I've always hated Dave Weckl.
Around 5 minutes ago I thought to myself that I may be being just a little prejudiced and decided to consult the almighty youtube about giving him another chance. I regretted that almost instantly. His cover of Jaco's 'The Chicken' is one of the truly awful things in this world - yes, right up there with income tax and trombones.
Good lord. He has no ideas. He plays fairly conventional fills except with blindingly fast technique - alright, I'll grant that he's a master technician - but nothing new. He's not bad but just strikingly unmusical for all the hype he gets. The kicker came at the end of the tune when they were waiting on the last note of the signature riff that ends the song - he takes 10 seconds to do a long drum solo almost as if saying 'wait a minute - stop! the song can't end yet, I haven't finished jacking off!' It adds nothing to the song except to make a cheesy ending worse. It's Jaco. It demands ideas, attitude. Yes the 'busy' sound does work but not when everyone at once is trying to sound like a one-man band. When you add those up you don't get a three-man band, you get three one-man bands which sounds less like music than like group sex.
This is what is wrong with fusion. Just to check if my ears were working right - I went back and listened to weather report again - predictable high. I'm alright. Dave Weckl DOES suck - all is right with the world. But not yet - I haven't finished bitching. What is even worse is the parade of music snobs that fusion spawned in the 70s and haven't quite finished dying out yet - the worst bunch since the Nazis decided they liked Wagner. People who turn up their noses to rock and pop music and worship their gods of stick technique, claiming that any detractors have 'no ear for music' and cannot appreciate the intellectual intricacies of their heroes. Yes my friends, the only way Dave Weckl and his ilk can obscure the fact that they have no ideas is to hide behind their enormous drumsets (seriously. Think NASA.) and their shredding and jerking off behind so-called funk beats. Complexity does not belie content.
In the end, music (leaving out John Cage for now) is about experience and emotion. It made the great musicians like Miles Davis (who, incidentally, was a big fan of pop music). Heck, jazz was originally a popular music and most of our standards today are reworked pop tunes from the 20s and 30s. I think fusion as played by Mike Stern and Dave Weckl needs to die out quickly, and those people need to grow up and put their serious chops to better use.
EDIT: As a note of comparison, check out Jaco's own recording of The Chicken here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwhkPSEXs1Q
That is a real drummer, and THAT is a real drum solo. He has so much wit - I actually laughed out loud during the first bars of his solo.
adam
Around 5 minutes ago I thought to myself that I may be being just a little prejudiced and decided to consult the almighty youtube about giving him another chance. I regretted that almost instantly. His cover of Jaco's 'The Chicken' is one of the truly awful things in this world - yes, right up there with income tax and trombones.
Good lord. He has no ideas. He plays fairly conventional fills except with blindingly fast technique - alright, I'll grant that he's a master technician - but nothing new. He's not bad but just strikingly unmusical for all the hype he gets. The kicker came at the end of the tune when they were waiting on the last note of the signature riff that ends the song - he takes 10 seconds to do a long drum solo almost as if saying 'wait a minute - stop! the song can't end yet, I haven't finished jacking off!' It adds nothing to the song except to make a cheesy ending worse. It's Jaco. It demands ideas, attitude. Yes the 'busy' sound does work but not when everyone at once is trying to sound like a one-man band. When you add those up you don't get a three-man band, you get three one-man bands which sounds less like music than like group sex.
This is what is wrong with fusion. Just to check if my ears were working right - I went back and listened to weather report again - predictable high. I'm alright. Dave Weckl DOES suck - all is right with the world. But not yet - I haven't finished bitching. What is even worse is the parade of music snobs that fusion spawned in the 70s and haven't quite finished dying out yet - the worst bunch since the Nazis decided they liked Wagner. People who turn up their noses to rock and pop music and worship their gods of stick technique, claiming that any detractors have 'no ear for music' and cannot appreciate the intellectual intricacies of their heroes. Yes my friends, the only way Dave Weckl and his ilk can obscure the fact that they have no ideas is to hide behind their enormous drumsets (seriously. Think NASA.) and their shredding and jerking off behind so-called funk beats. Complexity does not belie content.
In the end, music (leaving out John Cage for now) is about experience and emotion. It made the great musicians like Miles Davis (who, incidentally, was a big fan of pop music). Heck, jazz was originally a popular music and most of our standards today are reworked pop tunes from the 20s and 30s. I think fusion as played by Mike Stern and Dave Weckl needs to die out quickly, and those people need to grow up and put their serious chops to better use.
EDIT: As a note of comparison, check out Jaco's own recording of The Chicken here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwhkPSEXs1Q
That is a real drummer, and THAT is a real drum solo. He has so much wit - I actually laughed out loud during the first bars of his solo.
adam
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