At the heart of many of these songs is an uplifting melody, a trait shared with fusion artists like Weather Report and Jean-Luc Ponty, though Bruford's outfit favors a faster pace than the former and pursues more musical avenues in a single song than the latter. When he takes to tuned percussion, Bruford can even sound like Frank Zappa (both bands have a funky side to them). Standout cuts this time include "Hell's Bells," "Fainting in Coils" (which, in an indirect link to his previous employers, would have felt at home on Robert Fripp's Exposure), "Five G," and "The Sahara of Snow." The remaining tracks are a little less muscular, and the band's strength would seem to lie in fusion propelled by the complex rhythmic patterns of Bruford and Berlin (i.e., when the band leans closer to the rock side of the fusion family). Those who enjoy their fusion with a healthy dose of rock will find One of a Kind a fair match for anything from Return to Forever or Brand X. Note that many of these songs also appear in live versions on the beat-the-boots release The Bruford Tapes. by Dave Connolly  
Tracklist:
1 Hell's Bells 3:33
Written-By – Gowen, Stewart
2 One Of A Kind - Part One 2:20
Written-By – Bruford
3 One Of A Kind - Part Two 4:04
Written-By – Bruford, Stewart
4 Travels With Myself - And Someone Else 6:13
Written-By – Bruford
5 Fainting In Coils 6:33
Narrator – Sam Alder
Voice [Alice] – Anthea Norman Taylor
Voice [The Mock Turtle] – Bill Bruford
Words By – Lewis Carroll
Written-By – Bruford
6 Five G 4:46
Written-By – Bruford, Stewart, Berlin
7 The Abingdon Chasp 4:54
Written-By – Holdsworth
8 Forever Until Sunday 5:51
Written-By – Bruford
9 The Sahara Of Snow - Part One 5:18
Written-By – Bruford
10 The Sahara Of Snow - Part Two 3:24
Written-By – Bruford, Jobson
Credits:
Bass [The Bass], Vocals [The Vocals] – Jeff Berlin
Drums [The Drums] – Bill Bruford
Guitar [The Guitar] – Allan Holdsworth
Keyboards [The Keyboards] – Dave Stewart
Producer – Bill Bruford

SCOTT HENDERSON / JEFF BERLIN / DENNIS CHAMBERS - HBC (2012) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless