02-02-2010, 20:19
I can't recommend Captain Beefheart too highly. He pulled off one of the great musical balancing acts of all time, combining elements of free jazz, Delta blues, modern classical music and rock and roll. The result was music that sounded free and wholly improvised, but in reality was, as Fred Frith commented, "tightly controlled". I saw him perform somewhere around 1972-3 in Boston with the Magic Band, and they were loud, tight and generally awe-inspiring. His influence on musicians of all stripes is undeniable; Kurt Cobain said he listened to the entire contents of "Trout Mask Replica" over and over.