The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Konichiwa Songfighters!

Yesterday was filled with sooooooo much drama. I'm looking forward to a relaxing day but it doesn't seem to be going my way. Oh well.

Question of the Day:
Who are some of your favorite instrumental artists?

I hope ours borders are safe, in any case, Niv. Chill

QotD: Favorites include:
John McLaughlin
Zakir Hussain - tabla wizard
Itzhak Perlman

I can't think right now. But those are tops.

Band practice last night postponed due to alcohol (not mine). A bit of contretemps about GnR covers, good natured, but said "If y'all want to do one at a show, I'll be offstage and at the bar until you finish it". Auditioning a bassist next week. Tick tock.

Demo tracklist & disc printing are finished for the solo thing. Still trying to figure out the bio angle. Oy.

QOTD, partial:
Nicolò Paganini
John Zorn
Dick Dale
Bernard Hermann
Danny Elfman

Workin'. Playing a show at Shooter's Tavern in Belmont tonight.

QotD: Some favorites:
Vince Guaraldi
Cyrus Chestnut
The Mermen
Medeski Martin & Wood

qotd:
Danny Elfman (If you know me then you know this is the obvious answer)
John Williams

I don't know anymore. ('cept maybe Al Dimiola (sp) but I don't really listen to him although he is a fantastic guitarist)

Tangerine Dream.... I listened to them when I was younger but got bored.
Manhiemensnenn steamroller guys = cheeeeeeese


PINK FLOYD did a lot of instrumentals... Love most of them.

Thursday- at work... dealing with some people who don't have a clue. NOT A CLUE. I don't mind some folk who struggle...but when they don't have a clue... it can get really frustrating.

Dirty Three
Herb Alpert & his Tijuana Brass

Instrumental music is a lot of what I listen to, particularly the electronic stuff. So it's real hard to pick favorites, but I'll see what I can do:

Banco de Gaia (electronic, not dancy)
Brian Eno (does both vocal and instrumental tracks)
California Guitar Trio (just what it sounds like, except they're not from CA)
Delerium (their older stuff didn't have vocals)
Dr. Didg (didgeridoo jam)
Friends of Dean Martinez (ambientish cowboy music)
Glenn Miller (big band)
Jean-Michel Jarre (synth wizard)
Mark Snow (x-files music, among others)
Michael Brook (friend of eno)
Miles Davis (jazz, especially electric)
Richard Bone (ambient and electronic)
Steroid Maximus (strange instrumental non-industrial music from an industrial guy)

Ah, that's enough for now.

Several others that people mentioned are great also. Herb Alpert, John Williams, Pink Floyd, MMW, etc.
-bill

Caravan Ray wrote:Dirty Three

word!
also Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and David Grisman \m/
word to yo mather.

Here.

QOTD

Jonas Hellborg
Thelonios Monk
Stanley Jordan

walter wanderley.

and john coltrane.

and herb albert.

and quincy jones.

and frank zappa.

also, jimT, i think it's awesome you said the mermen. i've seen those guys so many times over the years (including a number of burning man appearances) and wholeheartedly agree.

Oh, instrumental music, how I love thee!

As far as "classical" and jazz go, I don't really like any vocal genres I've heard so far. I'm all about the instrumentals there. As far as rock and electronica, I can totally go either way. I think pop has to have vocals, unless we're talking about Axel F. But that's electronica. So there you go. And, uh, acoustic instrumentals are cool. But I don't know of too many artists that do that, myself. Apparently, pieces that include spoken word, or vocals without words, can still be considered instrumentals. Sung words are what kill it, I guess. Still, the grammy-winning Regatta de Blanc, by the Police is really straddling that line. Speaking of, Behind My Camel, which won the award the following year, is creepy, and disturbing. Sting apparently hated it and refused to play on the track, and admits to going so far as burying the demo underground. Sweet. The Police didn't do a ton of instrumentals, so they won't be included.

I can think of one song by Cake, that I like, Arco Arena, but I can't think of any other instrumentals. I like some surf instrumentals, but no particular artists. I only seem to like the famous song's that have been covered several times, i.e., Sleep Walk by Santo and Johnny, and Apache by the Shadows. Yeah, those both rock my ass.

As far as European classical:
Bach
Beethoven
Stravinsky..?
Vivaldi..?

I like idiot beginner jazz:
Miles Davis
Dave Brubeck

More modern jazz idioms:
Weather Report
Charlie Hunter
Stanley Jordan, maybe...probably only because I met him
Greg Howe, sometimes, or is he a shred guy?

Electronic:
Röyksopp, goes about half and half on inst/vocal, I think
Nine Inch Nails, goes here and in the next category, not a ton of inst.
Tangerine Dream, electronic rock, cool, but gets annoying quickly

Vocal-based rock acts that made kickass instrumentals:
King Crimson
Rush
Adrian Belew
The Who
Yes
Metallica (apparently, they don't do this anymore)
Frank Zappa (a few, instrumentals mostly awful, i.e. Jazz From Hell, *throws up*)
Santana (are gang vocals admissible?)
The Apples in Stereo (link tracks)

Instrumental Rock:
Joe Satriani (he makes some vocal songs once in a while, they are (his voice is) not great)
Steve Vai (makes vocal songs more often than Satch, has the voice of a god, vocals are as good as his instrumentals)
Stuart Hamm
Explosions in the Sky..?

I make instrumentals. There have almost been some good ones. I made an instrumental AAD the other day. It sucked. No surprise. I think I've narrowed down the main problem: I have no idea how to write a melody using an instrument (maybe playing instruments proficiently would help). I never had a successful song, back when I wrote instrumentals. If you have any complaints about my voice, I may have some old recordings that should demonstrate why I didn't do vocal songs.

Oh, and yngwie's first album - love it!

Lord of Oats wrote:i.e., Sleep Walk by Santo and Johnny, and Apache by the Shadows.

Yeah! I love that era of instrumental rock, and particularly those two songs. I'm with ya on the King Crimson etc. but I actually quite like Jazz From Hell. Listened to one of the songs from it today, in fact.
Tangerine Dream - I like the older ones better than the 80's stuff. I think Stratosfear is my favorite, with movements, almost like classical music.
-bill

I'd nitpick and suggest "instrumental artist" doesn't apply simply to someone who produced an instrumental at some point in their career (like calling someone a hip-hop artist because they did a great rap or two). For me that basically rules out most any rock band, although certain players would be considered. I also wouldn't think "composer" of instrumental works. While Zappa did a ton of instrumental compositions, and he's one of my favorite guitarists, I also wouldn't put him down as an "instrumental artist". But, as Paganini certainly composed a ton of great instrumental works, he was also perhaps one of the best performing artists on a number of instruments. Similarly Egberto Gismonti. This is not to lessen the artistic merit of folks like Pink Floyd who do things differently but who didn't focus on instrumental music per se.

However, no qualifications were made about this so I'll just crawl under my rock again...

rdurand wrote:Jonas Hellborg

Seconded. Good People In Times Of Evil is one of the best albums I have ever heard.

roymond wrote:I'd nitpick and suggest "instrumental artist" doesn't apply simply to someone who produced an instrumental at some point in their career (like calling someone a hip-hop artist because they did a great rap or two). For me that basically rules out most any rock band, although certain players would be considered.

This is not to lessen the artistic merit of folks like Pink Floyd who do things differently but who didn't focus on instrumental music per se.

However, no qualifications were made about this so I'll just crawl under my rock again...

Yeah, I wasn't really suggesting Pink Floyd was my favorite Instrumentalist type music... I mean Danny Elfman is for sure. (Both instrumentalist & favorite) Oingo Boingo was not my favorite 80's band... there is no point here.

I did mention Floyd though because albums like Atom Heart Mother, Ummagumma & Wish You Were Here. (Although both of those albums have vocals... they are for the most part instrumental albums) Outside of that they did a lot of instrumental songs on other albums. Quite a few actually.

Hoblit wrote:Yeah, I wasn't really suggesting Pink Floyd was my favorite Instrumentalist type music... I mean Danny Elfman is for sure. (Both instrumentalist & favorite) Oingo Boingo was not my favorite 80's band... there is no point here.

I'm trying to pick a fight here and provoke outrage and discontent. Stop being so nice!

Niveous wrote:

rdurand wrote:Jonas Hellborg

Seconded. Good People In Times Of Evil is one of the best albums I have ever heard.

Yay - Someone else know Jonas Hellborg!!

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Dick Dale
...both exactly the same, except Dick uses a guitar and Wolfy uses a piano.