Great bands with great instrumentalists

[HuskyNan]

Nowadays, songs are primarily a vocalist with electronic music in the background. Back “in the day” there were some awesome musicians backing up the vocalists. The musicians would often be featured in solos during the songs and major bands would actually put out instrumentals. That doesn‘t happen very often these days.

True story - when my husband and I took our youngest son to college for his freshman year, we could hear music pouring out of dorm rooms - Boston, Kansas, Rolling Stones, etc. Keep in mind, this was in 2015. I asked my son why we were hearing the old bands and he said, “Your generation had the best music”. True, true.

So, back to the theme of the thread, what bands had the best musicians? I can think of many, here’s one. By the way, Dave Matthews qualifies for the previous thread. The guy has a marginal voice but it seems to work for the music

 

[diggerfoot]

I thought the guitar solo was great, but then came the keyboardist ….

 

[f1f1ferrari]

Speaking of Boston....

 

[Scud49]

Little Feat - tremendously tight group with brilliant music, "Gringo" is a great example:

 

[Centerstream]

IMO This band consisted of 3 great instrumentalists

 

[Centerstream]

One of the Greatest instrumentalists. Period.

 

[Sifaka]

 

[Sifaka]

 

[Forego]

“Layla”, on the album “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs”. The long version is about 7 minutes and features instrumentals. The lead guitarists are Eric Clapton and Duane Allman. Enough said.

 

[Frodo]

note the wonderful sequence of changes starting around 2:47

 

[Centerstream]

Guns N' Roses featuring Slash

 

[Centerstream]

Led Zeppelin featuring Jimmy Page

 

[rvwsleep]

Bill Buford on drums
Chris Squire on bass
Rick Wakeman on keyboards
Jon Anderson lead singer
Peter Banks on lead guitar

 

[rvwsleep]

My all time favorite, raining on a Sunday, lounging around music.
Chet Baker - Moonlight in Vermont.

 

[Rowdy831]

The 70's had a lot of different instruments featured in songs. One of my favorites was Foreigner Urgent Sax solo in the middle of the song. Bob Seger also has several horn solos in his songs but not sure what instrument it was bit it was a big, long horn. I also liked a lot of the orchestra solos in several of the Electric Light Orchestra songs.

To mimic Nan, there are so many it is hard to pick just one and all of the ones already listed are great too. Last one would be guitar music and solos in the jazz/blues band of Stevie Ray Vaughn.

 

[ConnMotors]

Green Grass and High Tides the 20 minute version by The Outlaws. Just awesome guitarists.

 

[64Zcode]

The Warning is still relatively unknown but starting to get recognized. They've been playing as a rock band since 2014.
Paulina, the drummer, has the ideas for 85-90% of their original songs. Most of their songs start with her and a piano.
2015 - a couple months shy of her 13th birthday - The Warning covered The Foo Fighters at their middle school to showcase Paulina on the drums.



2022 - Live concert. (headphones recommended) Paulina on lead vocals as well as drums.
Dust To Dust is the prologue/opening song for their 2nd full length album, a concept album of 13 originals.

The Warning - DUST TO DUST Live at Teatro Metropolitan CDMX 08/29/2022

 

[Boreifs]

 

[Kaizen]

I think Eric Clapton as the one of the best guitarist.
Eric Clapton - Tears In Heaven

 

[Griggs]

saw Kool and the Gang in Disney Orlando in May. Great brass and high energy.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Bluegrass is almost cheating, seems like most of them are virtuosos with their instruments. A few that stand out for me, starting w/ Jerry Douglas on the dobro. He was a studio musician that appeared on a ton of country albums, but has been w/ Alison Krauss' band (Union Station) for years now. Yeah, listening to this now, Ron Block can certainly handle his banjo, and Alison won national fiddling competitions when she was still a teen.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Then you've got Sam Bush, a madman on the mandolin. Another guy who has lent his talent to a ton of albums, did some solo work, but was in one iteration of Emmylou Harris' band for a while.

 

[SoCalCanine]

One of the most overlooked bands from the 60s, this tune has a great instrumental

 

[SoCalCanine]

Another one almost no one heard. It remains a personal favorite. From a Native Amertcan peyote chant, it features Larry Coryell on guitar and Billy Cobham on drums, and of course Jim Pepper on saxes and flute

 

[SoCalCanine]

Yes, I have VERY weird taste. This features one of my all time favorite guitar solos by Robert Fripp