The Fearless Flyers Live in Europe joins the triumvirate, the Holy Trinity of low-volume mostly instrumental handheld-camera concert videos: CORY WONG // LIVE IN MPLS // 9 FEB 2019, Vulfpeck Live at Madison Square Garden, and now this. Hmm, what could be the common element? Hardest working man in show business in 4th position, Cory Wong! They’re all so entertaining to watch, I really should hook up a proper stereo or at least active speakers or a soundbar to our TV.
The real find for me is Mark Lettieri‘s solos (on the “Medium Guitar,” no less). On “Bank Account” 15:09 and “Magnetar Jam” 1:11:08 he reminds me of Nile Rodgers’s post-disco soloing on “So Fine“, plus some of Jeff “Skunk” Baxter’s more out-there solos with the Doobie Brothers, e.g. “Livin’ on the Fault Line“. And the end of the former is a total Chic homage, while the dual drummers recall the Doobies’ Keith Knudsen and John Hartman (RIP).
Louis Cole live too!
The second drummer joining the Fearless Flyers’ Nate Smith on “Bank Account” is the excellent Louis Cole, who has also made some great live videos, especially of the song “Thinking” by his group Knower. The “Thinking (live sesh)” home recording (literally, musicians playing in the hall, on the stairs, on the outside deck, on top of an oven in the kitchen) is a lot of fun, then he has great orchestrations of the same song with the Norbotten big band, the WDR Big Band (video of the latter has vanished 😢), and other groups. Anyone who says music today sucks is lazy!
