Your favorite flute prog songs - Progressive Rock Music Forum

Flute and oboe for me - Camel, Jethro Tull.

In addition to all the ones mentioned so far, since starting this thread, I discovered some more prog bands/artists that make frequent use of the flute and deserve mention:

From late 60s/early 70s:
- Quintessence
- Lasting Weep

Newer bands:
- Circulus
- Heather Findlay
- Kotebel
- White Willow
- Tusmorke
- Jordsjo
- The Windmill

All the last 4 are from Norway, so I must conclude Norway is the land of modern flute prog

So far I've enjoyed White Willow and Circulus te most.

My god for Jethro tull

Octavarium flute solo dream theater

Pleasant string!

I particularly like the flute work in Wobbler - From Silence to Somewhere: title track and Foxlight.

these are the best songs ever..

Camel - Supertwister (can't forget about it :) )

Jethro Tull's Thick As A Brick and Witches Promise

Gong - Flute Salad

Beginning - Cuckoo Cocoon

Ruler Crimson - Formentera Lady

The flute work in Zappa's Absolutely Free (Plastic People, Call Any Vegetable, however not certain on the off chance that it is without a doubt a woodwind or then again assuming it qualifies)

Yezda Urfa - Sacred Baboon (Cancer of the Band, Tota in the Moya).

Delicate Machine - Slightly All The Time, currently referenced (radiant!).

Jaketejas wrote:

I love flute in Prog. But, for some reason, this thread reminded me of a meme.

To which the progger says “Bonus!”

Hi,

There was, at one time, a show at the Hollywood Bowl with a "jazz'y" flute player and a buffoon flute player.

And, of course, it sold because of the buffoon, since not as many folks heard about the black player. Well, let me tell you something ... from that day on, the buffoon was not thought of as a good player at all ... and he was literally buried on the stage as he could not improvise and stay with his partner at all.

There was, for a fleeting moment, a bootleg of this, a very bad one that must have been recorded from inside someone's pants ... but even in that recording, about an hour long only, showed that one player was all over the place and the other was just filling in with little riffs that he could remember. I even doubt that the buffoon even knew, or understood music well enough to be where he was ... the only thing he knew were his "trix" and that was it, and of course when that's all you know, it will be done and over in 20 minutes! If that bigbad bootleg was an indication the show was over in 10 minutes ... but goodness gracious, how one man could turn the tables on a buffoon was very precious indeed.

Historically, that I am aware of, Ian's solo in a couple of pieces are "the standard" of insanity on the flute ... although in the albums, Focus shows the ability and Thijs did a bunch of solo albums with classical music and flute ... but it was never, that I could see a major part of the show ... the guitar and the voice, were!

Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com

Earlier I had erroneously reported that Jimmy Hasting's flute could be heard at the beginning of Fish Out of Water's You By My Side. It's actually on the next song, Silently Falling.

"It just has none of the qualities of your work that I find interesting. Abandon [?] it." - Eno

JD wrote:

Too obvious??

Haha...not sure if it is obvious or not, but it's not prog. Down-Under is a great tune though. I really liked Men At Work's first album in 1982 and remember fondly going to see them the first time they came to Montreal.

The Dark Elf wrote:

Jethro Tull - My God: an introduction to the possibilities of flute in a hard rock song. Tull certainly had prominent flute tunes prior to this (Bouree, With You There to Help Me, Serenade to a Cuckoo, etc.), but in 1971 (and a year earlier if you were lucky enough to be at the Isle of Wight Concert) "My God" and its flute solo became something altogether different than the pastoral accompaniment instrument it had been for centuries. Throw in the spastic and heavy "Nothing Is Easy" from 1969, and the flute was never the same again.

Great point about Jethro Tull's role in introducing the possibilities of flute in hard rock, and singling out My God, though I think the flute was already used in jazz and blues as more than a pastoral instrument. That live video of My God you sent has a really more powerful flute solo than the studio recording.

Incidentally, I've been listening to Tull's new release, The Zealot's Gene, which has plenty of wonderful flute playing.

Wow, thanks everyone, this thread has really expanded my flute prog repertoire! Lot's of excellent and varied suggestions. I've already tried to listen to most of them. And thanks particularly to Moshkito for directing me towards Agusa, who I never heard of (indeed a lot of great flute in the 2 albums I heard), and also I Prophecy Disaster for suggesting Anglagard, who I head of but never listened to before. So are the Swedes carrying the torch of flute prog? Smile