Saturday, March 22, 2014

Mosaic, USA

Mosaic - s/t. 1978 LMI

Here's another fine entry from the ever enterprising AC. Like Touch and Ocean, Mosaic is one of those band names that has been used dozens of times, so finding info about them can be difficult without any other clues. LMI was a jazz/soul label from Malibu, founded by Lee Magid, who apparently was a famous producer and manager for some big name soul and blues artists back in the day.

This Mosaic were from Peoria, Illinois, and have that sweet jazz funk sound with an exotic bent that we so often find from this era. Perhaps Embryo's "Apo Calypso" or even the Ville Emard Blues Band can provide some context. Lovely female vocals, Fender Rhodes, sax, percussion, and guitar (note the instrumental setup on the cover). Guaranteed to put a smile on your face for the start of the weekend.

The AC affords us this fine backdrop: "Really nice fusion platter from this obscure Illinois-based group. It's instantly appealing and highly melodic, but there's some hidden depth here too, with interesting compositions full of great (but not flashy) unison playing, a wide instrumental palette and lots of rhythmic variety. Some sublime female vocals on one track and a surprisingly top-notch production job round out the package. Unfortunately the last track is a duff vocal number, but that's not nearly enough to spoil what's an otherwise uniformly strong outing. This one's always been a bit of a pain to find, but it's well worth the hunt for genre fans."

Priority: 3

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Rayuela, Argentina ***REISSUED***

Rayuela. 1977 Orfeo ***Reissued by Fonocal, Dec 2024 Moved to UMR Priority: 1 3/16/14 (new entry); 12/10/24 (complete)