today's BGM in our office :

CHASE / Ennea (1972)

CHASE / Pure Music (1973)

Released from Epic / 1972
Wounded Bird Records (3albums in 2CDs) / 2008

Released from Epic / 1973
Wounded Bird Records (3albums in 2CDs) / 2008

For me, the first chance to listen to Jazz-Rock with horns came at the age 10, when I was a big fan of THE BEATLES. Of course, Got To Get You Into My Life was one of my favorite songs then. But the chance to open doors to more musicians was once closed when I started to listen to Heavy Metal music when I was 13 or 14 years-old.
While I was maniac with Heavy Metal (and some Progressive Rock), sounds of HORNS were very far from me although I was playing Cornet (a kind of horns, close to trumpet) at the age of 10-15 in my school.
The second chance came years later, when I became a big fan of CHICAGO. What an easy way to "Rock with Brass"!!
Of course I already knew CHICAGO then, but at that moment CHICAGO was just an AOR group, singing "everybody needs a little time away..." or who used to stay the night.
I didn't know, then, that one beautiful song which Japanese commercial playing was CHICAGO song. It was Saturday In The Park. As soon as I learned it, I bought the 5th album of CHICAGO, and the first track on that album, A Hit By Varese, was revolutionary for me. It was a good luck of mine because I already had ears to understand 70's cool music by listening to British Jazz-Rock groups like Riff-Raff, Salamander, Colosseum, Web/Samurai featuring Dave Lawson etc.

Anyway, I finally touched at this kind of music. I collected all 60's-70's CHICAGO albums within a week, and soon started to find other groups like CHICAGO. I learned and collected several artists' albums within a year. They were BRAINCHILD (UK), IF (UK), HEAVEN (UK), IDES OF MARCH, BS&T and of course, CHASE.
** at this timing, I also started to listen to EW&F, TOWER OF POWER and THE BRECKER BROTHERS. I'll write about those music in the near future.

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today's BGM in our office :

VITTORIO DE SCALZI / Gli Occhi Del Mondo

Released from Aereostella (Italy) / 2011

NEW TROLLS may be the best group in the world for me. At least I can strongly say that they are one of the best groups in the universe for me.

It was like lightning-strikes when I heard Concerto Grosso n. 1: 2° Tempo: Adagio (Shadows) aired on radio when I was 14 or 15 years-old.
I was a Heavy Metal maniac then, listening to VENOM, METALLICA, BLUE OYSTER CULT etc. and I used to listened to one midnight radio-program who aired only Heavy Metal. On that program's "oldies (or something like that)" section, the radio DJ played that New Trolls song. It was middle-end of 80s, and there was no useful internets, so I had to look for "NEW?? TROLLS?? or a band with a similar name". Eventually I had to wait a few year to get one New Trolls CD because the radio DJ didn't talk from which country they were from, so I didn't have any ideas to check "Italian Music" sections in CD shops (I used to visit Progressive Rock CDs shops, but they didn't have New Trolls albums then).

Anyway, I finally got 1 NEW TROLLS CD, and it was NOT Concerto Grosso. The first NT album I got was QUELLI COME NOI which contains 1 track for "Il Festival della Canzone Italiana di Sanremo" with many re-recorded masterpieces of their history.
With only 1 CD, I could open many doors to new lands of music for me.
Quelli Come Noi contains POSTER, a cover song of CLAUDIO BAGLIONI.
Of course, I started to collect and listen to Claudio Baglioni albums as same as New Trolls, and of course, I bought many other Italian singers' albums while I was checking "Italian Music" shelves in CD shops. To know NEW TROLLS was a very good chance for me to know many other Italian singers/musicians.
If a radio-program didn't play one NT song in one night of mid-80s, my world might have been very smaller.

I'm still a big fan of NT, especially the voice of Vittorio De Scalzi (I can sing songs for Sampdoria although I don't know well about English football!!).
This album, GLI OCCHI DEL MONDO suits me. This is not a prog-rock album nor an approachable album for persons outside Italy, but this album contains plenty of "warm and gentle voices" by Vittorio.

Below album is the best NT album for me.
ALDEBARAN (1978)
This album shows all faces of New Trolls, Progressive Rock side, Hard Rock side, Italian domestic music side, Pops side with very beautiful choruses.

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today's BGM in our office Pt.2 :

STREETS :
s/t (1st)
Crimes In Mind

I believe that mid 80s albums by famous 70s Prog-Rock musicians are too underrated now.
Not like Genesis albums and 90125, most of those albums seems NOT so important for music fans now, but they have very attractive melodies, fine POPS sounds and sense of rock.
The Moody Blues, Caravan, Camel, Gentle Giant, and many UK prog groups released fine "80s Rock/Pops albums" with their own sounds.
Same as those UK groups, PFM, New Trolls and other Italian Groups, Triumvirat, Grobschnitt, Nektar (although they were from UK) and other German groups, Ange and some other French groups also released fine POPS albums in the 80s, but they seems NOT so accepted with good reputations in music-history, I think.
Prog-Rock fans faced away, and POPS fans didn't turn their head toward to them although their music were really superb.

It might be a matter of "genre". I think "genre" is needed only for "impulse buyings" but it is never needed to find good, unknown music.
STREETS might have been in a same situation.
Sounds are brilliant. Many Rock fans should know that Neil Kernon (1st) and Beau Hill (2nd) are ones of the most excellent ROCK producers.
Voices are superb. Everybody must know how Steve Walsh sings.
Guitars are excellent. Much more than CITY BOY era, Mike Slamer's guitar sings and dances well. Sometimes it's very technical like Steve Morse.
And, now many KANSAS and MELODIC HARD ROCK fans knows that this was the major debut of fine bassist/vocalist, Billy Greer of KANSAS/SEVENTH KEY/THE SIGN.

If Kansas fans expect music like Kansas, and if Melodic Rock fans expect 90s sounds, these albums may NOT so good to them.
But, if somebody who love music and who don't know well about this group, these albums will show them one of the top Melodic Rock in the mid 80s.

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today's BGM in our office :

BECKLEY-LAMM-WILSON / Like A Brother

I have been a big fan of THE BEATLES since I was 10 years old (Lennon had already passed away before I learned him).
After "the Beatles maniac seasons" of mine, my interest was took in progressive rock like YES, GENESIS and EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER, brass-rock like CHICAGO, BLOOD SWEAT & TEARS and CHASE as same as heavy metal like METALLICA (actually, METALLICA was the first group whom I was interested in real-time) so it took many years for me to know THE BEACH BOYS (and AMERICA...this BLW album was the first one for me to touch America music).
Actually it's a matter of regret for me to know THE BEACH BOYS soon after CARL WILSON had passed away. I wish if I could learn his name before the news of his death. "Endless Harmony", a TV documentary of The Beach Boys was broadcasted also in Japan some years later from Carl's death, and I learned how beautiful, excellent and attractive their songs are by watching that TV program.
Around the end of 90s ~ 00s, most of The Beach Boys albums, especially of 70s ones, were temporary out of print (USED CD shops were selling them for around $50 in Japan), so it was hard for me to collect them but I tried and finally got all albums of them because I was so much curious about CARL's voice.
There is another reason that I drastically became a fan of The Beach Boys.
In 1997, SPIKE EDNEY who was a tour keyboardist of Queen, released SAS BAND's first album. On that album, a superb cover of The Beach Boys "Sail On Sailor" was sung by my favorite singer Chris Thompson. Until then, I was misunderstanding as if all songs of The Beach Boys are like Surfin' USA... but Sail on Sailor knocked me down.
Anyway, although it must be too late for me to know CARL WILSON he's still my favorite since I learned him first.

This project, BECKLEY-LAMM-WILSON started around 1991 when ROBERT LAMM was preparing for his second solo album, "Life Is Good In My Neighborhood". They recorded "Watching The Time" written by Beckley although the original trio-version of the song has never been released until the third solo album of Lamm, In My Head (1999).
Anyway, everything started in 1991, and the project went ahead very slowly like a walk.
After 1992, some meetings and recordings were held, and most recordings seems to have finished until 1995.
In those years, Lamm was fighting against the label about un-released STONE OF SISYPHUS album until they, Chicago, released Night & Day album. Beckley released his first solo album Van Go Gan in 1995. But "Beckley-Lamm-Wilson" album has been inconclusive because the final mix-down could not  be done satisfactorily, and the releasing label was not found while Carl Wilson was fighting with his bad health.
Eventually, before this album's release, Carl had passed away in 1998.
Even after Carl's death, Lamm and Beckley kept partial re-recordings and re-mixes while Lamm released his third album In My Head, and ... finally this was released in 2000 (2001 in Japan with 3 bonus tracks).
When we got and listened to this album, we knew that this project would never release their second album.
This must be the one and only album from Beckley-Lamm-Wilson, but I think that their music, harmonies and combinations are a brief but dazzling flash in Pops/Rock music which will remain forever.

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today's BGM in our office :

DE KAST /
Noorderzon
Niets Te Verliezen
Onvoorspelbaar

DE KAST is a fine ROCK group from the Netherlands.
I learned their name by the reunion-live by KAYAK, a famous Progressive Rock group from the Netherlands.
KAYAK disbanded around the mid 80s, and I became a fan of them after they had disbanded. However, I heard that they would re-unite soon from my UK friend who is also a big fan of KAYAK. I had been waiting for a news from my friend, and finally it came.
On KAYAK's reunion live (or, something like that ... I don't know well about it), a Dutch singer Syb Van Der Ploeg sang some KAYAK songs of Edward Reekers era.
It may be ... not a good thing, but my friend gave me a cassette tape of a radio program of that KAYAK show (perhaps of a Dutch radio program) so I could listen to Syb's voice then.
It was amazing and I soon became a fan of the voice of Syb Van Der Ploeg who is the lead singer of DE KAST.

In Japan, it's hard to get detailed news about Dutch domestic rock groups, especially who are singing in Dutch, but from that time, DE KAST became one of the most attractive group from Europe for me.

 ... by shop SANREMO

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today's BGM in our office pt.3 :

CHRIS THOMPSON / If You Remember Me ~ Very Best Of
and
CHRIS THOMPSON / Backtrack 1980-1994

Subsequently to NIGHT albums, we are playing CHRIS THOMPSON's 2 different compilation albums.
I bought BACKTRACK directly from CHRIS' own website 1212.com (it moved to CHRIS THOMPSON CENTRAL website) so my CD's booklet has CHRIS' handwriting autograph.
This is the 3rd album in my collection on which CHRIS' autograph is written. The first one is rough-mix version (unfinished version) of Won't Lie Down album, and the second one is pressed (finished) version of Won't Lie Down. Rough Mix version was a monthly PRIZE at Chris' website. I wrote a message to him, and I was chosen to be the one to win the Rough Mix CD-R. It is still one of the biggest honor of mine in my life.

Both compilation contains rare, hard to "collect" tracks that are NOT on his own solo albums.
It's a very high mountain like K2 to collect all songs which he sang, but these compilations tell me that it worth doing for me. ... K2 by DON AIREY also features a few tracks sung by CHRIS.

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today's BGM in our office pt.2 :
NIGHT (featuring CHRIS THOMPSON) :
Night (S/T) / Long Distance 2in1 CD

The first time I heard CHRIS THOMPSON's voice was when I bought ALAN PARSONS' Try Anything Once album.
You may think it's very late to know Chris Thompson, but it was very timely for me 
as I was 20 years old when the album was released, only a few years after I became a big fan of ALAN PARSONS PROJECT.
I was also a big fan of Progressive Rock from UK around that time, so I started to listen to MANFRED MANN'S EARTH BAND soon after I got to love Chris' voice
(then I was also interested in and caught by other MANFRED MANN's albums, including Chapter III).

NIGHT seems to be known with a big hit HOT SUMMER NIGHTS, but for me, NIGHT is NOT a chart-oriented group but a superb ROCK group featuring one of the best ROCK vocalist.
I was too crazy about Chris Thompson when I bought NIGHT's 2in1 CD so I noticed much later that Robbie McIntosh and Nicky Hopkins who are also my favorite musicians are also playing on NIGHT album(s).

SIR ELTON JOHN sang QUEEN's Show Must Go On at the Wembley on Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, but I believe the same song which Chris Thompson sang on SAS BAND was better.

... by shop SANREMO

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today's BGM in our office :
V.A. (from Italy) / e pronto il incontro nuovo

Released from NIPPON PHONOGRAM (JAPAN) with this catalog number,
PHCA-50 in 1991.
Italian POPS compilation, compiled by Polygram Italia in 1991.
featuring songs by
FABIO CONCATO (4 tracks),
ROSSANA CASALE (3 tracks),
BIAGIO ANTONACCI (2 tracks),
CATERINA CASELLI (2 tracks) and
ENZO GRAGNANIELLO (2tracks).

Personally, my favorite singer in these 5 maestros is ROSSANA CASALE.
Some of her albums have been released also in Japan, but
I collected her albums printed in Italy because it was slightly hard to find Japan Edition of her albums around the late 90s.
Her voice reminds me the best era of KATE BUSH, and her Jazzy songs are very comfortable to my ears.

... by S.Noji at SANREMO CO.,LTD.

today's BGM in our office : / LUCIO DALLA / Ciao

today's BGM in our office :
LUCIO DALLA / Ciao

In Japan, the entrance for Italian Music is very small now
except for some famous Progressive Rock groups like PFM, NEW TROLLS etc.
For prog-rock fans, Italy is one of the most attractive countries. For those fans,
OSANNA, BANCO and I POOH are as great as MICHAEL JACKSON, and
JACULA, LE ORME and FORMULA 3 are like King Crimson, EL&P and YES.

Same as prog-rock groups, HEAVY METAL groups from Italy is more familiar now in Japan than years ago, but the biggest reasons that RHAPSODY OF FIRE, LABYRINTH and SKYLARK are famous for Japanese fans is that they are singing in English, I think.

Most of fans of foreign music in Japan love to listen to English music, and
few people loves other languages' music like French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian music.
** songs sung in Dutch or German are not known so much.

Our entrance for Italian Pops/Rock music was NEW TROLLS.
They played Prog-Rock in the early 70s, but their mid 70s~90s are the mainstream of POPS.
When their self-titled album was re-issued in Japan on CD, a bonus track "POSTER" was added.
It's a cover song of CLAUDIO BAGLIONI, and it was the first entrance for us to Italian Pops.
After I collected 10 or so albums of Claudio Baglioni, I started to hunt more Italian Pops, and met
UMBERTO TOZZI, UMBERTO BALSAMO, RICCARDO COCCIANTE (I already knew his name because he was covering PFM song, Suonare Suonare), ROSSANA CASALE, MARCO MASINI and many many more singers/musicians' albums.
Around that time, we found and listened to STADIO's album and had found that their music is so suitable for me.
We tried to find more STADIO albums but it was hard to find, here in Japan (it was ... 15 or more years ago), but
we heard that STADIO was playing together with LUCIO DALLA.
I started to find LUCIO DALLA's albums, and had found some of them.
I still do NOT know well about Italian Music scene in 2013, but I think I love most of Italian music because of I have never met an artist whose music does not fit to me.
RON, RAF, NEK and many younger musician's songs are so good, too.
It'll be my lifework to find and listen to more songs from Italy.

by S.Noji at SANREMO.CO.,LTD.

today's BGM in our office :
MORGAN / Nova Solis
ex-MOTT THE HOOPLE keyboardist MORGAN FISHER's group's 1972 album. MORGAN FISHER moved to Japan and has been in Japan since 1985, and now he's playing New Age music and Jingles for TV etc.

MORGAN features TIM STAFFELL who was the lead singer of "pre-QUEEN" group, SMILE featuring BRIAN MAY and ROGER TAYLOR.
In MORGAN, Tim's bass runs and sings like TIM BOGERT's play, and his voice sometimes reminds us SMILE whom Freddie Mercury wanted to join in.
Morgan's keyboards sounds as in between Keith Emerson and David Sancious of TONE era. Classical phrases with some "spacey" moods.
One of the most "underrated" progressive rock album, we think.

by S.Noji at SANREMO CO.,LTD.