Search - Robbie Krieger :: Rko Live

Doors and all that jazz

Jinkyu | 05/03/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Recall the brilliant Paul Rothchild-produced Doors album "Strange Days." Such a tightly structured concept album, perhaps reflecting the all-time greatest blend of unity of a group into single songs (and mood). Robby Krieger, without a pick and employing bottleneck, did the beautiful high-pitched guitar glides and slides and eerie twangs on various songs, played the acid solo in "When the Music's Over," electrified in "My Eyes Have Seen You," and dished out regular great blues and hard rock guitar. The Doors were so together, man--it was not even Jim Morrison and The Doors, always The Doors. But this is a very talented great guitarist, who wrote "Light My Fire," after all. What's he like on his own? Many years have passed since then, and Robby has become his own man. His accomplishments are many, and his post-Doors production exceeds that of the legendary group. Still, he found demand for Doors songs during his solo career was always there, and in fact increased over time. The Robby Krieger Organization is a revolving door band, no pun intended, known for playing mostly Doors numbers and jazz covers, although they have a few jazz songs of their own. The group on this live CD comprises only Robby and his two-person accompaniment, who perform four Doors songs along with several covers of jazzy instrumental numbers and Robby's own heavy, fuzz-boxey "Gavin Leggit." The songs were performed in small venues fit for the jazz numbers that were included. Robby's beautiful Doors classic "Spanish Caravan" and Chick Corea's "Spain" are combined in a flamenco medley. Another of the jazz numbers, "African Daisy," is a fine composition by RKO percussionist Dale Alexander.The solos of Robby and his mates cook in the jazz tunes, but I have to be honest, "Spanish Caravan" and the other Doors songs are the highlight. But they are less in the vein of The Doors and more so in that of Robby's group, which is jazz. This includes Willie Dixon's "Backdoor Man," such a defining cover for Jim Morrison's stage persona, but here with Robby on vocals instead. Robby's "Light My Fire," my favorite song of all time, has its solo considerably extended, lending itself to jazzy interpretation. "Riders on the Storm" fits in well because it is arguably more jazzy than any Doors song in original form. But here, it is Skip Vanwinkl's Hammond organ rather than Ray Manzarek's piano we hear, along with Robby's liquid guitar, gliding and flowing, producing a great variation on this hypnotic song. Still, for all I've said about jazz, I must emphasize the eclecticism on the CD, for that is what Robby is all about. He is often described as a flamenco guitarist for want of a single adjective, but The Doors--they were a psychedelic blues band, right? Enough of regular rock and blues is here, along with flamenco and all that jazz. RKO Live is a rich experience, and one of my favorites."

RKO Live

James E. Allison | Virginia, USA | 03/09/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Robbie Krieger truly sizzles in this live representation of his works. Since the breakup of the Doors, Krieger has been pressing forward, improving as he goes along. In this CD Krieger does 4 classic Doors tunes - Back Door Man, Spanish Caravan, Riders On the Storm, and Light My Fire. Krieger's singing of these songs is excellent. The music on this CD is basically jazz oriented, but his rock & roll side is always there. Mixing Jim Morrisons poetry with the song 'Light My Fire' was purely a work of inspiration, elevating the song to a lustrious 13 minutes. There are a number of instrumentals on the CD as well which showcase Kriegers remarkable style of guitar wizardry. This is far from a 90's Doors concert, but it does highlight the musical genious of a man who survived that era and is still going on strong. The sound quality of the CD is not as good as one would like, but not withstanding, the music still shines through. If you like jazz, and if you like the Doors, check it out."

Jazz Trio plays the Doors

kireviewer | Sunnyvale, Ca United States | 07/22/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is a poor sounding live recording. There is no dynamic range. There is an echo. You can hear the audience talking in the background. If the sound quality were better, I might give this 4 stars, based on the quality of the music. It is 66 minutes long and only has miminal talking and clapping between tracks.If you got this far, you know that Robby Kreiger is the guitar player for the Doors. (I would say "was", but the Doors have sort of reformed with Krieger and Ray Manzarek). Some people say he was an unrated guitar player. That is not true. Critics and fans have a good grasp of how good of a guitar player he is.Kreiger has a unique playing style that was an important part of the Doors sound. He produced an eerie, dark sound that went well with Jim Morrison's vocals. His guitar playing also enhanced the Doors out of control live sound. Kreiger is not a flaming, jamming guitar god, like Eric Clapton or Duane Allman. He plays short, and repeated riffs. He cannot carry on a long guitar solo. He cannot play intricate, fast riffs. The guitar intro to Spanish Caravan on the album Waiting For the Sun, was done by a guest musician. On this album, RKO Live, he tries to play that intro, but cannot do a complete job of it. Although Kreiger has some limitations, he is still an excellent musician and was part of the one of the 20 most important rock acts of all time.The music on this album is pretty good and has many interesting parts. The band plays a mixture of jazz tunes and Doors songs. Like the Doors, the band can be loose, sloppy and almost out of control at times. It is interesting that the jazz tunes are played tighter than the rock tunes. Kreiger does the vocals. He has a strange, beat poet sort of voice.If you are any kind of Doors fan, especially of the live music, than this is an interesting album to get. The music is good, but not fantastic. I was sligthly disappointed, but I expected something more from Kreiger, based on what he did with the Doors. The sound quality knocks it down to 3 stars."