The place where vintage rock classics meets state of the art instrumental jazz-rock can be discovered and heard on the 2025 album release of Living Standards II by New York based drummer Karl Latham. The musical format follows up on the 2016 release of Living Standards. The basic concept entails dusting off vintage rock classics from the late 1960s and early ‘70s for the most part and reviving them as instrumental jazz fusion powerhouse tracks.

The album features Latham and company breathing jazz fusion fire into these songs long venerated by rock fans, including tracks first written and recorded by The Doors (“Break On Through”), Buffalo Springfield (“Rock And Roll Woman”), early 1980s King Crimson (“Matte Kudasai”), Derek & The Dominos (“Layla”) and others. Several other tracks by CSN&Y along with a Steppenwolf cover are also brought back to life. The sound on the CD is impeccable and the players supporting Latham are gifted and in-sync with his retro-fusion sparked vision.

Among the players supporting Latham are Mark Egan (bass), Mitch Stein (guitars), Henry Hey (keys), Roger Squintero (percussion) with guest artist Wolfgang Lackerschmid on vibraphone. Karl Latham has worked with jazz icons like Dizzy Gillespie Alumni and Bernie Worrell as well as blues rock legends Johnny Winter and Edgar Winter so he’s clearly well versed enough in both genres to give these rock classics a new life, this time as electrifying fusion instrumentals.

Roots Music Report presents a new interview with Karl Latham

RMR: You released the first volume of Living Standards in 2016. In terms of the tracks chosen, production and recording, can you compare the first Living Standards album with the 2025 release of Living Standards II? Only Mark Egan returned from the first volume? I actually saw Mark play with the Pat Metheny Group at My Father’s Place on Long Island in 1979.

Karl Latham: I believe that I saw Mark on that tour as well! Seeing the original PMG was mind altering. Mark and I are very good friends, both Living Standards recordings were actually recorded in my studio, which was Mark’s former home studio. Living Standards is an extension of a group I played in with Mark and John Hart: UNIT1. Mark released it on Wavetone Records. When John Hart relocated to Florida we were grateful that Vic Juris wanted to join the group. The material was picked by Mark and me. The arrangements came together collectively and Mark made final touches to his beautiful arrangement of “Cinnamon Girl”.

I have lists of songs that I consider for the group. I started playing with music for Living Standards II right after the shutdown ended with Mitch Stein, Rachel Z and Calvin X Jones, later with Jonathan Toscano. I had a very clear concept of how I wanted to approach the music, but always defer to the musicians when they have a great musical idea. On Living Standards II I to clearly pay homage to the time period that the songs were recorded. Miles Davis’  Live/Evil and Jack Johnson are clearly referenced in “Carry On Parts I and II”. My production concept is to play through a song before a take and see how everyone feels, when everyone likes the arrangement concept, tempo, etc, I push, or the engineer, record.

RMR: Many jazz classics still get lots of coverage but many jazzers don’t consider rock classics to be part of the jazz repertoire, although that has changed over the past 60 years or so. I think Wes Montgomery when covered the Beatles in the late 1960s. What made you realize the power of these rock songs as played as fusion instrumentals? Can you give an example where the tracks were arranged as fusion tracks?

Karl Latham: I often play music from the great American Songbook with brilliant traditional jazz musicians. The inception for Living Standards was inspired by playing those songs for years.  I realized that those songs were POPULAR music in their time. Which is why I chose to record songs that were popular when I was first exposed to music. There is timeless music created in all periods, if I was growing up now I would be covering Taylor Swift and Beyonce, which Don Braden and I actually did in our group Big FunK. There are many musicians including Brad Mehldau that make beautiful covers of pop songs.

RMR: Can you tell us what era of music you grew up on and did these songs have an impact on you growing up? I read you have some older siblings also into music? 

Karl Latham: I was a bit of a nut. I was first exposed to drumming at 5, my older brother was a drummer and played as a hobby musician most of his life. He played in bands covering Santana, The Allman Brothers, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors etc. It had a profound influence on my development. The first professional group I saw live was Chicago at age 7, but the second was the Mahavishnu Orchestra, I think in 7th grade. They blew my mind. The first “jazz” recording I heard was Miles Davis’ Big Fun. I also had a very healthy dose of ECM recordings due to a local record shop, which had WEA cutouts. I was listening to PMG, Keith Jarrett, Terje Rypdal, Egberto Gismonti etc but playing Led Zeppelin, James Gang and Santana in cover bands. I destroyed a few car dashboards playing along with Billy Cobham, Gerry Brown and Alphonse Mouzon.

mwe3: Tell about your drumming, how long you’ve been playing and do you play other instruments? What drum set are you playing on the Living Standards albums?

Karl Latham: I have been playing since I was 5. I started formal lessons at 12 and was in the NJ All State Band as a classical snare drummer and tympanist. I went on to study at Rutgers and Berklee and with amazing teachers including Gary Chester, Joe Morello and Michael Carvin. I started playing in garage bands very early, my first paying gig was at 15.

I am in a constant state of evolution as a musician. My New York career started in fusion and contemporary jazz, but I was also playing in many funk and rock groups. I met bassist John Lee in the early ‘90s and started my journey into playing many other music’s, straight ahead jazz, Brazilian Jazz, Latin Jazz and Avant Garde. I toured often in Europe in the groups of Wolfgang Lackerschmid from 1993-2018 and other European artists.

In the last decade I have been studying and playing more and more straight ahead jazz, performing on a regular basis with John Lee and as a sub for the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars and Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Latin Experience with Paquito D’Rivera.

I have been a Yamaha Drum Artist for over 30 years and Paiste Cymbals artist nearly as long. I am very focused on my choice of instruments/microphones. On Living Standards II, I chose my Yamaha Hybrid Maple drums with a few different Yamaha snare drums. The cymbals are a mixture of Paiste Masters Series, 602’s, and Traditonals. As important as the drums are the microphones I use. I am a ribbon mic freak and whenever I can, I use my AEA N8’s as overheads coupled with their preamps. I used a Heil bass drum mic I love for this sound, with an AEA R84 out in front of the bass drum.

mwe3: I hope there’s a Living Standards III. If so, what songs would be high on the list to cover?

Karl Latham: I love that you used “III”. That is exactly the concept. I keep a running of list of dozens of songs, but some things high on the list are: “Listen to the Music” - “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is” - “I Want to Take You Higher” - “Whiter Shade of Pale” - “Benny and the Jets” and “Something”...  but I have about 3 dozen more on the list already :).

mwe3: What other plans do you have as far as writing, recording, producing and performing live for 2025?

Karl Latham: A top priority is that I am currently looking for someone to book Living Standards; whenever we perform live people love this group. I am involved in an Avant Garde co-release with Bob Gluck and Christopher Dean Sullivan, slated for fall 2025 on FMR. Don Braden and I are probably going to release our studio recording of Big FunK. I have upcoming performances with Don Braden and with Living Standards.

I most often perform in various groups led by iconic bassist John Lee and anticipate some subbing with the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni. As far as my own projects, I am planning as you guessed: Living Standards III. I am also planning to release either my first true straight ahead jazz recording or something in the line of a CTI homage style jazz recording, with a traditional jazz instrumentation and soundscape. I will be contributing as drummer/engineer on a few recordings as well.