Holy shit ! I wore this record out! Simon looks exactly the same! My theory , Simon is a warlock/super human / possible super musical vampire ? My all time favorite drummer ! Thank you Stanley and Simon for inspiring me to play the drums. Much love from Detroit
Charles 'Icarus" Johnson electric guitar, played many years with the George Duke Band. I saw him on tour in 75. Best chowder I ever seen. Very fast in person. Kudos for this video. It's rare to not see Stanley in his own video.
I love this performance. Guitar player hit'n some beautiful chords man, and the drummer crazy! This shit drove me wild as a kid and made me want to be a musician. How much money do I need to buy these days back? Kick Ass!!!
I was just listening to Jeff Beck's "There and Back" on vinyl, and did a search for the drummer Simon Phillips and came upon this gem of a live performance, just incredible, all of them!!
Simon Philips Killin it live! Simon always reminded me of Billy Cobham in some ways even though Simon has his own signature style. I would love to see this whole concert in its entirety. This was a powerful band!
ddrums001 Hey Simon openly says Billy is one of his major influences ,you hear it in Simon's drumming and from the way the kit is set up. Simon took Billy's concept to an even higher level and still today aged 61 SP is better than ever !!! Awesome musician !!!
@bassdrumboy Hi. Simon Philips played on the album Rocks Pebbles And Sannd in the Eighties , which some of this material comes from. SP drum sound makes the album for me. Cheers
Thanks for posting. Watching this confirms what I've often thought about Stanley Clarke and Jaco: They are great players but on top of that they write/wrote outstanding music. I mean, listen to School Days or Jaco's self titled debut. There is so much memorable stuff, and I'm not just talking about the bass playing. Same thing with Jimi Hendrix. The playing was cutting edge and, perhaps even more importantly, delivered within the context of memorable, enjoyable songs.
You mean the Video Director, camera ops don't control the switcher console, they just capture & deliver images. it's up to the director to cut the shots or the line cut editor in some cases.
Exceptionally good rendition of this song, amazing they pulled it off without the horns (kudos to Steve Bach on keys), Icarus Johnson' s chording was uber cool and his solo very melodic, not just speed riffs. Couldn't believe Stanley got so little screen time though, what's up with that?
the best live drummer i have ever seen from over 500 - 600 + concerts in my live and certianly one of the best bassests and they of course both played w/ JEFF BECK
+STUART “spongebobmetro” EDELMAN I've seen Simon play with Beck, but I've seen Cobham play with Mahavishnu in 1973 and his own bands from then on out. By far, the most insane concert for a drummer point of view was Cobham with Mahavishnu. I don't think I've ever seen so many sticks thrown up in the air as that concert. I never saw any of them come down, so as far as I can say, most of them are probably sticking in the ceiling at Berkeley Community Theater. Cobham was known for breaking and throwing sticks the whole night and if you blinked, you missed it. He just held his sticks very loosely so he could reach top speed. He would make Simon Phillips looks like a beginner. Sorry to disappoint you, but Cobham during the 72 to 76 time period was just insane. He did stuff that was inhuman and for us, the audience, inhumane because we have to have to watch him do things that normal humans simply can't do. :-) Most of the Simon Phillips was doing was slowed down versions what Cobham already had done.
I've seen Billy, and Simon (ARMS Concert MSG, NYC) live. Then there is Marco Minnemann who seems to have taken it all to a new level. But Marco is usually all attack, unlike say, Nick Mason (e.g. The Great Gig In The Sky) in which he is the man on the one.
jfiddude The problem with guys like Marco MInneman is they haven't been on any recording that has had the same impact and garner the same long term reputation as great music. Billy did with Mahavishnu as well as his early solo recordings like Spectrum album. I don't think Marco has been on any instrumental album that has reached Gold or higher sales status. Billy has and he set the bar for fusion drumming and as Marco might play faster chops, most of it isn't musical, he's stiff as a board and he sounds like he'd sound like crap if he was asked to play a simple blues song. Guys like Billy studied MUSIC and not so much CHOPS. Yeah, Billy studied rudiments with Drum Corps, and he practiced how to play faster, louder, than anyone else at the time, but he also was studying and playing blues/jazz, classical, early R&B, latin, african, classical indian music which was incorporated into Mahavishnu and other music he's done, many of these newer generation guys simply don't study music forms, they just learn technically complex LICKS, but they don't incorporate actual music forms as much. Have you ever seen Marco play a BeBop gig? How about a blues gig? Could he even play a blues shuffle and actually play with the right feel? Probably not. That's the problem I see with a lot of these new technical drummers, which is why guys like John McLaughlin aren't hiring them. They have to be able to play with a sense of musicality that's rooted in actual music forms rather than just blowing technical chops. Anyway, this is just my perspective having grown up during the 70's fusion era and having paid a lot of attention to what was going on during that time period and how things progressed and changed. I am not alone in the thinking that 70's fusion era was a very special time in music history, but that fusion music has gone downhill. Only a small handful of 70's fusion guys really kept the right attitude towards music. I think Mclaughlin, Zawinul are two that really understood and kept that original mentality and progressed on some level. guys like Trilok Gurtu have come out with his own sense of music style that's very technical but musical. keep in mind, sometimes, you got to just sit back and learn the feel music and forget the chops, but be able to blend the two together and play with a good feel. Tony Williams was taught both feel and technique, so he leaned to do both. Narada was also very much a feel player that learned technique. But they could feel their way through these older fusion songs where they didn't have to write their parts out or sightread, even though they probably could.
the song does not feature bass parts, it's a showpiece for the guitar and drums -- Clarke was just playing the song, while the other two showed off. Check out School Days and see who gets the camera time there.
Judging by the NSJF logo this is from 1980 - and i was there too. Still have the stumps. Charles "Icarus" Johnson in awesome shape. Them were the days:-)
Great post! But ummm.. What happened to the Stanley solo? It's basically the highlight of this song. Based on the cameraman "work" I wouldn't be surprised if they edited it out ;)
It's from a compilation DVD that someone made from a tape of the broadcasts - this is the only Stanley Clarke unfortunately. I got it on a bittorrent site where people share unofficial music ie stuff that hasnot been released
where can i get hold of the whole concert, i had some of it on vhs it was the north sea jazz festival but don't have the tape anymore, can anyone post it or help, thanks
That's the great lacrus Johnson on Guitar and solos. I like his guitar solo better on the actual recording from the school days album. But very nice performance. Basskat Michael G Detroit MI.
ref to Simon playing on a track originally played on by Porcaro, - not sure what you meant, but IIRC the Scooldays album notes wrongly didn't credit BIll Cobham with actually playing on that track. -Did JP record it elsewhere?
clobbyhops.I have to agree.but its live,+stan wouldn't hire any slouches, even though I do here a little of a miner mess, its not the same as wax...but u cant win them all even that's whats expected! THIS IS NO LECTURE! KEEP FUNKIN BRO!
Cause there's tons of Stan, n precious little of fly air/sky Hawaii Charles "Icarus" Johnson!!!!!! I think Eric Gales mighta copped a couple, plus that crazy 'penguin' pick hand on fast passages...
That's because Cobham did his version in probably one take and Simon's had several years to practice Billy's version. Billy, back then smoked ALL of them live. Simon's problem is that he's a little on the rigid side due to his rock background and Billy's more relaxed due to his jazz background.
My guess is that he might have felt the toms needed more volume and so he was hitting harder exerting himself quite a bit and was close to running out of energy even at that young age. He had to do a solo in the middle also but all that aside, I am just glad to see early footage of all these guys, especially Simon Phillips.
Billy has a more jazz tuning where he tunes his drums for more of a pitch rather than getting a bigger ROCK sound. Billy, back then, used standard sized toms and Simon used the deeper toms. Personally, Billy just smoked everyone in terms of dynamics, explosive playing, speed, complexity and creativity. Simon ripped off so many of Cobham's licks back then, but it was done more to cop Billy's licks, which is lick playing. It's hard for Simon to get out of that shadow.
HeXx Henderson Cleo Manago This has nothing to do with white supremacy. If you watch old footage of the Who playing the song My Generation there is a bass solo not a guitar solo in the song but every time there’s footage of them playing it live they focusing on the guitar player Pete Townsend instead of the bass because they think that it’s the lead instrument which traditionally is just not in that particular song so I could see were the same thing would be happening here an uninformed cameraman and producer not some twisted modern day white supremacy theory! HeXx Henderson, white people are usually the last to acknowledge white supremacy and the first to deny it. Your perspective would make sense if The Who was named after the bass player, or if the drum solo here was also not filmed. They purposely left out the dude this whole thing is named after.
NO. They will never be equals in terms of how many classic fusion and jazz albums. Simon plays mostly pop/rock music, not so much fusion. His fusion work in the 70's was mostly copying Billy, but more rock. Simon is great at certain things and I like a lot of his work, but I've seen both of them in their respective prime. Billy would make Simon shit in his pants and could NOT even compete in a lot of areas. Billy has more jazz experience as a TRUE jazz player, SP is more commercial rock.
simon did get a drumming lesson while he worked with Trilok on one of his album projects. It wasn't half bad. I was actually surprised, but SP needs to get away from the rock culture and immerse himself into jazz related music otherwise he spreads himself too thin and brings the rigidity of playing shows right through and he's feel is hindered. Basically, his feel isn't there for jazz as much as it could. That's the problem when they go too much into rock playing. I see it in guitar players.
@bassdrumboy Hi. Simon Philips played on the album Rocks Pebbles And Sand in the Eighties , which some of this material comes from. SP drum sound makes the album for me. Cheers
