Forum Home Forum Home > Progressive Music Lounges > Prog Music Lounge
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - Why Did Karl Jenkins Barely Play On Bundles?
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

Why Did Karl Jenkins Barely Play On Bundles?

 Post Reply Post Reply
Author
Message
SuperMetro View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member


Joined: April 17 2021
Location: Pennsylvania
Status: Offline
Points: 674
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SuperMetro Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Why Did Karl Jenkins Barely Play On Bundles?
    Posted: February 09 2023 at 13:42
So on Soft Machine's Bundles, while Karl wrote most of the music, Allan Holdworth is shown playing most of the solos on that record. There is like 1 or 2 tracks where you could hear any saxophone at all on that record. I do not know, maybe Karl was the one handling most of the keyboards on it while Mike Ratledge was more of an extra for that record. By Bundles, Mike seemed more like the faded "old-man" type of person who is going out of style and all of his friends are now "dead". Hopper, Dean, and Ayers are dead, but strangely, despite losing his ability in his legs earlier on, Robert Wyatt is still alive. 
Back to Top
verslibre View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: July 01 2004
Location: CA
Status: Online
Points: 14879
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote verslibre Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 09 2023 at 13:46
To make up for never putting down the sax on Six, maybe?
Back to Top
Jacob Schoolcraft View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: December 22 2021
Location: NJ
Status: Offline
Points: 802
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Jacob Schoolcraft Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 14 2023 at 20:01
Bundles certainly felt more like an Alan Holdsworth affair. Gazuese from Gong felt the same. To some extent on Bruford Feels Good To Me and One Of A Kind I received the overall feeling that he dominated several important solos. Even though Jeff Berlin took lead soloing...Holdsworth felt like the end result.

On a personal level Soft Machine Third grabbed the Canterbury magic. 4, 5, 6, and 7 were excellent too, but Bundles took a different direction by adding guitar. I enjoyed Bundles but the idea of adding guitar was a difficult for me at first. The piece which closes the album is "Floating World" which is a return to the ethereal and atmospheric Soft Machine on Six. Obviously there was less experimentation on Bundles . On Soft Machine 5 are sections that sound Electronic and a bit Avant-garde. Seven contained less of that, but yet..as an album flowed more naturally like instrumental Canterbury and probably more than Bundles.

Back to Top
Mirakaze View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Eclectic Prog & JR/F/Canterbury Teams

Joined: December 17 2019
Location: (redacted)
Status: Offline
Points: 3490
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mirakaze Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 15 2023 at 03:34
Originally posted by SuperMetro SuperMetro wrote:

I do not know, maybe Karl was the one handling most of the keyboards on it while Mike Ratledge was more of an extra for that record.


This is it. If I remember correctly, Mike played the synth solo on part 5 of Hazard Profile and some of the organ parts, and only played electric piano on the two tunes that he composed himself ("Peff" and "The Man Who Waved At Trains") while Karl handled all other keyboard parts on the album. Really I get the impression that Karl by this point really wanted the keyboard to be his main instrument, hence why you don't hear him playing any saxophone or oboe on any subsequent Soft Machine albums. Mike inadvertently became kind of a third wheel as a result (at least in the studio; his synth playing is more prominent in live recordings of the time) so really it's him who played relatively little on Bundles.
Back to Top
Sean Trane View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator

Prog Folk

Joined: April 29 2004
Location: Heart of Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 19541
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Sean Trane Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 15 2023 at 06:09
Originally posted by Mirakaze Mirakaze wrote:

Originally posted by SuperMetro SuperMetro wrote:

I do not know, maybe Karl was the one handling most of the keyboards on it while Mike Ratledge was more of an extra for that record.


This is it. If I remember correctly, Mike played the synth solo on part 5 of Hazard Profile and some of the organ parts, and only played electric piano on the two tunes that he composed himself ("Peff" and "The Man Who Waved At Trains") while Karl handled all other keyboard parts on the album. Really I get the impression that Karl by this point really wanted the keyboard to be his main instrument, hence why you don't hear him playing any saxophone or oboe on any subsequent Soft Machine albums. Mike inadvertently became kind of a third wheel as a result (at least in the studio; his synth playing is more prominent in live recordings of the time) so really it's him who played relatively little on Bundles.

This!!!

One could also come to the conclusion that Jenkins involuntarily made Ratledge a bit obsolete in the band. 
let's just stay above the moral melee
prefer the sink to the gutter
keep our sand-castle virtues
content to be a doer
as well as a thinker,
prefer lifting our pen
rather than un-sheath our sword
Back to Top
Awesoreno View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: October 07 2019
Location: Culver City, CA
Status: Offline
Points: 2835
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Awesoreno Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 15 2023 at 23:38
If I remember correctly from my research years ago, the above seems to be the case. Mike was playing less and less as Jenkins took over.
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down



This page was generated in 0.129 seconds.
Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.