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Le Sacre du printemps by Igor Stravinsky: sophisticated handling of primitive rhythms anyone ever thought up —dissonances, asymmetries, polytonalities and polyrhythms
With Understanding Comes Appreciation The composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein said of one passage, "That page is sixty years old,...
Shark
Mar 8, 202417 min read
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Blow by Blow by Jeff Beck: a powerhouse of jazzy funk rock fusion with nine strong tracks by a Guitar God
With Understanding Comes Appreciation Lots of jazz guitarists have veered into the world of rock and roll on occasion, but the number of...
Shark
Mar 7, 20247 min read
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Brilliant Corners by Thelonious Monk: innovative and idiosyncratic approach to composition and performance; angular melodies, unexpected chord progressions, and intricate rhythmic patterns
With Understanding Comes Appreciation Thelonious Monk's Brilliant Corners stands as a testament to the genius of one of jazz music's...
Shark
Mar 7, 20246 min read
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Trilogy by Emerson, Lake & Palmer: everything has been carefully thought, arranged, and performed to perfection, a process that also included some form of sterilization
With Understanding Comes Appreciation Trilogy , ELP's fourth album, features the trio settling down in more crowd-pleasing pastures....
Shark
Mar 7, 20248 min read
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You by Gong: incarnates the perfect marriage of Canterbury jazz-rock whimsy, cosmic psychedelic guitar workouts and complex percussive accouterments
With Understanding Comes Appreciation The spacy province of Canterbury land was ruled by Daevid Allen-era Gong, and their You album is...
Shark
Mar 5, 20247 min read
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Return to Forever by Chick Corea: bossa nova & jazz fusion wielded beautifully together; it's all very warm, light, and airy, like a soft breeze on a tropical beach
With Understanding Comes Appreciation The thing I love about the work of Miles Davis' fusion alumni (his alumni in general, really, but...
Shark
Mar 4, 20248 min read
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Kontakte by Karlheinz Stockhausen: where experiments with untraditional uses of sounds, form, and spatial positioning create an all-time masterpiece
With Understanding Comes Appreciation What is sound? Think about all the different possible sounds heard throughout the day. Cars passing...
Shark
Mar 3, 202412 min read
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A Love Supreme by John Coltrane: Jesus, Mary and Joseph, what a journey!
With Understanding Comes Appreciation Jesus, Mary and Joseph, what a journey! It's the sound of a man's spiritual journey condensed into...
Shark
Mar 1, 20245 min read
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Together by Jane: astonishing blend of jazz fusion, blues rock, psychedelia, space rock, and even heavy metal at times, make this overlooked album a must
With Understanding Comes Appreciation It's funny how life works at times, but believe it or not, I was introduced to this band like 15...
Shark
Feb 29, 20246 min read
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Ocean by Eloy: worlds atomize and oceans evaporate in eternity on this epic record
With Understanding Comes Appreciation Eloy's masterpiece, period. Ocean delivers shivers on your spine with that spacey rhythm the band...
Shark
Feb 28, 20247 min read
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Mysterious Traveller by Weather Report: a drop-dead gorgeous jazz-rock fusion record. Complex, yet emotional
With Understanding Comes Appreciation The infamous comet-of-the-20th-century named Kohoutek that zipped by our planet in '73 and...
Shark
Feb 27, 20246 min read
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Ionisation by Edgard Varèse: dissecting my hero's hero's seminal masterpiece which influenced all kind of avant-garde music and beyond
With Understanding Comes Appreciation Mr. Edgard Varèse 188 Sullivan St. New York, New York Dear Sir: Perhaps you might remember me from...
Shark
Feb 27, 202414 min read
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The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories) by Steven Wilson: new prog-rock music in the vain of the 70's with top notch production can't go wrong
With Understanding Comes Appreciation As a fan of Steven Wilson I was at the time very excited to hear that his newest work was going to...
Shark
Feb 26, 202414 min read
22 views
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Tales from Topographic Oceans by Yes: a four-suite, progressive, poetic tapestry depicting the human perception of time and memory
With Understanding Comes Appreciation This is Yes, and perhaps even prog-rock, at its finest. I truly appreciate this album for what it...
Shark
Feb 23, 202413 min read
26 views
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Spectrum by Billy Cobham: the accessible, though effective and addictive, entry to the jazz-rock world
With Understanding Comes Appreciation This is one of the easiest reviews I will ever write. Do you want virtuosic playing? Do you want...
Shark
Feb 23, 20247 min read
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Pawn Hearts by Van Der Graaf Generator: an album so sublime that it is one of the rare sonic portals into a truly alternative universe
With Understanding Comes Appreciation In just a few short years, Peter Hammill’s Van Der Graaf Generator project had evolved from a de...
Shark
Feb 22, 202417 min read
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Unorthodox Behaviour by Brand X: frenetic drum rolls, layers of silence, funky bass, atmospheric synthesizers, and rhythmic developments accompanied by proggy jazzed up time signature outbursts
With Understanding Comes Appreciation Although latecomers, who boarded the Fusion train when it was already on cruise mode and some of...
Shark
Feb 21, 20245 min read
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Minstrel in the Gallery by Jethro Tull: evoking the world of Shakespeare in its literate lyrics, Elizabethan imagery, and the mixture of rustic folk music and refined classical airs into their rock
With Understanding Comes Appreciation When you see the cover, you say: hey! This look like "Aqualung!" But will the inside be on par with...
Shark
Feb 21, 20248 min read
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Inner Mounting Flame by Mahavishnu Orchestra: a monstrous masterpiece performed at 300 MPH, where virtuosos let us see that they're not normal earthlings
With Understanding Comes Appreciation Take 5 jazz maestros from 5 different countries. Lock them in a studio together, crank them up to...
Shark
Feb 18, 20247 min read
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The Bible of the Discography of an Alchemist Master, John Zorn
With Understanding Comes Appreciation The one word virtually everyone can agree on in any discussion of the work of composer John Zorn is...
Shark
Feb 5, 202439 min read
2,543 views
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