Thank you
Mike for your thoughts and yes
bapu I would love to report in.
Well it was quite amazing really. I am still thinking about it today. 3 hours of amazing music. Chick was outstanding as usual playing great heads and solos. He used a hardware setup with some sort of Yamaha instrument that was predominately a Rhodes patch. Real concert grand as well with Yamaha MOTIF and Moog Voyager. Amazing synth solos. I love Chick cutting loose on synthesisers (well piano is fine too!)
Frank was excellent as usual in this situiation. I loved the sound of his Carvin guitar. He told me its the best guitar he has very played. He was using a Marshall setup but a well known amp maker is about to release a line of amps in Franks honour. Not heaps of guitar solos but when they came around they were well received. More heads and lines than solos maybe.
Stanley was incredible, I could not believe it. The Alembic sound was ridiculous. They have just made him a new one for the tour. His playing was incredible. Funny on stage too. Fat is an understatement. Subs got a workout with Stanley. Chick brought his engineer out, he did a beautiful but loud rock mix. But it was all in perfect balance. (except for the subs on a few ocassions)
Jean Luc Ponty stole my heart. My god he can take care of business in this setting. His solos nearly reduced me to tears. Amongst all the angst at times in the mix Jean Luc would take you away with a solo. He soars like an angel. They are all betwen 60 and 70 except for Frank and Stanley yet the music was so well played. Please go and see them if you can.
Lenny was just fantastic. He is so releaxed and just kicked the ass out of the grooves and the tunes. He was playing a small Ludwig kit but the sound out front was nothing like it. Massive. His right arm I think is not well these days and has perfected the art of playing left handed in the arms and right handed in the feet. It is quite beautiful to watch actually and makes sense to me too. Why cross your hands to play a rock beat. His left hand is ridiculous.
The music is all a journey and you could almost class as classical now but modern at the same time. It is timeless and you can return to the music forever with these tunes. They did play a very new Jean Luc tune which was also incredible. Beautiful writing and execution of his own tunes and solos. You definately don't get to hear music this well written and played very often.
They all jumped onto acoustic instruments at times. Grand piano, double bass, acoustic guitar and a more normal acoustic violin. OMG the acoutsic stuff was amazing too. Quieter, and the music was just incredible. But then when they all jumped back into electric mode it exploded! It did get loud at times too but they used the full dynamic range really well.
I got to brielfy meet Stanley and Jean Luc but I chatted to Lenny. He is very quiet. Frank and I hung out in a Melbourne bar afterward and we chatted about it and what he is up to now. By the way I mentioned 6 weeks rehearsal in my first post but in fact try 4 days to rehearse it all! Most of them weren't reading either, they were playing it from memory.
post edited by Jeff Evans - 2011/02/13 21:25:43