KEN SCOTT - From Beatles to Jazz-Rock Fusion (Part Two)
Stanley Clarke & Jeff Beck
Interview by George Cole
Stanley Clarke
When bassist Stanley Clarke heard Billy Cobham’s Spectrum album, he was fascinated by the drum sound. As he explained in Ken’s autobiography, he contacted Cobham to find out more, “I called Billy and I said, ‘How the fuck did you get that drum sound? That doesn’t sound like a jazz drum sound where you go in and the whole album is done in three hours and you spend like five minutes on the drums.’”
Cobham explained that the sound was down to Ken and the way he used microphones in the studio. “The music just had a certain sophistication sonically that other jazz records didn’t,” added Clarke, “the other records in those days sounded like you put up two microphones…but on Ken’s, you heard little subtleties. You heard a lot of detail…Man that was great, so I said, ‘I gotta have that.’”
The first time Ken worked with Clarke in the studio was as engineer on the 1974 album, Stanley Clarke, with a band that included Jan Hammer (keyboards), Tony Williams (drums) and Airto Moreira (percussion). Ken’s recording techniques soon made their mark. “Stan played an Alembic bass, which had a stereo output, so I could separate the low- and high-end, so you could really play with the sounds, unlike with a Fender [bass] which just had one output,” he explains, “I also introduced Stan to half-speed recording. Stan played so fast that the notes lacked clarity. So I told him, ‘I’m going to play the tape at half speed. You’re going to play that part down an octave. So he could play it more slowly and get it really clean. And when we played it back at normal speed, it went up an octave, but you also got that speed; you had that low-end, but you could also hear every note. I used this technique on all the albums I did with Stan. It was the willingness to go through things like that and to try and experiment, which was great.”
Ken also worked on Tony Williams’ drum sound. Williams played on several tracks but his drumming was lacklustre. When Ken asked Williams what the problem was, he explained that it was the way his drum was miked. The front head of the kick drum had been removed and a microphone placed in front of the drum kit. But Williams was used to feeling the rebound of the kick drum pedal with both heads in place, and this was affecting the way he played. Ken asked Williams to give him a little time to work out a solution. The answer was to suspend a microphone inside the drum and leave both heads on – Ken subsequently used this technique when recording other drummers in the studio.
Clarke’s next album, Journey to Love, was released in 1975 and co-produced by Clarke and Ken. The album featured many leading jazz artists including, George Duke and Chic Corea on keyboards; John McLaughlin and David Sancious, guitar, and Steve Gadd and Lenny White on drums. Another guest musician was Jeff Beck, who played guitar on two tracks, the title track and 'Hello Jeff'.
Journey to Love was well received, with songs such as 'Journey to Love' and 'Silly Putty' becoming firm favourites, but it was the third and final collaboration between Ken and Clarke that created the greatest waves. The 1976 album Schooldays is a jazz-rock classic and in addition to featuring Duke, McLaughlin, Gadd and Sancious (now on keyboards) from the last album, the line-up also included Ray Gomez and Icarus Johnson on guitar, Gerry Brown, drums and Lew Soloff, trumpet.
The anthemic title track took bass playing to a new level – “I was aware that this was a different style of bass playing,” says Ken. Funk bassist Larry Graham had developed a style of plucking and thumbing on an electric bass, and is universally known as the father of electric slap bass, but Clarke built on this foundation to create a sizzling tune that features furious slapping and wild, screaming guitar from Gomez. The track was recorded in a single take, with just vocals and bell overdubbed.
“One of my friends said that everyone should have a ‘career song,’ and I would say that 'School Days' might be just that for me,” Clarke told Joe Bosso, “It’s kind of a bass anthem. Wherever I go and play anywhere in the world, people still want to hear that song.” He added, “Of all my albums, this one has the most attitude. I wasn’t really angry or anything, but my playing was fierce and unapologetic. I was very passionate about what I was doing. Maybe that’s why this has been one of my biggest sellers.”
Other highlights include 'The Dancer', which has the joy and feel of a Latin festival; Clarke and McLaughlin’s acoustic duet on 'Desert Song'; the smoking 'Hot Fun', with Steve Gadd’s skipping drum track, swirling violins and staccato horns. The album’s epic closer is the nine-minute 'Life is Just a Game'. A grand, baroque-like opening disguises the fact that this is a funk track which showcases Clarke’s virtuosity on the bass and the power drumming of Billy Cobham, who plays acoustic drums with some electronic effects. George Duke on keyboards and Icarus Johnson on guitar also lend great support on the track.
However, Ken recalls that recording the track was not easy. “I thought it would be great to have Bill and Stan playing together. If I recall correctly, it was just the two of them in the studio. So, we started the recording and they both started overplaying! They were competing with each other and trying to outshine each other. When they came into the control booth I said, ‘Come on guys, calm down the showing off!’ So they both say, ‘Okay Ken,’ and they go back and bang! They’re off again! Finally, they calmed down and that track is phenomenal.”
The School Days album was originally going to be released in a four-track surround-sound format, Quad, and Ken had prepared a Quad mix of the album. “There were never any plans to release the album in stereo,” explains Ken, “But just as we were about to send the album off for mastering, I got a call from the record company asking for a stereo mix. Fortunately, we were able to fold down [create] a stereo mix from our Quad mix and it all worked out well.”
When bassist Stanley Clarke heard Billy Cobham’s Spectrum album, he was fascinated by the drum sound. As he explained in Ken’s autobiography, he contacted Cobham to find out more, “I called Billy and I said, ‘How the fuck did you get that drum sound? That doesn’t sound like a jazz drum sound where you go in and the whole album is done in three hours and you spend like five minutes on the drums.’”
Cobham explained that the sound was down to Ken and the way he used microphones in the studio. “The music just had a certain sophistication sonically that other jazz records didn’t,” added Clarke, “the other records in those days sounded like you put up two microphones…but on Ken’s, you heard little subtleties. You heard a lot of detail…Man that was great, so I said, ‘I gotta have that.’”
The first time Ken worked with Clarke in the studio was as engineer on the 1974 album, Stanley Clarke, with a band that included Jan Hammer (keyboards), Tony Williams (drums) and Airto Moreira (percussion). Ken’s recording techniques soon made their mark. “Stan played an Alembic bass, which had a stereo output, so I could separate the low- and high-end, so you could really play with the sounds, unlike with a Fender [bass] which just had one output,” he explains, “I also introduced Stan to half-speed recording. Stan played so fast that the notes lacked clarity. So I told him, ‘I’m going to play the tape at half speed. You’re going to play that part down an octave. So he could play it more slowly and get it really clean. And when we played it back at normal speed, it went up an octave, but you also got that speed; you had that low-end, but you could also hear every note. I used this technique on all the albums I did with Stan. It was the willingness to go through things like that and to try and experiment, which was great.”
Ken also worked on Tony Williams’ drum sound. Williams played on several tracks but his drumming was lacklustre. When Ken asked Williams what the problem was, he explained that it was the way his drum was miked. The front head of the kick drum had been removed and a microphone placed in front of the drum kit. But Williams was used to feeling the rebound of the kick drum pedal with both heads in place, and this was affecting the way he played. Ken asked Williams to give him a little time to work out a solution. The answer was to suspend a microphone inside the drum and leave both heads on – Ken subsequently used this technique when recording other drummers in the studio.
Clarke’s next album, Journey to Love, was released in 1975 and co-produced by Clarke and Ken. The album featured many leading jazz artists including, George Duke and Chic Corea on keyboards; John McLaughlin and David Sancious, guitar, and Steve Gadd and Lenny White on drums. Another guest musician was Jeff Beck, who played guitar on two tracks, the title track and 'Hello Jeff'.
Journey to Love was well received, with songs such as 'Journey to Love' and 'Silly Putty' becoming firm favourites, but it was the third and final collaboration between Ken and Clarke that created the greatest waves. The 1976 album Schooldays is a jazz-rock classic and in addition to featuring Duke, McLaughlin, Gadd and Sancious (now on keyboards) from the last album, the line-up also included Ray Gomez and Icarus Johnson on guitar, Gerry Brown, drums and Lew Soloff, trumpet.
The anthemic title track took bass playing to a new level – “I was aware that this was a different style of bass playing,” says Ken. Funk bassist Larry Graham had developed a style of plucking and thumbing on an electric bass, and is universally known as the father of electric slap bass, but Clarke built on this foundation to create a sizzling tune that features furious slapping and wild, screaming guitar from Gomez. The track was recorded in a single take, with just vocals and bell overdubbed.
“One of my friends said that everyone should have a ‘career song,’ and I would say that 'School Days' might be just that for me,” Clarke told Joe Bosso, “It’s kind of a bass anthem. Wherever I go and play anywhere in the world, people still want to hear that song.” He added, “Of all my albums, this one has the most attitude. I wasn’t really angry or anything, but my playing was fierce and unapologetic. I was very passionate about what I was doing. Maybe that’s why this has been one of my biggest sellers.”
Other highlights include 'The Dancer', which has the joy and feel of a Latin festival; Clarke and McLaughlin’s acoustic duet on 'Desert Song'; the smoking 'Hot Fun', with Steve Gadd’s skipping drum track, swirling violins and staccato horns. The album’s epic closer is the nine-minute 'Life is Just a Game'. A grand, baroque-like opening disguises the fact that this is a funk track which showcases Clarke’s virtuosity on the bass and the power drumming of Billy Cobham, who plays acoustic drums with some electronic effects. George Duke on keyboards and Icarus Johnson on guitar also lend great support on the track.
However, Ken recalls that recording the track was not easy. “I thought it would be great to have Bill and Stan playing together. If I recall correctly, it was just the two of them in the studio. So, we started the recording and they both started overplaying! They were competing with each other and trying to outshine each other. When they came into the control booth I said, ‘Come on guys, calm down the showing off!’ So they both say, ‘Okay Ken,’ and they go back and bang! They’re off again! Finally, they calmed down and that track is phenomenal.”
The School Days album was originally going to be released in a four-track surround-sound format, Quad, and Ken had prepared a Quad mix of the album. “There were never any plans to release the album in stereo,” explains Ken, “But just as we were about to send the album off for mastering, I got a call from the record company asking for a stereo mix. Fortunately, we were able to fold down [create] a stereo mix from our Quad mix and it all worked out well.”
Jeff Beck
Throughout the 60s and early 70s Jeff Beck was already known as one of the leading rock and pop guitarists, playing with The Yardbirds and releasing albums under his own name. But in 1975, he released Blow by Blow, a jazz-rock album that is considered a classic. The album was produced by George Martin (with much input from keyboardist Max Middleton) and included Beck’s beautiful cover of Stevie Wonder’s 'Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers'.
Several jazz musicians had inspired Beck to explore jazz-rock. Beck told Kory Grow, “The Mahavishnu Orchestra was a clear lesson that there was life after singers. I thought if I could make a more simplified version of that…it would be good.” In a much quoted statement, Beck states that Billy Cobham’s first album also influenced him, “Spectrum changed my whole musical outlook..[It] gave me new life at the time, on top of the Mahavishnu records. It represented a whole area that was as exciting to me as when I first heard Hound Dog by Elvis Presley. They were so inspirational to me that I started to adopt that type of music. Tommy’s [Bolin] guitar playing on Spectrum is fantastic, while Jan [Hammer] can flatten you with the first few notes.”
When Beck was asked to name his top six albums for a newspaper article, he cited Jan Hammer’s 1975 album The First Seven Days, “The music on this is so graphic. Jan became my hero when he was in John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra. He was playing bendy notes with a keyboard so it sounded like a guitar and I became obsessed with how he did it.” Also on the list was Miles Davis’ Jack Johnson, “I was working on a car outside my house when this amazing free-form shuffle came on the radio. Davis’s trumpet comes in randomly with the melody and that freedom appealed to me. McLaughlin played on this as well and gave me my next career move.”
He reinforced this view in an interview with Graham Reid, “Miles Davis’ Jack Johnson album made me realise that highly rated world class players were making the sort of music I felt attached to strongly, and that enabled me to dismiss any temptation to get involved with mainstream rock.” Talking to Guitar World, Beck said,“I would have loved to have had the chance to play with Miles, but it was never brought up. I don’t know if he even knew who I was. If he were to come back, I’d definitely knock on his door.”
Blow By Blow is Beck’s biggest selling album, with more than one million copies sold. In 1975, Beck toured the US, supporting the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Beck’s next album, Wired (released in 1976) was his second jazz-rock album. Although George Martin was once again the producer, it was dominated by two ex-Mahavishnu musicians, Jan Hammer and Narada Michael Walden, who between them, wrote five of the eight tracks on the album - Hammer wrote a Beck concert favourite, 'Blue Wind', and one of Walden’s four compositions was 'Love Is Green', a song that could have been written for John McLaughlin, featuring Beck on both acoustic and electric guitar. Wired also includes Beck’s superb cover of Charles Mingus’ 'Goodbye Porkpie Hat' – Mingus was so impressed that he sent a congratulatory letter to Beck.
Another production engagement forced Martin to leave the project early, but Ken says he heard rumours that there had been some issues with Martin’s production on the album, “I was getting phone calls during Wired to go in and I said, ‘I can’t.’ I know they were going in after hours to do parts without George. It was all slightly weird. Then he teamed up with, Jan [Hammer] who was taking it in a more jazz direction.”
Hammer confirmed to Art Connor that he took over the project, “Some of the basic tracks for Wired were done in London, and then Jeff came over to my studio, he brought the tapes over from England, and we did the soloing and overdubs here. And then I did final mixes on four of the tunes.” In 1976, Beck and Hammer toured the US as Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group, and a live album was released the following year.
So when Beck was ready to record his next jazz-rock album, There and Back (released in 1980), Hammer was in prime position to produce it. Hammer recorded a number of tracks in his New England studio and then flew to England. Also recruited for the studio band were twenty-two year old drummer Simon Phillips, who had previously played with artists such as Jack Bruce and Ray Russell, and bassist Mo Foster, one of Britain’s busiest session musicians. But Hammer soon vacated the producer’s chair. In his Jeff Beck biography, Hot Wired Guitar, writer Martin Power reports Phillips’ recalling those early sessions, “We recorded some of the songs with Jan…but Jeff was not totally happy with the outcomes.”
However, Ken says he heard another reason why Hammer left the project, “The story I got was that Jeff and Jan were on stage together, and when Jeff was doing a solo, Jan – who was wearing one of those keyboards that go around your neck like a guitar - decided to do a duck walk. Jeff was offended. That’s when I got the phone call.” Ken travelled to Beck’s home to discuss the project and was asked to co-produce the album.
Despite the fall-out, three of Hammer’s compositions would be used on There & Back, including the opening number, 'Star Cycle', a synthesiser-driven tune that includes plenty of pyrotechnics from Hammer and Beck. It was also used as the theme tune for the 1980s British TV music programme The Tube.
The rest of the album was recorded at Abbey Road studios, and keyboardist Tony Hymas, a classical and jazz musician who had played with Jack Bruce, Sam Rivers and Cleo Laine, was brought in to replace Hammer. Hymas had also toured Japan and Europe with Beck, Stanley Clarke and Phillips in 1978, and over the next decade or so, would forge a strong musical partnership with Beck.
Hymas and Phillips composed four of the remaining five tracks that completed the album (Hymas also composed the last track, 'The Final Peace', with Beck). The songs included 'Space Boogie', which was inspired by Billy Cobham’s Quadrant Four from the Spectrum album. A double bass shuffle, Space Boogie has alternating time signatures of 4/4, 7/4 and 6/4, and includes some ferocious playing by both Beck and Phillips. 'The Pump', a concert favourite, is driven along by Foster’s funk bass groove and features some exquisite guitar playing by Beck.
Ken was very impressed with Simon Phillips, even before he had heard him play a single note. When Phillips’ drum kit arrived in the studio, Ken was preparing to suspend a microphone inside the bass drum (a technique he had first used with Tony Williams) only to find that Phillips had already installed one. Phillips had heard about Ken’s miking techniques and had had a suspended mike installed in order to save time. When Phillips recalled his time during the There & Back sessions, he said, “Working with Ken Scott was wonderful… that was a major milestone in my career.”
Ken had previously worked with Beck on the guitarist’s 1968 album Truth, and had enjoyed the experience of working with the guitarist. But when it came to recording Beck’s follow-up album, the guitarist’s demeanour had changed, and in Ken’s words, “his ego was out of the door.” Ken swiftly left the project.
However, when it came to recording There & Back, Ken faced a new challenge – finding ways of boosting Beck’s self-confidence. Even the most talented artists can have doubts about their ability, and Beck is one of them. Despite his illustrious track record, he admits to still being nervous about performing. This insecurity manifested itself during the recording of There & Back.
Beck biographer Annette Carson records Beck’s remarks about the sessions, “I was surrounded with really hot guys and it made me a bit nervous…I always worry about that, whether I’m living up to expectations.” The change in Beck’s personality was a shock for Ken, “Jeff had played on a couple of tracks on Stan’s album and he was fine – the old Jeff was back. This was quite a chilling experience, because I was used to drawing-in egos, but with Jeff it was the opposite. He was one of the world’s greatest guitarists, but he didn’t think he was good enough to play with the other musicians. His manager and I managed to pull it out of him.”
Most of Beck’s playing on There & Back was overdubbed, with the keyboards, bass and drums tracks already laid down. It took Beck dozens of attempts to get the right take for 'Space Boogie' (in Beck’s words, “I had about 50 tries”), and 'The Pump' was another number that required a lot of work, “I remember that took a while,” says Ken, “and we did his guitar part while I was mixing the album. It was pieced together – it was never a single take.”
The track sequencing for There & Back places all of Jan Hammer’s tracks at the beginning, followed by the five Tony Hymas’ compositions, neatly the separating the album into two parts. Ken can’t remember whether this was a deliberate policy or just a coincidence. Likewise, he’s not sure where the album title came from or what it refers to.
There & Back was Beck’s first album for four years, and after the peaks of Blow by Blow and Wired, expectations were high. However, the album received a mixed critical reception, although it achieved some commercial success – it reached the top ten of Billboard’s US jazz album chart and peaked at 21 in the pop chart. The main criticism was that Beck seemed to be treading water, but in this writer’s view, There & Back builds on the foundations of his previous jazz-rock albums and features some his best tunes; some of the finest playing from this era, and one of his best studio bands.
However, Beck had some misgivings about the album, as reported by Annette Carson, “If I had the knowledge about recording that I have now,” he said, “it would not have sounded that way. I would have gone much more edgy. It’s so beautifully recorded it sounds tame.”
When Ken is shown these comments, he is quite sanguine, “I understand what he’s saying. The only song I listen to is 'The Pump' – that one works amazingly well for me. The other tunes are okay. I do some teaching and one of the questions I get is ‘when is the mix finished?’ because these days, they’ll go back in and do it and do it and do it. I just say, ‘there is no such thing as perfection’. At a later stage – it could be a couple of days later, it could be a year later, you are going to listen to it and think ‘I wish I had done things differently,’ and to a point, it is with that album. I think because there was some stuff that had already been done with Jan, it had to go in that way. It’s not one of my favourite albums that I worked on, but I do love 'The Pump'.”
Throughout the 60s and early 70s Jeff Beck was already known as one of the leading rock and pop guitarists, playing with The Yardbirds and releasing albums under his own name. But in 1975, he released Blow by Blow, a jazz-rock album that is considered a classic. The album was produced by George Martin (with much input from keyboardist Max Middleton) and included Beck’s beautiful cover of Stevie Wonder’s 'Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers'.
Several jazz musicians had inspired Beck to explore jazz-rock. Beck told Kory Grow, “The Mahavishnu Orchestra was a clear lesson that there was life after singers. I thought if I could make a more simplified version of that…it would be good.” In a much quoted statement, Beck states that Billy Cobham’s first album also influenced him, “Spectrum changed my whole musical outlook..[It] gave me new life at the time, on top of the Mahavishnu records. It represented a whole area that was as exciting to me as when I first heard Hound Dog by Elvis Presley. They were so inspirational to me that I started to adopt that type of music. Tommy’s [Bolin] guitar playing on Spectrum is fantastic, while Jan [Hammer] can flatten you with the first few notes.”
When Beck was asked to name his top six albums for a newspaper article, he cited Jan Hammer’s 1975 album The First Seven Days, “The music on this is so graphic. Jan became my hero when he was in John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra. He was playing bendy notes with a keyboard so it sounded like a guitar and I became obsessed with how he did it.” Also on the list was Miles Davis’ Jack Johnson, “I was working on a car outside my house when this amazing free-form shuffle came on the radio. Davis’s trumpet comes in randomly with the melody and that freedom appealed to me. McLaughlin played on this as well and gave me my next career move.”
He reinforced this view in an interview with Graham Reid, “Miles Davis’ Jack Johnson album made me realise that highly rated world class players were making the sort of music I felt attached to strongly, and that enabled me to dismiss any temptation to get involved with mainstream rock.” Talking to Guitar World, Beck said,“I would have loved to have had the chance to play with Miles, but it was never brought up. I don’t know if he even knew who I was. If he were to come back, I’d definitely knock on his door.”
Blow By Blow is Beck’s biggest selling album, with more than one million copies sold. In 1975, Beck toured the US, supporting the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Beck’s next album, Wired (released in 1976) was his second jazz-rock album. Although George Martin was once again the producer, it was dominated by two ex-Mahavishnu musicians, Jan Hammer and Narada Michael Walden, who between them, wrote five of the eight tracks on the album - Hammer wrote a Beck concert favourite, 'Blue Wind', and one of Walden’s four compositions was 'Love Is Green', a song that could have been written for John McLaughlin, featuring Beck on both acoustic and electric guitar. Wired also includes Beck’s superb cover of Charles Mingus’ 'Goodbye Porkpie Hat' – Mingus was so impressed that he sent a congratulatory letter to Beck.
Another production engagement forced Martin to leave the project early, but Ken says he heard rumours that there had been some issues with Martin’s production on the album, “I was getting phone calls during Wired to go in and I said, ‘I can’t.’ I know they were going in after hours to do parts without George. It was all slightly weird. Then he teamed up with, Jan [Hammer] who was taking it in a more jazz direction.”
Hammer confirmed to Art Connor that he took over the project, “Some of the basic tracks for Wired were done in London, and then Jeff came over to my studio, he brought the tapes over from England, and we did the soloing and overdubs here. And then I did final mixes on four of the tunes.” In 1976, Beck and Hammer toured the US as Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group, and a live album was released the following year.
So when Beck was ready to record his next jazz-rock album, There and Back (released in 1980), Hammer was in prime position to produce it. Hammer recorded a number of tracks in his New England studio and then flew to England. Also recruited for the studio band were twenty-two year old drummer Simon Phillips, who had previously played with artists such as Jack Bruce and Ray Russell, and bassist Mo Foster, one of Britain’s busiest session musicians. But Hammer soon vacated the producer’s chair. In his Jeff Beck biography, Hot Wired Guitar, writer Martin Power reports Phillips’ recalling those early sessions, “We recorded some of the songs with Jan…but Jeff was not totally happy with the outcomes.”
However, Ken says he heard another reason why Hammer left the project, “The story I got was that Jeff and Jan were on stage together, and when Jeff was doing a solo, Jan – who was wearing one of those keyboards that go around your neck like a guitar - decided to do a duck walk. Jeff was offended. That’s when I got the phone call.” Ken travelled to Beck’s home to discuss the project and was asked to co-produce the album.
Despite the fall-out, three of Hammer’s compositions would be used on There & Back, including the opening number, 'Star Cycle', a synthesiser-driven tune that includes plenty of pyrotechnics from Hammer and Beck. It was also used as the theme tune for the 1980s British TV music programme The Tube.
The rest of the album was recorded at Abbey Road studios, and keyboardist Tony Hymas, a classical and jazz musician who had played with Jack Bruce, Sam Rivers and Cleo Laine, was brought in to replace Hammer. Hymas had also toured Japan and Europe with Beck, Stanley Clarke and Phillips in 1978, and over the next decade or so, would forge a strong musical partnership with Beck.
Hymas and Phillips composed four of the remaining five tracks that completed the album (Hymas also composed the last track, 'The Final Peace', with Beck). The songs included 'Space Boogie', which was inspired by Billy Cobham’s Quadrant Four from the Spectrum album. A double bass shuffle, Space Boogie has alternating time signatures of 4/4, 7/4 and 6/4, and includes some ferocious playing by both Beck and Phillips. 'The Pump', a concert favourite, is driven along by Foster’s funk bass groove and features some exquisite guitar playing by Beck.
Ken was very impressed with Simon Phillips, even before he had heard him play a single note. When Phillips’ drum kit arrived in the studio, Ken was preparing to suspend a microphone inside the bass drum (a technique he had first used with Tony Williams) only to find that Phillips had already installed one. Phillips had heard about Ken’s miking techniques and had had a suspended mike installed in order to save time. When Phillips recalled his time during the There & Back sessions, he said, “Working with Ken Scott was wonderful… that was a major milestone in my career.”
Ken had previously worked with Beck on the guitarist’s 1968 album Truth, and had enjoyed the experience of working with the guitarist. But when it came to recording Beck’s follow-up album, the guitarist’s demeanour had changed, and in Ken’s words, “his ego was out of the door.” Ken swiftly left the project.
However, when it came to recording There & Back, Ken faced a new challenge – finding ways of boosting Beck’s self-confidence. Even the most talented artists can have doubts about their ability, and Beck is one of them. Despite his illustrious track record, he admits to still being nervous about performing. This insecurity manifested itself during the recording of There & Back.
Beck biographer Annette Carson records Beck’s remarks about the sessions, “I was surrounded with really hot guys and it made me a bit nervous…I always worry about that, whether I’m living up to expectations.” The change in Beck’s personality was a shock for Ken, “Jeff had played on a couple of tracks on Stan’s album and he was fine – the old Jeff was back. This was quite a chilling experience, because I was used to drawing-in egos, but with Jeff it was the opposite. He was one of the world’s greatest guitarists, but he didn’t think he was good enough to play with the other musicians. His manager and I managed to pull it out of him.”
Most of Beck’s playing on There & Back was overdubbed, with the keyboards, bass and drums tracks already laid down. It took Beck dozens of attempts to get the right take for 'Space Boogie' (in Beck’s words, “I had about 50 tries”), and 'The Pump' was another number that required a lot of work, “I remember that took a while,” says Ken, “and we did his guitar part while I was mixing the album. It was pieced together – it was never a single take.”
The track sequencing for There & Back places all of Jan Hammer’s tracks at the beginning, followed by the five Tony Hymas’ compositions, neatly the separating the album into two parts. Ken can’t remember whether this was a deliberate policy or just a coincidence. Likewise, he’s not sure where the album title came from or what it refers to.
There & Back was Beck’s first album for four years, and after the peaks of Blow by Blow and Wired, expectations were high. However, the album received a mixed critical reception, although it achieved some commercial success – it reached the top ten of Billboard’s US jazz album chart and peaked at 21 in the pop chart. The main criticism was that Beck seemed to be treading water, but in this writer’s view, There & Back builds on the foundations of his previous jazz-rock albums and features some his best tunes; some of the finest playing from this era, and one of his best studio bands.
However, Beck had some misgivings about the album, as reported by Annette Carson, “If I had the knowledge about recording that I have now,” he said, “it would not have sounded that way. I would have gone much more edgy. It’s so beautifully recorded it sounds tame.”
When Ken is shown these comments, he is quite sanguine, “I understand what he’s saying. The only song I listen to is 'The Pump' – that one works amazingly well for me. The other tunes are okay. I do some teaching and one of the questions I get is ‘when is the mix finished?’ because these days, they’ll go back in and do it and do it and do it. I just say, ‘there is no such thing as perfection’. At a later stage – it could be a couple of days later, it could be a year later, you are going to listen to it and think ‘I wish I had done things differently,’ and to a point, it is with that album. I think because there was some stuff that had already been done with Jan, it had to go in that way. It’s not one of my favourite albums that I worked on, but I do love 'The Pump'.”
The fusion express hits the buffers
The decade between the early 70s and early 80s was the high-water mark for jazz-fusion, but the genre became a victim of its own excess, with technical prowess and lots of notes replacing heart and soul. Others went down the path of smooth jazz, and while some smooth jazz musicians retained the integrity of the music (like Grover Washington Jr) many others produced bland, easily digestible music that was a world away from the dizzy heights of fusion.
Ken notes, “Even the excitement of the jazz-fusion era died quickly – it’s all elevator music now. I don’t think many people understood what made it what it was and they just tried to emulate it, and the emulations were never as good as the original. Much as I love Return to Forever and Weather Report, they don’t compare with Mahavishnu and [Billy Cobham’s] Spectrum. To me, Spectrum is the perfect amalgamation of rock and jazz – it’s the epitome of jazz-fusion. Mahavishnu was certainly up there, but it was jazz musicians who were trying to play fusion. You needed you have a rock and roll musician somewhere in there. They might not be as good musically as a jazz musician, but they had that edge.”
The decade between the early 70s and early 80s was the high-water mark for jazz-fusion, but the genre became a victim of its own excess, with technical prowess and lots of notes replacing heart and soul. Others went down the path of smooth jazz, and while some smooth jazz musicians retained the integrity of the music (like Grover Washington Jr) many others produced bland, easily digestible music that was a world away from the dizzy heights of fusion.
Ken notes, “Even the excitement of the jazz-fusion era died quickly – it’s all elevator music now. I don’t think many people understood what made it what it was and they just tried to emulate it, and the emulations were never as good as the original. Much as I love Return to Forever and Weather Report, they don’t compare with Mahavishnu and [Billy Cobham’s] Spectrum. To me, Spectrum is the perfect amalgamation of rock and jazz – it’s the epitome of jazz-fusion. Mahavishnu was certainly up there, but it was jazz musicians who were trying to play fusion. You needed you have a rock and roll musician somewhere in there. They might not be as good musically as a jazz musician, but they had that edge.”
CREDITS
Main source: Ken Scott From Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust: Available from Amazon
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Abbey-Road-Ziggy-Stardust-Scott-ebook/dp/B008A1C4GY/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=ken+scott&qid=1587739090&s=books&sr=1-1
STANLEY CLARKE:
Joe Bosso Interview: bass legend Stanley Clarke on his early solo albums Music Radar
www.musicradar.com/news/bass/interview-bass-legend-stanley-clarke-on-his-early-solo-albums-536628
JEFF BECK:
Still on the Run: The Jeff Beck Story DVD documentary
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jeff-Beck-Still-Run-DVD/dp/B07BFB3FDH/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=jeff+beck&qid=1587739918&s=dvd&sr=1-1
Annette Carson Jeff Beck: Crazy Fingers
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jeff-Crazy-Fingers-Annette-Carson/dp/0879306327/ref=sr_1_11?dchild=1&keywords=jeff+beck&qid=1587739471&s=books&sr=1-11
Martin Power Hot Wired Guitar: The Life of Jeff Beck
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hot-Wired-Guitar-Life-Jeff-ebook/dp/B00L3LFVLI/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=jeff+beck&qid=1587739440&s=books&sr=1-2
Kory Grow Jeff Beck Talks Eric Clapton Rivalry and What Motown Taught Him Rolling Stone
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/jeff-beck-talks-eric-clapton-rivalry-and-what-motown-taught-him-628010/
My Six Best Albums: Rock guitarist Jeff Beck Daily Express
https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/music/474497/Guitarist-Jeff-Beck-s-favourite-albums
Graham Reid Jeff Beck Interviewed and Reviewed: If truth be known Elsewhere
www.elsewhere.co.nz/jazz/2142/jeff-beck-interviewed-and-reviewed-2008-if-truth-be-known/
Jeff Beck Talks Hendrix, British Blues and His "Poor Man’s Pedal Steel" Approach - Guitar World
www.guitarworld.com/artists/dear-guitar-hero-jeff-beck-talks-jimi-hendrix-british-blues-explosion-and-his-poor-man-s-pedal-steel-approach
Jeff Beck Still on the Run DVD documentary
The Jan Hammer Interview Art Connor Tommy Bolin.com
https://www.tommybolin.com/interviews/jan-hammer-by-art-connor/
Geoff Nichols Simon Phillips on Jeff Beck, Toto and Protocol II Music Radar
https://www.musicradar.com/news/drums/simon-phillips-on-jeff-beck-toto-and-protocol-ii-608206
Main source: Ken Scott From Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust: Available from Amazon
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Abbey-Road-Ziggy-Stardust-Scott-ebook/dp/B008A1C4GY/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=ken+scott&qid=1587739090&s=books&sr=1-1
STANLEY CLARKE:
Joe Bosso Interview: bass legend Stanley Clarke on his early solo albums Music Radar
www.musicradar.com/news/bass/interview-bass-legend-stanley-clarke-on-his-early-solo-albums-536628
JEFF BECK:
Still on the Run: The Jeff Beck Story DVD documentary
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jeff-Beck-Still-Run-DVD/dp/B07BFB3FDH/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=jeff+beck&qid=1587739918&s=dvd&sr=1-1
Annette Carson Jeff Beck: Crazy Fingers
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jeff-Crazy-Fingers-Annette-Carson/dp/0879306327/ref=sr_1_11?dchild=1&keywords=jeff+beck&qid=1587739471&s=books&sr=1-11
Martin Power Hot Wired Guitar: The Life of Jeff Beck
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hot-Wired-Guitar-Life-Jeff-ebook/dp/B00L3LFVLI/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=jeff+beck&qid=1587739440&s=books&sr=1-2
Kory Grow Jeff Beck Talks Eric Clapton Rivalry and What Motown Taught Him Rolling Stone
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/jeff-beck-talks-eric-clapton-rivalry-and-what-motown-taught-him-628010/
My Six Best Albums: Rock guitarist Jeff Beck Daily Express
https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/music/474497/Guitarist-Jeff-Beck-s-favourite-albums
Graham Reid Jeff Beck Interviewed and Reviewed: If truth be known Elsewhere
www.elsewhere.co.nz/jazz/2142/jeff-beck-interviewed-and-reviewed-2008-if-truth-be-known/
Jeff Beck Talks Hendrix, British Blues and His "Poor Man’s Pedal Steel" Approach - Guitar World
www.guitarworld.com/artists/dear-guitar-hero-jeff-beck-talks-jimi-hendrix-british-blues-explosion-and-his-poor-man-s-pedal-steel-approach
Jeff Beck Still on the Run DVD documentary
The Jan Hammer Interview Art Connor Tommy Bolin.com
https://www.tommybolin.com/interviews/jan-hammer-by-art-connor/
Geoff Nichols Simon Phillips on Jeff Beck, Toto and Protocol II Music Radar
https://www.musicradar.com/news/drums/simon-phillips-on-jeff-beck-toto-and-protocol-ii-608206
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