sonny sharrock appreciation
gruntgravel
559 Posts
I've been on a big Sharrock kick lately. Herbie Mann's band with Sharrock and Roy Ayers had to have floored some of Mann???s core audience at the time. I can???t really get into the one with him and his wife on the cover, but everything else with him is great. His solos always have me shaking my head in disbelief. I'm curious what some of you SS's think of Sharrock.
Comments
While I'm not a fusion fan, I love the Tony Williams Lifetime (on Polydor) as well as Miles Davis'"rock" albums from the 70's, and I'm assuming Sharrock is next in line.
I have that album by the band Brute Force where he's playing guitar - the record is not that exceptional, but Sharrock is getting off some good runs.
Was this on the stuff he put out on Embryo? Any of the Atlantic albums have this lineup? Which ones in particular do you recommend?
black woman on vortex
Sonny is far more harsh & experamental. half hendrix half free jazz. I wouldn't really call him fusion.
He's absosultely one of my top 10 fav guitarists.
I could never get into Sharrock. and believe me, i've tried, because i love progressive jazz and play 'jazz guitar'. I really want to like him, but to me he always sounds so terrible and wanky. i have 'Black Woman' and some of the stuff w/ Herbie Mann (who i've never liked that much). Last Exit? blechhh (i don't like Laswell either). and i tried that trio date w/ Elvin Jones- if I don't like you playing with Elvin, i just don't like you.
I'll take James Blood Ulmer any day.
[/opinion]
he played with Herbie from "windows open" till maybe like "stone flute" era.
"Memphis Underground" is one of the ultimate guitar records period. One of the best dollars you can spend.
trippin'.
Yup..Sonny Sharrock & Larry Coryell!
I dig Blood too. Did you see Blood when he played at the Point Park a couple years back? You're in Pittsburgh right?
I rember when my friend bought this record & I was all like "whatever, that dude (herbie mann) is white."
but damn, it's like sonic youth were teleported to 1969 & made to play Aretha Franklin covers.
haha! yeah, strikes one & two.
yup and yup. that Park show, i mean Blood's amazing just period, but it was pretty obvious he didn't rehearse w/ the local rhythm section, so it was slightly underwhelming imo.
funny this conversation turned to the OTHER big-name guitarist that i can't really stand- Larry Cornyell. i mean he's got sick chops, fine as an ensemble player, but almost every time he solos i just get annoyed.
Yeah, he never really jelled with the rest of the band, and I remember the PA kept cutting out. I don't think 90% of the crowd even knew who he was. I got to respectively disagree with you on Larry Coryell. What's next, are you going to say don't like McLaughlin's playing on Extrapolation?
i saw one space ghost episode where they had thurston moore as a guest and space ghost wanted to play some sonny sharrock for thurston. that was crazy. i later found out that sonny sharrock did the music for space ghost which was surprising but not really
nah, that's one of my all-time favorite guitar records
I knew we could find some common ground on that one.
extrapolation is such a great record! but i haven't had much luck with finding any other john mclaughlin records that i like, unless you include lifetime's 'emergency!'. i am not really into the mahavishnu orchestra stuff either. is there another mclaughlin record aside from extrapolation you guys consider essential?
sharrock's guitar on "Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt" gives me goosebumps everytime i hear it. beautiful record
this thread is kinda renewing my interest in jazz again. i can't remember the last time i played any of my jazz lps
Hell yes, this just prompted me to put on "Square Dance" and turn it up real loud. That'll teach those pesky neighbors!
I like Devotion and My Goals Beyond. I would also consider his work on Tribute to Jack Johnson essential.
I guess that's what I'm looking for, then. And since "fusion" originally meant rock + jazz, that's why I used that word. (And Hendrix WAS rock, so...) Not trying to imply that he sounded like Weather Report (MY GOD, I HOPE HE DIDN'T) or anything.
Somebody else mentioned James "Blood" Ulmer, who I AM familiar with and do have a few of his albums. I dig him too.
And Larry Coryell - I have this comp on Vanguard that goes chronologically from '69-'79(?). As God is my witness, the only tracks on that anthology I like are from '69. Everything else is for Jaco Pastorius fans only (you TALK about "not a good look"!). I've probably told this tale before on the Strut, but it's worth dredging out again for this thread.
cosign, Devotion is fantastic. Not quite as extreme as Lifetime, but in that same jazz/psych vein, and Larry Young sounds great on this kind of stuff.
And bigtime cosign on Sharrock's Ask the Ages, too. Beautiful, beautiful album, maybe one of the best jazz albums of the last 15 years?
yeah exactly. I just hear the word "fusion" and I immediately think of smooth jazz for race cars.
This is out of my usual realm, but if most fusion sounded like Tony Williams, 70's Miles, Blood Ulmer, and (I'm assuming) Sharrock, then I'd be listening to it more often.
I know there are people who would put John McLaughlin on the same plane with the artists I just mentioned, but I've heard his earliest solo LP's - not feelin' 'em.