Hi,
I just found this thread from looking across the boards for something new. No-one's mentioned the percussionist (and keyboardist) Stomu Yamashta so I will. I first saw him when I went to see his touring Red Buddha Theatre with its director and fellow percussionist Joji Hirota, many years ago in Liverpool....a quick Google suggests this must have been 1972 or 73, although I couldn't find the date of the Liverpool gig.
I still have the colour programme somewhere with all my other live concert stuff. Anyway, it was a fantastic spectacle that still stands out in my memory. The show was entirely rythmic fast percussion brilliantly timed, and I remember the dragon drummers, a gigantic dragon, and the performers leaving the stage and playing in the aisles.
He came to my notice again in 1976, when he formed the jazz-rock fusion group Go, along with some of my other stand out musicians of the time, Steve Winwood, Al Dimeola, Michael Shrieve and Klauss Schulze.
I bought the first album Go which features Stomu and Shrieves' fine percussion, Klauss Schulze's Tangerine Dream like spacey synth, and Al Dimeola's guitar arrangements.
Then the next album Go Too, although Steve Winwood had left to pursue his solo career, so Jess Roden and Linda Lewis were recruited to handle lead vocals.
The first conceptual album Go was well received at the time and you can clearly hear the fusion of the individual artists own music styles throughout the album with Steve's distinctive vocals running through the tracks.
Go Too, the second album is more sophisticated and polished, but sadly lacking those sometimes haunting vocals of Steve.
Go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g53zcpaXT8o
Go Too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lHcyt-KqFc
Guitar enthusiasts might like Al Dimeola's Mediterranean Sundance from the album Elegant Gypsy, an acoustic guitar duet with Paco De Lucia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhccIfevjCU