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Fusion favourites
- Thread starter Yonni
- Start date
All y'all already know this but I will say it again (andagainandagainand ......
) I saw Kittyhawk in 1981! 
All y'all already know this but I will say it again (andagainandagainand ......
I walked up and down the sand dunes with my daughter at Kittyhawk, North Carolina but that does not count.
I once succeeded in using my position as a college radio DJ to get an interview with Bill Bruford after a King Crimson show in 1974. I lost the tape long ago, but the two things I remember vividly was him trashing Jon Anderson of Yes for “thinking you can just have everyone banging on something, and somehow that’s ‘percussion’”, and, when I asked about trends he saw, he said “In the US, you have thus ‘fusion’ problem”. When I suggested that some people would consider him a fusion drummer, he rejected it categorically. Just sayin’.
Ironically, his Wikipedia page lists his genres as Prog & instrumental rock, and jazz fusion.
I have Bill Bruford's One Of A Kind album. It's very progressive and fusion oriented.
Allan Holdsworth, Jeff Berlin, and Dave Stewart play on this album.
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I saw that same tour a few days later at The Roxy in L.A. , the night Eddie Van Halen jammed with him. My jaw was scraping the ground all the way home that night. Definitely agree that the earlier albums were more disciplined and accessible. Granted I didn't much care for some of the lyrics and Paul Williams wasn't the best singer, that said I still found much to like and enjoy.
I don't remember if I had posted this earlier. Is this fusion?
Yes. Anything with those bass and drum parts would be fusion.
Those would have been supplied by Jimmy Johnson and Bill Berg, respectively.
LOL. I almost said "Anything with that kinda Flim Johnson bassline is fusion", but thought it might be misinterpreted. Hadn't occurred to me that it might actually have been him!Those would have been supplied by Jimmy Johnson and Bill Berg, respectively.
Getting flashbacks of numerous times seeing them at the Comeback Inn in Venice CA. Pure magic!
...and he has stuff like this. Bruford is very eclectic.
I bought this recently. I was searching for some Eddie Gomez material. Very cool recording, IMO.
People might think I'm crazy but I really prefer John Clark's playing on 'Gradually Going Tornado' over Allan's playing on the earlier records. I gather that Clark was a student of Holdsworth and that's why he was recommended for the job. I thought he brought in a bit of that slinky, non-linear sound that Holdsworth got but he anchored himself more in the music and gave Jeff Berlin a little more space to shine. Of course, I would also make the argument that the songs in general were better on 'Gradually Going Tornado' which helps my impression of it.
This is something that any fan of Allan Holdsworth or any fusion fan should listen to - 'Assembler' by Bill Connors.
You might know Connors as the guitarist who played with Return To Forever before Al Di Meola came along. Well, after a few years playing mostly acoustic stuff, he was apparently really feeling an influence from Allan Holdsworth and rock music in general and he came up with his 'Assembler' record. Now, I definitely do hear a significant Holdsworth influence on this record. Connors' playing has some of those really cool legato runs, fragmented scalar patterns and shimmering, glassy chords that listeners will recognise as Holdsworth trademarks. However, I do think that Connors had his ear tuned for catchier pieces than Allan might have typically written.
Listen and see what you think. The production is really excellent and Tom Kennedy plays an excellent bassline. This is a great jazz fusion piece with a wild, surf-rock style mid section.
Bought Assembler on a total lark back in the day...probably my 1st time hearing Tommy Kennedy. A beast.
Chad Wackerman has a couple of solo albums...pretty much in a Holdsworth vibe.
Well, in fairness, usually when Bill Bruford gets called a "fusion" drummer it's in response to the three solo albums he released in '77, '79, and '80 (and maybe his work on the eponymous UK album from '77)...several years after the interview in question. Then again, there's definitely some drumming on 1974's Red album by King Crimson that's undeniably fusion-esque, so... :shrugs:
Some of that "space" may just have been mix decisions though: Jeff was admittedly very disappointed in the level of his bass on the One Of A Kind album, and so when it came time to mix Gradually Going Tornado he insisted on being present during the mix sessions so that he could ensure his bass wasn't buried in the mix.
In 1987 I worked with a guitarist who had studied with Bill Connors, and he showed me some of the stuff they worked on in his lessons. Lots of "re-mapping" scales on the fingerboard so that they involved wide interval stretches an any given single string followed by descents in pitch as you moved up to the higher strings (and vice-versa: ascents in pitch as you moved down to the lower strings). It was like a recipe for Instant Holdsworth!
