10 Most Influential Albums
Post #1 of 10... Well, this was my first time playing the "Ten most influential albums" game, thanks to one Steve Woehrle, so In no particular order, I will start off with Steve Roach and Michael Shrieve's "The Leaving Time", featuring David Torn and Jonas Helborg... If you haven't heard this musical masterpiece, you really need to! This album is certainly on my "desert island classics". This was an interesting era, with guitarist David Torn's "Cloud About Mercury", Patrick O'Hearn's "River's Gonna Rise" and Mark Isham's "Castalia". Many of these same players were on these albums, along with Terry Bozzio, Bill Bruford and Tony Levin.
Post #2 of 10... Billy Cobham's "Total Eclipse" remains one of the most influential albums in my life. I was fortunate to see this tour live at Washington, DC's Catholic University! The Brecker Brothers, Abercrombie, Leviev, Blake and Ferris were all there. This was Cobham's 3rd solo album after "Spectrum" and "Crosswinds". It was also the first time I'd seen Cobham outside of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and I wasn't disappointed. I would see Cobham dozens of times more during the '70s and into the '80s, with George Duke, Alphonso Johnson, and John Scofield in the unforgettable Billy Cobham-George Duke Band; with Tom Scott and Steve Khan; with Jack Bruce and with his "Glass Menagerie" bands featuring Tim Landers, Gil Goldstein and Dean Brown.
Post #3 of 10... Chick Corea and Return to Forever's "Where Have I Known You Before?" I saw this classic line-up with Chick, Stanley, Lenny and Al at least a dozen times back in the day; Even hitchhiked to Philly from DC to see them! They just blew my mind with "Song to the Pharaoh Kings". Influential doesn't do this justice. I'd seen them with guitarist Bill Connors for the "Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy" tour before the arrival of DiMeola, however this classic line-up is my favorite.I would see the band several more times over that span; the "No Mystery" tour when they played 3 nights in a row at the Carter Barron Amphitheater 3 blocks from my house; At the Capital Centre for the "Romantic Warrior" along with Buddy Miles and Santana, and of course the solo tours; Stanley's "Modern Man" and School Days", Lenny's phenomenal "Astral Pirates" and "Streamline" tours; and Al's "Elegant Gypsy" and "Casino" tours. RTF, along with Larry Coryell's Eleventh House, Mahavishnu and Weather Report were the best of the best; Jazz, rock and fusion at it's finest.
Post #4 of 10... The New Tony Williams Lifetime's "Believe It”... OMG, I wore this album out, and that was before seeing this band live with Allan Holdsworth, Tony Newton and Alan Pasqua at the Cellar Door in Washington DC... Words can't describe the effect this album had on me... What else can I say about one of the greatest drummers of all time? The band was short lived; returning to the Childe Harold in Dupont Circle the following year, sadly without Holdsworth for the "Million Dollar legs" tour. That tour and album were both disappointing, despite Williams' prodigious talents. Tony would redeem himself later, when I saw him at the Merriweather Post Pavillion with the V.S.O.P. Quintet, featuring Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard and Ron Carter. To this day, it's the greatest jazz quintet I have ever seen.
Post #5 of 10... "U.K". After witnessing the demise of King Crimson at the Kennedy Center in '74 and starving for anything Bruford, I was shocked in the summer of '78 to see Bruford, Wetton, Jobson and Holdsworth opening for Al DiMeola at Painters Mill, MD. A short lived "super group" that transcended anything before or since... This was especially pleasant since Holdsworth had recently departed the aforementioned Tony Williams Lifetime. U.K. was sensational; the best thing to come out of Britain in years. Part King Crimson, part Yes, part Roxy Music, part Soft Machine, part Gong; Unreal. Sadly, they blew themselves up over musical differences. Some of the music lived on in U.K. with Bozzio, and with Bruford's band featuring Holdsworth's replacement, the "unknown John Clark". Nevertheless, U.K., like the Mahavishnu Orchestra before them, burned brightly, but their incandescence was not meant to last.
Post #6 of 10... Weather Report's "Mysterious Traveler". I saw this tour during high school at the Kennedy Center in DC. Needless to say, Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul have had a profound influence on me. This particular album is my favorite and one of the best they ever made... I also saw the subsequent "Black Market" tour with Alphonso Johnson, Chester Thompson and Alex Acuna, and then the "Heavy Weather" tour with Jaco Pastorius, Acuna and Badrena (when McLaughlin's "Shakti" stole the show as the opener!); Jaco was jumping around the stage like a man possessed and was a bit off-putting. I only learned later that his genius came with a price. They killed it with Peter Erskine after that, but because of that first impression, the WR/Alphonso groups are my favorites.
Post #7 of 10... The Mahavishnu Orchestra's "Birds of Fire". I first saw them at American University and finally at one of their final performances on my 17th birthday at Constitution Hall; I had no idea they would break up a few weeks later. Their live album, "Between Nothingness and Eternity" rocked my world too, particularly Jan Hammer's "Sister Andrea". Years later the "Lost Trident Recordings" would surface; Essentially the 4th Mahavishnu studio album, and featured for the first time, a studio version of "Sister Andrea"! I would see several incarnations of the Mahavishnu Orchestra over the ensuing years; The "Apocalypse" and "Visions of the Emerald Beyond" bands with Jean-Luc Ponty, Narada Michael Walden, Ralphe Armstrong, Steve Kindler, (who go on to become Jan Hammer's violinist in the Jan Hammer Group with Jeff Beck), Gayle Moran, (the future Mrs. Chick Corea), and cellist Phil Hirschi, who I've had to the pleasure to perform and record with in Jason Everett's "Deep Energy Orchestra". The final incarnation of the MO with Dan Gottlieb, Mitch Forman, Bill Evans and Jonas Helborg never quite reached the heights of the previous two, and would give way to McLaughlin's amazing "Shakti" bands with Zakir Hussain, Shankar and the father and son Vinayakrams; Vikku and Selvaganesh. Nevertheless, McLaughlin, Cobham, Hammer, Goodman and Laird were one of the greatest bands I've ever heard or seen. Power, passion, and beauty indeed...
Post #8 of 10... KIng Crimson's "Discipline". 1981 was for me, a tumultuous time in NYC; In the midst of all of it all, one album both inspired and touched my soul. Fripp, Bruford, Belew and Levin had just changed everything. Following the end of King Crimson in 1974, I'd last seen Fripp with his "League of Crafty Guitarists", featuring a then unknown Trey Gunn; Bruford in a duo with Patrick Moraz, Tony Levin with Peter Gabriel and Adrian Belew with Frank Zappa, David Bowie and the Talking Heads. During those days, I was living in NYC and performing with the Brian Eno led group, "The Same", with Carter Burwell, Chip Johannsen, Clodagh Simmonds, Stephen Bray, and Stanley Adler. Eno told Stanley that Fripp was in town, auditioning bassists for a new King Crimson and suggested he try out for Fripp. Stanley went down to a studio in the Village where he found himself face-to-face with Fripp, Bruford and Belew. Stanley did his best, however Fripp informed him that they were going to go with Tony Levin, and thanked him, remarking that he was the best Eno had ever sent him. Eno was livid and told Stanley, "That wanker! One day the world will know the name Stanley Adler!" Well, I love Stanley, but I think it turned out for the best. We all went to the Savoy in NYC later that year and were mesmerized by this incredible group, now about to embark on its 50th anniversary tour.
Post #9 of 10... ... Bill Bruford's "Earthworks". In the summer of 1990, Bruford, Ballamy, Bates and Hutton, blended acoustic jazz and electronic drumming like nothing I had ever seen before. I actually followed the band from Boston to DC, (the only time I ever did something like that). After 5 consecutive shows, Bruford spotted me and said, "You deserve the Bill Bruford 'Medal of Valour'..." Bruford's use of the Simmons electronic drum kit had a huge impact on me. He began using them as part of a hybrid kit with Patrick Moraz on the "Flags" album and tour, and next with aforementioned King Crimson albums "Discipline", Beat" and Three of a Perfect Pair". Bruford soon switched to a 12 piece Simmons kit, using only an acoustic snare and cymbals. I saw him using that kit live with David Torn's "Cloud About Mercury" band and with his new jazz group Earthworks. His ability top play chords and melodies along with a groove was unbelievable, so much so that I went out and built a Simmons kit just like it, one I still own to this day. Bruford would use his Simmons SDS7 and later SDX with Earthworks, Anderson Bruford, Wakeman and Howe, and finally with Yes' "Union" reunion tour, when his SDX module and back up both blew up on stage; reducing him to playing a tambourine the rest of the night. Bruford's use of electronic drums had come to a bitter end; He never played them again, however the mark he left on electronic percussion has shaped me and generations to come.
Post #10 of 10... ... Bela Fleck and the Flecktones' "Flight of the Cosmic Hippo". I actually hadn't heard of them until a friend played me their incredible first album. Fleck, the Wooten Brothers, Levy and later Coffin, were and are, phenomenal. Two of my friends had just opened for the Flecktones and told me about Roy "Futureman" Wooten" and his "Drumitar"; A Synthaxe MIDI guitar controller made into a drum guitar with triggers all over it. They knew I was into electronic drums, had this monster Simmons kit and wondered if it was something I could make or be interested in. I thought, "How hard could it be?" I went out and found everything I could on Futureman; That was 1994...Next thing I know, I'm building my own "drum-guitar" I called the Drummstick, and taught myself to play it by playing along to every song on this album; It worked like a charm and before long I was touring and playing live with a variety of musicians from Bill Kirchen to Bon Lozago! Years later I was finally able to meet the Flecktones and spent a brief time picking Futureman's brain; Suffice it to say, I learned a lot from him and the rest is history... Perhaps for me, their most memorable show was when Fleck, and the Wooten Brothers were joined on stage by the late guitarist Danny Gatton at Lisner Auditorium in DC; It would be one of Gatton's final live performances.
Well, it's been a fun challenge; 10 albums really don't do it justice, but these 10 have had the biggest influence on me. Give them a listen, you may find they may have a similar effect on you...;)
