A Synthesizer Pioneer Turns 90: Patrick Gleeson on A Slow Flow Echoes.
On a Slow Flow Echoes, we celebrate the 90th Birthday of Patrick Gleeson. His work with Herbie Hancock was pioneering and often sampled.
I remember first hearing Patrick Gleeson in the early 1970s on two albums by Herbie Hancock. He created an atmospheric sound around Hancock music on Crossings and then in 1973, laid some of the groundwork for hip hop with Hancock’s album, Sextant.
Gleeson started in electronic music in the 60s on the Buchla Box and then the ARP 2600. He was recruited to play on albums by Moby Grape, Taj Mahal, Santana and the solo project of Jefferson Airplane members Grace Slick and Paul Kanter. That brought him to Herbie Hancock. He recorded two albums with Hancock and what’s known as his Mwandishi group. The most famous was the last one, Sextant. Released in 1973, it remains one of the truly unique albums of the first fusion era and a release that is often sampled even today. Gleeson has recorded several solo albums, most of them switched-on type releases playing the music of Gustav Holst, Vivaldi and John Williams’s Star Wars score. He’s also worked with Kronos Quartet who performed on his score to the movie Plague Dogs. His second release came out in 1980, Rainbow Delta and it was clearly informed by the music of Tangerine Dream and Vangelis. The album features two side long suites and we’re going to hear side two which is sub-titled “Draconian Measures.”