Hackett & Howe: Best Instrumentals

[Boceephus]

I'm not well schooled in the solo albums of these two seminal guitarists, but I'd like to have a strong collection of the instrumental tracks that best represent their abilities and composing skills. Separating into acoustic & electric would also be of interest. What tunes are "must haves" in each players cannon. Please, no vocals/voices.


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[yesstiles]

Steve Howe - "The Nature of the Sea"

[ProgArtist]

I'd recommend "The Steve Howe Album", which is 85% instrumental. Unfortunately, perhaps the best song on that album featuring his compositional skills might be the great "All's a Chord", which has a bit of vocals at the end, thus not fully meeting your criteria.

I'd also go for "Turbulence", which is an entirely instrumental album Howe did in the 80's and doesn't have a weak track on it. It might just be his compositional peak, at least solo-wise. The only drawback to the album is that Bruford would have sounded better here on acoustic drums.

Thirdly I'd go for the all instrumental "Quantum Guitar", which is now almost 20 years old (though hard to believe!). There's a 10 minute track on there that isn't quite worthy of its length (although I like it well enough), but overall the album features a good variety of compositions and great layered guitars.

[yesstiles]

I'd recommend "The Steve Howe Album", which is 85% instrumental. Unfortunately, perhaps the best song on that album featuring his compositional skills might be the great "All's a Chord", which has a bit of vocals at the end, thus not fully meeting your criteria.

I'd also go for "Turbulence", which is an entirely instrumental album Howe did in the 80's and doesn't have a weak track on it. It might just be his compositional peak, at least solo-wise. The only drawback to the album is that Bruford would have sounded better here on acoustic drums.

Thirdly I'd go for the all instrumental "Quantum Guitar", which is now almost 20 years old (though hard to believe!). There's a 10 minute track on there that isn't quite worthy of its length (although I like it well enough), but overall the album features a good variety of compositions and great layered guitars.

I mostly agree with this, although I consider "Turbulence" a bit overrated. But yes, "All's a Chord" (which is 90% instrumental) is probably his best solo track.

[happytheman]

I've always fancied Natural Timbre which if I recall is all instrumental as well.. But as already mentioned there are several nice cuts from both the first and second album from him

[Ken Baird]

I agree with the Howe choices here, and I'll put in the track "Spectral Mornings" as one of Hackett's best ever compositions. In fact, I think it is his best. For his intrumental classical guitar, "Bay of Kings" has a lot of good stuff on it.

[flowerking]

I'll put in the track "Spectral Mornings" as one of Hackett's best ever compositions. In fact, I think it is his best. For his intrumental classical guitar, "Bay of Kings" has a lot of good stuff on it.

Agreed, Spectral Mornings was the first thing that came to mind. Beautiful composition. Other tracks to look for are Ace of Wands, Please Don't Touch, Clocks, all of which are hard rocking prog, and She Moves in Memory which could have been produced by a small orchestra.

[Nearfest2]

For Steve Howe, I'd have to also recommend a lot of the material on "Turbulence." It's by far my favorite of his solo albums.

For Hackett, there is a lot to choose from. flowerking mentioned a good selection, but add in "The Steppes", "The Air-Conditioned Nightmare," "Hackett to Bits," and "Kim" among others. You'd have to consider "Horizons" as well even though it's on a Genesis album.

[Scott Bails]

Add me to those recommended Howe's Turbulence, Quantum Guitar and Natural Timbre. Three different perspectives on his playing.

For Hackett, I'm more of a fan of his nylon stuff, so I'd go with Bay of Kings or Momentum. I enjoy many of his electric solos in his vocal songs, but that doesn't fit this thread.

[Sunlight Caller]

A more recent Steve Howe instrumental album worth exploring is Time. Different again from any discussed thus far.


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[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

For those who like Hackett's nylon stuff, get A Midsummer Night's Dream, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Lovely!

[GuitarGeek]

For Howe, I echo the comments about Turbulence, that's the single solo album he's done, I think, just because it's all instrumental, for the same reason I prefer Jeff Beck's instrumental records over the ones where he's got some dork singing.

Howe also had a great acoustic album called Natural Timbre, which is similarly all instrumental, that's well worth considering.

For individual tracks, I think the one that sticks in my mind is, I think, Sensitive Chaos. Those of you familiar with the Union album will recognize a couple of the musical themes, as they got incorporated into I Would Have Waited Forever. I think what Steve said was he sent some demos, including Sensitive Chaos and something called Big Love (which made it's way onto one of the Home Brew releases), and Jon Anderson took those two, put them together and wrote new words and vocal melody for it.

And of course, there's also Sketches In The Sun, which I've loved ever since I first heard Howe play it in the Asia In Asia concert (which I watched live on MTV way back in 1983).

As for Hackett, I'd maybe name Land Of A Thousand Autumns/Please Don't Touch/The Voice Of Necam, as well as Spectral Mornings itself. I also liked Hackett To Bits a lot, though I now know it's just a revamped version of Please Don't Touch. I actually heard the GTR album before I heard Please Don't Touch, so I was a bit surprised and maybe even slightly disappointed to find that he had reused that one motif.

I'm not sure why, but I also remember being disappointed with Please Don't Touch, in general, at first, because I knew it was the piece that Phil "couldn't get behind", so I somehow was expecting...I don't know what I was expecting, I certainly wasn't expecting to hear a hook that I knew from a track from six or seven years later. But of course, nowadays I enjoy listening to it, especially it's original context on the album.

Another Hackett track that I've always liked is Riding The Colossus/Depth Charge. It's called Depth Charge on one live album, but is listed as Riding The Colossus on several others. Either way, it's a great melodic piece.

[Wah3]

Hackett
- Ace of Wands
- A Tower Struck Down
- Please Don't Touch (or the remake Hackett To Bits on GTR)
- Spectral Mornings
- Clocks (The Angel of Mons)
- The Steppes
- Slogans, only one line of vocals
- The Air Conditioned Nightmare
- Overnight Sleeper
- Group Therapy

[Scott Bails]

For those who like Hackett's nylon stuff, get A Midsummer Night's Dream, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Lovely!

Absolutely. Love that one, too.

For Howe, I echo the comments about Turbulence, that's the single solo album he's done, I think, just because it's all instrumental, for the same reason I prefer Jeff Beck's instrumental records over the ones where he's got some dork singing.

Quantum Guitar is also all-instrumental

For individual tracks, I think the one that sticks in my mind is, I think, Surface Tension. Those of you familiar with the Union album will recognize a couple of the musical themes, as they got incorporated into I Would Have Waited Forever. I think what Steve said was he sent some demos, including Surface Tension and something called Big Love (which made it's way onto one of the Home Brew releases), and Jon Anderson took those two, put them together and wrote new words and vocal melody for it.

Not sure you have the correct title here. "Surface Tension" is a nylon guitar piece. I can't recall the title of the piece used in "I Would Have Waited Forever," but I don't believe that it's "Surface Tension," which appears on The Steve Howe Album.

[bill g]

Well these are my very favorite tracks, not to be excluded:

Howe:

Maiden Voyage (this one gives me chills every time)
The Nature of the Sea
Running The Human Race

Hackett:

Ace of Wands
Spectral Mornings
Jacuzzi
Hammer In The Sand

(he also, as stated, has a lot of great nylon pieces, such as 'When The Bell Breaks' and many many others. 'Midsummer Nights Dream' is an excellent album of acoustic music)

[dpt3]

It's "Sensitive Chaos" that was used for "I Would've Waited Forever":

[ProgArtist]

Well these are my very favorite tracks, not to be excluded:

Howe:

Maiden Voyage (this one gives me chills every time)
...

I had to look this up and play it to remember what song it is. Yes, it's a good one! In fact, there are some REALLY nice instrumental gems on "The Grand Scheme of Things", including "Maiden Voyage", "The Valley of Rocks", "Desire Comes First" and "Wayward Course". Unfortunately, there are a LOT of vocal tracks on this album, and although I do enjoy some SH vocal tracks (such as "Pleasure Stole the Night" and "Lost Symphony"), most of these are hard to sit through. But because of this, the exceptional tracks from the album get forgotten and are a treat to hear when I DO play them.

[ledsox]

Lot's of great tracks mentioned.

Howe's "Sharp on Attack" from the first Guitar Speak comp is a nice rocking track. I guess it started as a track for the aborted 2nd GTR album.
Here's a live version with some trademark Howe jumping about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBu_Y5doWug

[ledsox]

I was thinking of making a Howe Instrumental comp recently. Just for fun I had a go at making an intstro mix/edit of two Steve Howe Album tracks combined.
I call it "All's a chord Over your shoulder". So many great ideas and great playing on these two tracks. The edits don't always go perfectly but it works well enough for what it is.
Of course, the original tracks are fantastic on the album. Here's a dl link if anyone wants to check out the mix.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/z6rj42...houlder_2.flac

[gojikranz]

many strong pieces mentioned. if you want to hear them both playing some instrumental music back to back and together check out some GTR tour bootlegs. they acted as their own openers playing short solo acoustic sets and then playing one acoustic song together to close out. pretty enjoyable though I wonder if people who never knew them before were excited by that for an opener to a 80s rock show.

[Rajaz]

Hello Progressive Ears mates!

This is my first post ever...
Well, for these two Guitar Masters of Prog there is much to cover and if you are not acquainted with either one which I doubt among the savvy members in this Forum, but if you are only looking for a "taste" of each one I would recommend:

Steve Howe: The Anthology (2 CD) very concise, well hand picked tracks (both instrumental and some with vocals) Frankly and many will agree, Steve is not a singer and has a very low tone voice that will not appeal to many listeners. His other great album is Unnecessarily Acoustic is well assembled and a delight.

Steve Hackett: Wow, where to start, his Time Lapse Live and Unauthorized Biography are acceptable compilations but his strength is in his Live releases. If you can still get it, Live Archives Box is a true Gem but otherwise his first three solo albums are all excellent: Acolyte, Please Don't touch and Spectral Mornings. Steve Hackett is not a singer either but he has the skill to blend his voice with other distortions that make it easier to listen like "Every day".

GTR was a failed project for both of them, it was a vessel with no clear direction and lacked identity during its short duration, don't bother there.

[GuitarGeek]

It's "Sensitive Chaos" that was used for "I Would've Waited Forever":

Like I was saying, Sensitive Chaos is the track on Turbulence I particularly like. I'm going to have look for this record caleld Time, as I didn't know he had done another all instrumental record.

I've got Quantum Guitar, but haven't listened to it in so long, I don't remember much about it. As I recall, that was another album where he gave exacting details about which guitars he used on each track.

I just now realize, I also have an album called Skyline, which is apparently also all instrumental, but I'm not sure I've actually ever listened to it.

[bill g]

I had to look this up and play it to remember what song it is. Yes, it's a good one! In fact, there are some REALLY nice instrumental gems on "The Grand Scheme of Things", including "Maiden Voyage", "The Valley of Rocks", "Desire Comes First" and "Wayward Course". Unfortunately, there are a LOT of vocal tracks on this album, and although I do enjoy some SH vocal tracks (such as "Pleasure Stole the Night" and "Lost Symphony"), most of these are hard to sit through. But because of this, the exceptional tracks from the album get forgotten and are a treat to hear when I DO play them.

Yes I agree with all the above. With 'Grand Scheme', I generally just play the instrumentals I like, although I do like one vocal track on that album, 'Beautiful Ideas'. I do agree though that 'Pleasure Stole The Night' is great, my favorite vocal track he ever wrote. Really poignant, lyrically too.

[yamishogun]

Add me to those recommended Howe's Turbulence, Quantum Guitar and Natural Timbre. Three different perspectives on his playing.

Great thread. I really liked Turbulence and played it often and bought Quantum Guitar which at the time I didn't get into but partly because listening to a lot of other music. I always thought I should have given that more of a chance but gave it to a friend. Maybe I need to get that again. I liked Homebrew 1 apart from being shocked by the ...um...singing..., my last Howe album - not because I didn't like it though..

[yesstiles]

"Time," "Natural Timbre," and "Skyline" are all tasty well-done latter-day Howe all-instrumental albums.