Here are some real players going at it live on stage in a way that captures the essence of The Quiet Storm sound that we are attempting to articulate here. The Woody Browns Project delivers it in a hard edged contemporary jazz way. The live recording is definitely not studio, it's hot and rough, but the underlying sound of the group, their changes, their solos and the realness makes it Quiet Storm worthy.
Filmed in September 1979 at Santa Barbara County Bowl, this concert was part of Joni Mitchell's Mingus Tour. Her band included the late great Jaco Pastorius on bass who really gave the band it's sound along Pat Metheny on guitar, Don Alias on drums, Lyle Mays on keyboards and Michael Brecker on saxophone.
* The concert footage itself starts at the 2 minute 32 second point, the old film clips are just the intro with the band in the background.
Joni Mitchell and Friends Live - Shadows and Light
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With her deep strong powerful voice and her own New Zealand soul sound, Hollie Smith is a Quiet Storm when she sings. Her main instrument is piano, most often a Fender Rhodes. She has a special way or thing about how she simultaneously sings and handles the keys picking the right chord voicings. She is especially good playing with a band, live.
The video below is not live, but a conceptual video to a studio track to her song titled Philosophy of Soul.
Hollie Smith - Philosophy of Soul (Official Music Video_
One of the ultimate Quiet Storm songs ever is of Carlos Santana performing the iconic classic song titled Black Magic Woman.
The song was originally written by Peter Green and it was first used by Fleetwood Mac as single in 1968. However, in 1970, Carlos Santana was the first to take the song to "hit" status.
There are numerous live filmed recordings of Carlos Santana and his fabulous band performing Black Magic Woman floating around. The version just below was filmed in 1971 for German TV's Beat-Club, which happened to be the first German TV program that focused upon pop and rock music from the U.S. and Britain. The second video that follows, is a much more recent live take of the song, with writer Peter Green sitting in.
Please click the play button of the video below and choose the
high-resolution & full screen options. When this music video
ends, it will automatically be followed by an extended playlist of excellent music
videos. Press forward to skip any video or click the reverse button to
replay or return to previous songs.
Carlos Santana - Black Magic Woman
Here is the most recent "Official Live Video" of Black Magic Woman.
Trixie Whitley and her band - Photo by Anton Coene
Falling fresh into The Quiet Storm format is artist Trixie Whitley and her song titled "Silent Rebel Pt. 2", which is track #5 off her most recent album titled Fourth Corner. It's hard to pigeon hole Whitley's music into any particular genre, she is all over the map in terms of so many sub genres of rock, soul, blues, and jazz.
She hangs with one fantastic photographer in particular, Anton Coene, who has been shooting a majority of her music videos as well as candid live films of Trixie recording songs from Fourth Corner while in the studio, like this song that is officially Quiet Storm... Buy the entire song and/or record here if you like it!
A few years before Norah Jones began to rise to fame on her own, Jones was the vocalist in a band called Lazslo with guitarist Jerome Covington, Aaron Crouch on keyboard, vibraphone & samples, Marc Rogers on electric bass and Bill Campbell on drums.
Before I knew who Norah Jones was, I had originally found this song on MP3.Com when MP3.Com was filled with what seemed like millions of bands I'd never heard. It was one of the best places ever to discover new talent by simply digging through songs.
Finding this song was like finding that proverbial needle in a haystack. Loved it right away, and it has stayed on my personal music playlist for many years. Only recently, after digging around, was I able to figure out that the act featured Norah Jones and friends. Enjoy!
Lazslo (featuring Norah Jones) - performing the song Butterflies