mikeweil Posted January 30, 2007 Report Posted January 30, 2007 I wonder what became of that crate ...... Quote
ghost of miles Posted January 30, 2007 Report Posted January 30, 2007 (I still enjoy his drumming on the Mosaic set; the rap against him during the period that set covers is that he was playing too LOUD.) I remember he said he took special care that the drums were loud enough in the mix - I agree with Tony that on most jazz records the drums are not loud enough, not on the same level as the other instruments and as lod as they really are - compare it with the balance on a live gig. He also said that most people are afraid of the power of a drum set - another thing I agree upon. I think he wanted that power to come through much clearer and in a more direct way, so he changed the sound. It was during his own Lifetime band period that he made the change - it's there for the first time on that undervalued LP The Old Bum's Rush and in full blossom on Stanley Clarke's first Nemperor LP - there was a hiatus between them. I have the impression he did a lot of thinking during that hiatus .... and his compositional lessons may have started around that time. When did he move to California? He started taking lessons there, IIRC. I saw two dates given while I was researching the Night Lights show--1977 and 1979, so it must have been sometime near the end of the Seventies. He started studying composition at Berkeley not long after (1981, I think). I'm at home now, but I'll pull my script tomorrow & post some of the comments he made about how moving to California affected him. Basically it sounded as if he felt he'd hit a dead end in NYC around that time (emotionally and aesthetically), and he wasn't very happy with the album he'd recorded for Columbia (Joy of Flying), which probably places his departure closer to 1979. Quote
bertrand Posted January 30, 2007 Report Posted January 30, 2007 The Miles Tribute band actually toured in 1992. Bertrand. Quote
ghost of miles Posted January 30, 2007 Report Posted January 30, 2007 I'll doublecheck the article tomorrow, Bertrand--it's possible that the writer got the date wrong, or that I got it wrong when I typed it up at work today. The tribute album by this group came out in 1994 and won a Grammy; did they do any live dates around that time? (In addition to the '92 tour.) Quote
JSngry Posted January 30, 2007 Report Posted January 30, 2007 I wonder what became of that crate ...... We're on the same page here. Quote
AllenLowe Posted January 30, 2007 Report Posted January 30, 2007 it's in my tool shed - actually, I had it shredded for scrap iron - all seriousness aside, thanks for the interview quotes and other insights here. I heard Williams a few times in the 1990s, and met him briefly when I booked him for a large jazz festival I was directing. I'm not saying he played badly, but he really could have been one of a number of competent drummers. I understand the reasons a musician changes style and sound, though I also think it may have been related to his personal demons, substance problems etc etc that others probably know more about than I do. I know of several other great musicians who came out the the other side of that kind of problem, somewhat intact but never regaining a former edge and brilliance, and I have my own non-scientific theories about loss of brain cells (more specifically, Joe Albany and Al Haig were two who suffered post-sobriety musical blackouts, loss of concentration and focus) - Quote
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