Kitaro Dream Full Album

[Kenya Ahyet]

MostYes fans may not have heard of Jimmy Haun, but they probably have heard him playbecause Haun plays much of the guitar on Union. Where and why it is Haun, not Howe, on so much of the album is answered below, but Haun's involvement with the Yes men goes beyond that album. He's worked on and off with Billy Sherwood over the last two decades, beginning with Lodgic at the beginning of the eighties. Haun has also worked in the Chris Squire Experiment and on albums with Jon Anderson.

Jimmy Haun: My father was a quite famous opera singer [Jimmy'sfather, Rouvaun, live on Ed Sullivan] and I remember sitting up late with him at four years old and he would play various jazz, classical, movie themes... he loved Mancini. So it was always in my bones. My first rock album was Meet the Beatles. Then we moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, 'cause my dad got a big gig at the Dunes. And that's where I met Michael Sherwood in 3rd Grade. His dad was also in the biz so we became best friends. Michael had this big room set-up with a drum set and an electric guitar (a Gibson 175!) and we used to pretend we were different groups, the Monkees, the Beatles... and Billy Sherwood was still in diapers.

Well, I got my first guitar at age 11 and learned how to play some Grand Funk songs ('cause they were the easiest to learn!) and put a band together with Tom and Mark Fletcher. I remember hearing "Roundabout" on the radio once and it changed my whole perspective on music. So I bought the record and listened over and over. Next I bought Close to the Edge and of course learned "And You and I". But the real pivot point for me as a guitarist was locking myself in my room for one month and learning Yes's version of "America" note for note. My friends say that changed my playing. So I got my hands on anything challenging, John McLaughlin, Jeff Beck. We even rented out a rehearsal room and recorded "Close to the Edge" with me on vocals. Anyway, we became quite good and started playing parties and in Vegas you could get a generator and throw huge multiband parties in the middle of the desert. Out of all this, Lodgic was formed and we did pretty progressive music for the time. Then a manager (Barry Morgan) from LA heard our band at a local club and gave us money to move to LA. Billy Sherwood was a drummer back then and he was getting a lot of flak from the neighbors so I told him why don't you just play bassyou can always use the headphones! So he traded his beautiful midnight blue Tama set for a lesser value Kramer Bass, but within two years he was good enough to join the band! Well, some time and gigs later the guys from Toto (David Paich, Steve Porcaro) got us signed to A&M and they also produced the album Nomadic Sands.

JH: Actually, Billy and I started a group right away and started rehearsing and recorded some songs. He was also helping Bruce Gowdy on the side with another project to become World Trade. I was also doing studio stuff and working with other bands like Michael Ruff, Ronnie Laws. Around this time I met Sheryl Crow: she had heard a demo I did for Rob Lowe and asked who the guitar player was so I joined her groupGreg Philiangaines on keys, Jerry Watts on bass, Armand Grimaldi on drums. We did some gigs, even Chris Squire came down to see us along with Eric Clapton.

JH: Well, I got a call one day from my friend Steve Porcaro (who knew of my love of Yes) and he said they (Arista) were looking for a guitar player who could sound like Steve Howe. They asked Steve Porcaro if Steve Lukather would do it but Steve P. said he had the guy. So I went to A&M studios in Hollywood to meet Jon Elias and he played me the rough tracks for the new ABWH album. Basically he told me Arista felt Steve's guitar parts were unacceptable and that he had just soloed over all the songs. Now this was partially true. What they wanted was a blend of the old classic Steve Howe sound mixed with Trevor Rabin! I guess they felt it would sell more records. So Jonathan gave me a mix of three songs with no guitar on them ("Without Hope", "Dangerous" and "Silent Talking"), told me to do what Howe/Rabin would do. So in my home studio I recorded wall to wall guitar parts and mailed Jonathan the tape to New York. There was also two other name guitar players (I wish I could tell you who) who had done the same thing but they liked my tape the best, so I flew to New York for approximately three months and recorded guitar for my favorite band (a dream come true!). Meanwhile Billy [Sherwood] had hooked up separately with Chris and Alan through a whole other channel.

JH: I would track from 5pm till usually 5am. I did this for a straight month and a half with no days off. Basically, they made a 24-track slave tape with a rough mix of the song with Jon's vocal and I would lay ideas on the remaining 20 or so tracks. It was usually Buzz (the engineer) and I working together and occasionally Jon Elias or Alex Lasarenko would stop in and offer some ideas. After each session Jonathan [Elias] would play it for Jon Anderson and I would get feedback that way. When the album was finally mixed, they synced up three 24-track machines. It was Jon Anderson, Jon Elias and one other person (whom I've been asked not to mention) who made the final decision what part would go on the album.

JH: Arista really wanted classic Steve Howe and I guess they felt they weren't getting it with the existing parts. So I did my best and I think a lot of it worked (I even fooled some band members). Arista was originally not going to credit me at all, so I was lucky to get what credit I got. So for posterity here's what was Steve and what was me. (If you listen to Union live bootlegs you can get an idea of what I came up with and Steve's original parts.)

Track 1: "I Would Have Waited Forever". The opening riff is me (Arista wanted this sort of a "Starship Trooper" thing), then Steve really just played the recurring single thread line at 0:24 to 0:49 and the end solo. I played all the other guitars (electrics, acoustic, some effect overdubs).

Track 2: "Shock to the System". Must have been a shock to Steve's systemthere is simply no Steve Howe on that at all! Steve had, of course, written the opening riff (which I ended up replacing for sonic reasons). I think this was my favorite track because I got to write most of the riffs and there was this new section we came up with and tacked on at 4:10 and the riff is very reminiscent of "Gates of Delirium". And I had to replace some of the bass! (Tony Levin left his bass at the studio so we got his exact sound and added the sections.) I guess Steve refused to play this section live. (This is the track that Rabin played for Steve on the plane during the Union tour and Steve's mouth dropped.)

Track 8: "Silent Talking". I replaced the main riff because there were timing discrepancies and I tried to get as close to Steve Howe's sound as I could. There are a couple of riffs that were kept of Steve's, where you can hear his tone is a little different, like at 0:46 to 1:03.

Track 12: "Holding On". Steve just played the first main riff at 0:31 to 0:47 and that's it folks. There is a lot of riffing on this especially toward the end, but it is all me and I think it's a pretty good likeness of Steve.

Track 15: "Give and Take". It starts out Steve on the main melody and I did harmonics over that. I played all of the verses as well as the chorus. Steve's sound is basically the distorted thinner sound that never changes tone. It was that way on all his tracks and I think the powers that be felt there needed to be more colors from the guitars, hence my involvement.

JH: I think that the record is very palatable and has a lot to offer musically. I do understand the fan reaction and I think a lot of it has little to do with the musical aspect, but rather the political and the fact that there isn't much Yes there. And if I was Steve Howe, I would have been ticked off if someone came in and replaced my parts too. But I did try to be sensitive to his sound and style like using a Gibson ES-175 and stuff.

HP: We've talked a bit about being a Yes fan yourself: how did you get into the band? What are your favorite Yes songs/albums? And what do you think of the most recent Yes albums, since Union?

JH: I heard "Roundabout" at a party in 1971 and it sounded like heaven or something, so different than anything on the radio. So I bought the single with "Long Distance Runaround" on the back. I ended up buying every Yes album possible and eagerly awaiting the next release. I have to say my favorite album is Close to the Edge, then RelayerSteve's solo in "To be Over" is a masterpiece. Then Topographic Oceans. To me, Yes became a different animal after 90125, not that I didn't enjoy them, Rabin's work was brilliant, still it seemed to become a pop machine so my interest in the newer started drifting and I kept going back to the Topographic Ocean's and Close to the Edge's. Billy [Sherwood]'s involvement was very important. He did and wanted to do so much for that band, but as Rabin said it's a very tough position.

JH: I met the guys in Air Supply during my session days and they asked if I'd like do a tour, so I did and it was a lot of fun for about five years. I brought Michael [Sherwood] and Guy [Allison] aboard after a while, then finally Mark T. Williams.

HP: Then came The Key with Billy Sherwood and Mark T. Williams. You recorded an album, Delta Sierra Juliet, which was never released. What's the story behind that and might we ever get to hear it?

JH: We basically wrote this album at Billy's and it was really good. We shopped it to the companies and got signed by Impact Records (MCA), but at the last minute the company folded. Billy and I have been talking of a resurrection. The music is more guitar orientated than World Trade. The song "Dark Sky" (written by Haun, Sherwood, Williams) from World Trade's second album was more the direction of The Key

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