The Leland Sklar Interview

A major portion of my show has been devoted to rhythm sections for Dizzy Gillespie Miles Davis and Jerry Garcia. I've interviewed Chuck Rainey and Bernard Purdie and Kenneth Spider Rice who held down MoTown along with Ed Greene and those Crusaders like Wilton Felder and Joe Sample. I feel like I had been doing a reasonably good job but recently "the rhythm section," a named given to them by James Taylor has been in my frontal lobe. My guest today is the bassist with the rhythm section. He brought his sense of elasticity to the group locking the groove no matter how much glad bashing is going on around him. He has contributed to thousands of albums over the coarse of his career from bluegrass with Byron Burline to heroine rock with James Taylor or cowboy country tunes with Leon Russell and Willis Allan Ramsey. When Kunkel, Doerge, Kortchmar and my guest got together they could cook like no other section. Fitting right inside some Spanish Swing or White Man Gospel or funky blues. They came up during a time in the record industry when musicians were recognized for their craft. So much so that they gave cats like my guest identities for their prowess. My guest knows his instrument but he has feeling. The feeling of love that exists when everyone is listening and playing off of each other. This was the brotherhood my guest came from. Learning experientially, getting the charts 20 minutes before the session and playing their tales off. He is in the same master bass discussion as Monk Montgomery, Wolfgang Meltz and James Jamerson. Music and the musicians are unquantifiable. The value they bring to the session or the gig or the jam and the impact they can have on people one human at a time. Leland Sklar welcome to the JFS