who is your favorite prog violinist?

Hi,

I specially liked his duet with the electric guitar in "Apocaliptyc Bore" ... and in general, how he uses his violin is amazing, and unlike many of the other "musicians". And this guy is a Sufi master! For him, the use of the instrument is something that we do not usually think of in "westernized commercial music".

Of all these, and I have heard them all, Simon House is very special because what he added to HAWKWIND is something that added tremendously to the music ... and it's hard to not think of his ability as a keyboard player which was also magnificent and brought HAWKWIND to a more modern sound than the electronics of before.

Darryl Way is very fine, and his ability with Curved Air is magnificent, and then with Wolf. On his own and with Gong, I do not think he was as strong, and I think he might have been discouraged by it all. 

Graham Smith, has always had an incredible list of stuff going back to the very early days before String Driven Thing, and his work with PH was very nice, but I think that he felt limited that he could not add more to the whole thing, but you never really saw that with the saxophone as an issue with PH. 

JLP is not one of my favorites, although he has some really good stuff, and seeing him with RTF is a treat ... and I wish he would do more with them, if the opportunity was there. His many solo albums come and go ... and always have one or two things that are very nice. However, when I heard him with Jon Anderson, it was sad ... and it was obvious that he wanted to do more with his violin, but was having to be in the background and consequently his work suffered. Nice, but not great. His stuff with FZ is nice, ... but I always think that it is more FZ than it is JLP.

Eddie Jobson is OK with me, and his best stuff is ... probably in his earlier days when he helped Roxy Music some ... but I also like his stuff with Curved Air. After that, I am not sure ... it is obvious that he is a master musician, but I am not sure that he ever really "showed" that he was the super violin player that the others are.

Dave Swarbrick of Fairport Convention deserves a mention here ... his work with the band from the early days to his end, is special indeed, and one ought to catch the improvisations that you can find in some films here and there with Richard Thompson, and how he handled himself ... very well. Special is the only word for it.

Charles O'Connor from Horslips not on list. Superb front man and violinist.

Ray Shulman