More jazz flute! The original Mission Impossible theme (1967)

The theme to the first series of Mission Impossible has been covered innumerable times (including one I linked recently) - but the original arrangement and performance is surely the best. 

So much to enjoy! First and foremost is the wildly syncopated riffs above a 10/8 time-signature (not, as oft stated, 5/4 - it is subdivided into 3/8, 3/8, 4/8*).

And secondly is the overblown, shrieking jazz flute solo (regular reader may recall my fondness for jazz flute).

Third is the orchestration itself - starting with that weird percussive noise on triangle/ violins, the uneven bass riff, alternating sections of the band, and ending with a crunching dissonance.  

*This is actually the case for most successful pieces+ in "5/4" time - if you were conducting them, you would want to give the down-beats (in bold italics) as follows: 1 2 3  4 5 6  7 8 9 10 

+ More jazz flute...!

Rock/ Elizabethan "jazz flute" - House of the King, from Focus

I remember this excellent single - House of the King, by Focus - being played in the sixth form common room in the middle 1970s. 

It features the "jazz flute" sound and style I like so much (but without any jazz improvisation), in context of a pseudo-Elizabethan Folk-Rock sound. 

Comparison's with Jethro Tull's Living in the Past are inevitable* - with a similar flute tonality, and similar use of an odd time signature with clusters of triplets, leading to a syncopated vibe (Living in the Past being in "5/4" i.e. 6/8 - 2/4; with House of the King mostly 6/8 - 3/4 - with an occasional dropped beat). 

If I was being critical - I'd say that House of the King is a bit over-produced, with too much going-on in the mix... a bit "commercialised" as I would have said at the time, from my then Progressive Rock perspective. 

Nonetheless, a really enjoyable and memorable piece - very well known at the time, now apparently all-but-forgotten.

*Actually, their instrumental Bouree is more analogous - but did not chart as a single. 

Pharaoh's Walk by Exodus (1971) a revivalist craze waiting to happen...

English-produced 'Rocksteady' Reggae with jazz flute from 1971... what's not to like? 

I don't actually remember this from the era in which it was released - despite having had a strong liking for the Jamaican Ska/ Rocksteady/ Reggae of the late 1960s. But I recently came across it in a YouTube compilation of such music that was issued in the UK by the famous Trojan Records. 

It is such a great little track that I immediately recognized it as one of those which will, sooner or later, be rediscovered and used as movie background, or a the theme for a TV show; so that sometime in the future 'everybody' will know it.  

Well, thanks to BC's Notions; you can be one of the early adopters...