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Fusion favourites
- Thread starter Yonni
- Start date
I stumbled upon them yesterday evening and a related band called Octavision, with Billy Sheehan and Victor Wooten on bass depending on the video.
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I.O.U. - This was an Allan Holdsworth project. I saw him tour at that time with Jeff Berlin & Chad Wackerman who were not on the album.
I got to see this group in a small club in Pittsburgh, PA called The Decade. They were amazing.
I got to see this group in a small club in Pittsburgh, PA called The Decade. They were amazing.
I saw that Holdsworth/Berlin/Wackerman trio at The Club in Cambridge MA. My most vivid recollections of the show were
- Paul Williams came out and sang on a couple numbers, and he sucked; and
- in the middle of Jeff Berlin’s featured solo spot he unleashed a brief flurry of mind-bogglingly intricate slap&tap stuff — remember, this was in the 1980s, long before YouTube, Victor Wooten, and bedroom warriors who slap&tap as easily as they breath — and after ripping out this incredible passage Berlin stops, laughs, and says “Sorry, I promised I wouldn’t slap!”
- Paul Williams came out and sang on a couple numbers, and he sucked; and
- in the middle of Jeff Berlin’s featured solo spot he unleashed a brief flurry of mind-bogglingly intricate slap&tap stuff — remember, this was in the 1980s, long before YouTube, Victor Wooten, and bedroom warriors who slap&tap as easily as they breath — and after ripping out this incredible passage Berlin stops, laughs, and says “Sorry, I promised I wouldn’t slap!”
I saw Holdsworth on the first IOU tour in 1982, with Paul Carmichael on bass, at the Stone in San Francicsco. Bought that album with the original black jacket at the merch counter, 'cos they didn't have distribution for it yet to record stores. I knew more-or-less what to expect, having heard him on UK, Bruford, and Tony Williams albums, and having even seen him with the Soft Machine in 1975, but he was just freaking amazing that night in SF. Only time in my life I found myself, at the end of a guitar solo early in the set, on my feet with my mouth hanging wide open, with no recollection of every having stood up.
I often hear Holdsworth fans trashing Paul Williams and the concept of IOU as a rock band with songs and lyrics that get in the way of the guitar virtuousity, but as far as I'm concerned, the material where Holdworth was writing vocal lines - IOU, Road Games, and Metal Fatigue - is far and away his best work. I think the vocal parts enforced a kind of discipline that was lacking on his later albums.
Holdsworth always seemed to take heat for Paul Williams but I dug him, he a had a bit of a Jack Bruce quality to his voice. They also had a long history, predating a lot of Holdsworth's fusion work.
Jeff Scott listed this group. I have had this album since it was new. Great stuff!
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Stanley Clarke has been mentioned a few times. Here are a couple of my favorites by him.
Ahh, yes!
Most if not all of this is the music of my yute
Most if not all of this is the music of my yute
This first tune will knock the bubbles out of your drink.
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Only time I saw Coryell was with his Eleventh House group, and this was my favorite tune of theirs. Amazingly, there’s a well-filmed live video from the period:
