Vids › The Weirdness, Part 5

Al Di Meola – Sequencer

1983

1.2K Likes

Watch on YouTube

Best comments

1.“Al really kept his cool with those dudes kicking around and handling swords near expensive equipment.”

More comments

2.“With Chuck Norris on guitar. Alright... we get it, Al.”
3.“I spent years in the '80s wishing I had several hundred thousand dollars to buy a Fairlight. And now it's an app in the App Store... haha!”

The story

Before Miami Vice, there was this. Sequencer is a Jan Hammer composition from Al Di Meola's 1983 album Scenario, recorded at Caribou Ranch in Colorado, with Di Meola on electric guitar and Hammer on keyboards, a LinnDrum and a Roland drum machine. Scenario was one of the first records to really put the Fairlight CMI, an early digital sampler, to work. You can hear the future showing up early.

The kicker: Hammer liked the drum sample on Sequencer enough to reuse it for his Miami Vice theme. So this is the rough draft of a whole decade's sound, pastel suits sold separately. Synthtopia called the video about as 80s as it gets. Hard to argue.

Jazz

In my playlists

The Weirdness, Part 5 · #80

More Jazz music vids

1.Us3 – Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)★ favorite
176K Likes
3:41
Best comments
1.“0% profanity. 0% nudity. 0% drugs. 100% FUNKY HORN.”
More comments
1. 2.“44 years old. Can't remember where my keys are... nailed every word to this song.”
2. 3.“Who's still feeling this nugget in 2050? (Long-term appreciation strategy.)”
2.James Baskett – Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah★ favorite
97K Likes
4:23
James Baskett sings this Oscar-winning song as Uncle Remus in Disney's Song of the South (1946). Baskett earned an honorary Oscar but was barred from the film's segregated Atlanta premiere, and Disney has kept the movie in the vault for decades. Splash Mountain, built on its characters, became Tiana's Bayou Adventure.
3.Gregory Porter – Puttin' On The Ritz
1.9K Likes
2:27
Best comments
1.“Gregory Porter is a fucking god.”
More comments
1. 2.“The music and video are great. Don't need all the comments full of F-words!!! (Please grow up and wash out your mouths, folks!)”
4.Al Jarreau – Mornin'
109K Likes
4:22
Best comments
1.“During the '80s, every dentist's office in America had this playing!”
More comments
1. 2.“Wow, this really does sound like a four-minute hug.”
2. 3.“My son was singing this at age 3, his little voice rising on the big high note. Next month he turns 44, and I'm going to send him this video – it will mean so much to him, as it does to me.”
5.Ralph Giese – Georgia on My Mind
14K Likes
2:35
Best comments
1.“I love how everyone in the audience is staring in horrified fascination. It must be a timeless response.”
More comments
1. 2.“I firmly believe the mullet is half of his whistling powers. Without it, he could not perform.”
2. 3.“He had me with the mullet. My legs are wide open.”
6.King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Iron Lung
87K Likes
9:05
Best comments
1.“King Gizzard is my favorite psychedelic heavy metal jazz fusion blues band.”
More comments
1. 2.“Holy fuck. I've never tripped balls sober before.”
2. 3.“Bro, just eat the whole bag... you'll be fine.”

All 11 Jazz music vids →