Matt Jalbert is the guitarist in the NYC-based instrumental band TAUK. He's awesome.
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Eddie Van Halen on Jack Bruce
- Thread starter dougjwray
- Start date
That’s odd that Jack wouldn’t have wanted Winwood in the mix; jealousy, perhaps? They both had similar vocal styles. Baker, ever the curmudgeon, I could see. He considerered Cream to be his band, he put it together, and he was already annoyed that Clapton wanted Bruce in on it. But already there was a brief taste of what could have been, with Spencer Davis Group drummer Pete York, although the results were a bit unspectacular….From what I've read in Clapton's autobiography and various interviews, the Cream experience really exhausted him. In addition to the excessive touring, the other two guys had very strong personalities, plus he had the job of being a referee. And the musical demands were very high: being a "superhero" guitarist in a trio, and having to keep up with two intense jazz virtuosi.
He had suggested adding Winwood to Cream, early on, but Jack and Ginger vetoed that move. So, now he approached Winwood and the two jammed and hung out at Winwood's rural cottage, putting things together at a leisurely pace. Clapton wanted a lower profile project for his next one.
Then, Ginger showed up at the door one day. As Clapton says, Winwood was delighted to see Ginger, but his own heart sank, because he knew he would be dragged into another high pressure situation (business-wise, too). Ginger viewed music as a money-making enterprise, and Eric and Steve wanted something more like friends playing together. Of course, management would work him into the ground again. $$$
Blind Faith were rushed out on tour without enough material. The fans were screaming for Cream songs. The opening act was Delaney and Bonnie, whom Clapton had personally approved for the role, after hearing one of their albums. At the shows, he found them way better than Blind Faith, and began to sit in with them, and before long he jumped ship.
In his autobiography, he's admirably honest about his flaws, and two of them back then were: he didn't want to lead, and was always looking for a readymade situation into which he could slide; and, as soon as he got what he wanted, he didn't want it anymore. He had a history of deserting as soon as something else passed by.
Also, Grech played a Jazz Bass. But I know exactly what you mean.
I've seen Nels with Wilco a few times and he's quite tasty, but the real moment for me was seeing him together with Jeff Parker in drummer Scott Amendola's band. Jeff and Nels both had a few toys & FX, but the impression I got was of Nels hearing an idea in his head and, knowing his hands and gear inside and out, he could turn the right knob and do the right thing to make that idea into a sound, while JP would play something and then turn a knob to see what it did, and then keep turning knobs until he found something he liked. Intentional vs. exploratory.
My guess is that Jack wanted maximum room to write, sing and play. And I've read that both Jack and Ginger had Ornette Coleman's groups in mind-- lots of space and freedom, without a keyboard player. And Ginger might not have wanted the money to be split four ways.
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West Bruce and Laing, Live 'N' Kickin' 1974, great solo starts at 28:30 but the whole tune is great.
Powerhouse Sod: 26:53
Powerhouse Sod: 26:53
Huge difference between East and Jamerson, Sklar and actually Carole too, you can usually or always tell when they're on a record, their style sticks out. Nation East is kind of generic. I read somewhere or other that he made a conscious decision at some point in his career something like 'did he want to have his own style' or 'did he want to be a chameleon and be a seamless player to be able to fit in anywhere', I'm not bashing the guy for it, he made the right decision for himself and has made a load of bucks doing it. He's just not my cup of tea. I'm sure that the loads of people who hire him do hire him because he can do the job and do it well and they can shine. That guy "with the big white beard", Leland Sklar posts here by the way, he was the first fretless bass player I can remember hearing.
From 1971- Lee Sklar, fretless bass. Check out his lines in these. I don't know if you're a James Taylor fan but there is some great bass playing on this and his next album.
Sort of off topic to this thread, but to clarify I don't believe Sklar ever played fretless in that era at all. As far as I know all of his content in that time period was either his old hippy-fied Jazz Bass or his double P build. He did have tiny mandolin frets on the P though (and possibly the J as well after a refret), so the feel and sound on some of his recordings could be mistaken for fretless depending on how he played the lines. In fact with a little search, here it is from the horse's mouth that he was using his original fretted J-bass (gotta love TB sometimes): Mud Slide Slim and the Blue......fretless??
I saw the Nels Cline Singers (also with Scott Amendola, and with the wonderful Devin Hoff on bass) play a handful of times in the early 2000s in a dingy wonderful art warehouse in Denver and I think what Nels was doing there (in a live format) nearly single-handedly reignited my interest in the possibilities of electric guitar again after a major burnout on all the guitar-centric world of rock/metal/etc for me. I don't necessarily expect what he does to appeal universally to a pop mindset (I have a number of friends that worship Wilco that absolutely don't understand him or his contribution since he joined), but IMO he uses his instrument as a tool to craft a new sonic landscape in a tasteful way that often defies categorization that I think is often under-appreciated. That he can do his thing alongside various types of acoustic or electric jazz ensembles, country-rock groups, noise-rock groups, sparse duo settings, etc with equal comfort is an impressive feat in itself to me- but I also feel like rating artists on scales of any sort (except maybe loudness?) is completely in opposition to the purposes of art that I personally hold dear...
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Yup, you're right, I see the thread and his response, I don't know why James would have said that then. You just spoiled one of my great illusions!
The frets must have worn way down because when he slides you can't hear the frets at all.
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I just got the Jack Bruce 'Live on the old Grey Whistle Test' CD yesterday and on the second half of the CD from 1981 he plays fretless and it's great, in fact you don't know it's fretless until he wants you to know it is and he's singing at the same time. The band was him, Clem Clemson, David Sancious and Billy Cobham. I still miss his EB-3 and Marshalls though, not sure what he used for amps in 1981 but on the first half of the CD from 1975 I'm pretty sure he used Marshalls, they were a big part of his early sound. He may have still used them as late as 1981 though as the sound is similar but all good players usually sound the same (if they want to) no matter what they play through.
Yeah its pretty impressive! The worn-down frets feel may be the reason he had the tiny mando frets put on his longtime workhorse double P that he built up shortly after this period. I remember thinking parts of Spectrum also sounded fretless too, not that he was doing so many slides but the growl and staccato of his tone on that record sometimes sound almost electric upright/fretless to me (not talking about the Ron Carter songs, though man he had such a sound on that record too!). Such a flexible and tasty playerYup, you're right, I see the thread and his response, I don't know why James would have said that then. You just spoiled one of my great illusions!
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Oh yeah, he's great, I'd like to try those mandolin frets, in fact my 4001 is being worked on right now and I've never liked the frets (refretted) and I asked the luthier if he could do it and he said the slots were too big, so......
I just checked this album. The 1975 part is fretted bass. The 1981 part might be fretless indeed. I think 1981 was the year that he switched to fretless. There is a 1980 concert on YouTube where he plays a fretted Aria.
I find his intonation always a bit 'shady' on fretless and like his fretted playing more. Especially his overdriven EB3 sound. He never sounded better (to me).
Clapton was God. But not after heroin.
Bluesbreakers, Yardbirds and Cream Clapton made him an early superstar. When he came to the States he changed musically and became less interesting IMHO.
Yup, the two guitarists in my band both flipped for that album., especially one of them and I liked his playing better before the other one didn't seem to change that much except he picked up tapping but didn't did it very much....thank God.
He puts me to sleep very fast, he's a good player but doesn't seem to have any discernible style to me. I could never figure out who his influences were by listening to his playing with Clapton for example.
