Some of the stuff I've been digging lately...
Killer modern fusion album with a strong prog influence. Incredible playing from all involved, especially Garsed and bassist Ric Fierabracci. Look for a full review soon.
Corea, Clarke & White - Forever
Two disc set features Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke & Lenny White in an acoustic trio setting, plus Return To Forever studio rehearsals from 2009 with Bill Connors on guitar.
Loaded with insane chops and fun tunes. Hiland is one of the best country pickers around.
This one is several years old but I've had it on heavy rotation lately. Exceptional writing and production. Great guitar work from James Muller also.
Gannin Arnold - 5 World Class Drummers [DVD]
Features Arnold playing with drummers Taylor Hawkins, Jimmy Chamberlain, Simon Phillips, Terry Bozzio and Gary Novak to demonstrate their varying styles. The bonus disc includes interviews and extra footage.
Return To Forever IV will embark on a 32-city US tour this summer with special guest Zappa Plays Zappa. See below for the full list of 2011 RTF IV tour dates and venues, including dates for the band's European tour. RTF IV features Chick Corea on piano and keys, Lenny White on drums, Stanley Clarke on bass, Jean-Luc Ponty on violin, and Frank Gambale on guitar.
24 June NORTHAMPTON, MA Calvin Theater
25 June SYRACUSE, NY Syracuse Jazz Festival
26 June MONTREAL, QC Montreal Jazz Festival
27 June OTTAWA, ON Ottawa Jazz Festival
28 June TORONTO, ON Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival
1 July BERLIN, GERMANY Zitadelle
2 July HAMBURG, GERMANY Stadtpark
3 July NECKARSULM, GERMANY Audi Forum
4 July MUNICH, GERMANY Small Tollwood Arena
5 July KRAKOW, POLAND Hala Wisly
7 July VIENNE, FRANCE Vienne Jazz Festival
8 July ROTTERDAM, NL North Sea Jazz Festival
9 July PARIS, FRANCE Olympia
10 July GENT, BELGIUM Gent Jazz Festival
11 July DUISBURG, GERMANY Piano Festival Ruhr
12 July MONTREUX, SWITZERLAND Montreux Jazz Festival
14 July SETE, FRANCE Theatre de la Mer
15 July AOSTA, ITALY Bard Fortress
16 July PESCARA, ITALY Pescara Jazz Festival
17 July ROVINJ, CROATIA Park Forrest
20 July BASTIA, CORSICA, FRANCE Theatre de Verdure
22 July MADRID, SPAIN Puerta del Angel
23 July SAN SEBASTIAN, SPAIN Kursaal Auditorium
26 July MARSEILLE, FRANCE Marseille Jazz Festival
28 July SAN FELIU, SPAIN
29 July MARCIAC, FRANCE Marciac Jazz Festival
1 August TEL AVIV, ISRAEL Casesaria Amphitheatre
US Tour with Zappa Plays Zappa
7 August PITTSBURGH, PA Stage AE
8 August BUFFALO, NY UB Center for the Arts
9 August BALTIMORE, MD Merriweather Post Pavilion
10 August PHILADELPHIA, PA Mann Center
11 August BOSTON, MA Bank of America Pavilion
12 August NEW YORK, NY The Beacon Theatre
13 August NEW YORK, NY The Beacon Theatre
16 August COLUMBUS, OH LC Pavilion
17 August CLEVELAND, OH State Theatre
18 August CINCINNATI, OH PNC Pavilion
19 August DETROIT, MI Meadowbrook
20 August CHICAGO, IL Horseshoe Casino
21 August INDIANAPOLIS, IN The Murat
22 August NASHVILLE, TN Schermerhorn Symphony Center
24 August MINNEAPOLIS, MN Orpheum Theatre
25 August ST. LOUIS, MO Fox Theatre
26 August KANSAS CITY, MO Midland Theatre
27 August DENVER, CO Paramount Theatre
28 August SALT LAKE CITY, UT Red Butte Garden
8 September ATLANTA, GA Fox Theatre
9 September ORLANDO, FL House of Blues
10 September BOCA RATON, FL Mizner Park Amphitheatre
11 September CLEARWATER, FL Ruth Eckerd Hall
13 September AUSTIN, TX Austin City Limits Live at the Moody Theatre
14 September GRAND PRAIRIE, TX Verizon Theatre
15 September HOUSTON, TX Verizon Wireless Theatre
17 September MESA, AZ Mesa Arts Center
19 September SAN DIEGO, CA Humphrey’s
20 September LOS ANGELES, CA Greek Theatre
21 September DAVIS, CA Mondavi Center
22 September SAN FRANCISCO, CA Warfield Theatre
23 September EUGENE, OR Hult Center
24 September SEATTLE, WA Paramount Theatre
2-10 October JAPAN
BJORK, CHUCK D, ANI DIFRANCO, BELA FLECK, MCCOY TYNER, JOHN MCLAUGHLIN AND 18 OTHER LEGENDARY MUSICIANS REVEAL UNIQUE, IN-DEPTH INSIGHTS IN INNERVIEWS: MUSIC WITHOUT BORDERS BOOK - FOREWORD BY VICTOR WOOTEN
Twenty-four of the world's most renowned musicians share incredibly candid, in-depth thoughts on the joy and pain of the creative process, their careers and aspirations, conflicts and collaborations, and the realities of today's music business in Innerviews: Music Without Borders, the first book by acclaimed music journalist Anil Prasad.
Artists featured in the book include some of the greatest names in jazz, rock, world music, hip-hop, and electronica: Jon Anderson, Bjork, Bill Bruford, Martin Carthy, Stanley Clarke, Chuck D, Ani DiFranco, Bela Fleck, Michael Hedges, Jonas Hellborg, Zakir Hussain, Leo Kottke, Bill Laswell, John McLaughlin, Noa, David Sylvian, Tangerine Dream, David Torn, Ralph Towner, McCoy Tyner, Eberhard Weber, Chris Whitley, Victor Wooten, and Joe Zawinul. Wooten contributes a foreword to the book. Some of the evocative topics explored include:
Prasad established Innerviews (www.innerviews.org), the Internet's first and longest-running music magazine, in 1994. He is celebrated for his special ability to get his subjects to confide and reflect in ways they rarely do with other interviewers.
"Anil Prasad is like a great musician," says Victor Wooten. "The way he expresses himself through his own art-his writing—causes readers to feel inspired, as if we've learned about ourselves, as well as the subject of the interview."
"Prasad does splendid interviews with an amazing mix of musicians in Innerviews: Music Without Borders," says Vijay Iyer. "He takes the artists' work seriously and meets it on its own terms, which is a sign of true generosity on his part."
"Innerviews is a remarkable read, full of illuminating facts and insights from some of the music world's most compelling characters. Recommended to serious music fans." --The Weekender Magazine
"Prasad has crafted a book to be proud of, and one jazz readers will immediately find a home for in their libraries. Highly recommended. It reveals what artists really care about, feel, and openly wish to share with fans." --JazzReview.com
"One of the great things about what Prasad does is that he's interested in all different types of music, so that jazz musicians mix it up with rock, folk, world, composition-oriented and other unclassifiable un-genres." --NPR Jazz
"Anil Prasad has a reputation among readers and artists for incisive and substantive journalism. Essential reading for thinking fans." --Guitar Player Magazine
"Prasad's in-depth interviews allow artists to be seen as vulnerable as they discuss the highs and the lows of being in the spotlight. Innerviews: Music Without Borders lives up to the hype." --Popyoularity
Here is some stuff I've been digging lately:
John Czajkowski and Marco Minnemann - West ZooOpolis
Czajkowski's contribution to Minnemann's Normalizer 2 project. An amazing piece of work. Highly textured with great melodies and playing.
Alex Machacek featuring Marco Minnemann - 24 Tales (review)
This is Machacek's contribution to Minnemann's above-mentioned project. Remarkable stuff. Look for an interview with Machacek soon.
Great throwback fusion. Guests include Jimmy Herring, David Gilmore, Stanley Clarke and Victor Bailey.
Kurt Rosenwinkel - The Remedy - Live At The Village Vanguard
This one is a couple of years old but I've been listening to it a lot lately. Rosenwinkel is a phenomenal straight-ahead player. Incredible recording.
Lost Tribe (self-titled)
This is long out-of-print but you can find it on eBay. Lost Tribe was a fantastic New York fusion band that featured Adam Rogers and David Gilmore on guitars (who normally play straight-ahead jazz). This is their self-titled debut from 1993 which was produced by Walter Becker. Their follow-up Soulfish is great too.
From Abstract Logix news:
Anomaly (shipping April 21; now available for pre-order) to feature Stanley Clarke, Victor Bailey, Jimmy Herring, George
Colligan, David Gilmore and other luminaries in this Genre Defying
Recording.
Following his triumphant worldwide reunion tour with
Return To Forever in 2008 and separate trio tours in 2009 with Chick
Corea and Stanley Clarke and pianist Hiromi with Clarke, Lenny White was
primed to put out his own recording, his first as a leader in ten
years. With Anomaly, the pioneering jazz-rock drummer returns to his
roots, blending powerhouse backbeats
and improvisational abandon in
a bold, unapologetically aggressive manner that characterized the early
70s fusion movement.
“We need to restart a revolution so that
we can take back the music and stop the fluff,” says White. “I’m hoping
that this new album is a representation of that ideal.”
Accompanied
by a crew of guitar killers in Jimmy Herring (Widespread Panic), Nick
Moroch (a former member of White’s Astral Pirates), David Gilmore, Tom
Guarna and David Bendeth, keyboardists George Colligan, Bernard Wright,
Donald Blackman (another Astral Pirate ) and Vince Evans and bassists
Victor Bailey, Richie Goods, Charles Fambrough and his RTF bandmate
Stanley Clarke, White unleashes with Zeppelinesque fury on Anomaly, his
tenth overall recording as a leader.
Largely self-taught on
drums, native New Yorker White broke into the jazz world in 1968 with
alto saxophonist Jackie McLean. The following year he participated in
Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, generally regarded as the album that birthed
the fusion movement. He subsequently recorded with a Who’s Who in Jazz,
including trumpeters Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw, tenor saxophonists
Joe Henderson, Gato Barbieri and Stan Getz and renowned
composer-bandleader Gil Evans, among others. As a member of Return To
Forever from 1973 to 1976, White gained a solid reputation as one of the
top fusion drummers of the day. “I'm basically a jazz guy, and that’s
what I grew up playing,” he says. “But when this new thing happened with
jazz-rock through Bitches Brew and bands like Tony Williams Lifetime
and Return To Forever, I found myself on the ground floor of a movement.
And this musical movement co-existed with other forms of music that
came in during the latter part of the 20th century.”
“I was
fortunate when I started to make music,” he continues. “I made music at
the same time that Igor Stravinksy was making music, at the same time
that Jimi Hendrix and James Brown were making music, at the same time
that Duke Ellington and Miles Davis and John Coltrane were making music.
Led Zeppelin co-existed at the same time that Return To Forever did. I
listened to all that music and was influenced by all of it. So now when I
put together an eclectic project I sometimes hear people say, “Oh man,
what is he trying to do” ”But the truth is, I’m not trying to do
anything. I’m just representing the music that I came up listening to.”
Personnel:
Lenny White (Drums); Nick Moroch (Guitar) ; David Gilmore (Guitar); Tom Guarna (Guitar); Jimmy Herring(Guitar); David Bendeth (Guitar); George Colligan (Keyboards); Bernard Wright (Keyboards); Donald Blackman((Keyboards) ); Vince Evans (Keyboards); Victor Bailey (Bass); Richie Goods (Bass); Charles Fambrough (Bass); Stanley Clarke (Bass)
Track Listing:
Track 1 Drum Boogie
Track 2 We Know
Track 3 Forever
Track 4 Drum Moon
Track 5 Gazelle
Track 6 If You Dare
Track 7 Election Day
Track 8 Coming Down
Track 9 Cat Lett Out of the Bag
Track 10 Water Changes Everything
Track 11 Anthem
Track 12 The Wait has lifted the weight
Yes... it's true. Bill Connors, one of my all-time favorite guitarists, will rejoin his former Return To Forever bandmates Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, and Lenny White for a show at the Hollywood Bowl on September 2nd. This will be the first show of a fall tour for Corea, Clarke, and White. From the All About Jazz article:
"It's official: pianist Chick Corea, bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White will be joined September 2nd by guest guitarist Bill Connors at the Hollywood Bowl kick-off gig of their fall tour. The band, now billed as Corea, Clarke & White, will also be joined by legendary violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and song stylist Chaka Khan.
Inspired by what his friend and fellow Miles Davis alumnus John McLaughlin was doing with Mahavishnu Orchestra, Corea originally brought Connors extraordinarily expressive electric guitar skills into the band in 1973 so that Return To Forever could musically “make your hair move." As, indeed, they did. A long-time fan favorite among early jazz-rock fusion fans, Connors will join his former band mates when they open their tour at the storied Highland Ave. arena in Los Angeles."
Purchase tickets to the Corea, Clarke, Corea, and Connors Hollywood Bowl show
RTF back in the day...
