For the Criminally Underrated, Don Airey

We will start with the two passages: 

“I told them I wasn't familiar with their music, so they sent me a tape. I didn't have time to listen to it, and I didn't play it until the evening before the audition. When I played it, I thought 'oh shit!', I just hadn't realized the complexity of it. I had to write it all down and tried to learn it through the night. It was great stuff. "Budapest", "Hunting Girl" and "Songs From the Wood" - that is a work of genius. In fact I had heard a lot of Tull's music before, but it was through hotel walls when I was with Rainbow, because Ritchie Blackmore is such a big Tull fan! He phoned me once when we were in America and ordered me to go and see Jethro Tull at the Nassau Coliseum. I asked him 'is it compulsory?' and he said yes, it was! 'Go and see Jethro Tull  that's how it should be done' and they were good. I was knocked out. I remember thinking it was the best out-front sound I'd ever heard.” [...]

"The dividing line between Fairport and Jethro Tull became even more blurred the following year, when Tull went back on the road to celebrate their 20th anniversary. Don Airey, although a very fine player, had looked and sounded out of place in Tull. His experience of playing almost exclusively with heavy metal bands had perhaps numbed his senses to the self-deprecating humour that surrounded Tull's forays into that genre. His solo during the live shows, complete with air-raid and police sirens, was not the standard fare at a Tull gig. Worst still were the sequenced parts; most of the fans didn't mind the use of sequencers and samplers, but did wonder why he felt the need to pretend to be actually playing them. And Airey himself did not seem overly pleased with the situation after the final UK show in London, during which Anderson had introduced him as Doane Airey! He and Tull parted company at the end of the tour.  p. 123-125, Nollen.

The first section is a direct block quote from Don. The second, is this author’s commentary. There are a few things to note regarding the alleged conflict and incompatibility 1. “had looked, and sounded out of place in Tull” 2. experience of playing almost exclusively with heavy metal bands had perhaps numbed his senses to the self deprecating humour 3. Solo pieces irregular for Tull 4. Sequenced parts; “Did wonder why he felt the need to pretend to be actually playing them” 5. Airey himself not being pleased with the situation - cites IA introducing him as Doane Airey. 6. Parted company at the end of the tour. 

Don Airey, a keyboard player with hard rock-heavy metal experience (Black Sabbath, Rainbow, Gary Moore) was hired for the tour. Although Anderson had sent him a tape, Airey, assuming he would be ready, failed to listen to it until the night before his audition. Shocked to hear the complexity of the songs, particularly "Songs from the Wood" Which he recognized as "a work of genius," he stayed up until the next morning, learning the material. He admitted "I had heard a lot of Tull's Music before, but it was through hotel walls when I was with Rainbow because Ritchie Blackmore is such a big Tull fan!"  Unfortunately, Airey, often resorting to sequencing and sampling techniques, did not fit easily into the Tull sound. p. 193, Rees. Likewise for here: 1. hard rock-heavy metal experience 2. “assuming he would be ready, failed to listen to it until the night before[...]Shocked to hear the complexity[...] Stayed up till the next morning learning.  3. Heard Tull only through hotel walls 4. “often resorting to sequencing and sampling techniques” It’s not difficult to see that the quotes have been taken from the larger context of the block quote from the first piece. 

Now let’s break this down:

The image this paints of Don is not particularly positive, insinuates personality clash, ineptitude, poor work ethics, and belittles his abilities.  I will combine similar points, address specific details and hope to establish a better representation of this era.  We will deal with the second piece first as the problems there can be easily diffused through the use of the first block quote.

“I told them I wasn't familiar with their music, so they sent me a tape. I didn't have time to listen to it, and I didn't play it until the evening before the audition. When I played it, I thought 'oh shit!', I just hadn't realized the complexity of it. I had to write it all down and tried to learn it through the night. It was great stuff. It was more difficult than he anticipated, and having to spend extra time to learn it is a praise for the work of Tull. This is the same man who learned Deep Purple’s set in two days in conjunction with finishing his previous commitment of several orchestrations. Didn’t have time reads very differently from assuming he would be ready, failed to listen to it until the night before. The latter implies an arrogance and multiple levels of disrespect, to his trade and to Tull. Heard Tull only through hotel walls The author conveniently ignores the second half of the quote where Don talks about Ritchie Blackmore phoning him to attend a Jethro Tull gig. He phoned me once when we were in America and ordered me to go and see Jethro Tull at the Nassau Coliseum. I asked him 'is it compulsory?' and he said yes, it was! 'Go and see Jethro Tull  that's how it should be done' and they were good. I was knocked out. I remember thinking it was the best out-front sound I'd ever heard.”

A summary of the remaining propositions 1. “had looked, and sounded out of place in Tull”;  - heavy metal experience -  experience of playing almost exclusively with heavy metal bands had perhaps numbed his senses to the self deprecating humour - Solo pieces irregular for Tull Sequenced parts; -  “Did wonder why he felt the need to pretend to be actually playing them” -  “often resorting to sequencing and sampling techniques” 5. Airey himself not being pleased with the situation - cites IA introducing him as Doane Airey. 6. Parted company at the end of the tour. In brief, conflict and incompatibility rose between Airey and the rest of the band, leading to his departure. The conflicts were hinged on him being of a different style, attitude, and attire, compared to Tull’s works. Namely, Don’s involvement in heavy metal. The use of sequencers and sampling being picked out as a problematic point appears to imply that it was common enough to be an issue, that is, ‘cheating’ at playing, further denigrating his abilities and professionalism.

Firstly, Don Airey quit the band because he got a record deal. K2 Tales of Triumph and Tragedy was released in 1988. During the Tull tour, he can be heard playing parts of the yet unfinished suite in some parts of his solo spot.

“Don returned to touring in 1987 joining Jethro Tull for their European and US jaunts.Securing a solo deal with MCA, he quit Tull in January ’88 to compose “K2”, which was recorded in the summer with Gary Moore, Cozy Powell, Chris Thompson and Colin Blunstone. (Tull official site) And to the idea that humour was lost on Airey, November 14 1987 Kerrang! article on Tull’s performance in Germany gives us the following: There's an infectious sense of fun about Tull these days too (although bassist Dave Pegg seems to enjoy being whipped a little too much during 'Hunting Girl' ...), and the band certainly hasn't lost its sense of humour. During a short Bach interlude for example, Anderson, Airey and New Yorker Perry act out a silly sketch involving a scantily-clad female, and for the middle section of 'Jump Start' the band's road-crew file onto the stage with cardboard guitars in white coats and sun-glasses for some synchronised chorus-line head-banging a la Status Quo. Even old gimmicks like the balloons are treated self-mockingly: this time the giant orbs have 'Oh no! Not the balloons again!' daubed across them. Their drummer, being Doane Perry should have made the nature of the joke quite obvious. A mashup based on the similarities between their names. With both being relatively new. No offence intended to his collaborators, but Airey has worked with some of the most difficult names in the industry and some of the most notorious pranksters. To say he would be offended by the mild wordplay is unlikely at best. (For further sillies, refer to the Crest of a Knave tour programme I have posted previously.) Don Airey has rarely been on close to the extremities of rock fashion. A shirt and jeans, sweater and sweat pants...and more commonly, a, typically darker coloured long sleeve shirt, with some non-descript trousers. Paired with sneakers or more formal, some leather shoes. Hardly “out of place” 

  Additionally, the well-travelled keyboardist is anything but a one-trick pony. Raised on jazz, classically trained, versatile, with an uncanny ability to meld pieces together seamlessly and effortlessly. To relegate him to merely a heavy metal keyboardist who provide synthy backdrops is a gross mischaracterization. In the course of Tull's career to date, Anderson has taken rock and folk roots through capricious time signatures and pastoral lyrics into the realms of hi-tech sequencing. In contrast to technology and titles like 'User - Friendly', On the Crest of a Knave marks a return to mid-era Tull - with a dose of Dire Straits for that 'contemporary' feel. And so the set played at Hammersmith is a mixture of old and new. 

"I think they felt that they were going out with all the sequenced stuff, and it wasn't happening with the fans", Airey explains, "so they picked some of the best old numbers, some good new numbers and some of the obscure numbers from the old albums that they've never played live before and it's been going down well. 

"I think the band had found itself at a crossroads. They'd had all this sequencing and stuff that Peter (Vettese) had been doing - in a way Peter had been dominating the band to a great extent. He hasn't said this, but I surmise Ian had taken a hard look at the feel of Dire Straits and ZZ Top - people of the same kind of age - who just play and come across as a band. And that's what he tried to do on the record." Whatever the reasoning behind it, the move has filled concert halls across Europe and put a single, 'Said She Was a Dancer' into the British charts. But the lot of a session player is never an easy one - and in this case it's exacerbated by Tull's complex music and the long history of the hand. How do you combine the digital sequencers of 'Steel Monkey' with the sound of a pipe organ?

 "I spent a lot of time trying to make everything sound exactly as it did on the record", Airey comments. "On 'Hunting Girl' David Palmer used to use a pipe organ that he used to carry around so I've got a sound on the Memorymoog that's very, very close. Then there's the harpsichord which I've got the RD300 MIDI'd up for. On 'Songs from the Wood' I've got quite close to the original sound too. I've tried to make the band sound as it used to. 

"First I listened to all the original tracks and tapes of the live stuff Peter did. I'm a different kind of player to Peter; he's very much one of the new breed whereas I've tried to put a rock feel into it. I've tried to play a lot simpler than Peter did and to stay out of Martin's way.

"Ian kept copies of all the stuff he'd done on an FB01 for the album, although I'm using an MT32 triggered by an MC500. It's not as though the whole show is sequenced - only one number is actually sequenced - and there are two little bits I do on my own and they use a bit of sequencing. There's nothing on tape, no cheating at all, everything's for real. Whatever's on the record I've had to find a way of doing."

"In studios I usually hire samplers in - whatever's flavour of the month. I've been using the Emax a lot which I like, but I didn't like it enough to buy. The Casio is something different; the actual quality of the sound is so good and it has a musicality to it. It's a very functional keyboard. I've already made some of my own disks: there's a doctored, layered, merged thing that I use in the keyboard solo that simulates the end of the world or something, and we've made lots of flute samples which are all the different things Ian does - they're the best flute samples I've ever heard - so I play quite a bit of 'flute'. I'm really just starting to discover what the FZ1 does but, to me, it's a real instrument."

Recall that Don Airey did not actually work on the Crest of a Knave album. So what does the album have in store? 

This interview also attributes the move to sequencing to Ian Anderson - which can be seen in the two singles, Steel Monkey and Jump Start. Which were created prior to Airey’s involvement. I return to an earlier point where the author gives the impression that the use of sequencing was intrusive, or at least notable and detrimental to the performance. Don states that he did what he can to make it sound like the album, he also shrank back to give Martin Barre room to do his thing (not uncommon for him, whether it’s Gary Moore, Ritchie Blackmore, Randy Rhoads and so on.) For the sake of the balance of the band.

Furthermore, the sampling is used on one track, to imitate the pipe organs. Nothing is cheated, nothing is on tape. Thus making this another non-issue, or an issue, misattributed to Don being the cause (bringing in samplers and sequencers that were disliked). I am reluctant to speculate on this final point, a question perhaps better posed to Ian Anderson. Don has performed with Martin Barre in the recent years as well. Since Cozy Powell left Rainbow, Don Airey has been getting less and less room to flourish and ‘do his thing’. A dedicated solo spot that spans nearly 10min at times in Rainbow slowly wittled down to nothing - intro, fills, and a background halo. That Tull were able to grant him time on the set to have a solo section, is a kind and generous offer. For ones unafraid of challenging conventions, unconventional should be a praise and not a criticism!

But if you are still with me so far, hearing is believing: (I can’t find the boot I wanted to use to demonstrate, so here’s the Toronto show instead. Also great)