Griot Galaxy's Opus Krampus, by request, plus more

 










Profile: American jazz band, formed in 1972, disbanded in 1989.
Members: Anthony Holland, Ben Henderson (2), Faruq Z. Bey, Tani Tabbal

The music is definitely a mixture of free jazz and fusion as so listed on the above page, perhaps less fusiony than electric jazzy free stuff with a lot of hard percussion and dissonance.   That is, missing is the furious fusionary energy and perhaps consistency.  It's not so free as to be just floating off into the ether of space / inaccessibly meandering / insanely spouting phrases all over the place, either there is some composed stuff or the band is competent enough to follow each other's narratives, and to me it appears the first minute or two is written down, then as usual this forms the springboard for individual improvs, or perhaps forms the diving board for bellyflops, depending on tastes.

From the first, 1982 album, Kin, the title track:


From the requested Opus Krampus from 1985, the opener called After Dream:


As usual I was able to locate some more material, including a 2-CD live recorded in 1983, a bootleg-like Live from Montreaux from 1982, and an "unreleased 1982 studio album," and all of these are along the same lines as the official 2 LPs.  Put together in one package for your listening pleasure.

And go ahead and post some more wishlist requests, 'tis the season for this of course, as every year, I'll see what I can do-- inshprog as we say, or, by the grace of the prog gods--



source https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2025/12/griot-galaxys-opus-krampus-by-request.html
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