All Around Sound is Turning Four - Day 5: Kishi Bashi

It was a strange sort of serendipity that brought me to Kishi Bashi - or rather the sense of serendipity a showgoer feels when the opening act for the band you actually paid to see is not only good but incredible. I had long been a fan of Sondre Lerche and trusted his pretty much flawless skill in electing such talented openers but nothing prepared me at all for Kishi Bashi. When he took the stage with violin in hand and practically an armory of instruments at his disposal I settled in for a show and certainly was not disappointed. It wasn't the spectacle of your typical one man band but the pure display of bonafide musicianship and enjoyment that won me over. Everyone longs for that one 'I saw this band when they played to pretty much no one in a bar in the middle of nowhere' story and Kishi Bashi is more or less mine. Except you can replace "bar in the middle of nowhere" with the Bowery Ballroom and "no one" to a packed house of unexpected (but delighted) observers. Nevertheless I had that moment, shared with a bunch of strangers, and seeing his gradual rise from virtually unknown opener to venue packing headliner is a point of pride for me. As I continued to catch him live and noted the borderless development of a unique trademark sound a question always nagged at me that never quite got answered (or asked) the few times I've been able to strong arm Kishi Bashi into talking to me - what sort of music does K. even listen to? So I asked him and got this mix.

Kishi Bashi's contribution:

Kishi Bashi's 21 favorite mostly funky classic moments in prog rock / jazz-rock fusion  (in no particular order):

WARNING: DANGEROUSLY HIGH LEVELS OF MUSICIANSHIP. SOME OF THESE MAY BE ENJOYABLE TO MUSICIANS' EARS ONLY!