Great playing! It blows my mind that Jimmy Johnson could come up with basslines like this for Holdsworth's angular music, yet is also the bassist for James Taylor.
I noticed there's two other covers of Spokes here on RU-vid - one on drums and one on the SynthAxe. Maybe you all three should get in the studio and make a recording? :D
Estimado!, te vi una vez en el mercado Tirso de Molina, (un domingo del 2016 ponte tú) tocando jazz, lo agradecimos mucho esa vez, que lindo esto, gracias por tu música!
wow!!! you nailed this Marcelo :) Secrets is one of my fav records ever, not only for the compositions but the musicianship too; Allan, Vinnie and Jimmy are totally insane on this particular recording (i remember reading, in a Guitar Player itw i believe, that it's mostly 1st takes and also that Jimmy kept coming over at Allan's place just to make sure he wouldn't erase anything as he was always unsatisfied with his playing!!!) Jimmy's solo on 54 Duncan Terrace is an absolute classic afaic (like his playing on most of Allan's albums, from Metal Fatigue to Wardenclyffe Tower; Against The Clock for instance, what a track!!!) I think i got inspired a lot by him but it's almost impossible to hear it... oh btw, if you don't know it, there's a live recording of Mike Landau trio w/Jimmy and Toss Panos which is absolutely killing ( Michael Landau Live 2000) Thanks for the post (and the transcription, eventhough i can't read :) and RIP Allan, such a huge loss for the (music) world. peace
Thank you so much for this! I've been obsessed with this song for probably 25 years, absolutely incredible and great to finally see such an excellent performance. I would love to understand this song better. I discussed this composition with a professor who told me the method is tri-tonal substitution, and the composition is designed to build tension by withholding tonic resolution. Personally, I find this song very visual, the movements are truly representative of motion, not necessarily a literal spoke motion, but various propulsions. I even had a dream about an abstract animation. Here is a painting I made, inspired by Spokes, probably around '93: www.fallowfields.org/illustration-uncontrol.html I can't say the painting best represents how I envision the music, but I found myself responding to the music as an abstract expressionist, the best way to capture or represent the impressions that came to me. I found that there was a period of abstract expressionist music which paralleled abstract expressionism in the visual arts, and happens to be atonal, same as Holdsworth and one of his inspirations, John Coltrane. Abstract expressionist composers include Schoenberg and Berg.
hey, such a great comment, and you are a great artist (i saw your paintings). this song is atonal in a way that there's not a tonal center, but i think, you could call it a multitonal song, because it changes a lot, but anyway you can find some sections. also that's makes this song special is the interaction between Jimmy Johnson and Vinnie Colaiuta, i think Secrets Album is the finest Colaiuta's work.
P.S. I wonder if there exists a live version of this song with Holdsworth. I've searched forums, never anyone has anything. How can a song of this magnitude never get played live?
