Three Great Bands That Nobody Ever Talks AboutCaldera: Latin Jazz/Fusion band of the late 1970s that cut four great albums and then disappeared. Similar to Return to Forever but better and more consistent songwriting, although they had no real virtuosos like Stanley Clarke and Al DiMeola. Guitarist Jorge Strunz released several CDs with a Persian guitarist under the name Strunz/Farah that are great, but not terribly similar to Caldera, and the drummer from the first two albums, Carlos Vega, appeared on many, many albums in the 1980s.
Synergy: Actually just one man made up this band, synthesizer player Larry Fast. The song Legacy, on the album Electronic Realizations for a Rock Orchestra, is a fugue that just blows me away every time I listen to it; it's definitely in my favorite ten pieces of music.
Renaissance: My sister turned me onto this band and we ended up seeing them in concert 4-5 times in the mid-70s. Annie Haslam has the greatest voice of all time, and it was put to excellent use on songs like Black Flame, Running Hard, Mother Russia and Carpet of the Sun. Look for the live album at the Academy of Music or the studio LP Turn of the Cards for the best examples of their work.
