StarThrower

It became more prominent on 1984's The First Circle, and continued on Still Life Talking; Letter From Home; and his 1992 solo album Secret Story. And this was arguably his most popular period.

Chet Atkins was great, but he always sounds like he's playing for a bunch old ladies in a nursing home. The host, Martin Mull is a fine guitarist.

Nobody who's listened to Di Meola would think he's a straight ahead jazz player. He's always been more into modal playing than jazz chord changes. That said, I enjoy his sound and unique vibrato, as opposed to Gambale. Gambale's solos do nothing for me. He plays a zillion miles per hour with no space or sense of phrasing. At least that's the way he plays with Corea. I enjoyed his playing much more with Steve Smith's Vital Information. They had some old school blues/jazz organ sound on their 90s albums, and Gambales playing is a little more laid back and better paced. I can't agree that McLaughlin is not a jazz player. 1969's Extrapolation is some of the finest British jazz of the era, and that's his first record. So he was playing jazz from the get-go.

Yes, and Chick wasn't writing the same type of music after Al joined the band. Just listen to Di Meola's solos on the RTF DVD. They are mind numbingly boring. Every solo dissolves in a flurry of rapid fire triplet runs because he has no ideas after a couple of choruses.

I don't think Di Meola has the harmonic knowledge to blow over changes. Just listen to him enough, and you quickly realize he has very limited ideas as a soloist. He's great at what he does, which is play through composed compositions with complex rhythms.

Acoustic, electric, who cares? And at random? I doubt it. I'm saying he's a versatile musician who can play the spectrum of jazz styles. He's not like Al Di Meola, who really can't play jazz.

Tonight show band is too fucking loud. Anyway, JM is part of the tradition, and he's contributed a great deal to it's evolution. Bravo!

Must have gotten my tracks confused, maybe it's the next one, but there's no way the exchanges I heard are with Gary Thomas, unless he's playing through some device that makes his tenor sound pretty much like a guitar. OTOH, if he is playing through such a device, kudos to him and to the device! It's most likely the keyboard player. There's a tune on the live album with that type of soloing. I think it's called The Divide. Yes, that's the one. And it's the live album I have. Many thanks. In any case, some very adept playing IMO and pretty "hot" too, in the good sense. Yeah, that's a great track! In fact the whole album really kicks butt! And this thread inspired me to fill in some gaps in my McLaughlin collection. I just ordered 5 Peace Band, and Electric Guitarist. I picked up Apocalypse last week, and I'm loving this one! A great fusion of jazz, rock, and orchestration. I can't believe I ignored this album for 30 years.

Must have gotten my tracks confused, maybe it's the next one, but there's no way the exchanges I heard are with Gary Thomas, unless he's playing through some device that makes his tenor sound pretty much like a guitar. OTOH, if he is playing through such a device, kudos to him and to the device! It's most likely the keyboard player. There's a tune on the live album with that type of soloing. I think it's called The Divide.

^^^ Same here! I have The Heart Of Things (Live In Paris), but not the studio album. The melodic interplay on Fallen Angels is between McLaughlin and Gary Thomas. This is a mellow tune with no rapid fire exchanges. It's more like sinewy melodic lines. At least, the live version is so. Are you thinking of another track? Anyway, if you enjoy JM, his early 90s trio was fantastic! Live At The Royal Festival Hall, and Que Alegria feature some great tunes and improvisation. He was playing a nylon string guitar with MIDI interface, but I prefer this sound to his bland electric chorus tone. These records feature Trilok Gurtu on percussion, and electric bassists Kai Eckhardt, and Dominic Di Piazza.

I happened to be listening to Ralph Towner's Diary by coincidence.

King For A Day from Brubeck's The Real Ambassadors

The Wolf and Waters Chess boxes are great! The packaging is rather cumbersome, and takes up a lot of room.

Ralph Towner/Paolo Fresu-Chiaruscuro Nguyen Le-Homescape

Patricia Barber-Smash Graham Collier-Darius/Midnight Blue/New Conditions John Hollenbeck-Joys & Desires Mahavishnu Orchestra-Apocalypse Supertramp-Crime Of The Century

How about the Joe Henderson/Scofield album, So Near, So Far? These cats sound great together!

Well, that's just my quirky way of putting it, maybe. I could have started a thread about solo albums, but what I was thinking about was how people construct a music, maybe for one or maybe for smaller or larger groups, where the fallback of the rhythm section has been removed, so that in some way functions of the rhythm section have been moved up to the 'lead' instruments, and in some ways the interest has to be provided in other ways. So I am just curious what projects of this kind people find to their liking. doesn't Berne usually use a drummer, by the way? Pianists, of course can function as lead and rhythm, but since you don't want to hear piano, fingerstyle guitarists would be a good choice.

Most of Tim Berne's albums have no bass. But instruments by themselves have little to say, so I don't understand your aversion to bass, drums, or piano?

Overt blusiness is a superficial criticism of these guitarists. I love Scofield's earthy sound, and he's a great improviser. As for Stern, his albums are too samey sounding for my taste. As far as two guitar match ups go, Sco & Frisell, and Metheny & Frisell sound the most natural to my ears. Marc Johnson's The Sound Of Summer Running features the latter pairing.

Scofield's Grace Under Pressure w/Frisell, and Time On My Hands w/ Lovano are tops for this listener. Also the first Bass Desires album on ECM. Scofield is a great writer, and all of his albums have quality tunes. The last one I picked up is This Meets That, and it's another strong album. I like all of the tunes on the album with Metheny, but Metheny's guitar tones are pretty crappy on that one.

I second the T-Bone Walker. He's one of the major cats who came up in the 40s and influenced legions of guitarists. Get some 50s BB King too.

Corea is one of those creative geniuses who can keeping cranking out tons of material, but how many albums do I need? The only recent recording I've considered is the date with Paul Motian, which I still haven't picked up. I don't need new albums of RTF material. I've been hearing that stuff for 30 years. I did get to see RTF for free two years ago, so that was cool. I enjoyed hearing the compositions played live, but I could do without the kitchen sink guitar solos from Gambale. I enjoyed Chick's and Ponty's soloing.

Joe Lovano-Universal Language features Steve Swallow and Charlie Haden Sanders's Black Unity was mentioned. I love what the two basses are doing on that one! There must be some two bass stuff happening on some Weather Report tracks?

I have a couple of CDS including the one with the ball bearing in the jewel box.