Tropea-Short Trip To Space (1977)

Largely unknown in Europe, John Tropea is one of the most important guitarists of 1970s American jazz fusion. His career has been marked both by his own solo work, with over a dozen albums released, and by his work as a session musician in some fifty collaborations with artists such as Van Morrison, Deodato, Michael Franks, and Eric Clapton. "Short Trip To Space" (1977), his second solo album, showcases his jazz fusion style with funk sounds influenced by psychedelia, resulting in a dazzling work of sophisticated, elegant, and dynamic jazz. Without reaching the complexities of progressive jazz, Tropea approaches jazz fusion with spacious atmospheres and expansive instrumental developments featuring piano, guitar, winds, and percussion, performed with an addictive, unpretentious style that appeals to both purists and fans of mainstream jazz. For this second album, Tropea would have several top collaborators such as Larry Fast, Michael Brecker, Lou Marini or Randy Brecker among other musicians from the nascent North American jazz scene of the time.

Rush-Different Stages (1998)

In 1998, Rush released their fourth live album, the first to break the double-album format, launching a triple disc with excerpts from their last tours promoting the album "Test For Echo", plus a recording from 1978 during the "Hemispheres" tour. Running for over three hours, what the band offers here is a carefully curated selection of the quintessential material that Rush created over more than 30 years. This triple album features some of their all-time favorites such as "Anthem", "Fly By Night", "Xanadu", "Tom Sawyer", "Bastille Day", "Farewell to Kings", "Working Man", and "Cinderella Man", as well as powerful versions of songs from their later albums like "Limelight", "Bravado", "Analog Kid", "Natural Science", and "Roll the Bones", not forgetting the entire epic suite from "2112". With this live performance, Rush continued to demonstrate that technically they were the best power trio in progressive hard rock of the last three decades.

ZZ Top-Afterburner (1985)

In the 1980s, the Texas band Z.Z. Top embarked on a new phase, moving towards a more conventional and commercial sound. Their earlier work, primarily their first four albums, was rooted in blues and boogie with a Southern rock influence. This new direction was underpinned by the inclusion of wind instruments, such as the saxophones played by the band members under the pseudonym Lone Wolf Horns. While "Eliminator" saw the trio begin incorporating synthesizers and danceable rhythms, their subsequent album, "Afterburner", marked a definitive shift, creating a work that, from the perspective of the pure Southern blues of their earlier releases, temporarily brought an end to their sound, showcasing infectious and danceable rhythms. Songs like "Sleeping Bag", "Stages", and "Velcro Fly" achieved resounding success thanks to MTV and its exciting music videos. However, they still showcase their characteristic bluesy rhythm in the older tracks with an updated sound, such as "Can't Stop Rockin' ", "Rough Boy", and "Dipping Low (In The Lap of Luxury)". "Afterburner" would follow the same path as "Eliminator", selling over ten million copies worldwide and becoming a staple in nightclubs across half the globe.

Toto-Turn Back (1981)

Toto's third album is unfairly underrated, having been overshadowed by the mega-hits of their first two albums and the multi-platinum "IV" released a year later. The lineup that recorded this album continued to consist of David Paich (keyboards and backing vocals), Steve Lukather (guitars and vocals), Jeff Porcaro (drums), David Hungate (bass), Steve Porcaro (keyboards), and Bobby Kimball (lead vocals). "Turn Back" features a rich repertoire of tracks that are less complex and have simpler, more predictable arrangements. Even so, it includes high-quality songs such as the addictive "Gift With a Golden Gun", the rocking "English Eyes", the melodic hard rock "Live For Today", the semi-progressive mini-epic "Million Miles Away", the exhilarating rocker "Goodbye Elenore", and the appealing AOR title track. While not a complete flop on the charts ("it only managed to reach one million copies in sales"), this third album falls far short of the multimillion-dollar figures of Toto's previous and subsequent works.

Bliss Band-Dinner With Raoul (1978)

Bliss Band was a British band from the late 1970s that released two albums before disbanding in 1980. The band was formed by vocalist and keyboardist Paul Bliss in 1976 after leaving Dog Soldier, with whom he had released an album in 1975 and had also contributed to several Moody Blues projects. For the production of their first album, "Dinner With Raoul," released in 1978, Paul Bliss enlisted Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers guitarist Jeff Baxter, along with Michael McDonald on vocals, Andy Brown on bass, Alan Park on keyboards, Phil Palmer on guitar, and Nigel Elliott on drums. This debut album is brimming with great compositions in the purest West Coast style, venturing into more jazzy moments, all overflowing with catchy and pleasant melodies. The melodic sections are combined thanks to the vocal prowess of Bliss and McDonald, along with the keyboard elements that make this an excellent example of late-seventies Californian rock. The final result is astonishing, and it's no surprise given the production by Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and the outstanding contributions of Michael McDonald ("Slipaway" and "Stay A Little Longer"), which evoke the sound of early Steely Dan and The Doobies Brothers, making it a hidden gem of West Coast melodic rock. Tracks like "Over The Hill", "Don't Do Me Any Favors", "Right Place, Right Time", and "Here Goes" only need Donald Fagen's involvement to transform "Dinner With Raoul" into a lost "Katy Lied", with that smooth, striking, and subtle music contained within its grooves. Inexplicably, as happened to so many others, this album was lost in the abyss, perhaps because there were simply too many similar releases at the time (which there undoubtedly were), which is why many of these works inevitably went unnoticed.

Gentle Giant-Free Hand (1975)

Gentle Giant were always quite different within rock music, and their style was difficult for many progressive rock fans to digest. They combined challenging and varied music, incorporating medieval music, a cappella vocals, passages of delicate beauty, and moments of energetic rock. All these musical paths, and many more, sometimes converged in a single song, something that could be part of the general description of so-called progressive rock. Only the most open-minded musical listeners will find Gentle Giant's music accessible, and although they certainly never completely transcended their cult status due to their tendency to get too close to mainstream popularity and critical acclaim, they never sounded like any of the contemporary heavyweights such as Genesis, Jethro Tull, Yes, EL&P, or Pink Floyd, to name just a few. In 1975 came "Free Hand", the band's seventh album, an album that, while not reaching the complexity of works like "Acquiring the Taste" (1971), "Octopus" (1972), or "Power of the Glory", nor the more accessible later works like "Interview" (1976), managed to keep them in a privileged position within the progressive rock style of the mid-seventies. A dense, complex, and impeccable album, where from the vocal arrangements of the medieval "On Reflection", the mind-blowing and mechanical music of "Free Hand" with its instrumental intricacies in the purest jazz-rock style, the impressive and melodic "His Last Voyage", or the challenging and sophisticated "Talybont", not to mention the excellent folk-rock "Mobile" and the brilliant and accessible "Just The Same", all confirm that it is perhaps their most acclaimed and internationally recognized album, as well as their most essential work and considered one of the jewels of progressive rock from the seventies.

Triumph-In The Beginning... (1976)

With this album, the Canadian band Triumph launched their compelling and brilliant career, proving throughout their active years that they were one of the best hard rock bands with progressive influences. Although this debut received little media or commercial attention at the time, this first album already hinted at the direction the power trio's style would take. The trio consisted of guitarist Rick Emmett, drummer and vocalist Gil Moore, and bassist and keyboardist Mike Levine. Powerful hard rock tracks like "Be My Lover", "Street Fighter", "What's Another Day of Rock 'n' Roll", and "Let Me Get Next to You", progressive experiments such as the epic "Blinding Light Show/Moonchild", and addictive mid-tempo songs like "Easy Life" make up a commendable and interesting work of uncompromising and unadulterated hard rock.

Agitation Free-Malesch (1972)

Agitation Free were a classic of the German krautrock genre, creating a highly original style with sounds that combined repetitive electronic music, elements of world music and the European avant-garde with soaring guitar solos, spacey sounds, and breathtaking atmospheric improvisations. Formed in 1967 in Berlin by Jörg Schwenke (guitar), Lutz Ulbrich (guitars, 12-string guitar, and Hammond organ), Michael Hoenig (synthesizers, steel guitar, and electronics), Michael Günther (bass), and Burghard Rausch (drums, percussion, and vocals), they released their debut album, "Malesch", in 1972. Its style was rooted in Middle Eastern ethnic sounds, a product of the band's extensive travels over the years to countries like Egypt and Libya, all infused with British and American psychedelia, featuring guitar solos and hypnotic sounds. A year later came "Second" (1973), their second album, which, unlike its predecessor, featured a more "Western" sound, predominantly space rock with multiple keyboard elements and acid guitars reminiscent of Ash Ra Tempel. Following these two eloquent and terrifying albums, the live album "Last" was released in 1976, a much more experimental record that marked the end of this magnificent band's first adventure until almost 25 years later when they reunited to record a series of albums that were well-received by the progressive rock community.

The Allman Brothers Band-The Allman Brothers Band (1969)

During their long career, The Allman Brothers Band had two clearly distinct eras: the first with Duane Allman and Berry Oakley as the undisputed leaders, and the second with Gregg Allman and Dicky Betts at the helm, after Duane and Berry died in separate motorcycle accidents within months of each other. While the first was a whirlwind of music that combined jazz with rock, blues, country, funk, and Southern sounds, the second was a talented rock band that, while still drawing on its Southern influences, subtly moved away from its original essence to embrace more classic rock as its main style. The fact that the early Allman Brothers were called a rock band probably had more to do with their hippie attire and their concerts with other rock groups than with the music itself. A prime example of this is their fabulous debut album, a record brimming with blues, jazz fusion, R&B, and psychedelic sounds. Generational anthems like "Dreams" and "Whipping Post". sonic explosions like "Don't Want You No More" and "Black Hearted Woman", and hypnotic bluesy canvases like "It's Not My Cross To Bear" highlight this band's immense talent for improvisation, especially in their live performances. They fused their extensive arsenal of influences with touches of soul and bluegrass, blending them with their own creations that defy easy categorization. With this debut, The Allman Brothers launched their impressive career and demonstrated to the world their ability to play and improvise across multiple styles, something other groups couldn't even begin to imagine.

Steely Dan-Gaucho (1980)

"Gaucho" was the seventh and final album of Steely Dan's first phase. When compared to their debut album released eight years earlier ("Can't Buy a Thrill"), it can be hard to believe that the same two musicians (Walter Becker and Donald Fagen) possessed such musical creativity, with intelligent lyrics, a silky sound, complex and brilliant musical time signatures, accompanied by stormy vocals, all wrapped in a sound akin to the most sophisticated jazz-rock and recorded in impeccably meticulous sessions. For "Gaucho", the Fagen-Becker duo once again enlisted a vast array of collaborators, so long that we would need six or seven lines to list them all, but among them we could highlight Mark Knopfler, Hiram Bullock, Tom Scott, Larry Carlton, Michael McDonald, Steve Khan, Patti Austin, Joe Sample, Randy and Michael Brecker, and David Sanborn… and so on, nearly fifty major figures of jazz, blues, and American rock. With this work, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker reached the pinnacle of stylistic self-evolution, without losing a single drop of inspiration from each and every member of their gigantic and colossal group of musicians for this legendary recording. An album that, in its entirety, feels essential, featuring brilliantly crafted and executed tracks such as "Babylon Sisters", "Hey Nineteen", "Glamour Profession", "Gaucho", "Time Out Of Mind," and "My Rival". As with all its predecessors, "Gaucho" once again placed Steely Dan at the forefront of jazz-rock, earning them their second consecutive Grammy for Best Studio Recording.

Gentle Giant-Acquiring The Taste (1971)

"Adquiring the Taste", Gentle Giant's second album, was the British band's first masterpiece, a work that placed special emphasis on the gentler side of this progressive giant after their impressive debut released a year earlier. Furthermore, there's also a simultaneous emphasis on the more terrifying side of progressive rock, giving the album an additional experimental essence: this album is designed as a true acquired taste, with strange yet captivating compositions, extensive use of challenging counterpoint, unusual and dissonant tempos, impressive choral arrangements, and a wide variety of musical ideas. By this point, Gentle Giant had already reached the full maturity of their own signature sound. While it's true that "Adquiring the Taste" doesn't align with the ideas of "Three Friends" (1972) or "The Power and the Glory" (1974), and isn't even as appealing as "Free Hand" (1975), it encapsulates and embodies the most exquisite original expression of Gentle Giant, with that delicacy and sophistication so characteristic of the essence of his music. "Adquiring the Taste" is composed of an anthological succession of tracks such as the captivating and elegant "Pantagruel's Nativity", the mysterious and eerie "Edge of Twilight", the astute "The House, the Street, the Room", and the bluesy "Plain Truth", all performed with boundless good taste and immaculate mastery. While the melancholic “The Moon is Down”, with its lyrical reflections on the passing of the day, cleverly contrasts with its more optimistic predecessor, “Wreck”, which seamlessly blends unrestrained vocals and Renaissance chamber music with infectious enthusiasm, “Black Cat” immediately follows, offering a succession of stunning string sections within a jazz-oriented context. These strings are sweet during the vocal parts and hauntingly dissonant during the strange instrumental interlude. It goes without saying that this album is a progressive rock masterpiece, one of the many that the London group would create throughout their brilliant career.