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Prog, Fusion and Great Guitar Sounds
Source Audio Blog
Prog, Fusion and Great Guitar Sounds
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Posted in: Artist / Heroes
I was listening to some Bela Fleck today, in particular the "Flight of the Cosmic Hippo" cd. If that cd doesn't define "fusion", "progressive" and "cool", I have no idea what does.
I also listened to some Tony Williams Lifetime, featuring Alan Pasqua, Tony Newton and Allan Holdsworth. What great stuff! The "wah" bass part that opens the "Believe It" cd would be perfect with a Hot Hand Wah.
Speaking of other great "progressive" musicians:
Hot Hand user Vernon Reid always has something interesting to say.
Why is "Fusion" a dirty word amongst today's musicians?
After thinking about it, can there be an innovation without a "fusion" of ideas? In a music class I took at UCLA, the instructor was showing us how the popular "Bo Diddley beat" is an Afro-Cuban rhythmic idea. What if musicians had the idea that any cross-pollination of these two styles was sacrilige? Interestingly enough, an article on Bo's infamous beat is also on Guitar Player online.
I think we have all benefitted that they didn't.
It's the same with the term "progressive". It will always conjure up images of Goblins and bombastic over-complicated songs and arrangements (someone I knew once referred to the "progressive" rock movement as "storybook rock").
But - were not The Police a "fusion" band, as well as a "progressive" band? Was not "Sgt. Pepper's" a "progressive" album? When in the 1950's, youth culture finally had its own form of music, Rock and Roll, was this not "progressive"?
My long winded point is, that these 2 words are actually your friends.
Who wants the same old thing?