rahul_mukerji
Well-Known Member
I got to see John McLaughlin and Chick Corea with their 5 piece band last night. All I can say is that those people are definitely in a realm of their own. They played at best 6 songs through 2 hrs and 30 mins, with each of their songs hitting 15 mins at least (so much for getting wowed at 8 min prog rock epics). Their last song (not counting the encore) was 45 mins.
Here is what interested me. Johns guitar tone is exactly a horn sound now. For a minute there I thought it was the saxophone playing, but then I saw John go "tweedle dee tweedle dee" on his Godin. So its very Holdsworth like in sound, but not feel. John is a very staccato man. He is the opposite side of Holdsworth. He can pick arpeggiated passages in alternate picking style at tremendous speeds. His scalar runs are very complex.
Other than that, I found it an excellent study but a rather boring concert. Yes, there was no 4/4 meter. Yes, there was not a single chord I knew, not a single progression that seems remotely familiar (Gershwin et al) nor a scale I could go "Ah-ha he used that there". All of them used very out there approaches to their playing, which made the music a little hard to digest. But the band was tight and right on. Amidst the seemingly chaotic sonic storm, each one knew where the other was. Their dynamics were insane; everyone knew when to fade out, when to fade in, when the head comes in and where the solo/improv comes in.
Meter wise, neither my drummer nor I could count. In fact, I saw only 6 people tapping their foot and all of them were out of synch with each other. So yeah .... weird timings. Only the bassist held time and some remote groove. The drummer was the most insane. I couldn't tell if he was spastic or just very talented. I'm going with the second one, since they nailed a Miles Davis tune and he played a bitchin groove on it.
John played a lot of pentatonics which seemed like he chose the tonic to be the tritone from the root note. Everyone was like that. Just really out there.
Great experience, not sure if I would see him again though.
Here is what interested me. Johns guitar tone is exactly a horn sound now. For a minute there I thought it was the saxophone playing, but then I saw John go "tweedle dee tweedle dee" on his Godin. So its very Holdsworth like in sound, but not feel. John is a very staccato man. He is the opposite side of Holdsworth. He can pick arpeggiated passages in alternate picking style at tremendous speeds. His scalar runs are very complex.
Other than that, I found it an excellent study but a rather boring concert. Yes, there was no 4/4 meter. Yes, there was not a single chord I knew, not a single progression that seems remotely familiar (Gershwin et al) nor a scale I could go "Ah-ha he used that there". All of them used very out there approaches to their playing, which made the music a little hard to digest. But the band was tight and right on. Amidst the seemingly chaotic sonic storm, each one knew where the other was. Their dynamics were insane; everyone knew when to fade out, when to fade in, when the head comes in and where the solo/improv comes in.
Meter wise, neither my drummer nor I could count. In fact, I saw only 6 people tapping their foot and all of them were out of synch with each other. So yeah .... weird timings. Only the bassist held time and some remote groove. The drummer was the most insane. I couldn't tell if he was spastic or just very talented. I'm going with the second one, since they nailed a Miles Davis tune and he played a bitchin groove on it.
John played a lot of pentatonics which seemed like he chose the tonic to be the tritone from the root note. Everyone was like that. Just really out there.
Great experience, not sure if I would see him again though.
