My review of King Crimson's 19-disc On (and Off) The Road, documenting its game-changing '80s lineup, today at All About Jazz.
Sometimes the best music--and some of the best bands--are those that come from the most difficult of births. When King Crimson co-founder/guitarist Robert Fripp had the idea for a new band after dissolving the last incarnation of the '70s-era Crimson lineups seven years prior, it was a completely new concept and, with the exception of returning drummer Bill Bruford, a totally revised lineup.
Gone were the mellotrons and symphonic leanings of old. In their place: technological advancements including nascent guitar synthesizers, electronic drums and a strange-looking 10-or 11-stringed instrument called the Chapman Stick--a tapped instrument that allowed its player to function more pianistically; not only holding down the all-important bottom end, but also becoming a simultaneous melodic and/or chordal foil.
Conceptually, Fripp's idea for this new group--initially called Discipline and performing its first gigs under that moniker--was based on a burgeoning interest in combining Gamelan-informed concepts with minimalist tendencies and an innovative approach to interlocking guitar parts that virtually reinvented what was, by then, a most common instrumental configuration in rock music: two guitars, bass and a drums. But with Fripp and Bruford joined by Frank Zappa, David Bowie and Talking Heads alum guitarist/singer Adrian Belew and bassist Tony Levin--whose résumé includes everyone from rock and pop stars like John Lennon and Paul Simon to jazz artists including Gary Burton and, perhaps most significantly, ex-Genesis singer Peter Gabriel, who'd begun an increasingly successful solo career in 1977--and it was immediately clear that this was no conventional rock lineup.
Beyond Fripp's extant reputation for technical mastery, stylistic breadth and musical innovation, and Bruford's intrinsic ability to build complex polyrhythmic underpinnings that often included mixed meters performed, miraculously and simultaneously with his various limbs, Belew brought his own inventive, boundary-stretching sonics, an idiosyncratic approach to soloing that stretched the limits of his instrument (not unlike Fripp...but, at the same time, totally different), and a fine voice; while Levin's bass work brought power, finesse and unshakable strength to the bottom end, with his use of Chapman Stick allowing him to maintain that important role while, at the same time, engaging with Fripp and Belew almost as a third guitarist. Add to that Levin's own vocal capabilities, which brought harmonies to the group--prior Crimsons never had proper backup singers, with the minor exception of drummer Ian Wallace, who brought occasional backup vocals to the lineup responsible for King Crimson's 1971 album Islands (reissued in an expanded and remixed 40th Anniversary edition by Panegyric Records in 2010)--and Discipline seemed to be a group truly overflowing with unlimited potential.
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Originally Posted by Cyberian Cat
)… but thanks for that catch...will also fix that, again with thanks ... I really do appreciate hearing from guys like your good self, as I want the piece to be as clean and accurate as possible.
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