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This Is It Band Vs History/Dangerous Band

mjfanforlife123

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Who do you guys think is better? I know Jonathan Moffet was drumming on the history tour aswell but the rest of the band is completely different. Michael's long term Rhythm guitarist the great David Williams (Responsible for the solos on Billie Jean, Smooth Criminal etc) died in March '08. I wonder wether he would have got the call had he been alive? and no sign of Jennifer Batten either? Kenny had obviously worked with the musicians from the History tour so I wonder wether it was his decision or Michael's to go with a new musical director and band?

In my opinion I think the History/Dangerous band are better, as much as I enjoyed listening to and watching the 'This Is It' band I cant help but feel they were 2nd rate versions of their predecessors. In particular the 2 guitarists who play a massive role in any Michael Jackson show, Orianthi is a fantastic guitarist and she will have a very successful solo career but she isn't as good as Jennifer Batten and I think she was picked just as much for her look as her playing. Bearden even said in an interview that michael wanted a Blonde female guitarist. Tommy Organ is also an incredible guitarist (in my opinion, better than Orianthi) but the incredible feel and timing put into those funky lines played originally by David Williams were some what missing throughout 'This Is It' and some parts were not even played correctly (Compare the original solo of smooth criminal to Tommy's and he is playing a more simple version)

I think the Keyboard department did a fantastic job and I have no complaints there, the only other issue I have is with bassist Alex Al. This guy is a serious musician, he is one of the top guys in LA and respected through out the music world. However, I think he often over played on many of the tracks. One track that stands out in particular is 'Earth Song' where he almost becomes a 3rd guitarist in the way he is playing far more than is necessary.
This guy is clearly a very talented musician but I just wish he would have kept things a little more simple and true to the recordings rather than trying to satisfy his own musical urges.

I realize 'This Is It' is made up of clips of rehearsal footage and even Michael himself wasn't on form every day, but surely when you are backing the greatest entertainer of all time you should be playing at your best everyday no matter if it is a rehearsal or a show at 02 in front of 20,000 people?

I know many of you are big fans of the 'This Is It' muso's and i'm probably gonna get slaughtered for this thread, but as a professional musician myself I take a keen interest in the musicians Michael chose to perform with him and in my opinion the History/Dangerous band were quite superior to the 'This Is It' band.
 
The band was really good, especially the drummer, he was awesome. Orianthi's got lots of talent and the keyboardist was spot on. They weren't second rate at all, in fact I preferred alot of the instrumentation in TII to previous tours (especially the HIStory tour).
 
I like the This is It band because I feel like I know them more because of the film and all of the press interviews, but they were never given the chance to do a live show so we can't really compare them imo
 
mjfanforlife123 said:
Who do you guys think is better? I know Jonathan Moffet was drumming on the history tour aswell but the rest of the band is completely different. Michael's long term Rhythm guitarist the great David Williams (Responsible for the solos on Billie Jean, Smooth Criminal etc) died in March '08. I wonder wether he would have got the call had he been alive? and no sign of Jennifer Batten either? Kenny had obviously worked with the musicians from the History tour so I wonder wether it was his decision or Michael's to go with a new musical director and band?

In my opinion I think the History/Dangerous band are better, as much as I enjoyed listening to and watching the 'This Is It' band I cant help but feel they were 2nd rate versions of their predecessors. In particular the 2 guitarists who play a massive role in any Michael Jackson show, Orianthi is a fantastic guitarist and she will have a very successful solo career but she isn't as good as Jennifer Batten and I think she was picked just as much for her look as her playing. Bearden even said in an interview that michael wanted a Blonde female guitarist. Tommy Organ is also an incredible guitarist (in my opinion, better than Orianthi) but the incredible feel and timing put into those funky lines played originally by David Williams were some what missing throughout 'This Is It' and some parts were not even played correctly (Compare the original solo of smooth criminal to Tommy's and he is playing a more simple version)

I think the Keyboard department did a fantastic job and I have no complaints there, the only other issue I have is with bassist Alex Al. This guy is a serious musician, he is one of the top guys in LA and respected through out the music world. However, I think he often over played on many of the tracks. One track that stands out in particular is 'Earth Song' where he almost becomes a 3rd guitarist in the way he is playing far more than is necessary.
This guy is clearly a very talented musician but I just wish he would have kept things a little more simple and true to the recordings rather than trying to satisfy his own musical urges.

I realize 'This Is It' is made up of clips of rehearsal footage and even Michael himself wasn't on form every day, but surely when you are backing the greatest entertainer of all time you should be playing at your best everyday no matter if it is a rehearsal or a show at 02 in front of 20,000 people?

I know many of you are big fans of the 'This Is It' muso's and i'm probably gonna get slaughtered for this thread, but as a professional musician myself I take a keen interest in the musicians Michael chose to perform with him and in my opinion the History/Dangerous band were quite superior to the 'This Is It' band.
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well, i think the bassist should have done more with smooth criminal, he has so much to play with. Id love him to have done more cool fills like here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQZLkPxtsGM&hd=1 at 3:22 rather than the almost tacky random lets slap it up the octave fills or whatever that he stuck in in this is it
 
The HIStory Tour band didn't exactly do much. Greg Phillinganes refused to go on the tour because he said it was demeaning for a musician of his calibre to stand on stage and mime/pretend to play an instrument.

I think the This Is It band was better, to be honest. WBSS was the funkiest I ever heard it played live. Same goes for the J5 medley.
 
This Is It band because the sounds of Michael's songs in This Is It were spine tingling! just mind blowing. I loved the BRRRRRRBRRRR sounds added in Jam. The "funkier" sound of Wanna be startin' somethin', TYWMMF sounded amazing, the guitars in Beat It were hot, the guitar in TDCAU was amazing, The trumpets in Man in the Mirror was excellent and the Jackson 5 medley was incredible! all thanks to the new musicians I guess :)
God I wish we got to hear it live :cry:
 
What trumpets in Man In The Mirror?

MJ's TII band didn't have a horn section.

Must have been a sound effect on Beardon's keyboard.
 
mjlover1988 said:
I think the This Is It band was better, to be honest. WBSS was the funkiest I ever heard it played live. Same goes for the J5 medley.
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I agree, and those two songs especially stood out to me as sounding even better than in the past. Loved the rhythm guitar in The Love You Save for example. Black or White was an improvement as well in my opinion. Though I always enjoyed the song, I never really thought it came across as well as it could have on previous tours.
 
I was surprised to see MJ singing Black or White live. I was just sitting there in the cinema thinking, 'If it comes that easily to you, why have you spent your whole career miming it!?'
 
mjlover1988 said:
I was surprised to see MJ singing Black or White live. I was just sitting there in the cinema thinking, 'If it comes that easily to you, why have you spent your whole career miming it!?'
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Well, it was pretty obvious that starting with the Dangerous tour, MJ started having problems with his voice. It was extremely apparent by the HIStory Tour, where he mimed almost the entire show except for WBSS (which sounded rough and scratchy) and the J5 Medley. I personally think that his lupus suddenly started to spike and then went into remission... which is why his voice sounded so great during TII.
 
Well, HIStory is playbacked, so we can't compare it. I think that Bad, Dangerous and This Is It all had good bands, so it's impossible for me to say which one was better. :)
 
MJJKingForever said:
Well, HIStory is playbacked, so we can't compare it. I think that Bad, Dangerous and This Is It all had good bands, so it's impossible for me to say which one was better. :)
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History wasn't all playback, I have recordings of various shows and you can quite clearly hear the musicians.
 
I like the Dangerous Band. The This Is It band sounds incredible, but they had the chance to go back and mix the music before the film came out. Its "live" but not quite live.

WBSS in the movie was incredible tho, regardless of if they remixed it.
 
TII band was overall the best. The songs just sounded better than on the Dangerous/HIStory tour where they sounded a little thready from time to time.
 
mjfanforlife123 said:
History wasn't all playback, I have recordings of various shows and you can quite clearly hear the musicians.
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Yeah, it depends on the concert though. For example, You are Not Alone was lip synched alot, but it was sang live a few occasions and in Korea. The HIStory period was a not so great era in the MJ chapter in terms of live performances.
 
Ernestine said:
Yeah, it depends on the concert though. For example, You are Not Alone was lip synched alot, but it was sang live a few occasions and in Korea. The HIStory period was a not so great era in the MJ chapter in terms of live performances.
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I know, but lets be honest 'You Are Not Alone' is hardly a track suited for a massive live production so we aren't really missing out on anything from it being playback. However i feel tracks such as 'Smooth Criminal' 'Billie Jean' 'Man in the Mirror' and 'WBSS' were far better on the History and Dangerous tours. I think people just feel that the TII band are better because they have had a bigger insight into them. As i said before many of the parts Tommy Organ played are simpler version of the David Williams parts, for example compare Davids 'WBSS' solo on the live in Bucarest DVD with Tommy Organs. Davids is faster and funkier; as you would expect as he wrote the solo.
 
TII band was better than any of the tours. 30th Ann was the best period.
 
Victory tour band with his brothers!:)

can't get any better than that.

+ imo TII had the best dancers MJ ever had next to him on stage on his solo tours.
 
IMHO: Nobody beats Greg Phillinganes, the talent, the humor!
I felt kinda bad for Jeniffer Batten the she wasn't even asked..
 
Mr. Make Believe said:
IMHO: Nobody beats Greg Phillinganes, the talent, the humor!
I felt kinda bad for Jeniffer Batten the she wasn't even asked..
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How do you know she wasn't asked? I actually recieved an email from Jennifer the day before Michael died but she didnt mention anything to do with 'This is it'
 
THIS IS IT band were the most incredible set of musicians ever!! Love the way the brass sounds were sampled from original recordings etc, some of the synth sounds on the other tours sounded terrible to me, sometimes very synthetic and cheesy. This Is It had a more retro and true sound to it, like analogue instead of digital.

Dangerous Tour band was great, I'd say that would be my second favourite live set up to TII. Very tight players - highlight being Working Day And Night to really hear them jam.

HIStory Tour - less said about that band the better in my opinion. Even though I adore David Williams, Jen Batten and Sugarfoot.
 
mjfanforlife123 said:
This guy is clearly a very talented musician but I just wish he would have kept things a little more simple and true to the recordings rather than trying to satisfy his own musical urges.
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I personally don't like when people play and sing exactly like the record in a concert. If I want to hear that I can just listen to the recording. I find it more interesting when the arrangement is changed or something is different.
 
I like Jennifer Batten better than Orianthi. I don't know Jennifer just had more personality and stuff on stage? She had more of a "stage presence." Unlike Orianthi, but Ori is talented of course, I just prefer Jennifer.
 
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