BRW

Yeah, well, the thing is, though: the sound was only half of what made that stuff good. The other half was great songwriting (along with Pendergrass & co caliber lead singers...) - which these guys (Mars & .Paak) lack. There's just nothing THERE (on "Leave The Door Open"). Like Bill H. said above, you keep waiting for a hook or something to grab on to...which never materializes. But songwriting in general is a problem these days, at least in hip hop and r&b (which has become pop, though).

Herbie definitely used a Suitcase, that is just a stock photo. If I recall correctly, some of the Suitcase patches in Keyscape come kind of close to his "buttery" tone. I don't have a Kronos 2, but Herbie is a Korg-endorsed artist and don't they include some patches even named after him? When people chase after the sound, they often just do one or the other - the sound is mellow, yes, but it has a percussive attack and a clear mid-range with a very unique sonic character. IMO in the 70s the sound is often "clean", as in, no phaser or chorus.

I'd argue that you could / should get a used Kronos 61 (2nd model) for around $2000 or a little bit more. Similarly, if you go the Yamaha route, don't buy a new MODX, try to find a used Montage 61. It's a quality product made in Japan.

This is so true! Has happened to me ever since it first aired. By the way, I also started binge-re-watching it from the beginning. Still incredible all around.

Interesting. The Jupiter X really is a nice 'best of Roland' synth, that I don"t own yet but probably will some day.

The thing with the CP1 vs CP5 was, that for $5K, the CP1 had only "three sounds": the AP(s), the EP(s) and the DX EP with an actual FM engine. The effects block also had an extra preamp section which gave some of the sounds a bit more oomph. The CP5 had all the same APs and EPs (although the DX wasn't FM-based but a sample), but ALSO sounds from the Motif series and the lesser pricetag. The action was the same IMO. Yeah, me too. I considered trading the CP5 for the CP4 (because of the reduced weight and the slightly better Rhodes sounds) but didn't. The CP73/88 is similar (action-wise) if I recall correctly, although they offer expandability among other things now which the CP1/5 never did. The audio interface option is really nice. Yeah the "lightness" was something I was initially worried about, but it grew on me. After all these years, though, it's gotten worse and I need to get it serviced or switch models.

Why not? I still have my CP5 which I bought in 2010 or whenever it came out. I initially wanted the CP1 but couldn"t justify the ridiculous asking price. It"s (still) a gorgeous stage piano, though.

In another (video) interview, Chick mentions an "electronica" experiment with Marcus Gilmore, Yosvany Terry and Taylor McFerrin (Bobby McFerrin's son). Here's a DownBeat piece on it: https://downbeat.com/news/detail/coreas-electronica-experiment-lights-up-blue-note-nyc Anyone know anything about this? Any recordings or videos available? Sounds really interesting...

I like the Rhodes story. Miles did the same thing to Herbie, although during the Filles de Kilimanjaro era recording sessions. He was walking towards the acoustic piano. 'No no no no. Play that.' -'That TOY looking thing?' The story about the original RTF with Horacee Arnold was also news to me. And I never thought about it like that, but it"s true - there is a certain unique sound there with the Rhodes and the flute combination.

Thanks! New info for me too, I thought also that the company was older than that. Yeah, I thought they went for even more than that, actually... Don't some Steinways go for half a mil? Grand pianos are funny creatures, though. If it doesn't sound or feel right to YOU, the price tag is meaningless. Sometimes I've tested three grand pianos side by side, and preferred the "cheapest" one.

Yeah, this was great. Actually, it could've gone on for another 2 hrs. The part with Herbie was hilarious

I wrote about a bunch of my favorite Chick albums in my post on the other page, but in the meanwhile to try to cope with this, I've been trying (emphasis on trying) to learn Chick's solos from the Friends (1978) album. I've got the Sher Publishing book with the red cover. Dear GOD that is still some difficult and just...overall mind-blowing stuff. Even the themes are sometimes insanely difficult. Superheros Gomez & Gadd on here as well. Like, "Samba Song": [video:youtube] Or "Cappucino": [video:youtube]

Exactly - and also to do all this at, like, 75. He was always juggling multiple tours with all kinds of different groups. Pretty much up until COVID hit. A week with the Akoustic Band, then a new trio, then the Elektric Band, a duo with Bela Fleck, then a duo with Gary Burton, then recording a new album with Steve Gadd or someone like that etc etc. Please share more tributes if you can, for us not on any social media (anymore).

This is absolutely devastating. And very unexpected, he seemed to be in such good health and great spirits. :( The LEGACY is just incredible, though. Almost 60 years of incredible jazz music - including his sideman appearances! Incredibly, you can almost immediately tell that it's Chick even on those early Blue Mitchell Blue Notes. Or the title tune and "Litha" on Tones For Joan's Bones only a couple of years later. - - Now He Sings, Now He Sobs. The solo on "Matrix". The interplay with Vitous and Haynes. Unbelievable. Miles' electric group with Wayne, Dave Holland and DeJohnette. Return To Forever (the Airto / Flora group). Light As A Feather, with "500 Miles High", "Spain" - those Rhodes solos on those albums are just masterclasses. The Gary Burton Duo. The tune "Crystal Silence". The Stanley Clarke collab RTF group. All those fusion albums, like Where Have I Known You Before or especially No Mystery with the title tune. The 70's solo albums: The Leprechaun, Mad Hatter, My Spanish Fantasy, even Secret Agent is superb. The writing and arrangements on those albums, man! Three Quartets with Brecker etc. Freakin' FRIENDS from 1978. With Gadd, Joe Farrell etc. "Samba Song", "Cappucino", "The One Step", "Waltse For Dave", the title tune, "Sicily" - they're all masterpieces! The Elektric Band. All those albums are great, if you get past the DX7 madness. Tunes like "King Cockroach" or "Eternal Child" on Eye Of The Beholder. The solo acoustic piano album Expressions from 1994 on GRP. The New Trio with Avishai Cohen and Jeff Ballard. Love tunes like "Fingerprints"! The Origin Sextet, with the album Change (1999). Love the tunes and arrangements here, like "Wigwam"! Gary Burton's album Like Minds (1998) is incredible! With Pat Metheny, Roy Haynes and Dave Holland. I think they won a Grammy for this one. That might be, but I'm not sure if that's entirely the case - he seemed to also have an incredible creative power, and was constantly recording AND touring. He was also still composing, I think his last new album, Antidote (an unfortunately ironic title...) came out in 2019. I think that's just how he was.

You mean the main riff? No real idea, but on one of the older reissues of "Mr. Hands" the equipment is listed like this: E-MU Polyphonic Keyboard Clavitar Waves Minimoog (?) Minimoog Prophet 5 Oberheim 8-voice Yamaha CS-80 ARP 2600 Hohner Clavinet Rhodes 88 Suitcase Sennheiser Vocoder Linn-Moffett Drum Synthesizer Modified Apple II Plus Microcomputer Piano

"Spiraling Prism" is a gorgeous but an odd Herbie tune. A lot of people associate electric Herbie with synthesizers, even though in my mind it's always been the Rhodes. Especially poly synths - I felt he shined more on mono synths (basses, solos). And I think this one and "Textures", also from Mr. Hands, are one of the few examples where he did a full multi-synth arrangement like this. This is a really top quality effort! Not easy to get all those vintage synths and the sounds. However... (jazz police / Herbie aficionado / nitpicker alert :laugh: ) Some of the voicings sound a bit "off". There's a really nasty clash with the synths and the EP at 3:07 especially. The FX on the Rhodes sounds like a Phaser (Mu-Tron?) on the original, but I think he's using a Chorus here (which to my knowledge Herbie rarely if ever used...in fact his EP tone was always buttery but mostly "clean"). The Prophet sounds a bit strange in my ears too. ...

We watched this recently. Since "jazz movies" have been mostly meh, especially in terms of the aforementioned jazz, ("the best jazz movie in a long while" doesn't require much ), I had my reservations - but it had multiple 5-star reviews and supposedly consulted both Herbie and Terri Lyne Carrington on the jazz in question. Not a huge fan of Batiste, so that didn't matter to me. Overall, I did like it. The animation is nice, as is to be expected, especially the "Great Before" with its vibrant colors. Some of the voices, like Questlove and BBC host Graham Norton were really easy to spot, but I didn't recognise Angela Bassett. Dorothea's voice sounded really familiar, but I couldn't place her. This is exactly the scene that kind of irked me I know it made sense for the scene, and he apologized for it, but do that "ethereal" semi-classical no-tempo doodling on a straight ahead jazz tune, and your ass is busted It also didn't make much sense for him to do that - an actual (even wannabe, or a student) jazz musician who knew his history would never do that (on an audition, no less) - and it felt like he would know, you could see him studying the masters (if only on vinyl and in clubs) over the years. But I digress. I'm glad they showed some "actual jazz" during one of the gigs, though, you rarely see that. Let alone in an animated feature

1) In the late 80's, when the DX7 was the "synth du jour"...and then the Korg ROMplers arrived. I couldn't believe you could get a synth to sound like that ("like an orchestra!!") and couldn't wait to get rid of those wonky metallic FM tones. 2) The original Yamaha MOTIF (ca. 2001). That thing sounded incredible back then and I spent all my days at music stores playing them. All their upgrades (ES, XS and XF) were almost just as impressive. 3) Korg OASYS (2005). Seven engines?! $8000?! 4) The soft synth revolution from the early 2000's onwards. Like, Emagic's original EVP73 plugin (which sounds like crap these days). 5) Yamaha's MONTAGE. That thing is an incredible instrument. It really does feel almost endless what you can do with it.

Don"t know, but whenever I see (saw...) Jim Beard with Donald Fagen or Steely Dan, he always looked -super- miserable up there. Like, cheer up, dude - you"re in Steely Dan!!

Just remember to change the capacitors, or have someone change them (needs soldering)! The JV80 boards can 'explode'! The SRX boards - which are expensive, still - combined a bunch of these into single boards, but people say the programming in those is worse than on the older JV80 boards. I found a guy last year who sold a load of these, all in their original boxes, for about $75/pc. I"ve got a 5080 so I jumped on it. I was only familiar with the Bass & Drums board from an earlier XP-80, so here are some thoughts on the others. He also had the Session, Country and the 60"s & 70"s KB board(s) but I skipped it, since I have the original Roland CD-ROM set (uncompressed) and really, all those sounds in various better modern formats. Bass & Drums - this is Spectrasonics" Bass Legends (2CD) library in board format. The drums are meh but the basses are still superb. It"s Marcus Miller, Abe Laboriel and Patitucci. Hip Hop - some nice vintage Roland style synth leads and basses, but a ton of useless tempo-locked loop stuff as well. Techno - also some usable synth sounds, but lots of tempo-locked loops too (which I have rarely any use for) Special FX - this is Spectrasonics" Distorted Reality library in board form. Fun stuff for atmospheric creations, even though these are often also in tempo. World - this one is often recommended, but IMO it was a bit disappointing for me. Has a few nice ethnic presets, but a ton of really dated stuff as well. IMO the best ethnic hardware unit is still E-MU"s Planet Earth (which can be ridiculously expensive!)

Someone called Robyn Flans wrote a book on Jeff Porcaro (not many of those, if any). Is it any good? Anything 'musical' in it or just 'gossip'? https://www.amazon.com/Its-About-Time-Porcaro-Music/dp/1705112293/

That projected price doesn"t make any sense for a 'Kronos lite'. Especially after the recent price drop. And I think you can get a lightly used second-hand Kronos (2, 61 keys) for about $2000.

I also bought one of the new 16-inch Macbook Pro"s this year. Won"t be buying a new one in a long time.

Same here! I also saw it in "88 and have loved it ever since. And we also re-watched it on Halloween on blu-ray! The score is also possibly the most 'dannyelfmanish' score he ever wrote. (Apart from Batman Returns, which is possibly my favorite Burton movie) It"s also curious that this somewhat odd not-really-for-children movie got a cartoon (and toy lines), there are three episodes on the blu-ray (and possibly YouTube).

We can"t forget The Rock (1996), either. A true guilty pleasure. [video:youtube]