Feb 162014
 

i don’t normally listen to a lot of fusion… hardly any in fact.  i was randomly playing shows that i’d downloaded from dime in the past few years, and put on this one, which i’d downloaded around a year ago.  just the right thing for a cold february day while working on my taxes!

i’ve included the comments by the seeder “csatennis” unchanged.  there are 5 tracks, but csatennis didn’t know the titles to any of them (nor do i)


barry miles live at the ramada inn schenectady, ny usa
july 11, 1976

barry miles – keyboards
vic juris – guitar
jim schuller – bass
terry silverlight – drums

sound quality a(-)

there are 5 songs on this first cd. i don’t know any of the titles as they are originals and for the most part he didn’t introduce the songs. if any of you know them from his recordings, please let me know.

i have 3 parts to this performance. at the time barry was leading a group with his brother terry silverlight. ed schuller is a competent bass player and son of famed composer gunther schuller. vic juris has become a well respected jazz guitarist.

this was a really tight group somewhat in the spirit of the earlier chick corea rtf groups. many people have suggested that miles was actually the one who introduced fusion, having begun his explorations in the early 60’s.

miles is an impressive player, both on accoustic and electric and sythesizer. silverlight fits him like a glove. juris was an impressive guitarist even back then.

most of the groups that i brought into the ramada inn were really more headliners with a rhythm section hired to support them and an occassional horn player as a sparring partner. this was one of the few organized groups that we had there.

miles had recorded several lps for milestone records, and his father was a very dedicated salesman and manager of the group. i think that they had expected to achieve the kind of stardom that jean luc ponty and al dimeola had, but it never happened. miles moved on to london records to record a couple fusion records, but he never really received the acclaim he wanted.

as with my other recordings in the ramada inn series, the artists allowed me to put a couple mikes up on stage with them so that i could record on my cassette deck.

as i have said in my prior entries, i have several more recordings to upload from this two year long series of sunday concerts. that includes two more from barry miles. if you want to be notified when others are uploaded, send your email address to [email address removed] and i will add you to my distribution list.


sample:  cd1t01 unknowns.mp3

download: Barry_Miles_1976-11-07_Schenectady_NY.zip