Really talented instrumentalists that never experienced a huge degree of success, because they were too busy messing around with genres to establish a consistent fanbase. Slow Dance II (about 11 mins in) is some serious Allman Brothers stuff, and then they go straight back to surf rock, because they can.
RIP - the great, Wayne Shorter One of the greatest jazz musicians to have emerged during the 1960s, he made his name with Art Blakey and Miles Davis before getting more commercial success with the jazz-rock group Weather Report. Personally, I think his best work was with Miles and the series of exceptional albums be cut for Blue Note throughout the 1960s, mamy of which are rightly considered to be classics. His career has a resurgence in the 2000s with the quartet with Danielo Perez, John Pattitucci and Brian Blade which was justly praised as the best jazz group at that time. Having seen this group perform live on numerous occasions, the level of musical creativity was off the scale. He was one of the truly great musical minds of the late 20th centurty / early 21st century. I think that Wayne was working at an extremely high musical level, the music relying on his exceptional skills as a composer but still able to use these as launch pads for freer improvisation.
That's great. Really enjoyed them. I do love a noisy three piece that can play. The genre melding thing is interesting - it's a real struggle, particularly in the days of algorithms, if people can't stick you in a coherent box. We've had the same kind of issue with Fable, and listening to the stuff she's recording now, that's going to continue. It's really sad (though I guess understandable) that happens - it stops the modern day Bowies from really making an impact.
I will maintain though, that Lady Blackbird is the best thing around now. She's incredible. I'd imagine Ian would approve actually.
I can imagine. I'd hazard a guess that a lot of people that grew up in the era of Youtube/Spotify/etc are more fluid in their musical tastes than previous generations simply because the barriers to entry are so low...used to be people tended to find a niche they liked and stay in it partially because it was so bloody expensive to listen to new music (I'm just old enough to remember how much it sucked to spend $20 on an album you thought you would like, only for it to become a drink coaster). But even with all of those music-discovery tools, the algorithms are mostly going to point you toward things that are already broadly popular, or which fit neatly within a Spotify playlist.
I was 16 in '66, lived near the Agincourt ballroom in Camberley and saw just about every band on the circuit. We listened to so many different genres, classics included, then along came the pirate stations and John Peel. Still listening to the new stuff the cream still rises.
There was an interesting Podcast by Rick Beato that I saw yesrtday which concerned the economics behind bands being recorded and releasing music. I find him to be a fascinating listen because he is pretty catholic in his tastes whilst also have a great deal of musical knowledge as opposed to pure opinion. Much of what he says resonates with me. Picking up on your comment about modern day Bowies not being able to make an impact chimed with a comment I heard on one of these podcasts. In my opinion, I feel that a of of the problem stems from music going online over the last twenty or so years. There has been a real democratisation of music and there is no longer any need for larger companies to spend large sums of money promoting stuff when music can find an audience through the likes of Youtube quickly, easily and economically. As a consequence, some pretty average musicians can attract a large audience. In addition, the lack of musicianship has also been countered by the fact that what matters now more than anything else is the quality of the production. It does not matter one jot if the music is highly average if the production is exceptional. The best example of this in my experince is the Little Mix "Heartbreak anthem" where a simple pop song benefits from multiple layers of production which results in a "product" that is far more sophisticated as a piece of soung engineering than anything Bowie ever produced . In addition, you do not have to be a musician to produce "music" that is so well produced. In the future I feel that there will be little appetite for any music that is remotely difficult to listen to or that sounds "interior" on digital radio. At the same time, the audience's listening habits will be defined by how well a musical product is produced. Anything remotely musical will become "specialist" or niche and this will ultimately mean a far more reduced audience for live music as the production values of a recording are difficult to replicate live. I can see this being a massive problem for ouevres outside of pop music too. The last two classical concerts I have attended have been about 50% full. I am finding that the kind of experimentation I used to enjoy in jazz is now less and less evident. Jazz is not as compelling as it was about twenty years ago. I think that the internet and the fact that it has helped non musicians get more than a toe hold in the music industry means that the standards ofmusic are declining whilst still have a demand. It is a vicious circle. I do not think that many people consuing music would find Bowie's music appealing - especially amongst a younger generation. About four years ago I went to a jazz gig where the saxophonist was dueting" with a DJ. When I was getting in to jazz this woud have been laughed at but some fans I was chatting to saw this as being legitimate. This just summed up for me how my generation is different from the youngsters these days who value other qualities in their music and do not necessarily share the values that I believe separate good music from bad.
Tend to agree, Ian, plus it’s a rich kid’s game now, which doesn’t help. Do have a listen to the Lady Blackbird post I made above. I think it will appeal to you, if you’ve not heard her before.
LLT I really liked those tracks but her name seems samiliar. I think someone might have posted that before. Acpustic music is difficult to beat in my opinion.
Definitely, it just once required the presence of such a venue, something that wasn't and isn't universally available. My parents operate a small weekend music venue out of the community center (former one-room schoolhouse) on the dead-end road where I grew up, in the absolute middle of nowhere. It seats maybe 30-40 people. Acts travel an almost incomprehensible distance to play there, to the extent that their dates are booked up a year in advance, because there are so few venues that feature live music that is meant to be listened to rather than part of the decor. Whether it's geography or the proliferation of pubs/small venues, I don't know, but it seems like something the UK has always done much better than those of us in the colonies. My father is about the same age as you (born in '48) and was a professional musician in the '60s/'70s, and his band spent an awful lot of time playing country music (despite being a rock band) at Royal Legion branches for WWII vets because it was the only thing that paid worth a damn.
That’s an interesting observation, because maybe things have gone full circle, or close to it. My generation didn’t have genres, we listened to whatever new album one of us had come across, and didn’t focus on a particular types of music. Just seen Jab’s post, exactly that.