More like dumber than a sack of rocks! On the other hand, that's probably one rich bag of rocks! Just what the title of the Dire Straits song was pointing to! LOL
As for the thread title, it was bound to go off topic now and again, and we've experienced the best and the worst for it! Why, Motic was so impressed with the title, he went out and bought one just to see first-hand what all of the hubbub was about! ;-)
We should be thankful to Kevin for having opened this space of freedom and I can't help to mention my personal synthesizer god and most influential musician:
Josef Erich "Joe" Zawinul was an Austrian-American jazz keyboardist and composer.
First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with trumpeter Miles Davis, and to become one of the creators of jazz fusion, an innovative musical genre that combined jazz with elements of rock and world music. Later, Zawinul co-founded the groups Weather Report and the world fusion music-oriented Zawinul Syndicate. Additionally, he made pioneering use of electric piano and synthesizers. Zawinul was named "Best Electric Keyboardist" 28 times by the readers of Down Beat magazine...
Joe Zawinul is perhaps the best-known and most influential keyboardist in jazz. He pioneered the use of electric keyboards and synths, and at 70 he's still at the peak of his powers.
He is many different men rolled into one. Austrian and American. Black and white. Old and young. Amiable and arrogant. Amusing and abrasive. Keyboardist and rhythm guru. Groomed in European classical music, yet a trailblazer of jazz, African, rock and fusion music. And despite having an almost Luddite approach to technology, he's been an electronic music pioneer since the 1960s...
Joe Zawinul with his famous band Weather Report, live 1978 with the great Wayne Shorter on sax and the one and only Jaco Pastorious on bass, playing the famous Zawinul composition "Birdland": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqashW66D7o
Oh man, I could watch those WR video's all day! I was just getting into Jazz when "Heavy Weather" came out and what an influence! Just had to do a tribute to that one...
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Of course after that I went on to collect all Weather Report albums and still enjoy them all.
And while we're paying tribute to the trendsetters of Fusion, here are a couple of others that wowed me way back when (and still do!)
I think that we that do our own music have a way of being influenced on a very subconcious level whether or not we are aware of it at the time. As such we become an amalgamation of all of the musical influences that touch our ears from birth to the present and I was blessed to have an older brother and older sister that introduced me to the power of all kinds of music at an early age.
I remember being blown away by the first WR album I heard which was Tale Spinnin' (1975). This was of course before Jaco, Alex and Manolo had joined Joe, but Alphonso Johnson is a great bass player and the percussion guys were top notch also.
I can still get quite a charge from hearing that opening riff to "Between The Thighs" but the tune that quite bowled me over at that time was "Badia." I was not prepared for such lovely sonic simplicity! And the "Worldbeat" flavour of it just knocked me out. I didn't know at the time that those influences would have such a lasting impact on me but I sure do now!
My early influences as a 10 year old learning to play piano were mostly from "Prog Rock"
I was a HUGE fan of Yes, Genesis and ELP which of course means that I was a HUGE fan
of Rick Wakeman, Tony Banks and Keith Emerson.
I had a Phillips reel to reel tape machine that would play half speed so that I could learn the really
fast runs and analyze what was going on !!
I learned the whole of Bowie's "Hunky Dory" and RW's "Six wives of henry VIII" parrot fashion :-)
My piano style still reflects this, there is some Wakeman and Banks contained within what I play.
ELP tracks were the toughest to grasp, very beautiful and complex harmonies.
SoundworldA.D. wrote:I think that we that do our own music have a way of being influenced on a very subconcious level whether or not we are aware of it at the time. As such we become an amalgamation of all of the musical influences that touch our ears from birth to the present...
You've just perfectly stated what I actually meant, as your own "Soundworld" music is reflecting your own distinctive and unique style and personality. But as you say, everything we've ever absorbed in our life, influences our actions, either on a conscious or a subconscious level...
The real uber-master Miles Davis, was able to play directly into our subconsciousness and change our way of thinking and feeling, even if we didn't realize this consciously.
"Pharao's Dance" is a composition by Joe Zawinul on the famous Miles Davis album "Bitches Brew" and is a good example for this effect on our subconsciousness:
My earliest Pop/Rock influence nod has to go to the Beatles of course, who, after hitting their stride in 1962 in England "invaded" these shores in January of 1964 and things were never the same. Of course quickly followed by The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Who, The Yardbirds, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Cream, The Moody Blues, Jethro Tull, Deep Purple, TYA and the proggers that you mentioned as well as King Crimson.
Jimi, The Doors, Santana, Frank Zappa and the Mo's and the whole San Francisco Sound lot added to the mix as well from America as well as short-lived but fun notables like The Monkees, Paul Revere and The Raiders and so many others.
What a time it was, and with the advent of the new "experimental and improv" Jazz explosion started by Miles, Coltrane, Mingus, et al, multitudinous musical influences just rained like candy from the sky.
I became a HUGE Genesis fan after reading an article in Circus magazine which had a picture of Peter Gabriel in full costume at a concert. The first album I purchased was "Selling England" and I was quite taken not only with the impressive musical arrangements, but with the interesting lyrics as well. I followed them through the rest of the Gabriel era and beyond, and I have to say that the recent release of many of their albums in SACD multi-channel was the biggest boon for Genesis lovers in years. I hear stuff I had never heard before!
Listening (again!) to BB as I write this. Who would have known that after what started with the rather subdued but beautiful “In a Silent Way” (1969) would morph into the sonic brilliance and musical mastery of full out improv on Bitches Brew the next year. Just look at the outstanding musician lineup from “The Brew:”
Miles Davis
Wayne Shorter
Bennie Maupin
Joe Zawinul
Larry Young
Chick Corea
John McLaughlin
Dave Holland
Harvey Brooks
Lenny White
Jack DeJohnette
Don Alias
Jim Riley
We all know that McLaughlin went on to success with the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and as Zawinul and Chick formed Weather Report and Return To Forever respectively, this led to even more outstanding musical talent being unleashed like Jaco, Stanley Clarke, Al Dimeola, Jean-Luc Ponty and others.
SoundworldA.D. wrote:
...We all know that McLaughlin went on to success with the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and as Zawinul and Chick formed Weather Report and Return To Forever respectively, this led to even more outstanding musical talent being unleashed like Jaco, Stanley Clarke, Al Dimeola, Jean-Luc Ponty and others.
It's fun to compare these two versions from the 70's and the new millenium:
I went to see Herbie Hancock last year at the O2 in Berlin, he performed as a guest of "Lang Lang" the very
accomplished classical piano virtuoso.
Both of them were superb, just pure raw musical talent.
MartyM wrote:I went to see Herbie Hancock last year at the O2 in Berlin, he performed as a guest of "Lang Lang" the very
accomplished classical piano virtuoso.
Both of them were superb, just pure raw musical talent.
MM
Herbie isn't afraid of anything...;) I will see John Scofield (guitar) live tomorrow evening. He is one of the later great offsprings of Miles Davis and of course also a "pure raw music talent":
Miles Davis and John Scofield live 1985: (Don't miss Scofield's solo in the last part of the clip, from 5:20)
Oh this is too good! "Watermelon Man" (from Headhunters) will always bring a smile to my face real quick! A funny story...I was wheeling through the park on a nice sunny day with the windows peeled and cranked up the volume as that intro to Watermelon Man started. The people at the park were stunned! They stopped in their tracks to hear this sound! I could see by the looks on their faces the resounding question of "who or what is that?!" Just sooo infectious!
Another classic that put Herbie over the top later was the commercial success of "Rockit" from 1983's Future Shock (complete with MTV video!). Another notable release that is well worth having is Billy Cobham's "Spectrum" from 1973 and Alphonso Johnson's "Spellbound" from 1977.
Those video's of "The Sorceress" are great, especially the one from the 70's! I prefer the particular 2008 version on the DVD from Montreaux. Al D starts out the show on his fabled "Black Beauty" (Les Paul with Dimarzio's) but soon switches to that lovely "Rainbow" PRS.
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For the youngsters who may have not heard extreme high energy Jazz Rock fusion before, it would be well worth checking out Stanley Clarke's "School Days" and "Rocks, Pebbles and Sand" and Al Dimeola's "Land of the Midnight Sun", "Elegant Gypsy", and "Casino." Another fave classic is Jean-Luc Ponty's "Cosmic Messenger."
From MUNCHNER/KLAVIERSOMMER 1987. The intro just blew me off my bleedin' feet! The interplay between Miles and Daryl (Jones) is just smokin' hot, and that bizarre 4 string guitar played so well by Joe McCreary is a real blast. Kenny G (no! not THAT Kenny G) just smokes that sax! What a blast off show! One of my favourites before he added Marilyn on Perc.
And just so we don't forget to show off some marvelous Marilyn, this one with really good sound from Melbourne the next year. Kenny and Joe's trading solo's just tickles the senses! Benny Reitveld had replaced Daryl Jones on bass.
