langmick wrote:Sometimes when I see Dave playing, he's playing the same volume all the time.
Not meant as a criticism, but maybe why I don't dig his stuff more. It's always 10/10. Steve Smith's stuff has that same thing, not much variety in mood and dynamics.
Just typing out loud...I could be wrong. But my ears do get a bit tired...
It depends on where you go and what the musical culture is like there.
In my artsy fartsy jazzy Norwegian neck of the woods, yes, it is considered a bit sterile. I feel the same about Frank's solo stuff and to be honest John's stuff, too
It's just taste, though. We all appreciate different things about what we call "jazz".
I guess that's why I appreciate the Karizma og Five Peace Band version of fusion more. It has more oomphf, feels more alive, has more of what I feel is the spirit of jazz, why I play music...
Many players I talk to do actually appreciate that other fusion way precisely because that's the most musical to them. There's no accounting for taste. We dig what we dig and there are also usually reasons in our experience why that is so.