Someone out there must have heard his solo works. Tell me about them. He's a fantastic guitarist.
Someone out there must have heard his solo works. Tell me about them. He's a fantastic guitarist.
His early three are jazz/fusion. Step It is probably the best. His most recent ones are more mellow, that's the reason Gambale toured with RTF instead of Conners.
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF STUPID PEOPLE IN LARGE GROUPS!
Connors is a bit of a chameleon. John McLaughlin-style with RTF, then ECM-style on Of mist and melting 1978, and then 3 albums in Holdsworth style.
Step it 1985
Double up 1986
Assembler 1987
I think I prefer Assembler.
In an interview, Holdsworth seemed kind of offended by that; I guess he doesn't consider imitation to be the highest form of flattery. He feels that it's ridiculous for somebody to intentionally cop somebody else's style. He said, "I dug Bill Connors when he sounded like Bill Connors."Originally Posted by Zeuhlmate
Only solo Connors I have is Return.
It is more a jazz album than a fusion one. Doesn't bother me. The guitar chops are excellent, as you would expect.
We're trying to build a monument to show that we were here
It won't be visible through the air
And there won't be any shade to cool the monument to prove that we were here. - Gene Parsons, 1973
I have the two ECM acoustic albums. Nice if you like Ralph Towner-type material.
Without looking, I believe he also plays on Stanley Clarke's self titled album.
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF STUPID PEOPLE IN LARGE GROUPS!
Speaking of those 3, I just saw Tom Kennedy (the bass player on those albums) with Mike Stern last Friday. Man, he sounded great!
That he is. I think he's floundering around, trying to find his own voice on the guitar. Ironically, he already had one in the early days when he was in RTF. I really dug him on Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy and I saw him and RTF live once at that time. Rick, if that's the Bill Connors you're looking for, your best bet is:
That one, which was in the same era as his stint with Chick and RTF. That Bill Connors is long gone now. Though he has gotten cleaner and more proficient, I feel like he lost his identity along the way.
Actually his early three are ECM, acoustic and tremendous: 1975's Theme to the Gaurdian (yes, not Guardian); 1978's Of Mist and Melting; and 1980's Swimming with a Hole in My Body.
The fusion solo albums came later.
Yep. The acoustic ones are entirely different than the later, Holdsworth-esque stuff. I like it all, though...and I like his newest one, The Return, which is more straight-ahead, and actually fairly "Latin" in places.....if I recall....
Gotta say, some of the best electric bass sounds ever by Kennedy on the Double Up album, especially Tud...that's like a fusion version of the Pretenders Ohio, heh heh...
I never bought any of Stanley's solo albums either, so sounds like his self-titled might be the place to start then.
Stanley's first three are required.....I like the first one best, though, it's a bit more raw than Journey to Love and Schooldays.
I always thought the first three were s/t Journey to Love and School Days.. however I just did a bit of research and find that Children of Forever was his first.. never even saw this back in the day when I was listening / collecting RTF member solo albums.. anyone heard this one?
So I start a thread on Bill Conners and end up buying Stanley Clarke CD's.
Yeah... I had a Stanley Clarke 5 album package on my save list and just went back to it after reading this thread and ordered it! Go figure.. Never heard any of Bill's solo stuff only the one RTF release he was on.. much prefer Al's guitar playing over Bills however...
I don't! Different strokes...
While not fusion, his three ECM records are highly recommended, especially Of Mist and Melting.
An interesting note, for those who don't know, is why he left RTF after just one album. When he joined the group, he thought he was joining the incarnation responsible for the more Latin-esque ECM debut, Return to Forever, and Polydor follow-up, Light as a Feather. When he found himself in a group that was increasingly high octane and electric (no matter how good he was; I still prefer his playing over Di Meola anytime, any day), he left the band.
You've gotta respect a guy who follows his muse, as had he stayed with RTF, while it would have been different since he doesn't have Di Meola's light-speed chops, it would have no doubt made him both richer and more famous.
Good on ya, Bill!
I had it on vinyl a long time ago and thought it had a few good moments, but preferred the 1st couple of Nemporer/Epic releases. I kind of agree w/ Jan Hammer on the S/T album ...playing and material was great but not the recording quality. I picked up a CD of Children of Forever a couple of months ago and found it to be heavily marred by vocals and just plain not real spiff, of course ymmv, but you might wanna' check around for clips / samples before laying down dough for this one.
I like Al's solo stuff better than his stuff with RTF except for Romantic Warrior. But Bill's one album with RTF is the my favorite RTF album. I Wouldn't say it's because Al's not on it, but the fact that it's the most solid album from them as far as I'm concerned.
I love the three fusion albums Connors did in the '80s. Holdsworth can grumble all he wants, but I enjoy those three Connors albums more than I do most of the Holdsworth catalog.
As for Stanley's first album Children of Forever, I HIGHLY recommend it if you like the first two RTF albums with Airto and Flora, or if you generally like lighter Kosmigroov-type stuff. In fact, it's sort of a hidden RTF album, since Chick Corea and Lenny White play on the whole thing. Lenny played on it before he joined RTF. It's not much like his later, more aggressive fusion albums. It has vocals and more groove--Stanley plays mostly acoustic bass on it.
His first three albums for Epic, Stanley Clarke, Journey To Love, and School Days are essential listening for any fusion fan. As much so as any RTF or Mahavishnu album.
Interestingly, another sort of "hidden" RTF album is Stan Getz's Captain Marvel, which features much of the early RTF songbook (the Airto and Flora stuff), with Chick and Stanley joined by Tony Williams on drums.
Last edited by profusion; 11-28-2013 at 07:59 PM.
Beaten to it
To be honest, I yawn at his ECM albums.... just like I do with his 80's "fusion" (sometimes close to fuzak, IMHO) albums.... Nothing dislikable in both genres, but nothiong that will rivet me to my seat...
To be honest, I'll remember him mostly for being the guitarist on one of my fave earmy 70's JR/F albums...
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
Children Of Forever features vocals. Andy Bey, among others. May not appeal to rock oriented fusion fans?
I would
I'm with Profusion here. But his ECM albums are rather boring.
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