Flora Purim & Mountain Train

Over in his quadrant of cyberspace, my blogdaddy Nightskyradio has initiated his second annual Rocktober countdown!!!!!!!!!!!! with a new twist. Back over here, we have not shifted into Halloween mode yet, or even halfway out of our blog hiatus, but I do have a little music lined up which is also a blast from the past. This is a cut from Stories to Tell (1974), which I used to have on vinyl.

Flora Purim (lead vocals), Airto Moriera (percussion), George Duke (keyboards, synthesizer), Oscar Neves (acoustic guitar), King Errisson (congas), Ernie Hood (backing vocals, zither), Larry Dunlap (piano). Some time back, we featured one of the best ever versions of “How Insensitive” from that same album.

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Splendido Sundance & Al Di Meola

From Splendido Hotel (1980).

Al Di Meola duo with Al Di Meola! (This fellow is pretending to cover Al Di Meola here, but he’s just finger syncing. That’s pretty impressive in its own right, though.)

Flora Purim & Tomara

From Encounter (1976).

Tomara means “I wish.” Song by Novelli. McCoy Tyner on piano!

Pat Metheny Group & San Lorenzo

From Pat Metheny Group (1978).

Pat Metheny (guitar), Lyle Mays (keyboards), Marc Egan (bass), Dan Gottlieb (drums).

Chick Corea & Samba Song

Another amazingly good track from Friends (1978). With a great photo gallery of all the musicians, thanks to Youtube compiler Pampa777.

Chick Corea (piano), Joe Farrell (sax), Eddie Gomez (bass), Steve Gadd (drums). I haven’t followed Steve Gadd that much, but his drumming smokes all the way through this track, and especially from 8:15. Also, there’s some brilliant bass playing by Gomez from 4:49. I only know Eddie Gomez from his work with Bill Evans; subsequent work was a blank for me until I bumped into this album.

I don’t know why they had to give such a fantastic album such a dorky cover . . .

Chick Corea & Friends

From Friends (1978).

Chick Corea (keyboard), Joe Farrell (flute), Steve Gadd (drums), Eddie Gomez (bass). Never heard this before. The album cover has the Smurfs on it, which might explain why I never gave it a shot. But it’s got a nice steady latin groove and it floats along real good.

Joe Farrell & Cloud Cream

From Penny Arcade (1973).

Joe Farrell (piccolo), Herbie Hancock (piano), Joe Beck (guitar), Steve Gadd (drums), Herb Bushler (bass), Don Alias (conga). The title track of this album was posted here. Farrell was a monster on all the instruments he picked up: tenor sax, alto sax, flute, or piccolo.

Al Di Meola Jam & Spain

A cool jam on the Chick Corea tune, in a loft with a fine bunch of musicians (in Russia?) that I don’t know.

Al Di Meola (guitar), Alexander Korogodin (piano), Alexander Murenko (drums), Konstantin Ionenko (bass), Gumbi Ortiz and Mixail Prib (percussion). Uploaded to Youtube by the piano player.

Flora Purim & Stan Getz

Recorded on French TV in 1969.

This is one of those posts that I guess only jazz freaks like me and reader/blogger dblbasscleff are going to be into, but still . . . Flora with Stan Getz?? With Jack DeJohnette on drums??? And Miroslav Vitous on bass??? (Stanley Cowel, who I don’t know, is on piano). Stan Getz is pretty much the least interesting thing happening here, though the most famous at the time.

This is like watching giants of tennis play table tennis (not that there’s anything wrong with table tennis). So much waiting to be unleashed from Flora, Jack, and Miroslav, but you’d hardly suspect it. I love seeing Flora with the Austin Powers era look, and fun to watch her play guitar. I guess she was taking the mantle from Astrud Gilberto here, but only a few short years later she’s let her hair down, has gone wild, and is doing the Return to Forever classics.

Flora Purim & Chrystal Silence

More Flora!!! From Perpetual Emotion (2001).

I’m surprised Flora recorded this so recently! A beautiful interpretation of Chick Corea and Neville Potter’s classic piece, which Flora has recorded many times elsewhere. Airto Moreira (who is Flora’s husband) on percussion, Christian Jacob on piano.