Yeah, I'd heard Dudley was somewhat accomplished myself, so no surprise there. A google search told me Kenny played bass for a decade with a band called First Edition. News to me, but then my country tastes don't go very deep. When I clicked Play, I was expecting a much 'grassier sound and RH position from him, but it's clear he's got varied musical interests (there's a lick @ 00:13 that I associate with Paul Chambers, tho it may not be PC's creation. Then he repeats it in the next 2 measures and I was disappointed) and that he's studied the physical aspect with someone. I'll gloss over the solo 'cause he's already exceeded my expectations.
First Edition was really a pop band in the Strawberry Alarm Clock/1910 Fruitgum Company vein-- superficially psychedelic but probably no one in the band ever dropped acid and smoking pot made them nervous-- aimed at guest shots on the Smothers Brothers and brief AM top forty hits. The big hit was "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) which, if you can find a copy of the original, was not at all country, and which kind of elevated them out of the pack briefly into the position of maybe a white Fifth Dimension-- but they never really followed it up... Lead singer on the first album was a crosseyed indian woman named Thelma Lou Comacho whose voice I really liked-- I used to mourn that her band was so lame... There was a song called "Hurry Up Love" that I spent a few weeks trying to persuade myself was respectable-- unsuccessfully. (My roommate had gotten the album for his birthday from an aunt without a clue, and I traded him a copy of "Absolutely Free" which I wasn't hip enough to appreciate yet for it and a Sean Bonnewell Music Machine album. Set me back socially for first semester, but then I came back from Christmas with the second Traffic album, the first Big Brother album and "Brave New World," and I was in...)
Just checked it out on YT. Blown away to hear KR in a setting like this. I can hear the "psych" similarities, but IMO less Clock and more Experience- there's some Mitch Mitchell drumming* going on, and Hendrix's guitar tone has been nailed here (at least that's where I recall it coming from- there may be a precedent but no one of superstar note). I see that they did "Ruby", too. I'm amazed the KR went from this to The Gambler and all the other hits in less than five years. Did he have that talent all along and it wasn't used, or what? *I always pause and repeat play at that style of drumming- it's like the guys who played like that were former students (good ones or bad ones) of some jazz cat, but then thrust into a new and growing genre. Rock drummers hadn't really cemented their own straight 16 niche yet.
I meant it more about the marketing than the sound; and it is pretty superficial compared to the experience, at least to my ears even then-- they were reaching for the kids who were excited by the sound but weren't able to distinguish the real thing from the imitation...
I guess I'd have been one of those kids, because I wasn't quite old enough to get it, and living in a town that was much more pop than rock. You can't actually hear altered states or anything in sound- that's our interpretation, all the time. Of course, a lot of great bands couldn't match the Experience if they'd tried, so I'll have to take your word when you opine that they were trying to go only half the distance. I was looking for a jazz analogy, but so many of those guys were on something (usually heroin) it ain't even funny. I don't know how or why that happened.
Less about what the band was going for than the production choices though, innit? The First Edition surely did not have creative control, and probably didn't do a whole lot of their own playing. Probably 3/4 of that stuff is the Wrecking Crew or people trying get that gig... I have a quasi-theory that whatever gene makes for musical sensitivity/creativity also makes for heroin addiction; the phenomenon isn't even limited to jazz: Garcia, Clapton, Steve Earle, Janis Joplin, Lennon, Richards, Johnny Cash, etc etc. Me, I've been largely obsessed with music my whole life, but really can't create it-- and I absolutely hated heroin when I tried it. Very short experiment indeed...
Ah! It didn't occur to me that not all of them could play, because it isn't really difficult music (the one tune I heard). I know later bands sometimes used ghost players (I've even heard that Gilmour played bass for Waters on Floyd albums, but it's not like Roger's parts were difficult), but I never really thought about it happening a decade or two earlier. That's probably because I knew the Motown and Philly guys were house players- no ghost player label to attach. You're a bad man. Seriously. I toke, and I've tripped once. But I've never tried powda, and heroin hasn't even entered my mind. wouldn't dream of a needle. But times were different then. The "stars" list is longer than I thought (didn't know about Garcia, Lennon or Johnny Cash).
Supposedly Cash's last relapse wasn't pills. Don't take it for gospel, though my source isn't just rumour either... Garcia was a constant relapser, and at one point was threatened with expulsion from the band in a sort of "We love you Jerry and if you really want to die we'll support you, but you can't do it in the band" type meeting. And this in a band that saw Pigpen kill himself with alcohol, Lesh make a serious effort at same, and Mydland OD. As for Lennon. that's a matter of record too-- but listen closely to "Happiness Is A Warm Gun." I had a brief, semi academic interaction with a junkie who insisted that any human would love smack if they just gave it a fair try, so I did. Smoking and snorting didn't do much that I cared for, so he talked needlephobe me-- talking pure needlephobia, not drug phobia-- let him shoot me up once. Hated the body sensations, felt cold not warm, and really hated the time distortion 'cause it was the wrong direction-- a five minute conversation took five hours instead of a long conversation taking only a few minutes of real time. Came away thinking it is a drug for people who want their lives to pass quickly rather than people who want them to seem as long as possible. But heck, Gram Parsons supposedly took black beauties to sleep and drank chamomile to wake up, so maybe it's just in the genes...
I'll do that. Never really paid attention to the lyrics. I've been to parties where coke was passed around on round glass trays, but I never had the courage to try. That was before Len Bias, which changed my view totally. after he died I lost any interest I ever had in trying it. Weed, alcohol and the one trip have been my only real excursions into altered statehood. At this point, I don't see myself taking on any new substances. Googled. Amphetamines make you sleepy? I always thought the opposite.
Young Jazz Guitarist (Gabe Condon) This I Dig Of You Dave Baron, bass Mike Melito, drums Chris Ziemba, bass
Sun Ra Cosmic Centenary: "Space is the Place." Basically a Sun Ra Tribute Arkestra, but not bad for this century.
Bill Evans, Eric Dolphy, and a bunch of other guys whose names don't start with E Oliver Nelson- Stolen Moments
Kind Folk- Kenny Wheeler Trio Vortex Jazz Club, London, 9/5/2011 Here's another version, with Lee Konitz and Wheeler
However, we are up to "G", so here's a chestnut from Dead and Company -- "Good Lovin'" This is the version of the band the gods have been working toward for 50 years IMO. It may be blasphemous, but I'd say it's all there now-- Chimenti is the keyboard player so many died to find, Burbidge is possibly the only man who could replace Lesh, and Mayer is big enough to cover what Garcia brought and brash enough to inject something other than the shadow of a dead guy. (Burbidge isn't the master of pickups to speakers to space that Phil is, but OTOH the six strings instead of four and a mastery of theory that starts with blues rather than avant garde composition more than make up for the change/loss.)
It was his ears asking for the technology, but Ron Wickersham had a lot to do with their entire sound system, IIRC, and everything to do with his basses (he's Alembic- modded Phil's Guild basses and built him other full Alembics- daughter Mica runs the show now, I think). I honestly don't know enough Dead to have an opinion, but Oteil's a world-class player with the jam band resume. I almost think they should keep the name and continue to play older stuff and write new stuff based on the original stuff. I mean, the times and atmosphere would change, but you can't get that anyway. I don't know if that's a sin to Deadheads or not.