Stuart Hamm: Kings Of Sleep

Posted by Luminator (A) on May 18, 2015 at 10:43:08

I cannot vouch for other markets, but here in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Fall '87 semester saw an explosion of rock. Thrash, glam metal, blues rock, hard rock, and guitar shredding expanded the market. It was so large, that Joe Satriani, who was originally from Long Island, but was living right here in Berkeley, introduced a different kind of power rock instrumental. Unlike the neoclassical shredders, Satriani incorporated jazz fusion.

In 1988, Satriani introduced us to labelmate Stuart Hamm, a bass guitar virtuoso from New Orleans. Hamm's Radio Free Albumeth was an historical landmark. Satriani actually played guitar on three of the tracks.

So by spring '89, we were anticipating Hamm's upcoming album, Kings Of Sleep. We were not disappointed. Here, Hamm brought in Buzz Feiten and Shotgun Messiah's Harry Cody to play guitars. Hamm also enlisted drummer Jonathan Mover (GTR, Joe Satriani).

Yep, many of you happened to walk in, while I was playing Kings Of Sleep at San Francisco audio stores, gatherings, shows, and parties. Yep, pictured above is the actual CD played at all those venues. Hard to believe it's almost 26 years old. I frequently cite and reference Kings Of Sleep, but I've never written directly about it - until now.

The opening cut, "Black Ice" is classic power instrumental rock. If you have an honest audio system, one which avoids the ubiquitous bloating of images, and warming up of textures, you can hear how, on "Surely The Best," the bass, drums, and keyboards provide the foundation, from which Harry Cody can do his tasteful soloing.

The middle of the alum is kinda noisy, but it snaps into focus on the jazz lounge wonder, "I Want To Know." This is an audiophile classic, one which we tap, if we want to test how an audio system creates/preserves the right mood.

And there's a lovely 2:30 interlude, "Prelude In C." J.S. Bach would be proud. My high school classmates who were in orchestra would exclaim, "Hey, we played that on piano!"

But it's really the ending title track, which gets everyone going. This is the song where audiophiles walk in, and ask, "What's that?" They sit transfixed, and wonder, "Why the hell didn't anyone tell us about this gem?"

Hamm would then play on a couple of tracks on Satriani's Flying In A Blue Dream. Over the years, Hamm and Satriani would tour and play together. In the 2000s, Hamm would even live in San Francisco for a while.

I don't know where Hamm is now, but I think he'd be delighted to know that, well before he moved to San Francisco, the Bay Area enjoyed his Kings Of Sleep, and the audiophiles used it as a reference. And now the rest of you can go out, and listen to it.

The Audiophiles' DJ,
-Lummy The Loch Monster

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Topic - Stuart Hamm: Kings Of Sleep - Luminator 10:43:08 05/18/15 (0)

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