Name: LEGENDS - MONTREUX JAZZ FESTIVAL 1997 SOUNDBOARD MASTER
SKU: K61125LEGENDS
Availability: BackOrder

Description

Description

Live at Auditorium Stravinsky, Montreux, Switzerland 4th July 1997 STEREO SBD(from Original Masters)

[The finest stereo soundboard master of the fusion unit “Legends”, which Clapton formed on the spot in 1997, has been leaked!]

　”Legends” was a one-off fusion unit that Eric Clapton joined in the summer of 1997 when he was in the final stages of finishing the album “Pilgrim” after being approached by drummer Steve Gadd. The members were top-notch people such as Gadd, David Sanborn (sax), Marcus Miller (bass), and Joe Sample (piano). When Miller and Gadd were discussing an interesting band plan to tour only jazz festivals in Europe for two weeks in the summer, the name of Larry Carlton was initially mentioned as the guitarist, but Gadd came up with the idea, “Isn’t that too obvious? If Eric Clapton joined us, it would be unexpected and interesting,” and approached Clapton. Clapton, who has connections with Gadd and Sanborn, readily agreed. A supergroup was born and a two-week limited tour was realized.

　This work is a complete recording of their debut performance at the “Monterey Jazz Festival” held in Monterey, Switzerland on July 4th, using an official level stereo soundboard recording. The stage on this day has been officially released as a video work, so it may not be unusual as a sound source. However, this master is not a cheap product that extracts the sound from the official video and makes it into a sound record, but a leaked 24-bit master that was officially recorded separately from the official video! Therefore, the mix is naturally different from the sound of the video. The positioning of each instrument is different, and the cheers of the audience recorded and mixed with an ambient microphone are also different. The sound quality is a “superb” stereo soundboard recording with clear and clear stereo separation that can be used as an official live album. At this place, which was the first place for this unit to be unveiled, you can see Clapton still exposing some awkwardness in the fusion numbers. That being said, this was a time when they were playing the gold-plated Special Stratocaster given to them by Fender, and the performance captures the finest performance by this limited super band, who are truly “elite.”

[Extremely rare setlist and performance exclusive to this unit]

　The unexpected dream of “Clapton playing fusion music with jazz musicians” was realized, but let’s look back at what position the year 1997 held in Clapton’s career. Clapton’s activities for that year were as follows.

・February 26: Attended the 39th Grammy Awards ceremony held at Madison Square Garden. Change The World won Record of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, and performed with Babyface to celebrate the award.

・July 3rd to 17th: Short-term European Jazz Festival tour under the name of “Legends”, a fusion unit formed with Marcus Miller, David Sanborn, Steve Gadd and Joe Sample (the dress rehearsal (open rehearsal) was held at the Montreux Jazz Festival on the 3rd).

September 15th: Appeared alongside other impressive artists at the “Concert for Montserrat” benefit concert held at the Royal Albert Hall in London at the invitation of George Martin to raise funds for the victims of the volcanic eruption on Montserrat Island.

– September 25: Appears with Babyface on his MTV show “Unplugged” taped at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York.

・October 9th and 10th: Performances in Seoul, Korea
・October 13th to 31st: Japan Tour (13 performances in total)　
・December 31st: Hosted and performed at the annual charity concert “New Year’s Eve Dance” in Woking, Surrey, England.

　From the above, we can see that he did not do a worldwide tour that year, and apart from performing at spot events and a short tour with this fusion unit, his only regular solo tour was a performance in Seoul just before his later performance in Japan, which served as a warm-up. This is because Clapton was continuing to record a memorial album for his late son (released as “PILGRIM” the following year), which he had been working on for six years since 1992, and he was concentrating on that. It seems that he would have liked to devote himself to making the album, but the Japanese tour was a regular occurrence “once every two or three years,” and he was booked for 1997 when he came to Japan in 1995, so it is thought that he went ahead with the tour. And his participation in this unit may have been a little break from the album production.

　In 1997, the album had not yet been mixed down, but on this stage, they were already playing Going Down Slow, which is included on the album, in the same arrangement as the album. In addition, they also played the blues song Third Degree and Layla, a song from a fusion unit that mainly featured instrumental numbers, and even played Every Day I Have The Blues by BB King, who Clapton admired and often featured in his own set at this time, as the second encore song. Considering this, it is clear that the band members were paying tribute to the “unexpected guest” Clapton.

　Furthermore, “Ruthie” was a number that Miller wrote specially for Clapton’s daughter. From this, the members must have been very happy to be able to perform with Clapton (after this, Clapton participated in Miller’s album, and Sample was selected as the keyboardist for the subsequent Japan tour). Layla, accompanied by Miller on the clarinet, is a performance that can only be heard here. They were materialized on this stage.

　Enjoy this miraculous stage by top-class musicians, which has never been realized again since then, with this work recorded with a newly excavated superb stereo soundboard master.

Disc:1 (50:42)
1. Intro
2. Full House
3. Marcus #1
4. Ruthie
5. Snakes
6. Band Introductions
7. Going Down Slow
8. Peeper

Disc:2 (57:08)
1. Suggestions
2. Third Degree
3. First Song / Tango
4. Put It Where You Want It
5. Jelly Roll
6. In A Sentimental Mood
7. Layla (encore)
8. Every Day I Have The Blues (encore)