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Jazz crosses with Soul and funk far more successfully than with rock. Mile Davis’s Bitches brew (and some other recordings) went down the rock route and Weather Report were successful enough
The very best exponents (although they were barely "rock" as such…thank god) were Steely Dan.
Although i barely ever listened to the godawful Yes, i do not recall anything remotely jazz about them. Jizz maybe
Every now and then I slide in a bit of Becker and Fagen, Clive. Brilliant songwriters too.
The thing I like about Jazz Rock is the guitar playing.
Take "Birds of Fire" by the Mahavishnu Orchestra. The guitar on that is like being hit on the head with a sledgehammer at the same time as being injected with mescalin. I played it my lad the other week and he didn’t understand it. He didn’t have the literacy.
Can you imagine an X Factor where the karaoke tasks involve replicating the guitar breaks of Jaco Pastorius, John McLaughlin, Carlos Santana, Dave Gilmour, Steve Howe? What an alernative world that would be!
"And tonight, viewers" recites plain speaking judge Rick Wakeman to the camera, "it’s Clivex with the climatic movement of ‘Ritual’ (nous sommes du soleil) from the classic Yes album "Tales from Topographic Oceans". Enjoy!" How cool would that be!
Thats what I love about progressive and jazz rock. It takes effort to play – and to listen to – unlike the simplistic, dumbed down efforts of some suntanned bint in a skimpy spandex dress inflicting her bathtime fantasies on a bovine TV audience tranquilised by deep sofas and central heating.
but how many of these prog bands are still going? Are the Tull? Yes? Alan Parsons? .
It appears (Wikipedia) that Jethro Tull are still going strong with original members Anderson and Barre. I notice ex-Fairports, Daves Pegg and Mattacks, have been members at times.
That is true and one of the reasons I think that Jethro Tull played at The Cropredy Festival a few years back on the Friday Night. I always liked Passion Play and the song Seventeen got played quite a bit in my younger days.
Guess who I was thinking about last night for the first time in two decades?
Focus.
Focus. What a band! And what an unbelievable guitarist he was!
Is there a time machine anywhere about!
The time machine is called the West Midlands, Max! Thijs van Leer re-ignited a version of Focus in 2001 which still plays regular gigs in the Brum, Dudley and Wolverhampton areas to this day.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Can you imagine an X Factor where the karaoke tasks involve replicating the guitar breaks of Jaco Pastorius, John McLaughlin, Carlos Santana, Dave Gilmour, Steve Howe? What an alernative world that would be!
With wishing to blow your fantasies apart, the electric guitar is a long way down my list of fav instruments
Will admit that Gilmour and Mclaughlin have great subtlety
But i never find it an instrument that can be personalised in the way the sax is. I feel theres more scope and more soul with the sax and more versatility too.
Each to their own, sah.
I’ve only got one jazz album. "Kind of Blue" which I purchased for er, special purposes some years back. Cracking album.
And you do need a range of music on the rack; if one is going to entice a filly into the straw, for example, one is unlikely to prick her ears with a Dave Greenslade double album.
Cheers for that GC. And thanks for reminding me of his name – amazing guitarist.
Guess who I was thinking about last night for the first time in two decades?
Focus.
I never thought when I joined the Racing Forum that I would ever be contributing to a thread like this, I just didn’t think progressive rock would ever crop up for discussion but so many memories are being re-awakened by everyone.
I remember using a pub in my late teens/early twenties which was famous for its incredible jukebox. The first time I ever went in there, Hocus-Pocus was playing. I didn’t know who it was at the time but it was one of those never-to-be-forgotten moments of musical revelation.. It was immediately followed by “House Of The King” and I wondered why I had never heard this Tull track!Jeeeez; really am in a time machine! having just got back from Edinburgh message on answerphone re big reunion down London way of people that I used to live with when I was 17..on the subject of loons my ex’s dad used to be run the prison workshop where they made loons and we had them in every colour you could imagine..[trendy aubergine probably being my favourite]……wonder what the music will be like at above mentioned party ?[if I get to it, that is]
There were several pubs I frequented in the eighties with magnificent (and cheap!), jukeboxes, goodlife – but none of them had that particular combination!
I’ve blagged a meeting this afternoon and I’m off to see if I can find a Focus CD in the local FOPP. To paraphrase a Bad Company-era Paul Rodgers, I’ve got a crazy beat running through my head and I’ve just gotta have it.
Moe, for several weeks of school I wore a secondhand Afghan coat, but never loon pants – aubergine or otherwise! LOL. Nice one.
I’ve only got one jazz album. "Kind of Blue" which I purchased for er, special purposes some years back. Cracking album.
Described as Jazz Chamber music. Its a stunning recording and like true masterpieces, you never tire of listening to it. For many people, including me, it is the finest jazz album ever recorded. 50th anniversary of its release this year.
there were 2 kinds of Afghan coat; treated and non treated…the cheaper ones were non treated and the minute they got wet they stank the place out.mine was, of course one of the smelly variety…eventually the dog slept on it and continued to do so for most of her life; very comportable it was, too! I wore it with a hat that I bought from a jumble sale that had been in it’s previous incarnation a tea cosy….boy, did I look cool in those days……
Afghans weren’t much good for much else were they, Moe.
It suited my dog much better than it did me.For those of you who live near music, CD, books and DVD multi-media emporium
FOPP
, they have the RUSH 30 year anniversary DVD/CD set for a scarcely credible £2. There is also a Kiss plus Melbourne Symphony Orchestra DVD set for £3, Alice Cooper (£3) and stuff like Green Day for the same price.
FOPP is a shop which is impossible to leave without spending money and get’s my vote as the finest shop ever, even after the HMV bail out.
I rate FOPP more highly than Selectadisc Moe, but other’s don’t, I admit. There are piles and piles of new books; it’s cheaper, has deeper stock density, excellent stock rotation, and they sell rarities rather than obscurities, (which Selectadisc specialise in).
I brought three Christopher Lee Dracula DVD’s last Sunday for just under a tenner, including the rare "Taste the Blood of Dracula". I haven’t seen that film since I was fourteen. It’s that kind of buzz which keeps you going back.
Selectadisc would stock two copies of something like, "The Flock of Seagulls Meet the Wolfman", directed by Alex Cox and seen in 1987 by about fifteen people in an art cinema in Chipping Sodbury. Which is tops for the oneupmanship purist and keeps people going back there too. They are both great places.
I brought Shatner’s collaborative CD in there and listened to it once – which was enough.
The Rush DVD is ace btw, Moe.
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