This is ridiculous, Jeffro. That Howe / Sakurai / Chambers gig's been one of my favourites for years to kick back and watch when I'm bored!
Goes without saying that I love Senri's playing. I have her solo albums A La Mode, Buena Vista, Cider ~ Hard & Sweet and her collaboration with keyboardist Kiyomi Otaka (Kiyo*Sen)'s Chocolate Booster. Forever and a day I used to say my favourite drummers were Steve Gadd and Jeff Porcaro. Steve for his feel and Jeff for his metronomic precision and versatility, but, embarrassing as this has been to admit to peers, Senri has come to occupy the same space for me. She too has metronomic precision, but IMHO also possesses imagination / creativity to boot. I love Senri!
That reminds me: If you haven't checked out Hiromi Uehara, make sure you do. Talk about technique and creativity / imagination. She has no peer IMHO... that I'm aware of anyway, and that's a huge call when you think of dudes like my all-time-fave keyboardist George Duke and of course the "peerless" Oscar Peterson. Fairdinkim, mate, if it can be done on keyboards, Hiromi can do it.
Dude,
The longer I'm on this forum, the more I find that I have in common with you. I love Gambale and Corea, and own quite a few of their works along with solo efforts from Patitucci and Weckl. They definitely have musical chemistry together and it clearly shows in all of their work. I have a couple Scott Henderson efforts (Nomad, Tribal Tracks), as well. So while I am primarily a metalhead at heart... I love me some fusion, smooth jazz, and classical to break it up, sometimes.
Anyway, all this just to say, GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE.
Fun fact: Frank Gambale has a connection to my buddy who owns the only music-gear store I patronise in Australia. IIRC Frank's family owned the store originally, for many years.
I absolutely love Tribal Tech; they're something else, and Nomad's definitely one of their best albums. My favourite has always been Tribal Tech from 1991; it's the album after Nomad. I took it on holiday in 1992 on my portable-DAT player as the sole album to listen to. Incredible trip into an alternate reality. If you don't have it, I highly recommend taking a listen.
Now if you approve of the following, I'll be speechless. I'm gonna cut through all the usual funk, neo-classical metal, prog-rock and metal, pop-rock (like Toto, Little River Band etc.), all-things-Japan suspects and take you back to the first album I ever bought. I've still got the cassette and whilst it's degraded big-time from hundreds, if not thousands of plays, the Quincy Jones production and arrangements have maximised the album's ability to withstand being played back on a heavily-worn 39-year-old cassette!
I'll just select two tracks from PooToob. Unfortunately the first is a vinyl upload where the record player has obvious speed-consistency issues (belt slipping maybe), but the second track, thankfully, is fine, and is my fave off the album.
It's tempting to say they don't make 'em like they used to, but that wouldn't do this album justice. It'd be more-accurate IMHO to say that as an electric-instrument-era album, it occupies rare air in terms of musical "class", arrangement, production and mature musicianship. Maybe it's just 'cause it's the first record I bought as a young punk, but then, maybe it's 'cause I've got "taste". My 11 and 12-year-old friends all thought I was nuts.
Album: The Brothers Johnson ~ Light Up the Night
Smilin' On Ya (complete with craptastic record-player warble)
Celebrations ~ Been in my top-3-highest-rated tracks for 39 years since its release, the only one that's never been toppled from this position! A fairdinkum masterpiece, mate.