Deep Focus

The lineage: you are required to know everything that has come before you but you are also required, when in the act of creation, to let that all go and simply be present in the moment. That is the way Milford Graves does it (and has done it since he played drums with our avatar Albert Ayler in the Sixties) and that is the way drummer William Hooker does it. Rare live recordings, first-hand insights and you.

The lineage: you are required to know everything that has come before you but you are also required, when in the act of creation, to let that all go and simply be present in the moment. That is the way Milford Graves does it (and has done it since he played drums with our avatar Albert Ayler in the Sixties) and that is the way drummer William Hooker does it. Rare live recordings, first-hand insights and you.

There aren’t many of them, those voices that can just reach down inside of you.  If you heard Jimmy Scott sing, you knew that you were in the presence of something extraordinarily rare and precious.  How many other people can you name who sang on a Top Ten hit, left the scene for 40 years and came back bigger and better than ever?  (NONE, that’s how many!).  Vocalist Nora McCarthy heard Jimmy Scott, deep in her soul.  In fact, she hears him still.

There aren’t many of them, those voices that can just reach down inside of you.  If you heard Jimmy Scott sing, you knew that you were in the presence of something extraordinarily rare and precious.  How many other people can you name who sang on a Top Ten hit, left the scene for 40 years and came back bigger and better than ever?  (NONE, that’s how many!).  Vocalist Nora McCarthy heard Jimmy Scott, deep in her soul.  In fact, she hears him still.

There aren’t many of them, those voices that can just reach down inside of you.  If you heard Jimmy Scott sing, you knew that you were in the presence of something extraordinarily rare and precious.  How many other people can you name who sang on a Top Ten hit, left the scene for 40 years and came back bigger and better than ever?  (NONE, that’s how many!).  Vocalist Nora McCarthy heard Jimmy Scott, deep in her soul.  In fact, she hears him still.

The moment after a new art form emerges, it becomes codified; original ideas quickly devolve to cliches; bold discoverers give way to those who can reliably be called upon to fulfill expectations, rather than defy them.  Jazz rock fusion ended up becoming one of the most predictably bland forms of music ever devised but what were its early days like?  What was it like to be a fly on the wall as rockers discovered that they could play with expanded form and technical achievement?  And what did it feel like when jazz musicians found out that they could plug in?  Vernon Reid and I have some answers.   

The moment after a new art form emerges, it becomes codified; original ideas quickly devolve to cliches; bold discoverers give way to those who can reliably be called upon to fulfill expectations, rather than defy them.  Jazz rock fusion ended up becoming one of the most predictably bland forms of music ever devised but what were its early days like?  What was it like to be a fly on the wall as rockers discovered that they could play with expanded form and technical achievement?  And what did it feel like when jazz musicians found out that they could plug in?  Vernon Reid and I have some answers.