Schlüssel on Calig

"Schlüssel" is the german word for key. It's the one that unlocks the door.
Another german word for key is "Taste". It's a part of the piano.
There's not much info about Key in the net (my first time using this common phrase), so I'll have to work with whats' given on the backcover. Key consists of 5 very young musicians. My guess is that they all are students at that time. The leading figure seems to be Markus Stockhausen, son of Karl Heinz Stockhausen, and he's 20 years old when recording that particular album. Actually he's the only one of the group I have ever heard about, but as you probably know my knowledge is very limited. The liner notes by Manfred Schoof report about an exciting and interesting young group ..... all compositions were written by members of the group ...... group of great promise....
The only thing I might add is that I like this LP because of the playful variation of styles. Even within the tracks. "Please be good to me" starts off rather powerful switches into funky and slips into a more loveboatish Bob James part.
My favourites are the modal "Birds flying" and the free ballad "Rheda".
It's yours.

Key (1977 Calig)
recorded @ Dierks Sudio Stommeln
Recording Engineer: Justus Liebig

Better than pilsener?

Maybe? Best is "Piano Jazz from Chechoslovakia" PLUS a lovely pilsener
as I'm celebrating it right now. You have to know that Piano jazz is just my thing.
I am a big fan of Ahmad Jamal, Carla Bley, Wofgang Dauner, Friedrich Gulda,
Lalo Schifrin, Duke Pearson, Krzystof Komeda, Joe Zawinul, Mary Lou Williams and of course Oscar Peterson and all the other great guys (such as Jan Hammer, Ladislav Gerhardt, Rudolf Rokl, Josef Blaha, Karel Ruzicka & Ludek Svabensky) and for me this LP is heaven!
I bought it because of Jan Hammer. I was pretty amazed when I heard his "Malma Maliny" LP on MPS from 1969 because it is quite different from "Tubbs & Valery". I was as amazed when I heard these recordings here - he's so fresh! as we described HipHop acts in the early 90ies.
So are his czech comrades. It is hard to pick a favourite. Every track is different (the pilsener is working by now) an of course brilliant. But decisions have to be made and so I pick "Made in Tunesia" which will soon be a favourite among Compact Disc Jockeys and "Swingin" that is finished right now. Děkuij!

Na zdraví!
Basso

LINKLINKLINKLINKLINKLINK

Bouillabass versus Lauren

The Crew's 3rd release on Calig featuring Lauren Newton.
There's a lot more freedom in here and it's not my cup of tea.
But ( and this is a very big but) "Bouillabass" is a monster of a tune
and I like "Flying Bird" just as much (check out KEY's same titled LP
from 1977 on Calig including the wonderful "Birds Flying").
Please understand that I cannot say too much about the rest of the tracks
except from "great instrumentation" or "interesting structures" and a "voice".

Cheers,
Basso

Caritas

Back to Jazz. Here's the Frederic Rabold Crew plus Martin Ederer on guitar
from 1974. Lots of energy coming from a drawer somewhere between funky and free. Released on the small Calig (Caritas Lichtbild Gesellschaft) Label from Munich that released incredible LPs like Tomasz Stanko's "Purple Sun", two LPs by Milan Pilar's infamous Catch Up, a rather free Wolfgang Dauner album and three great LPs by Frederic Rabold and his men (later accompanied by Lauren Newton and her voice gives me a strange feeling in the back of my head so I'll not be mentioning her further on).
This is the Crew's 2nd release on Calig, "Flair" from 1972 being the 1st and "Balance" from 1977 the 3rd. (I am still missing "Flair"- offers welcome). As far as I know the Crew's output this is my favourite FRC album. There are 3 more LPs I used to have (one was silverish, one yellow and one on MPS and that tango wasn't too funky) but I got rid of them some years ago.
Back to what I like: every track on this gem (except from "Time Machine")!
Enjoy.

Cheers,
Basso

PS. Did U.F.O. sample "Yahtzee"?