jrcorp

I will be selling: a stock, mid-nineties, made in USA (not much difference) Fender Hot Rod Deluxe - looking for $350 a GK MB115 combo - looking for $225 and maybe a pedal or two, like a Shredmaster if I were to get the right offer.

I agree entirely there. As much as I love Miles, he really went off the deep end as he got older, in my opinion. He might be to jazz what Jimi is to guitar for me, in that I see them as the epitome of their craft in a way, they're a few of my favorite players, innovators in what they did etc. He had a much longer career and I think he was trying to stay new and fresh, but it was all wrong, again IMHO. I'll admit, I haven't listened an awful lot to Miles during that time period. I've listened to In a Silent Way a lot and don't jive with it very well, but I've wanted to try stuff like Bitches Brew, and the Jack Johnson album came right after that!

Jazz in the late 60s and 70s were very much getting interested in blues and funk. Jimi would have dropped right in. Without listening, I think he could've thrived on a lot of music and I totally agree. But I'm just pointing out a situation that happened with Miles. There's also the whole situation with Alan Douglas, a producer involved with some jazz music as well as Jimi later in his career. I think he encouraged Jimi to open up and try new things, including dabbling in jazz. But he produced a lot of posthumous crap, tinkering way too much, so based on that I hope Jimi wouldn't have pursued a lot of work with him. He was probably the guy who tried to hook him up with Miles. I love lots of jazz including Miles, and I've read his autobiography. That book had some stories in it that seemed BS, and I remember Miles had interest in playing with Jimi and all but not much else from his perspective. I'm sure he put a spin on it. Jimi was a spectacular player and showed interest in jazz, but a lot of the players on Miles' level were trained and formally educated musicians. I don't want to generalize and I'm sure something could've worked out, but I think Jimi's lack of reading skills and formal training would have been a big hindrance. He was branching out in different directions, but I think it was mostly a funk and R&B vibe. Tough to say now as genres blend together a lot, and you're right about where jazz was going at that time.

^ +1. To all the people mentioning Miles and jazz... yes, he played some music with some jazz sound to it, used "jazz" chords etc. and a lot of jazz artists of the time were listening to his music. From the biographies I've read, he had wanted to play with Miles and I believe through a third party was in talks to work something out. But I believe Miles had let his ego in the way and wanted to take the lead and get paid by the Hendrix camp, which didn't go well. This is all from memory, but I can go dig up the books and quote. I remember reading about that aspect though, his getting into funk and all. I specifically remember something about how he wanted to appeal to the black audience, as he hadn't done that with most of his music. So blingdogg seems on point to me. Whatever he would've done, always being a huge fan at heart I'd rather just be optimistic and think he would've kept progressing in his career, or maybe slowing down and stopping. I used to think he'd be a producer as he got older, or maybe manage to guest with people and maybe do a project here and there. I see the logic in him keeping up with the technology, but that's tough to guess about. I don't even care if he would've been a guitar hero for the rest of his life, I imagine it would've been relatively impossible to keep all his fans happy forever. If he managed to stay involved with music even somewhat and go out on a good note, I'd be glad. Either way, R.I.P. Cool thread, I used to talk about this with friends.

Awesome, glad this thread is around and hope it gets a little more attention. I would think that dealing with forumites here is classier and friendlier than with CL. I'm probably still too cheap to pick anything up here, haha.