Thursday 24 July 2014

More 1982 USA: Fred Taylor's Court of Circe -- another brilliant lost fusion masterpiece from the vaults....



Another masterpiece discovered ex nihilo by my friend... how indebted I must be...
And notice the beauty of the geometric cover drawing (by one Barbara Kuhne) which suggests the mathematics of perspective, a fascinating topic in its own right.

All the compositions are by Fred Taylor, who is actually a percussionist.  No other credits for him on this database, which is sad.  He must have done much more and someone is probably liable to correct me here.

For me the standout is the Elegy subtitled To the Memory of Dayle Bates, composed by Craig Lawrence and Ron Madden, which is reproduced here:





At the bottom the following blurb:

"Fred Taylor is a native of Spokane, Wash.  His first musical interests were the piano compositions of Bartok and the jazz of Brubeck. [Ed. - no surprise here!]  These influences led to several years of classical piano training, until his sudden discovery of percussion at age 11.  In addition to a thorough study of perc., theory, and arranging in high school and college, Fred gained an extensive profess. backgrnd in symph. music, jazz improv., and all forms of popular music, his varied experiences include Country Western with Ferlin Husky and Jerry Hegarty, R and B, Soul and Rock with the Ink Spots, Tickled pink, and the Shakers, variety shows with Pete Barbutti, Tony Visco and Dick Fisher, and jazz with the Cozzetti-Gemmill Quartet [recommended as well! -Ed.], jazzdance and his own innovative groups, incl. Sanctuary.  Fred is currently freelancing and doing studio work in the Seattle area, where he lives with his wife Kathy and two cats Muthoo and Chicken.

Court of Circe is the first in a series of new music from Fred and his friends-- Enjoy!

Dedicated with love to flutterby..."

So there you go.  The composition as well as the arrangement is stunning, you will agree...  How sad there was no second album from this astonishingly talented crew...  was the music simply too good?

8 comments:

  1. fred taylor
    https://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/1xzej9

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am from Spokane! Haha! No wonder he's not famous! JK but It's a dead end. Thank you, this is quite invigorating and inspiring! Good thing he (and I) moved to bigger cities...

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  3. I wonder what happened to Fred Taylor...?

    Here is a new upload by request of Kroton Blaue Sonne:
    https://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/5g3uo1

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  4. Hello! Thanks very much for the kind comments! I am very much alive and well; living in Georgia. My web site is http://www.fredtaylormusic.com - be sure to visit the Audio Files pages for more recordings.

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