Prog Rock was Hiromi

["loop.pool" <looppool@cruzio.com>]

Tony wrote:
" It is interesting to note that there is a very active and very good 
modern 
prog scene going on."

I really love the later Porcupine Tree and have seen them twice now. 
They are pretty proggy
but also he is a fantastic melodist and singer (and a great guitarist to 
boot).

Interestingly too, in the grunge scene,   Tool has really taken on a bit 
of 
a prog vibe.  Their last two records
have very few even time signatures on them.   The second to last (which I 
think is a powerful record) is
almost entirely in 5/4, 5/8 or 10/8).     It's very dark, somber, 
melancholy 
and mono melodic if you are a Yes fan, though, so
be sure and know I told you so.   Great drummer, by the way.

***************************************

Yeah,  Prog Rock:


I was a huge prog fan in my later high school years and the first year of 
college ('71')
but I must confess that I grew out of it in the much the same way that I 
grew out of Jazz Fusion
(which I was a slavish fan of at it's inception).

I guess in the long run for me, it always comes down to composition and 
I'm 
a song fan, so
gratuitous riffage really leaves me cold these days.   It's ironic because 
having played all my life
I finally have the chops to play in both of those styles really well but I 
find that record producers
are starting to ask me if I will please play more on a song these days 
when 
I do studio work.

Personally,  I love groove music and I always tell my students:   when you 
are playing groove
styled music of any kind you can only be doing one of two things at a time:
1)  playing the groove or
2)  commenting on the groove

and, if you are commenting on the groove (riffing, filling) then you are 
NOT 
playing the groove.
Because the groove is so trancey,  I think a lot of musicians forget that 
it 
does not necessarily continue if you quit playing it.
The musician playing the groove feels it more, I believe than the audience 
hearing it which makes it more important to be
more conservative and minimal when attempting to leave the groove as a 
rhythm section player.

Bill and I once saw Wah Wah Watson get 5,000 people dancing in 30 seconds 
with one L5 Gibson and a wah wah pedal.
He WAS the groove.

Now, I know this makes me a bit of an old fashioned player and this 
precludes the lion share of the Jam Bands that have proliferated so much
but that's how I see it.

Personally, I"d rather listen to a structured Prog Rock band than a 
meandering Jam Band (no matter how stellar the chops of the musicians).

Okee dokee.................you can start flaming now.............lol