This week one of the most artistic covers and creative and crazy albums I know, George Clinton's Computer Games. Like in a lot of George Clinton's work the unpractised listener or in this case (album cover) vieuwer might think it's a mess! If you look or listen closely and repeatedly you will see and hear more and recognize the double meanings , fun and sometimes blunt dadaism in his work. George Clinton starts where the normal musician stops. Sometimes I really do not have a clue, why he's doing it.. but who cares! I learned from listening to George Clinton that having an opinion about music is not that important because if you have to judge everything, you try to put yourself on top and then you will always loose. I think it's better to listen to your feelings and see what the music does with your senses. Does it make you laugh, happy, sentimental, sad? Confused? Angry? Do you feel musically insulted? I felt visually insulted a few weeks ago when I visited a museum. Let's not say which one :-) Vaginas, painted, in a frame. White dots on white backround. haha. Oh yes, one more: "self portrait with dog". All I could see where some gray shadows on a black background. Sometimes I feel touched by one note and it makes me cry. Often when I hear music I think "how smart it is done" and respect it in its context.
George Clinton's music became addictive to me, an elixir to go on and on writing and playing the music I have in my mind. His madness makes me laugh. Of course, when I talk about George Clinton's music, I mean the contributions of the masterminds who worked with him. Some of the masterminds on this album: Bootsy Collins, Garry Shider, Walter "Junie" Morrison and..Fred Wesley. Deep respect also for the technical department.
Oh yes, the lyrics. On Prince's forum there's a funny thread. And of course, "Snoop Doggy Dogg" is based on one of Clinton's major hits "Atomic Dog". George Clinton told in interviews that he was actually not so involved in writing this particular song, But mainly Garry Shider and David Spradley.
This is the title track called Dark Horse. Just as in the album version it features sax and piano solos. It's a pretty wild performance, matching today's start of the Chinese New Year: THE YEAR OF THE FIRE HORSE!Live at Bimhuis, we added a drum solo. Afterwards, I decided to seperate it from the song and post it as an extra video below. Why not in one video?Because the video would become very very long and experience shows that people will not stick around for longer that 6-7 minutes. Yoràn's free drum solo is actually really great and in this seperate video, the true drum lovers can watch and learn from his drum story telling. Sometimes people ask me; What are drummers doing in their solos? To give you an idea of what Yoràn is doing in his solo: He starts with a pattern, an idea. He keeps the pattern going and plays variations over it. Then he combines it with soloing over it with call and reponse phrases and slides in new patterns. Technically it's interesting because he demonstrates a lot of independence and speed, as well as dynamics and sound colours, while telling a story, which means in musical context that the solo has certain elements which can be recognized by the (trained) listener. Many people in the Western part of the world miss the melodic and harmonic context during a free drum solo. It's fair to say a free drum solo without any accompaniment is like an abstract painting. Within the given context you can hear and see what you can manage, depending on your own frame of reference and expectations. In the end, it's about: does it resonate with you? Because both, the painting and the free drum solo, they lack a clear subject (no lyrics, no recognizable image), both forms are highly subjective and open to the interpretation of the audience. They function as a conversation between the artist's feeling and the viewer's/listener's perception.But you also can listen to it with a pure analytical drum ear and try to follow the patterns and phrases. As a musician and human I (try to) do both :-) Enjoy!More info:Susanne Alt: sax, Matthijs Geerts and Ike van Bergen: keys, Thomas Pol: bass, Yoràn Vroom: drums, Helene Jank: percussion Performed at 16th of January 2026 at Bimhuis, Amsterdam, Recorded by Onno Prillwitz Filmed by Robert Glass and Albert Nooij. - This week one of the most artistic covers and creative and crazy albums I know, George Clinton's Computer Games. Like in a lot of George Clinton's work the unpractised listener or in this case (album cover) vieuwer might think it's a mess! If you look or listen closely and repeatedly you will see and hear more and recognize the double meanings , fun and sometimes blunt dadaism in his work. George Clinton starts where the normal musician stops. Sometimes I really do not have a clue, why he's doing it.. but who cares! I learned from listening to George Clinton that having an opinion about music is not that important because if you have to judge everything, you try to put yourself on top and then you will always loose. I think it's better to listen to your feelings and see what the music does with your senses. Does it make you laugh, happy, sentimental, sad? Confused? Angry? Do you feel musically insulted? I felt visually insulted a few weeks ago when I visited a museum. Let's not say which one :-) Vaginas, painted, in a frame. White dots on white backround. haha. Oh yes, one more: self portrait with dog. All I could see where some gray shadows on a black background. Sometimes I feel touched by one note and it makes me cry. Often when I hear music I think how smart it is done and respect it in its context.George Clinton's music became addictive to me, an elixir to go on and on writing and playing the music I have in my mind. His madness makes me laugh. Of course, when I talk about George Clinton's music, I mean the contributions of the masterminds who worked with him. Some of the masterminds on this album: Bootsy Collins, Garry Shider, Walter Junie Morrison and..Fred Wesley. Deep respect also for the technical department.Oh yes, the lyrics. On Prince's forum there's a funny thread. And of course, Snoop Doggy Dogg is based on one of Clinton's major hits Atomic Dog. George Clinton told in interviews that he was actually not so involved in writing this particular song, But mainly Garry Shider and David Spradley.
