Customer Reviews

Step It

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the most important solo CD from Bill Connors, a Return to Forever alumni. (He played on Hymn to the 7th Galaxy). This CD has been in my collection for a long time. If youre a serious fan of fusion your collection is not complete without this CD! The guitar is very melodic with some extreme lagato and fluid lines, the chord work is also exquisite and intricate with respect to arrangement. There is so much feeling and soul in this music its scary. Ive read Connors interviews and he talks about a Coltrane meets Hendrix approach to the guitar. The sheets of sound on guitar thing is really happening here.

Also, bassist Tom Kennedy is one of the best Ive ever heard, his mastry of breaking up the chords and playing so poly-rythmically establishes him as one of the true masters of the bass, up there with Stanley Clarke, Jaco Pastorious, and Jeff Berlin.

The drummer, Dave Weckl who toured with Chick Corea is a master drummer and of the finest time keepers avalible. By far some of the best fusion these ears will ever hear!

so many people whine that Bill sounds too muh like Allen on this album. However, If you listened to bill's early works, like with Stanley Clark's self titiled album, Bil is just being his talented self.

Let me start off by saying that I have been a fan of the chameleonic Bill Connors for some years now. His ever evolving muse and explorations have kept my attention for some time, whether it was his soaring and searing melodic electric playing with Return to Forever (which as far as I'm concerned stomped all over Al DiMeola), his beautiful and complex acoustic music from the mid to late 70's or his earliest re-emergence on electric guitar in the early 80's with several ECM artists like Jan Garbarek. All during that time, Bill stayed true to a very unique, personal and individual course.

And that's why this mid 80's release troubles me so much yet still has some things worth listening to.

Certainly, it couldn't be faulted in the musicianship and production departments, how could you go wrong with Dave Weckl and Tom Kennedy driving things along for you and having a sympathetic ear in guitarist Steve Khan producing?

However, the fault lies for me in the fact that Bill came out sounding a lot like Allan Holdsworth to a VERY alarming degree, even using much of the same gear, tones and even phrasing! What gives? Even Allan himself expresed some dismay, saying once that he liked Bill Connors when he sounded like Bill Connors. This is what puzzles me about this phase of Bill's career.

But on the other hand, it's not a complete loss, as there are some VERY worthwhile things that take place, like the title cut, the blues drenched "Cookies", the obtuse (and utterly delightful) "Titan" and the rousing closing cut "Flickering Lights" (even if it does have a bad case of Holdsworth-itis).

A mixed bag for sure, and leaving this Owl to wonder just why did he travel the Holdsworth path when he had plenty of his own originality to offer. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Its a shame this album wasnt better promoted. Bill Connors should be better known as an all-around musician, not just that fast-but-gritty guy who helped launch Return to Forever.

Step It! was recorded almost 20 years ago. I bought it almost as a whim, thinking I should find out what Bill REALLY was up to in the 80's, without much expectations from it. I listened to samples at Amazon and it sounded like lots of meandering solos. But when you hear the whole songs - things get a lot more interesting! Bill can write, and he's a good bandleader too. There's not a bad compositoin or performance on the album, the standard is uniformly high. The solos spring organically from the themes, and are not disconnected jams - Bill is a real artist, not just a guitarist.

Not a big ground-breaker, but solid and professional electric jazz by one of the strongest talents. Highly recommended.

The yardstick by which to judge other neo-fusion albums, in my opinion. By neo-fusion I mean the new-school fusion sound of 80's and 90's, featuring crisp, metallic, processed sound, heavily relying on virtuoso guitar soloing, hard drumming and driving bass lines (UZEB, Tribal Tech, Allan Holdworth, Frank Gambale etc.). Bill does it extremely well. His solos, although as technical as it gets, are melodic and well though-out, yet spontaneous rather than planned. He uses speed expressively, rather than excessively. The compositions are interesting with plenty of tension and drive. There are heavy rock-like riffs, breath-taking shred-meister soloing, crystalline picking and fluid melodic lead lines to satisfy any rock and fusion fan. His rich, metallic-sounding chords provide all the harmony that's needed, replacing the need for keyboards. Perfect fusion sound. The only thing I can add - I wish I could play like that!

If you are a guitarist, you will love this album. If you are a bass guitarist, you will love this album. If you are a drummer, you will love this album.

Even though this is a guitarists solo album, Bill Connors allows the bass player and drummer shine. Dave Weckl at his best on this album.

This album was only available (and hard to find at that) on vinyl for many years... and when it came out on CD, I picked up 4 copies because I had worn out the many vinyl and taped versions of this album.

This is a must have especially if you are a Holdsworth fan... you'll love Bill Connors.

Bill Connors is one of the most important, virtuosic and creative guitarists of our day... it's just that no one knows it!! Like Allan Holdsworth, he mixes lightning-fast arpeggios with unusual chordal voicings and off-kilter cadences. That which a mainstream audience might hear as cacophony is really a purposeful mission of spiritual celebration akin to what Coltrane was seeking to do with the sax in the 1960s. Tom Kennedy is one of the few like-minded bassists of the day (as was Jimmy Johnson with Holdsworth) who had the musical intelligence to follow suit with Connors' vision, and helped make this trio format not only viable, but hold-your-breath exciting. Unfortunately, Connors became disillusioned with the music biz scene, and abandoned his public art after his three poorly promoted Pathfinder/Evidence fusion releases, "Step It", "Assembler" and "Double Up". I still hope for the day when he considers coming back.