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Thread: Air Pocket - 70s US fusion

  1. #1
    Member nosebone's Avatar
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    Air Pocket - 70s US fusion

    Former Zappa band mates form a big band style fusion album from 1975.

    Not bad at all, check out the lineup:

    - Walt Fowler / trumpet, miraphon
    - Bruce Fowler / trombone
    - Steve Fowler: alto saxophone, flute
    - Albert Wing: soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone
    - Mike Miller: guitar
    - Stu Goldberg: piano, electric piano, mini-moog, clavinet
    - Ed Fowler: electric bass
    - Tom Fowler: electric bass on 4
    - Chester Thompson: drums

    no tunes, no dynamics, no nosebone

  2. #2
    Member FrippWire's Avatar
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    Agreed. This is a really good big band/large ensemble fusion record. I buy anything Fowler Brothers related. Every last one of them is an accomplished musician.

  3. #3
    That was truly fine. Thanks for sharing it
    And the code is a play, a play is a song, a song is a film, a film is a dance...

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    Quote Originally Posted by nosebone View Post
    Former Zappa band mates form a big band style fusion album from 1975.

    Not bad at all, check out the lineup:

    - Walt Fowler / trumpet, miraphon
    - Bruce Fowler / trombone
    - Steve Fowler: alto saxophone, flute
    - Albert Wing: soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone
    - Mike Miller: guitar
    - Stu Goldberg: piano, electric piano, mini-moog, clavinet
    - Ed Fowler: electric bass
    - Tom Fowler: electric bass on 4
    - Chester Thompson: drums

    Yep, very good stuff, The "Fly On" album. members this line up was all over most everything that was Fowler bros. related, Breakfast For Dinosaurs, Hunter, and some others, Mike Miller, a great guitarist, played with Gino Vannelli on the Nightwalker album, and also did some nice work with Chick Corea's Elekric band II. Always a pleasure to hear these guys doing their stuff.

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    Member nosebone's Avatar
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    Mike Miller also filled in for John Goodsall on Brand X's Masques tour in he late 70s.

    There's a live cd of that lineup and it's pretty great.
    no tunes, no dynamics, no nosebone

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    Cookie Monster Guitarist Onomatopoeic's Avatar
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    Not to be confused with this prog mini-masterpiece...



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    Member No Pride's Avatar
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    Thanks for more cool stuff I never knew about, Chris!

    Quote Originally Posted by MJBrady View Post
    Mike Miller, a great guitarist, played with Gino Vannelli on the Nightwalker album, and also did some nice work with Chick Corea's Elekric band II.
    I mentioned this here a couple of years ago, but... when I lived in L.A. in the mid '80s, Mike Miller had his own quartet that played fairly frequently at The Baked Potato; I must've seen them a half dozen times. Tom Brechtlein played drums, the bass player was Wade something and the keyboard player was a monster that I used to be in a band with in Chicago, Rich Ruttenberg (who has been mostly a studio musician for the past couple decades; you can hear him on about all of The Simpsons episodes along with movie soundtracks and other stuff). They played mostly Mike's and some of Rich's material and they were a killer band! Sadly, they never put out an album, though I think they recorded one that never got released. Mike is a super tasty player; very organic and rarely plays any clichéd licks. I have his "Save the Moon" album (which is great) and recently discovered that he put out another one since, though I've yet to hear it.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by No Pride View Post
    I mentioned this here a couple of years ago, but... when I lived in L.A. in the mid '80s, Mike Miller had his own quartet that played fairly frequently at The Baked Potato; I must've seen them a half dozen times.
    had Mike started The Outsidemen yet at the time? Band Overboard is a great CD. have you got either of the two Crane & Fabian Project discs? No Limits and Let It Rip. good shit right there!
    Last edited by proggosaurus; 09-07-2015 at 11:14 PM.
    i.ain't.dead.irock

  9. #9
    Member nosebone's Avatar
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    That Band Overboard cd is a killer live album, my favorite by Mike Miller.
    Save the Moon has some nice stuff on it also.
    I'll check out the Crane and Fabian stuff a sap.
    Thx
    no tunes, no dynamics, no nosebone

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by proggosaurus View Post
    had Mike started The Outsidemen yet at the time? Band Overboard is a great CD. have you got either of the two Crane & Fabian Project discs?
    I have The Outsidemen's "Band Overboard" and that was formed about 7 years after The Mike Miller Band that I used to see at The Baked Potato. The Outsidemen was a collaborative effort, while Mike was clearly the leader of his band. I like "Band Overboard" a lot, but you'll have to take my word (since there's no evidence to prove that), The Mike Miller Band was significantly better. Mike's tunes were better, they had a badass keyboard player and as great as Ralph Humphrey is, Tom Brechtlein (Chick Corea, Robben Ford and the Blue Line) was on fire! Makes you wonder how many great bands came and went with no documentation of their existence.

    Never heard of Crane and Fabian,; will have to investigate, thanks!

    BTW, Mike's second album is called Mike Miller Quintet - World Goes Round. It came out in 2008.

  11. #11
    Member Zeuhlmate's Avatar
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    I saw Mike Miller with with Banned from Utopia - and he was awesome !


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    Quote Originally Posted by No Pride View Post
    Mike's second album is called Mike Miller Quintet - World Goes Round. It came out in 2008.
    Some live footage of The Mike Miller Quintet playing material from "World Goes Round." Same band as on the studio recording.



  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by nosebone View Post
    I'll check out the Crane and Fabian stuff a sap.
    Thx
    I think it's well worth the time

    Quote Originally Posted by No Pride View Post
    I have The Outsidemen's "Band Overboard" and that was formed about 7 years after The Mike Miller Band that I used to see at The Baked Potato. The Outsidemen was a collaborative effort, while Mike was clearly the leader of his band. I like "Band Overboard" a lot, but you'll have to take my word (since there's no evidence to prove that), The Mike Miller Band was significantly better. Mike's tunes were better, they had a badass keyboard player and as great as Ralph Humphrey is, Tom Brechtlein (Chick Corea, Robben Ford and the Blue Line) was on fire! Makes you wonder how many great bands came and went with no documentation of their existence.

    Never heard of Crane and Fabian,; will have to investigate, thanks!

    BTW, Mike's second album is called Mike Miller Quintet - World Goes Round. It came out in 2008.
    I definitely believe you. I'd almost give my right leg for a place like the Baked Potato or even MI within reasonable distance. from what I've seen on YT, live albums and I suppose people just showing up on any given night, I can only imagine the jams that have taken place there.....unreal! there's a place in Nashville called Douglas Corner that has its fair share of good bands but that's about 4 hours for me. St. Louis and Memphis are about equal and closer but if I don't keep up, I'll miss out. I was lucky enough to catch Shawn, Jonas and Jeff a couple times at Memphis when they weren't scheduled. they really seemed to thrive on surprise gigs and they were nice guys too. both times, I bet there weren't 15 people in the place. goddamn, they tore it up though....givin' me chills now!

    yeah, with the artists that are on those two albums.....not bad at all
    i.ain't.dead.irock

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    Thanks to all that contributed to this thread, kind of the unofficial Mike Miller recognition thread in a way. I guess that means he is "Prog". But seriously, thanks for the heads up on the Fabian/Crane stuff, gotta track that one down, and the live MM also very precious.

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    Quote Originally Posted by MJBrady View Post
    Thanks to all that contributed to this thread, kind of the unofficial Mike Miller recognition thread in a way.
    Well considering that's what it has become, I wanted to mention that I listened to Mike Miller Quintet's "World Goes Round" last night on Apple Music and most if not all of it is pretty darn good! It's slightly on the mellow side, but it's got a sort of "quiet intensity" about it with unpredictable turns in a lot of the tunes. There's a few "novelty tunes" that seem to be played for laughs; one of them is an authentic sounding old school mambo. To be honest, I'm not keen on comedy in instrumental music (with a few exceptions like Zappa's "Holiday in Berlin"), so I'm not crazy about those tracks, but the other ones more than make up for it. The band contains 1/3rd of Air Pocket: Mike, Walt Fowler and Albert Wing and the rhythm section is one of Holdsworth's favorites, Chad Wackerman and Jimmy Johnson. The live tracks I posted above may be the most aggressive ones on the album (and it's a shame that you can't hear the bass very well in those vids), but here's a couple others that I like:




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    Awesome^ here is Mike M with Gino Vannelli,get yer gitar ready and learn the riffs in this song. especially the instrumental break.


  17. #17
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    More Mike Miller, this time with the Chad Wackerman Trio:


  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by MJBrady View Post
    Awesome^ here is Mike M with Gino Vannelli,get yer gitar ready and learn the riffs in this song. especially the instrumental break.

    Yeah, Gino was a bright spot on the scene. Very unique and quite talented. Smokin' ending there
    And the code is a play, a play is a song, a song is a film, a film is a dance...

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