Nice review, and very accurate.
What did you think about the rest of the band?
Hey guys. Hope everyone is well.
It's been over a week since I saw this killer band, but my schedule really didn't permit me to write anything worth reading before now.
This was the first time I got to see Steve Hass play, so I was really looking forward to this evening. I have had the pleasure of listening to nearly all of his recordings, so my expectations were high.
The band played many tracks from Scofield's most recent album that features music from Ray Charles. If you've heard the record, you will know that a certain degree of versatility is required to pull this off successfully. Did Steve manage to do this....? Short answer: Hell yeah. Many tunes they played had obviously been rearranged for a live setting. From swing/jazz, to soul, rnb, funk, latin rhythms...it was all there. Using three different snares, Steve had all the tools had needed to perfect his performance. He was very confident and provided that little something to each tune with his "less is more" approach. The fact that he can pull out the chops when needed and also take a less prominent position when it's called for, really speaks for his maturity as a drummer.
Without going into details of what was played and how, I really just want to make some general statements about Steve:
From the first bar it was clear how increadibly professional this guy is. His ability to adapt to his musical surroundings is unparalled, in my opinion. He really interpreted Steve Jordan's playing on the album well and put his own stamp on it.
From reading past reviews/discussions about Steve there always seem to be a comparison to the more established greats of our time. Especially Gadd and Vinnie seem to come up a lot. Is he "better" than them? That's a matter of opinion, that I won't discuss here, but i'll say this:
Sometimes I wonder what will happen when amazing drummers like Gadd, Vinnie, Weckl, Billy etc....won't be around any more? Also, has the current younger generations got anything going for them? Well...we have Steve Hass, and there isn't anyone to better represent the younger generations of drummers out there now. He seems to have the personality/attitude and skill to keep going for years. He's currently really my favourite guy and I always hear good stories about him. He works ectremely hard and I really hope his dedication will be recognized by drummers/musicians so that he gets the respect he really deserves. In short: I love Steve Hass! [img]cool.gif[/img]
Nice review, and very accurate.
What did you think about the rest of the band?
The entire lineup was:
Meyer Statham-Vocals and Trombone
John Benitez-Bass
Gary Versace-Hammond B3 and Wurlitzer
Steve Hass-Drums
The vocalist was absolutely amazing. He was killing the ballads and sounded increadible on "I don't need no doctor". I really think he put this John Mayer clown to shame (sorry, can't stand the guy.)
Bassist had a really powerful, heavy sound going. Added a lot of depth to the tunes!
Gary was on the organs and was clearly feeling sexy that night. Real funky playing with a creative approach on solos. He traded some fours with John at one point - that was fantastic. I definitely feel like they connect a lot musically.
I didn't talk about Scofield himself, did I? [img]wink.gif[/img]
Great playing by him of course. At the end of one tune he played an extended solo, using a variety of effects on his pedal arrangement. He would record short phrases and have them playback, while soloing over them. Great stuff!
Killer review, that pretty much what I saw too!
[img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]
Oh, how i sometimes loathe "the south" for it's often complete "obliviousity" to finer music [Dregs, Fleck, Soulgrass, certain bluegrass & crossover-country bands, AWA Charlie Daniels w Pat McD on tubs, etc, excluded of course [img]wink.gif[/img] ]
Would love to catch this tour. I guess FL or Nashv / the SE-US are basically "out." But then i missed Sco live w DC & Grainger too...sux2Bme [img]frown.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/grrr.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/cry.gif[/img]
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ October 26, 2005 03:42 PM: Message edited by: got_a_match_grip? ]</font>
Sounds like the band I saw alright. Nice review Suspiria! Being new here I was put back by all the non musical pyrotechniques that most members are into. This band is all about the music, and I'm glad you saw it the way I did.
Sounds cool Suspiria!!
I was upset I missed Steve twice now in L.A., but I'm sure he'll be coming back through here again. Sent an e-mail to me, seems like a very down to earth cool cat. It's cool to know that there are new heavy cats out there to see. Thanks for the review bro!
-j
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Any time John. So you've missed him twice huh? That's a shame, since I've often seen you speak very highly of him. Make sure you check him out soon, I'm sure he'll be doing LA some time soon, maybe this year if you're lucky.Originally posted by JoesMechanic:
Thanks for the review bro!
How's work going for you? You haven't been on too much lately, busy schedule I assume?
Yeah susp most of the L.A cats have deserted us,
Joes, l.a danny and chooch dont come around too often! Pocket is still around though,
Anyway, thanks for the review, provides some helpful insight into the show.
Btw is the music very open in terms of improvisation and changing the tunes a bit everynight?
Because they are playing 2 shows on friday and saturday night here in february and im just wondering if i should go see both, just the chance to check out steve for 2 shows straight and john and the whole band is more than enough reason but im curious about the "openess" of the music in terms of changing from show to show
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