What in the world is going on.....

Czarivey…read my previous post. First line. 

Less people would have been aware of African music without Simon's use of the African musicians like Ladysmith for clearly what were HIS songs, and remember that he also had the first U.S. commercial reggae hit with Mother and Child Reunion. He's also a great acoustic guitarist who learned a pile of stuff from the English masters like Bert Jansch in his early days. Graceland is considered by many musicians and others to be a masterpiece that's held up over time.

Haven't heard his latest but the last album was sort of a "meh" for my tastes…however, I recently listened to my (I think) original LP of his first solo album and was impressed with how good it sounded.

Older guitarists "tend" to develop wrist arthritis? Some might, but otherwise that is utter bullcrap, and to compare Clapton and Beck to Santana who, although arguably soulful, has never really had the chops of most great guitar players (saw his last show touring with McLaughlin in the 70s and it was sort of embarrassing to hear Carlos noodling along somehow)…Regardless of what people think of Clapton (listen to him playing stuff by his blues heroes and note how he utterly nails it on acoustics or fat Gibsons…amazing), he hasn’t lost anything except the desire to tour, and Jeff Beck is in a class of his own always touring and releasing new stuff, and absolutely blowing minds with his crazy inventive chops every damn night. I’ve been a pro guitar player since 1967…no arthritis and I play every day, and I’ve worked as a live sound tech/mixer for decades and in recent years have seen Larry Carlton play like he was 23, worked with the late John Renbourn who could give a clinic on acoustic technique in his 70s, Sonny Landreth, David Lindley, Robbin Ford (saw him a few months ago…amazing), John Scofield is a personal favorite, Bill Frisell is a genius, Stanley Clarke last year was astonishing…get out and see these guys before judging the geezers because you may find out where the mojo resides.

If anybody can't see the genius in Frissell I assume their taste is somewhat unsophisticated, or you might think jazz is "too many notes" or something, and it doesn't matter anyway as there's plenty of lighter fare to enjoy…Scofield, Ford, et al have certainly advanced beyond their days with Miles, who really was in an experimental era at the end, and much of what he was doing at that point wasn't particularly his best stuff...it was a weird era. A brilliant musician I knew from the Honolulu scene was in one of those bands…Benny Reitveld, who has played bass for 20 years or something with Santana (!). Go figure. These guys have proven themselves far beyond anybody who "doesn't get it," and if one can't appreciate something like Scofield's recent masterpiece "Past Present," with the utterly top of their game musicians Joe Lovano, Larry Grenadier, and Bill Stewart (3 of my absolute favorite players), I understand, but it's still kinda sad. 

Frank Zappa pointed out that musicianship isn’t a "pushup contest" and he was right. Also, It's a well documented thing that the brilliant John McLaughlin was astonished and influenced by his friend Jimi Hendrix (as was pretty much anybody else around at the time), jammed with him in NYC, and when Miles asked him about Hendrix he took Miles to see the Monterrey Pop movie in 1969. Miles was also blown away by Hendrix…the rest, as they say, is history.