A 52 Week Autobiography Through Music – Week 13 – UK
I am choosing, rather randomly but not without good reason to use UK to introduce my interest in the vast, complex web of relationships that exist between musicians in the popular era. I would love to explore the subject further in a context outside of this blog series as it is far too big to talk about in short videos like the ones here. Hopefully some good way to fully explore the idea will present itself and something will come of it.
Knowing who plays on records and what other projects they have been involved in is something I have always considered important as I feel it adds to the experience of listening to and appreciating music. I find UK interesting because of the many branches that lead out from them to other bands to whom I listen and in fact how a few of those connect directly to me and my circle of musical collaborators.
The closest connection in fact to me is through Terry Bozzio (one of the drummers with UK) who played in a band in the early 70's in the Bay Area with Andy Narell who is a mentor, colleague and with whom I have performed on a number of occasions. Being a part of the web is humbling in a way but it also just demonstrates to me how open the community of musicians is. Bands don't exist in a vacuum. The members interact and collaborate and influence each other and that is what keeps music a living, organic art. The following is a list of the members of UK who played on the records and just a few of the other projects they have been a part of. Pulling this string will lead to near infinite pathways and connections that I find fascinating.
John Wetton:
King Crimson
Roxy Music
Uriah Heep
Wishbone Ash
Asia
Brian Eno
Allan Holdsworth:
Soft Machine
Tony Williams
Jean-Luc Ponty
Level 42
Allan Holdsworth band
Eddie Jobson:
Jethro Tull
Roxy Music
Frank Zappa
Bill Bruford:
Yes
King Crimson
Gong
Earthworks
Terry Bozzio:
Frank Zappa
Missing Persons
Jeff Beck
Fantomas