I have no idea how Antibes looked in 1970, but I believe its great pine forests, sandy beaches and blue sea water were all the same as today. A beautiful town in French Rivera is a piece of heaven on earth. Even those too lazy for a longer walk can enjoy fantastic views from Plage du Ponteil to the sandy beach with palms (looking to the right) or picturesque fortification ruins over the blue sea watching from Boulevard du Maréchal-Leclerc to the left. On sunny days (and days are almost always sunny there) Antibes looks more like the Caribbean than a European seaside town.

This concert, Archie Shepp Live in Antibes Vol 1, is recorded in Juan-les-Pins - formerly a small resort town near Antibes, now - a luxury Antibes seaside district. Jazz fest has been a part of summer Antibes life for decades (and continues every July). The atmosphere is extraordinary - sun, sea, sand, and palms, a small ancient old-town nearby, a lot of cafes and restaurants, but first of all - natural beauty. Many world-class jazz musicians played there (some are recorded as well).

Shepp is in great creative form here, he sounds not as angry as just a few years before, but more inventive, with a lot of improvisation. He is at the peak of his free jazz period, which soon will leave for a more conventional sound.

"Live in Antibes vol.1" contains just one long song, "The Early Bird" - I didn't find that song recorded by Shepp before on any album. The band isn't his regular American one though - no Sonny Murray, Alan Silva, Grachan Moncur III or cornet player Clifford Thornton can be found here. The only link with Shepp's American past is trumpeter Alan Shorter, the rest of the band is completed by members of Claude Delcloo’s (a French drummer and BIG label owner) Full Moon Ensemble. A bit unusual is the presence of guitarist (Joseph Déjean) on board.

Originally a broadcast for French O.R.T.F. radio, the album's sound quality is only very average. Shepp's sax is placed in the very front, the other instruments' sound is a bit muddy and comes somewhere from backstage. Two days later Shepp will play another gig in the same place, and another one-song-long album will be released as "Live In Antibes Vol.2" then.

Both these releases, which offer free music sounding over sandy beaches, pine forests, and blue sea are a piece of emotional evidence from (already moving to the end) a unique era of free jazz.

Japan found out about jazz fusion soon after fusion took over the scenes in America and Europe. Early Japanese fusion bands were strongly influenced by Western artists and were quite experimental and rough the same way.

In the late 70s, when Western fusion lost its bite and identity mixed with upcoming disco and smooth jazz, Japan experienced the Second wave of Japanese fusion. Generally oriented the same way as in the Western world, the second wave of Japanese fusion found its special sound and gave birth to a J-fusion phenomenon. Some of the genre's bands started their career in the late 70s, and are active and even popular till now, almost a half-century long. Casiopea is one of them.

Founded in 1976, the Japanese guitar-led quartet released their debut in 1979 only. For marketing reasons, there are three renowned Western fusion stars, participating in this album - sax players David Sanborn and Michael Brecker plus trumpeter Randy Brecker. Still, their participation influences the album's music only in a small part, "Casiopea" sounds very much like one of many albums, released by the band themselves, without guests.

From almost half a century distance it's much more easy to evaluate, why this album has so many fans and experienced all series of re-releases (last re-issue comes in 2024). Typically for the leading band of J-fusion's second wave, Casiopea plays a mix of some popular genres of the time - from Mahavishnu Orchestra-like high-energy guitar fusion to well-arranged pop-jazz, to early smooth jazz and funk-jazz. Their sound is generally well-polished and characteristic of the late 70s. It has millions of haters nowadays and not without reason, still Casiopea's debut has almost cult status till now.

The main secret is that the band plays tuneful music with the highest level of precision (usual for many Japanese artists of the time), but the music itself is warm and emotionally colored. The sound mix is crisp and dry, but again - it successfully balanced on the red line, distinguishing it from muzak. In all, this album represents a concentrated late 70s jazz fusion values almost neutralizing the well-known genre's limitations.

The album's opener "Time Limit" is a guitar-lead high-energy piece in a key of John McLaughlin's works with an excellent drummer and dancing bass line. The guest brass section is active here as well, it still doesn't add a lot of blood to the piece. "Tears Of The Star" is a lyrical ballad with soloing sax, Latin-like guitar intros besides of electric guitar soloing, and quite tasteful arrangements. "Space Road" is a funky instrumental, recalling the soundtrack of early computer games. "Midnight Rendezvous" has a catchy melody and sounds pretty much like a Japanese pop song of the time.

Side B is not as strong, as Side A. "Far Away" opens with groovy bass and switches towards a key-lead popular tune, still perfectly arranged. "Swallow" still has great bass and drum lines, but tends to be a smooth jazz hit. "Dream Hill" is probably the most controversial album's song, a sweet pop-ballad with Japanese vocals. The closer "Black Jake" saves the situation a bit offering a faster and more energetic guitar-lead piece.

In all, Casiopea's debut is significant evidence of the time and a great starting point for understanding what the Japanese fusion phenomenon is about. This album gave a lot of inspiration (and citation) to early computer games creators and is popular with every young generation again and again (in most current times its music is tagged as "City pop" genre).

Tenor David Murray made his name in the late 70s and early 80s as one of the free jazz loft scene stars. Later he switched towards more accessible forms of jazz while still recording more adventurous albums occasionally. Less active during the last decades, David surprisingly returned in 2022 with a soul jazz album on the Swiss Intakt label, recorded with bassist Brad Jones and legendary drummer Hamid Drake.

Two years later, David returns with another Intakt release, his new quartet's work "Francesca". Murray plays soulful post-bop here, similar to the more orthodox post-avant-garde albums Archie Shepp was responsible for in the late 70s and 80s. Quite an unusual offer for a Swiss label specializing in more experimental and free jazz. Probably Murray's name as one of the avant-garde jazz significant figures from the past is a reason.

The album's music itself is beautifully played tuneful jazz usual for the early 80s. Compared with the above mentioned Archie Shepp works, Murray plays a bit more fast-tempo, more elegant, and less melancholic (ie not Shepp's "late night jazz"). His quartet is completed with some of the brightest young generation's musicians from both continents, including fast rising Spanish piano star Marta Sanchez, unorthodox bassist Luke Stewart, and young American drummer Russell Carter. BTW, Marta Sanchez is releasing her album as a leader on the Intakt label this year as well.

Murray is the obvious leader here on this recording, still leaving some space for each collab's soloing. In general, the music is more emotionally colored than technically complex, offering a bouquet of tunes. All musicians play concerning tradition, but adding some light touch of modernity.

An album of great musical quality if a bit conservative. Absolute must-have for everyone searching for newly released music based on the tradition of the 70s and 80s.

"Belonging" is the first Keith Jarrett recording on ECM with Jan Garbarek and his rhythm section (often known as Jarrett's European quartet). Compared to Jarrett's American quartet, the music here is less experimental and adventurous and the whole sound is influenced by Garbarek's Nordic folk.

The obvious project leader is Jarrett for sure. His playful piano improvs are the central sound of the album's music and the most attractive element. Garbarek's sax sounds far from his experimental works of the early 70s and shows his growing trend to melodic simplified tunes influenced by folklore and with only occasional interesting improvs. He has enough space on this album, but compared to Jarrett's piano, which is very jazzy in an American manner, Garbarek's musicianship adds more simplified feeling to the sound.

The rhythm section is competent, but as in cases with previous Garbarek releases, they are a great supporting team and hardly more. Musically the album varies from post-bop with serious Jarrett classical influences to a more polished mix of third stream and Nordic folk, but in all cases, the sound is well rounded, emotionally cool and only Jarrett's great piano playing makes it alive.

A borderline album in many senses: after its release Jarrett will continue working for ECM recording a few more albums with the European quartet. Garbarek will develop similar musical direction on his later albums, but without Jarrett's jazz roots, Garbarek's music very soon will be transformed into cold background contemporary jazz/world fusion close to new age. The sound presented on this album (as well as many similar releases of the mid to late 70s) will evolve to post-bop rooted, but comfortably-polished melodic contemporary jazz of the 90s.

The deep groovy bass line which opens "Double Sunrise Over Neptune", surprisingly doesn't belong to William Parker - who is one among a few still active jazz bassists that is a living legend who made his name in the 90s playing accessible but very creative avant-garde jazz. Here on "Double Sunrise...", Parker conducts a multinational (East-West) orchestra and plays different reeds and the African stringed instrument doussn'gouni.

His 15-piece band contains some of the best musicians from both worlds, including drummers Gerald Cleaver and Hamid Drake, guitarist Joe Morris (who plays banjo as well), sax players Sabir Mateen, Rob Brown and Dave Sewelson, viola player Jessica Pavone plus a Chinese American violinist Jason Kao Hwang, Morrocan Brahim Frigbane and classic Indian Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay among others.

The album contains just four songs, three - long (between 15 and 27 minutes) and one- very short (little longer then half-a-minute). Musically one can hear usual Parker's tuneful groovy compositions framed and pushed ahead by repetitive rhythmic constructions. Still, characteristic William's storytelling-like form is significantly modified by a lot of Indian classical vocals and oud soling.

Predominantly mid-tempo very rhythmic music has enough freedom and space for each artist and group of instruments soloing on the front, interchanging with each other. Elements of different traditions fit together surprisingly organically, musical pictures seamlessly change one with the other, and longer-then-hour album didn't seem long at all.

Everyone familiar with Parker's music will recognize his music quite easily, but the addition of Eastern instruments and vocals brings a lot of new colorful nuances to it. One among best master's work for sure.

P.S. Joe Morris guitar solo on final album's composition, "Neptune's Mirror ", is really impressive.