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Jean-Claude Petit in The Best of all Possible Worlds from 1980 [strongly recommended!]

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What a request!  Not the kind of thing that pops up often, not anymore, after we've scraped the bottom of the prog and fusion barrel, this is the best of all possible worlds of prog fusion, advanced jazz-rock, whatever kind of progressive music you want to call it.  And totally unknown, for myself and for most of you I'm sure, who were never aware of the existence of this thing.

Evidently a soundtrack composer responsible for the music for some pretty famous French films (Manon, Cyrano, etc.), he started off with what looks like standard issue easy listening albums in the 1970s, then in this most musically unpromising year of 1980 he put out an incredible synthesis of progressive funk, fusion, and just plain masterpiece music.  If you follow this blog it's a lot like the German Peter Wolf's Tutti album with the mix of incredibly creative composition on a fusion / orchestral basis (though in actuality there is no orchestra, just keyboards).  Reminds me a bit too of my often mentioned favorite, Arif Nardin's astounding 1974 Journey.  Another similar lost masterpiece would be Michel Colombier's ST 1979 fusion work once posted here.

Database for this album can be located here.  I could sample any of the tracks and likely you'd be blown away, so I'll just start with the first one, Stones of Law, and emphasize that it continues from there in the same unforgettable vein:


Note the really strange oddity of the female chorus shouting out politicalish slogans which shows up on almost every song. (Though in this case the words are from Brit poet William Blake.)

Insane musical sounds though, right?  Note our old fave Ceccarelli plays drums.  And I really love the high energy pulsing to the beats throughout, with no ballad-like track to detract from the high-intensity musical propulsion.

From the verso, it looks like this might have been a ballet?

And what about the title, ironic reference to Voltaire's Candide?


Notes:

A Fauves-Puma Production

Synthetic Program engineered at Beaunougat Studio Paris, France.

Jean-Claude Petit uses the following:

Synthesizers: Prophet 5, Korg 3300 with Korg PS3010, 3020 

Keyboards: Korg MS20, ARP Odyssey, Oberheim Expander Module

Sequencers: ARP Sequencer; Sequential Circuits - model 800

Keyboards: Piano Fender Rhodes, Electric Piano Clavinet Hohner, Grand Piano Steinway, Hammond Organ

I added in the 1975 ST album, which is just easy listening mostly with simple compositions, and cover versions of Un Homme et une Femme and (god forbid!) My Way.  From that one, note the beautiful soundtracky Reve [Dream] which kind of starts off like the famous theme from Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris (by Gato Barbieri):


Also, the bio:

French composer, arranger, and conductor, born 14 November 1943 in Vaires-sur-Marne. Worked as a record arranger and TV conductor prior to turning to film composing in the 1980s.

Many many thanks for suggesting this album!







source https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2026/04/jean-claude-petit-in-best-of-all.html
Offical Podcast of Mistah Wilson

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