Robben Ford

I love guitar as well.

Something like Robin Ford.

Um, and I love every blues man in the U S as well.

And I go also for some electro music, maybe, you know, Trent Miller.

No Looking Back, of course, 85, had...

Joe Walsh on it, David Pack, Robin Ford, Willie Weeks, Nathan East, Jeff Beccaro, Polina DaCosta, Cornelius Bumpus.

Where have we heard that name before? 86.

We've got Danny Sembello, Paul Jackson Jr., Steve Lukather, Abe Laboriel.

Amy Holland, David Pak, Maureen McDonald.

OK, also Ted Templeman produced.

93, Blink of an Eye, David Williams on guitar, Fred Tackett, Dean Parks, Robin Ford, Warren Haynes, Paul Jackson Jr., Nathan East, Marcus Miller, Ready Freddy Washington on bass, Lenny Castro, bear with me, I gotta just go through this, Kirk Whalen, I'm making a point eventually, 2000, Blue Obsession has David Pak, 2000, Let's see.

Who else is worthy of note on here? Victor Krauss on upright bass.

Okay, Gavin Ford, Attitude by James Lee Stanley.

Can't find much about this album except Robin Ford may have played on it along with Michael O'Marty and Larry Carlton.

The LP cover is amazing.

Let's see if it's yacht.

What's Eek? Ack.

Ack.

Robin Ford, Leah Kunkel, and Stephen Bishop are all thanked on this album.

So he's got the friends and the influences.

Okay, so Good Evening, Mr. and Mrs. America, as it's listed in the real book, but the full title, Good Evening, Mr. and Mrs. America, and All the Ships at Sea, is again a composition by drummer John Gurren, recorded by Tom Scott and the LA Express for their second album, Tomcat, released in 1975 on Ode Records.

The piece features the classic mid-1970s LA Express lineup of Tom Scott on saxophone and woodwind, Gurren on drums and percussion, Max Bennett on bass, Robin Ford on guitar, and Larry Nash on keyboard.

The title is a playful reference to the famous opening line used by radio broadcaster and gossip columnist Walter Winchell.

Musically, the track reflects the more, let's say, tougher side of the LA jazz fusion sound.

These were serious jazz players who were equally comfortable with funk and rock, and the group became closely associated with Joni Mitchell, contributing to her increasingly jazz-influenced direction during the Court and Spark period and accompanying her on the 1974 live album Miles of Isles.

Now, in 1975, the LA Express released the second album called Tomcat, and that is the album featuring today's tune, and the personnel had shifted somewhat.

We now have Tom Scott on saxophones, Woodwinds Moog synthesizer and percussion, Robin Ford on electric and acoustic guitar, Larry Nash on electric piano, organ, and arp synthesizer, Max Bennett on bass, and John Guerin remains on drums and percussion synthesizer.

Joni Mitchell also makes a guest appearance, providing vocals on the tune called Love Poem.

We need to start covering some different genres.

We're not covering enough jazz, jazz fusion like Jeff Lorber, Paul Hardcastle, Robin Ford, Yellow Jackets.

We're also not covering the groups that were big when I was in high school, a la Depeche Mode, New Order, The Cure, I just feel like we're not given these genres enough love when you're going back to the music history.

So I just wanted to get your thoughts on that, too.

It kind of put me down the path of wanting to take like guitar playing more seriously.

So Stevie, and then I, Got into Jimmy and then who are their heroes? OK, got into like check out Albert King, Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, of course, all these and then more modern guys like Doyle Bramhall and Mayer and Mike Landau, Robin Ford.

Then I was like, some of these guys get kind of jazzy.

Like, what's I should get into that? Joe Pass was Montgomery.

I mean, I like it all, but...

But for me, and Curly might know this, Blue Ocean, when I first heard it, it gave me like a real Robin Ford kind of vibe to it.

Oh, that's

interesting.

And of course, the guitar solo had its own saga.

Becker and Fagen reportedly cycled through at least seven first-call studio guitarists, names like Larry Carlton or Robben Ford, all chasing the exact phrase they'd heard in their heads.

But in the end, Jay Graydon finally nailed it.

Took six hours of work to find the keeper, though, and when it came time to add backup voices, even the incidental moments mattered.

It kind of works, but it never quite sings.

Then they hear players like Robin Ford, Marcus King, and Jack Roosh, and suddenly it's a different language.

More soul, more color, more story.

So what is the difference? In this episode, we sit down with one of Nashville's most respected

Um, but you know, listening to certain players, Uh, you kind of, you can pick up a lot of phrasing things, a lot of that kind of like more, uh, slightly sophisticated, I guess it's not, not maybe the best word for it, but like a little bit more.

you know, forward kind of blues playing.

Like I get a lot from Robin Ford.

You know, Robin Ford's phrasing is pretty exceptional in terms of like how he's placing phrases and stringing together longer phrases that kind of fit in unique sections of the form.