Great Band Leaders
LaserWolf
Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
Some artists greatest gift is their ability to put together a band. They manage to realize their music fully. Their instrument is the band.Perhaps the greatest band leader of all time is JAMES BROWN.Duke Ellington is on the top as a band leader. The band was his instrument.What seperates Muddy Waters from some other blues men, was his skill as a band leader. He was perhaps the best blues band leader.I can't think of many great rock band leaders, but Zappa would no doubt be the best.Add your favorites.
Comments
Count Basie
Tadd Dameron
Fletcher Henderson
Blakey
Charles Mingus
The Duke
Art Blakey
George Clinton
I'm embarrased I didn't mention Blakey and Clinton, 2 of the greatest.
Blakey's band typicaly had very young players making very mature music.
In the same vain is Miles Davis. He picked slightly older players and had a great ear for who would sound good together. It's always interesting to hear what they have to say about working with him. It seems he never reheared them or told them what to play or how to play, yet some how it was always his music.
Herbie Hancock.
Dan
Cosine.
Kuti had a unique vision. Far ahead of the Juju music of most Nigerian bands or highlife of the Ghanaian bands.
Dan
Though, I'm not sure if I would say "Great Band Leader", but more like a bonkers, but effective leader. Still, he did some real pioneering stuff. Definitely on some other shit.
I've heard stories that while dude is in the studio he would throw paint all over the studio and just do some real bizaar random, wild stuff to get inspired.
As far as Clinton goes it's my understanding he didn't perform many of the responsibilities of the bandleader. He did put the lineups together and get producing credit, but as far as the musical arrangements and band chemistry Billy Nelson was generally acknowledged as the early Funkadelic bandleader followed by Bernie Worrel and Fred Wesley doing all the later Parliament, Bootsy, Brides, etc horn arrangements. Obviously I wasn't in the recording studio but from what I've read he gets the lion's share of the credit when actually it was the band (which he would put together) that gave them their flavor.
I guess the same could be said for James Brown too.
alot of Detroit-area musicians/ producers /engineers have stories to tell about Clinton arriving at the end of the session, 'blessing' the results & taking all the credit - most sidepeople in music generally seem to have some story about how they wrote x & arranged y & never got their due etc.
sun ra's example illustrates the grey area between effective band-leadership & cult mind-control.
---
I recently read an article about the archestra in the NYT. They are still living in Ra's old house in Germantown. Shit is falling apart. They don???t get any of the royalties and they dont own the house, Ra's family does. They are just allowed to live there. Sun Ra's status as a bandleader is pretty high in my book. This long after his death they are still together. Even though they make next to nothing If i had to join a cult I guess i would choose his. I wouldnt want to wear the stupid hats though. I have seen them twice in the past couple of years at the Tri-Tone in philly. The first time they were great the second time was just too damn out for me. But they keep doing their thing.
Agreed. Tito kept his band on the road for decades. By all acounts they were always great.
A good band leader often has good music directors and good arrangers. Clinton and James Brown and Miles Davis often left the band to their own devices. They then step in and say, this is good, get rid of that, I've got a melody that will go with that, and give more of that. Seems easy, but look at the artist who lack that skill.
John Lee Hooker never held a good band together, and had trouble communicating to his bands what he wanted from them.
Chuck Berry had one great band he ditched early and worked with anyone who could tune an instrument after that.
Mary Lou Williams, one of the greatest arrangers of big band era never held a band together.
Ravi Shankar
Ustad Ali Akbar Khan
Nusrat Fateh Khan
Mohammad Reza Shajarian
Buddy Rich rants at his band (I know this has been on SS before)
I like the mans music, so I'm happy to see a former bandmember defuse that Buddy was supposed to be an asshole.
Miles was known to be pretty tough as well.
James Brown could probably be labelled as the best AND worst bandleader at the same time. We all know he brought the best out in his musicians, but it must have been a heavy mindfuck working for him.
And what about those accusations of Mongo Santamaria being sexist, violent and whatever???
aaah the myths, the myths.
I remember a NPG player saying you had to be on your game all the time around him. If he didn't like the part you were playing he would just play the part himself. He took an obscure Bay Area percussionist and transformed into a pop star. Eric Leeds would have been nothing but a good Minneapolis sax player with Prince, and on and on.
Sun Ra kept the same core band together for decades despite the fact that any of them could have made more money playing behind Stanley Turrentine or Jimmy Smith.
Here is another; Bill Monroe. Bill was an intense singer and skilled mandolin player who always found the most original banjo and fiddle players to join his always solid guitar and bass players to play a style that he created and perfected.
Dan
I think bandleader becomes more of a grey area when you get further away from jazz. I'm kind of thinking of the term in a classic sense I guess.
Very focused, made a mediocre band huge. That takes guts and ideas and discipline.
Tremendous vision and has dealt with lots of group related problems while still holding it all together. Saw them last year and the still got it.
If the definition of a great bandleader is finding and nuturing great talent, then Miles is probably the best (along with Blakey).
I love his Cher impression (Zing).