Spectrum Road Plays Rock-Jazz Fusion In The Village
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The new band Spectrum Road, which recently played at the Blue Note in Greenwich Village, is inspired by the music of the late jazz drummer Tony Williams.
Cindy Blackman-Santana, who is married to legendary guitarist Carlos Santana, is the current drummer in the Lenny Kravitz rock band. She believes in the importance and influence of Williams.
"He really fused jazz and rock together, and brought the elements of the groves and the big sound and the electricity of rock with the intelligence, the creativity, the nuances of jazz," says Blackman-Santana.
Vernon Reid, the guitarist in Living Color, does his part to inspire the band.
"Since [Williams] was the youngest person in Miles [Davis'] band, he was really into the British invasion. But he was really into the Beatles and the Dave Clark Five and all of those sounds, into Jimi Hendrix," says Reid. "So he was like the first one to recognize how rock and jazz could be together."
Jack Bruce is the bassist in the band. The first time yours truly saw him, he was playing with two other guys, Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker, in a band called Cream.
Bruce: That was definitely the late '60s, yeah.
George Whipple: I never heard so much noise coming from three people in my life.
Bruce: Yeah, I know, that was our speciality.
The group named itself Spectrum Road at the concert in the Blue Note. The name is an obscure Tony Williams song, so the reference is entre nous. Yours truly expects to hear much more of them in the future.