My jazz guitar journey

I feel like playing again

2011-09-03T01:03:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile. I'm tiring of things electronic.

Not sure how I feel about things electric.

But I felt like picking up the guitar. I'm thinking about swing on the steel-string acoustic.

I have a couple PDFs of classic Eddie Lang methods to work with, but as always it would probably be better to learn some tunes.

New Ted Greene tribute CD

2008-01-03T16:29:00.000-08:00

I've gotten a postcard about the new Ted Greene tribute CD, but I haven't done anything about it yet (the year is young, the end of it busy and otherwise frought).

I continue to think Jake Shimabukuro is one of the best instrumentalists out there

2008-01-03T16:24:00.000-08:00

And on the ukulele, no less. Check out the videos on his page, plus the many videos on YouTube.

This guy really knocks me out. I don't see too many people on any instrument doing what he does.

This page lost its counter when I updated the template

2008-01-03T16:18:00.000-08:00

The new Blogger has great templates -- you can move stuff all around. Since I haven't bothered "tagging" any of the entries, I can't do a "tag cloud," and I'm not even sure Blogger even offers it.

And while I have started a tech-related WordPress blog, I still have a very good feeling for the Blogger service and its interface. In fact, I have a tech blog of the same name in Blogger. But since I can blog during work hours on the Daily News site, most of my effort continues to go into Click, my Daily News blog on technology, about 99 percent of which has to do with open-source software, primarily Linux, with a smattering of BSD, other applications and just a little bit of Windows and Mac info.

But I've gotten the itch to start playing again. Gotta figure out the next step. (Picking up the box is probably the thing to do, don't you thing?)

The Ted Greene page is really coming along

2007-10-26T13:54:00.001-07:00

I haven't been over to the Ted Greene page lately, but it has a whole lot more content than the last time I checked. The site has a bit of a strange design -- you need to click a few more times than you'd think, but it's very much worth it.

There's lots of audio and video, plus quite a few lesson sheets and tunes in PDF form. Even though this stuff is on the Web, I'd love to see some released in book and CD/DVD form.

Barbara, if you see this, you are doing a great job.

Song I heard today that I want to play

2007-10-26T13:31:00.001-07:00

"Play That Funky Music, White Boy"

Too cliche? Too obvious?

I say no.

Blog still seems to hold up

2007-10-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

A look at the stats shows that 10 to 30 people a day hit this blog.

The tech blog I do for the Daily News draws between 100 and 200 on a bad day, and 300 to 600 when I get a good link on another blog or site. On a really good week, meaning a good link during a heavy tech-news period, it can go up to 1,000 or 2,000 a day. That hasn't happened in awhile.

But I'm happier here with 30 a day than I am over there with 200.

On a related note, I'm thinking of moving this blog over to WordPress. Besides being a newer, ostensibly better service, WordPress will allow this blog to be moved over, supposedly in its entirety, and will then allow backups to XML files. I have no idea whether or not Blogger supports this same feature, but I'd like to find out.

One thing's for sure: Writing on Blogger beats the hell out of doing it on Movable Type.

It's been a long 10 months

2007-10-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

I haven't written here in a long time. Not much has been happening in the musical realm. The time I do have has been spent working on computers and blogging about it. That sort of thing comes easier. Picking up an instrument I haven't picked up in months and months, trying to relearn what I've forgotten and learn what I never knew is a daunting prospect.

I even worried about the blog being called "Jazz Guitar Journey," because the direction I'm going in remains instrumental and solo but is diverging away from the jazz repertoire. Looking at the long term (and the way I'm going, there is no short term), I'm going to keep the name. If I ever do shift my focus back here, there's no telling what will happen.

Long layoffs from playing. They don't happen to everyone, but they do happen to plenty of us. Some go years or decades without playing. The challenge of returning to the box is one that isn't written about much.

I've seen a couple of players lately. One at a wedding, another on the street in Santa Monica. Neither were all that great, but just seeing people playing out is inspiring.

Especially when it comes to street performers, they toil in obscurity that is anything but relative. People rarely stop, and there's not a lot of attention or respect paid. That all changes when the player is really good and knows how to perform. But a lot of solo guitar playing is meant to be backgroundish. You can still catch ears with good playing.

Time for a Ted Greene reference. I've read plenty of stories about how Ted liked to play parties. He's set up and play, knowing full well what the deal was. Of course, somebody with Ted's talent and command of hundreds or thousands of tunes (much like the great piano players who do this sort of thing, but unlike most guitarists) could draw in a single person or a whole room as much as he liked. Invariably, the stories come around to the person in the room (the teller of the story) who is a huge fan and can't believe that a then-living-legend is playing the party.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that a guy like Ted Greene was so unique, but that shouldn't be the case. Guitarists, like pianists, should know how to play tons of tunes by themselves and be able to do so for a few hours at a crack.

And here I am, not playing at all for months. I couldn't fake my way through a whole tune, much less 10, 20 or more.

It all begins somewhere. At the beginning.

Not that I've been doing anything lately

2007-01-22T15:59:00.000-08:00

... but between 10 and 30 people a day stop by this blog. That's more than my other blogs, which get updated way more often.

I guess it speaks to the popularity of jazz guitar among Web surfers because most of you arrive here as the result of search engines. Since Google is so Blogger-friendly, the former owning the latter and all, I come up pretty high in a lot of searches.

Lately I've been spending more time on writing, blogging, working on my various computing projects (Mac, PC and now Palm) doing my "real" paid work at the Daily News and spending time with my family ... not necessarily in that order.

But my musical future -- and very likely a whole new blog to go with it -- will being unfolding at some point soon.

At least I hope.

While here, I heard the new Sheryl Bailey live organ trio record, and it was pretty good. She's such an expressive player -- she can really speak through her instrument. I do have her instruction book, "The Chord Rules," and I have to confess that it seemed a little simplistic, like there wasn't enough there to really get you going as an improviser -- or maybe I'm missing the point.

Ed Bickert with Rob McConnell

2006-10-16T13:57:00.000-07:00

Just skip to the 4-minute mark for Ed soloing with Rob McConnell's quintet

Nobody can play like Ed.

Marc Sabatella to the rescue

2006-10-16T13:45:00.000-07:00

One of the smartest people I've come in contact with on the Internet when it comes to jazz -- and playing music in general -- is Marc Sabatella.

Case in point, a rec.music.makers.guitar.jazz discussion on bebop heds and the David Baker bebop books:

For one thing, it's not like these guys were "using" the bebop scale in
the way we might think about it today. They were using the major and
minors scale, and tossing in some passing tones when it felt necessary.
Baker just codified this practice by putting names on particular
combinations of major and minor scales with passing tones. So one
shouldn't expect to see anything that looks quite as pat as Baker makes
it sound. Sure, beboppers used passing tones all the time, but in a way
MUCH more varied than would appear from learning a small set of fixed
"bebop scales".

Second, I think you'll find more use of this particular devices in
*solos* than in heads, simply because the heads don't tend to have quite
the same types of long streams of eighth notes in which these passing
tones are most effective. Heads are still great to learn to get a
general feel for the language in terms of phrasing and so forth, but if
you really need to see a lot of examples of people using passing tones
in the way Baker describes, look at the solos in the Omnibook (or
transcribe a few yourself). Personally, I don't feel the concept of
adding passing tones to one's lines is so hard to grasp that it really
requires examples in order to be able to do so oneself. Sure you might
come up with something slightly *different* from the ways Bird et all
used passing tones. As far as I am concerned, that's a *good* thing.

Here's Marc's whole post. The entire thread.

What's funny, also, is that Marc is a pianist, not a guitarist, but he hangs out on RMMGJ because it's got about 20 times the activity of rec.music.makers.jazz. I highly recommend Marc's book, "The Harmonic Language of Jazz Standards," which offers a new way of understanding harmony in the context of playing the standards in a jazz context. Now it's all based on standard Western-style harmonic analysis, but with lots of creative ways to look at and understand that harmony, with the goal being the ability to play a standard tune from musical memory, on the spot, in any key, without ever having seen the lead sheet. It's a lofty goal that I'm pretty sure I'll never reach, but there's plenty to learn from the book nonetheless. And it applies equally to guitar and piano, if you're wondering.

Ted Greene update

2006-10-04T17:39:00.000-07:00

First of all, the Ted Greene tribute Web site is back ... with lists of stuff instead of actual content -- but hey, it's a start.

And check out these videos on YouTube:

"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" from a 2003 seminar (at California Vintage Guitar & Amp in Sherman Oaks, I believe)

"Autumn Leaves" from a seminar at the Musicians Institute (date uncertain to me, but I know it's MI because that's what's printed on the music stand -- note the Tele with single-coil neck pickup)

"Autumn Leaves" part 2

Mannnn. Ted is still the greatest.

Ed Bickert on "Pure Desmond"

2006-08-22T12:08:00.000-07:00

"Pure Desmond," Ed Bickert's first album with the great alto saxophonist, is one of my Holy Grail discs. I think it has Bickert's best recorded sound ever, and I've heard all sorts of explanation as to why it sounds like it does (both pro and con).

One of the best sources is Canadian guitarist and teacher Joey Goldstein, who's very active on rec.music.makers.guitar.jazz. He's answered my questions on this before, but I believe this is the first time he says that Ed Bickert's Telecaster, on "Pure Desmond," could be equipped with the original single-coil neck pickup and not a Gibson humbucker (as seen in the 1980s at left). And Joey also thinks that Ed might have played at his bar mitzvah (whoa!) Also -- Ed had an ES-175:

From:
Joey Goldstein
Date: Sun, Aug 20 2006 12:20 pm
Email: Joey Goldstein ...@nowhere.net>
Groups: rec.music.makers.guitar.jazz

Dave M wrote:

> I recently got The Paul Desmond Quartet Live (from Toronto) album (the
> one w/ Desmond on the cover looking like Larry King). Bickert's tone is
> warm and clear, and sustaining, and there's something about it--a
> certain openness in the freq range that reminds me a hollowbody. This
> album was recorded in '75. Wasn't he playing the Tele by then? Anyone
> know for sure?

Yes. He was playing the Tele on Pure Desmond as well but I think he may have had the single coil pickup still on it.

I think he switched to the humbucker right after Pure Desmond, but I could be wrong.

Most of the recordings of Ed in existence will have him on the Tele. But I've got a jazz calendar with a pic of the CBC Orchestra, circa 1964 (or possibly earlier), and he's holding a 175.

I think, but I'm not sure, that Ed was in the band that my Dad hired to play at my bar mitzvah. He hired some CBC musicians and I think Moe Koffman was the leader. My friends were all..."That guy plays slow!"....But I said "Yeah, but look at those chords!". I was more into fast playing myself but at least I had the sense to recognize the chords.

-- Joey Goldstein http://www.joeygoldstein.com joegold AT sympatico DOT ca

Keith Murch said Ed's favorite amp was a Standel. (But was it a solid state or tube model?) I have heard good things about the old solid-state Standels. Ed used a Roland Cube-60 for many years, but that amp was first made in the 1980s. For all we know, Ed could've used whatever amp the studio already had. Along the same thread (but not really), rumor is that Rudy Van Gelder's Englewood Cliffs, N.J., studio had a Fender Deluxe amp that all the guitar players used on his sessions. Even today, many guitarists just don't travel with amps. On the road, they use what the venue provides, usually a Fender Twin or Roland JC-120. When he toured as a solo artist, Joe Pass neither brought nor even used a guitar amplifier. He just went through a direct box straight to the board.

Get the box out

2006-08-08T14:19:00.000-07:00

We've been furiously getting ready for Lulu's 3rd birthday party, and we did windows on Sunday. Not Windows (as in XP) but windows (as in glass). By the afternoon, we decided to have lunch outside since it's finally bearable under the trees in the back yard. After we ate, the girl went directly to playing in the dirt, and I pulled out the box -- the Goya classical -- to noodle around a bit. Nothing too heavy (although I did work on easy tunes just a bit), just tuning it up and playing around a bit -- right-hand fingers, no pick.

It reminds me just how much I love the sound of nylon strings.

Anyhow, the girl -- after hand-washing -- strummed a bit as I fingered some chords, and then we put the guitar away and both played in the dirt for awhile.

But I did get the box out. I've got to get my weekdays together and spend lunch at least a few of those days playing. That's my new goal.

I have a confession to make

2006-08-01T17:21:00.000-07:00

I haven't picked up the guitar for a couple of months now. Aside from things at the Daily News getting more and more hectic all the time (I'm blogging over there a ton, too), and the summer's searing heat screwing with my lunchtime practices, I find myself drawn to other pursuits, mostly all the computer-related stuff (as chronicled in This Old Mac and This Old PC).

I've been planning, in my mind, where I want to go with the guitar, and I've been collecting music that I want to incorporate into my solo repertoire. I can imagine, in my mind, how I want it to sound, the approach I want to take (it becomes more rock, less jazz), but none of this involves picking up the box and playing it. I lug around a laptop computer, not a guitar bag.

I think part of this is that I have some long-standing barriers in my playing that I have to break through, and while planning and collecting music for the tunes I want to play, actually getting one of those tunes under my fingers, the whole way through, is what I have to do. Even if it's one tune. I get frustrated: I can't sit down and play a half-hour set of tunes. But I've got to build them up, one at a time. And at this point, I can't really expect to come up with the arrangements on the fly. I'll have to either use a pre-written arrangement or (preferably) come up with my own and stick to it. And even knowing just one tune all the way through in some kind of solo rendition would be huge at this point. Of course that means really knowing that tune. The whole melody and all the chords, along with a good idea theoretically what's going on so I can take it into other keys. Hell, at this point one tune, one key is enough.

I'm thinking that if I make the goals small enough, they won't be so insurmountable that I never even try to achieve them.

Hell, if I can write 200 blog posts, I can learn a couple of tunes. (See, I'm already up to two.)

New Jody Fisher album

2006-07-12T16:55:00.000-07:00

Jody Fisher has a new album out of solo guitar, called "Wistful Thinking," this time entirely of original compositions. There are extensive samples here.

At $15 each for his most recent two albums, it's quite a bargain -- I think Jody is one of the best solo jazz guitarists out there. He manages to bring a whole host of influences together (Joe Pass, Ted Greene, Lenny Breau, George Van Eps) to create a very musical, flowing presentation. As I've said before, I consider him the heir to Ted Greene, as far as this kind of playing is concerned. I've got to take the plunge at some point and get his solo guitar instruction books/CDs, "The Art of Solo Guitar."

Ted Greene site controversy

2006-07-12T16:47:00.000-07:00

I followed a link to the Ted Greene memorial site, and it seems that due to a dispute between Ted's siblings and those who run the Web site (including Ted's girlfriend Barbara), the site has been taken down. Only forums remain, where it's pretty easy to follow what happened. Leon White (producer of the "Solo Guitar" LP) and others say lawsuits were threatened, and that led to suspension of the fast-growing compendium of Ted's lesson materials, recordings, etc.

Go here to follow the thread.

If you go through the various parts of the forum, you'll stumble across gems like this. Blogger isn't cooperating when it comes to uploading photos, or I'd post one of the many on the forum here.

Irving Berlin and D# minor

2006-07-06T12:44:00.000-07:00

I knew that Irving Berlin couldn't read or write music, but can't believe this from his Wikipedia entry:

In spite of his musical career, Berlin never learned how to play a piano or read music beyond a rudimentary level. He reportedly was unable to compose in any key other than F-sharp major (or, presumably, D-sharp minor, since he also wrote songs in minor keys) and owned a special piano that mechanically transposed keys while an assistant wrote out the music scores.

He could only play in one key? Since a lot of show tunes modulate like crazy, how did he handle that? Did the "special piano" transpose on the fly somehow?

Here's what Wikipedia says:

A Transposing piano is a special piano which can be adjusted by the player (e.g. with a lever or pedal) to transpose. There are not many in existence, but they have been used, for example, by people whose skills are restricted to playing in certain keys, or by those who need to transpose music, but lack the necessary skill in so doing.

Joe Pass -- "For Django"

2006-06-20T11:36:00.000-07:00

I finally ordered this -- got a gift certificate for Tower, and it is on "special order," which means it might come someday. Some say Pacific Jazz Joe Pass is the holy grail, and I have to agree that the character of his work for the label in the early '60s is much different from what came later for Pablo in the early '70s and beyond. I already have "Joy Spring," which was recorded live for Pacific Jazz in 1964, I believe, and is pretty much a master class in bebop guitar. Both of these records aren't easily available, though both are part of the Mosiac box set, "The Complete Pacific Jazz Joe Pass Quartet Sessions," which costs $80 and is only available direct. For those who may be wondering, neither of these two photos is from the time at which the records were recorded -- '63 and '64. Why can't they use the original artwork, or at least find period-appropriate photos of Joe? I figure the "For Django" shot is from the early '70s, and the "Joy Spring" one is from the '90s. Either way, these are two must-haves for Joe fans, and I'm glad to finally get "For Django."

As far as "Joy Spring" goes, Joe plays a lot slower and more deliberately than he does during the Pablo years. That's one of the reasons I think more players relate to the Pacific Jazz Joe that to the Pablo one -- you can really get a grip (literally, figuratively) on the bebop language for the instrument from "Joy Spring," and it's easy to steal licks off the record. There's some wonderful comping by Joe, too. "Joy Spring" should still be available as a single disc, and it's pretty much a crime that the Joe discs on the label, including "Catch Me" are so often out of print and hard to obtain.

The new Ted Greene page

2006-05-26T16:38:00.000-07:00

... is taking shape here.

Joe Pass and Roy Clark

2006-03-29T13:23:00.000-08:00

Google has an hour-long video of Joe Pass and Roy Clark playing together in the studio. I could watch Joe play rhythm all day.

I haven't had the chance to watch the whole thing, but it's a documentary with interviews of both players. Just like Joe said, I always liked Roy's playing -- it was hard to miss him on "Hee Haw" in the '70s and '80s. A very good player, as are many in the country field.

I remember reading somewhere that this was Joe's last session before his death in 1994. If so, it's a nice way to go out -- some very good music here.

Gear notes: Roy is playing a Heritage thin-bodied guitar, probably built custom for him. Joe is playing the special ES-175 that Gibson made for him in the years before his death. It has a slightly thinner body, a rosewood bridge, trapeze tailpiece and only one pickup, which is mounted flush with the neck like on an L4 CES (closer than a tradional 175), and the original Kluson tuners (not replacement Grovers).

Found via the Joe Pass Memorial Hall, where all things Joe can be learned.

It takes GIANT STONES to trade eights with OP

2006-03-29T12:15:00.000-08:00

Check out this YouTube.com video of Joe Pass playing with Oscar Peterson. NHOP on bass.

Joe is standing up, playing the Ibanez, and cooking like crazy, which is what you pretty much had to do to keep up with Oscar Peterson.

Joe plays the head of "The Cakewalk" in unison with Peterson -- and check out the section when piano and guitar trade eight-bar phrases.

Another example of Joe Pass, the complete player -- masterful rhythm guitarist, ensemble player and soloist.

John Stowell podcast

2006-03-17T12:14:00.000-08:00

For my 40th birthday, (yep, I'm 40 -- FORTY), Ilene got me a video iPod, so I downloaded the John Stowell video podcast from Portland Jazz Jams.

I haven't had a chance to really watch it, but first impressions are that the video and audio are both excellent. They could sell this thing for $24.95 through Mel Bay, and it would hold up very well.

John is playing his Doolin nylon string in front of a black background, and the performance was captured by two cameras -- there are plenty of close-ups of his hands (watching his left hand is a master class in itself), and a few "dissolves" with the views of two cameras at once.

Sound is great. Probably the best thing is that he is playing the nylon string and not an electric with a bunch of effects, which make some of his earlier recordings less than ideal.

I'll have to spend some time watching the whole thing, but this is a definite must for those who love solo jazz guitar. John Stowell is truly an original player who shouldn't be missed, and he does, in fact, sound better than ever.

Christopher Woitach

2006-02-08T15:24:00.000-08:00

Update: Christopher e-mailed me to clarify the speaker cabinet used on the audio podcast I talk about below.

I found out about Christopher Woitach when looking up John Stowell. They did a duo album, and I am really knocked out by Christopher's playing. There are some full tracks here on his Web site, but I came across this great Portland, Ore.-based jazz podcasting site. They have an unwieldy video podcast of John Stowell -- the thing's something like 150 MB.

But well in the realm of downloadable ability is this audio podcast of a Christopher Woitach live date. He sounds so good and is very creative in his lines.

(Normal people, stop reading here.)

For the geeks, he's playing a new D'Angelico NYL-2, which I think has a solid pressed spruce top. He could be playing the model with a carved top -- who knows? -- but the thing sounds like an L5, and he ~~has been known to use~~used a Clarus amp and ~~Raezer's Edge Stealth 10 cabinet~~ a cabinet made by Daedalus (in Ferndale, Wash.) that has two 8-inch and two 5-inch speakers. I think it's this one. His sound is very natural and almost a bit acoustic. And he can really play, which always helps.

More update: Christopher also reports that he is now recording a new CD, to be titled "Dead Men (Are Heavier Than Broken Hearts)," which he calls "a Raymond Chandler tribute, of sorts." I'll be looking forward to it because I think that mood and theme can really add to the enjoyability of a recording.

A John Stowell lesson

2006-02-02T11:08:00.000-08:00

Everybody always talks about how great John Stowell is, and I agree. What's great about John is that when he does a duo or group record, everybody else on the project is at the same high level, and I've discovered quite a few good players by listening to his records.

I've also heard greate things about his teaching methods, and he had a hard-to-find series of three videos out years ago, but no books. But now Mel Bay is bringing out this material on DVD (Yes! I can watch it on my Mac!), and they posted an eye-opening lesson on their site, which includes a 15-minute video clip.

The lesson is on substitutions using triads, and it shows how, over a C Major 7 chord, you can play a C, D, E, F or G major triad over the chord, detailing what you will get. For me, it illustrates both the freedom and the possibilities of jazz improvisation. If you know where you are in the tune, you have MANY places to go.

I'll have to try this out. I understand how the D major triad gives you the 9th (D), the #4 (F#) and the 6th (A); but I'm a little fuzzy on why you'd play the E major triad, since you get the 3rd (E), then the #5 (G#) and the 7th (B). I didn't think that the #5 was all that common or desirable over a major chord, and since the iii chord in the key (in C, that's E minor) is such a good choice, why you'd want to play the III (E major) anyway?

"It's just nice to have the variety," Stowell says in the video, and it helps to have some extra "colors in your palette" to play over the Maj 7 chord if it comes up a lot in a tune.

Anyway, the video looks really good, John is VERY clear and methodical, and at $19.95 for the DVD and 40-page book, this is another one on my list to check out.

Jake Hanlon, another jazz guitar master's degree student

2006-02-01T17:02:00.000-08:00

In the comments for Improvisations on a Theme, I came across Jake Hanlon (there's a blog there, among other things), another guitarist pursuing a master's degree, in this case at the mighty University of North Texas. He earned his undergraduate degree at Saint Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and he now studies and plays at UNT with his brother Josh, a pianist (yes, they both attend UNT and have a group together as well).

What seems immediately good about Jake's situation is that he gigs a whole lot, both with UNT ensembles and his own groups.

His web site also offers lessons, which I see as another good sign because graduate school, even for music, is not all about performance but equally and often more concerned with pedagogy (i.e. teaching) and research so these guys have the option/chance of a career in academia in addition to performing (and composing, etc.).

I won't go in detail at this point about what I think of studying jazz at the undergraduate and graduate levels because I really don't know enough about it. My own experience with university-level music study was one and a half years in the classical guitar BM program at California State University Northridge. I certainly learned a lot in that time about music, the nature of working hard, and about life in general. One of the things I learned was that I didn't want to pursue a career in music. After a year in, I didn't think I was good enough, and I didn't have enough desire to really commit to music as a career. I also had other interests I couldn't pursue under the crush of music studies.

I considered going into science, but humbling grades in calculus made me think twice about that, and at that point I knew I wanted to study literature and writing, and at the end of my second year at CSUN, I transferred to UC Santa Cruz, eventually graduating with a BA in comparative literature. I've spent time since then at various distances from playing music and have returned somewhat stronger in recent years, more writing about it than doing it, but that's just where I'm at right now. In the early '80s, before CSUN, I played big-band jazz in high school, but my abilities and knowledge regarding improvisation were rudimentary at best. I'm getting there slowly -- make that very slowly -- as a hobbyist now, with my goal to be getting to a level where I'm able to play out a little, whether it's jazz or some other kind of music that fits where I'm at.

But back to graduate school. I do admire these guys, and especially when they supplement their studies with playing gigs, I have a feeling they're headed in the right direction. But jazz in particular is a difficult area of music to pursue. It helps to be really, really good on your instrument, and it doesn't hurt to be able to play all styles and be ready to gig with just about any kind of performer at a moment's notice (I think that's the focus of USC's Studio/Jazz Guitar program).

Jason, a jazz guitarist in graduate school

2006-01-31T11:16:00.000-08:00

Found this on rec.music.makers.guitar.jazz -- a graduate student in jazz guitar is blogging on his experiences at Improvisations on a Theme. It's in the extremely early stages but just might offer some valuable insight into what's going on at the university level in jazz studies.

I plan to keep an eye on it, and it's going on the blogroll here in case you (or I) need to find it.

Jody Fisher and "The Art of Solo Guitar"

2006-01-27T12:29:00.000-08:00

On my to-buy list is Jody Fisher's "Impromptu," samples of which are available here. Jody has quite a career writing instruction books for Alfred Publishing, and his jazz methods are some of the best around (and I make that claim about very few of the books I see).

While Jody is a prolific teacher and author, he also sounds fantastic. He lives somewhere in Southern California's desert and gigs a lot in the Palm Springs and Lake Arrowhead area. He's the closest player out there to the sound of Ted Greene in terms of great chordal voice leading, strong melody and use of artificial harmonics (which Ted took from Chet Atkins, Tal Farlow and Lenny Breau and refined).

I've never worked out of Jody's books before, but he has a new two-volume series, available from his Web site as well as Jamey Aebersold's site, called "The Art of Solo Guitar," which aims to teach the skills to IMPROVISE as solo guitarist, creating arrangements and playing over changes on the fly (as opposed to performing a previously written-out, unchanging version).

While there are hundreds of books devoted to teaching single-line improvisation, both specific to the guitar and for other (or all) instruments and perhaps a dozen on how to play solo guitar, there are very few that bring solo guitar and improvisation together. It's like the old analogy about giving a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, but give him a fishing pole (and a supply of hooks, bait and fishing line) and he'll eat for a lifetime. I think there's value in both the fish and the pole. You can still get a lot out of an arrangement of a standard tune and derive ideas and approaches that will work with other songs, and that way at least you have something to play for people.

But building the nuts and bolts of a technique that can be applied to every tune you see, man that is one hell of a fishing pole.

How badly do you want to play that tune?

2006-01-16T22:48:00.000-08:00

That's the question I'm asking myself regarding the two posts below on chord-melody arrangements. I'm at the point where I don't want to put time into learning tunes that I'm not excited about. So that makes me less than excited about putting work into the pre-written arrangements I mentioned earlier. Forgetting transposition into other keys, I want to at least begin by playing in the songs' original keys. So I need to keep working on "How High the Moon," and think of some modern tunes that could be done solo on the guitar. I'm looking through a fake book now for candidates and trying to pick things that don't modulate so much.

In other news, I pulled all the guitars out last night to see how they're doing physically. Is anything falling apart more now than before? The Goya classical's back is still coming off near the bottom, but that's pretty much status quo. Everything else checks out. The ES-175 bridge is still tilting slightly (turns out that string pull can do that with a floating rosewood archtop bridge), so I'll have to loosen the strings and straighten it out. I want to measure first so I have a snowball's chance of getting the intonation set right, since that guitar is surprisingly flawless in that regard (unusual for a fixed, compensated bridge).

Chord melody by Van Moretti

2006-01-07T14:55:00.000-08:00

I believe an arrangement by Van Moretti has appeared in every issue of Just Jazz Guitar I have ever received. My philosophy has been that it is better to make up my own arrangements from the lead sheet of a tune because then it will perfectly suit the skill level I'm at and will make the most sense to me, both harmonically and technically. And as I get a bigger chordal vocabulary, the renditions of the tunes get better. The other thing I've been trying to do is play the tunes in their original keys.

It hasn't been working out so good. I don't spend nearly enough time, and I've been looking for a style of arranging for the guitar that fits where I'm at and how I want to play.

Some of the most intriguing arrangements are those of Robert Conti, who also has a tune in just about every issue of JJG. He does it all with chord grids above the staff, with melody notes below for reference (and with little rhythmic notation, as he encourages players to call upon their own interpretation in that regard). I especially like his reharmonizations, and he does have two books that focus on that subject. He no longer offers books of chord-melody arrangements, but the old JJGs are a good source.

Still, the Conti arrangements are not working so well for me at the moment. I can't say I won't go back to them. They have the aformentioned quality in their reharmonization, and they can also help with voice leading. But I just tried Moretti's "More Than You Know," and that sounds very nice. It's in the key of C, which is a very easy key for guitar (right up there with A, G and D). The original is in Eb. Hmmm ... don't know what I think of that, but it is a very nice arrangement, and I can make the melody pop out of it right away. Sometimes it's hard to make the melody come out of these chordal arrangements, especially if I'm not very familiar with the tune, but it was no trouble at all in this case.

Watch the bass line

2005-12-02T22:24:00.000-08:00

I've been reading Marc Sabatella's "The Harmonic Language of Jazz Standards" to help me better understand the harmony behind standard tunes. If you know any theory at all, there's going to be some review, but he's filling in plenty of gaps for me, as well as providing unique ways to look at harmony that are of special benefit to jazz musicians both for understanding chord progressions as well as learning tunes quickly and eventually being able to play melody and harmony by ear, without ever having seen a lead sheet.

Now, I'm nowhere near there, but the book works on many levels and is extremely well done.

What I'm working on right now is playing solo versions of tunes and keeping smooth motion in the bass. Marc points out that many chord substitutions happen for this reason. So for now, I'm focusing on the bass notes themselves, rather than looking for a good chord grip below my melody note. Only after I get the highest and lowest notes down do I add other tones in between.

What have I been doing for the past month?

2005-11-01T22:46:00.000-08:00

Not much.

I wrote a bunch of reviews. Three for Just Jazz Guitar (for which I haven't written in awhile):

Issi Rozen, a very interesting Israeli guitarist who graduated from Berklee and still lives in the Boston area. He mixes Middle Eastern sounds with jazz, though I wish he included more of the former.

Calvin Keys, who I never heard (or heard of) before and who really cooks on a double live CD.

And a guy from the north of England named Jamie Taylor. He's a professor of jazz guitar at the Leeds College of Music. His record, under the group name Java and called "Anywhere But Here," has about five different styles on it, everything from funk to Afro-pop to mainstream jazz. The best was the solo acoustic stuff that kind of sounds like folk-jazz; a couple of very nice arrangements on that.

I'm about to review a few more. I've been struggling for some time with Kurt Rosenwinkel. I just don't know what to make of him. If you read rec.music.makers.guitar.jazz, he's the heir to Metheny and Martino, etc. But there's something I'm not getting. I think I need to hear him live and as a sideman. What he's doing on this record seems a bit too ethereal and cold. The tunes are nice, and the harmony seems more complicated than post-bop jazz, but ...

Yamaha's cheapest classical

2005-09-27T12:11:00.000-07:00

Chris Weinkopf of the Daily News opinion section brought in this Yamaha C45R classical guitar, shown at right, which I strung for him with D'Addario Pro Arte strings. It seems to be the same as the Yamaha C40, but perhaps a special model for Costco, where he bought it.

Anyway, it's pretty good for $99. Yamaha does a surprisingly good job with these inexpensive acoustic guitars, which are made in China. About a year or so ago, I picked up a Yamaha FG-403S from Guitar Center for $199 -- it's a steel-string flatttop guitar with a solid spruce top. Now the C45 (like the C40 before it) does not have a solid top (what do you expect for $99?) but it does have a Javanese rosewood bridge and fingerboard. It's interesting that Indonesia is a now source of rosewood (going from Brazil to India and now Java.) The back and sides are Indonesian mahogany (probably laminated, as is the top (of undertermined wood).

I didn't get a whole lot of time with it, but from stringing it, I noticed that the holes in the bridge and the tuners were a bit narrow -- not a problem, because they will hold the strings tighter as well as provide a cushion for wear -- those holes will only get bigger as strings are taken in and out over the years.

Still, you can get a whole lot of guitar for $99. Yamaha guitars seem to be very traditionally built -- these acoustics all have set necks and fairly standard construction. Nice guitars to learn on -- and to take just about anywhere without worrying too much.

Now I'm not a member of Costco (can't justify spending $40-something for the privilege of buying stuff I don't need in amounts I can't store), but if you know anybody who is, you just might want to ask them to order one or two for you. Also, Costco has one of the best return policies around -- they will usually take a return with no questions asked, although in this case I doubt you'e need or want to give the guitar back.

No doubt, a solid top will sound better, but I bought my Yamaha as a beater, and since it's so nice, I haven't been beating it around enough. It's probably better to buy the guitar used and already abused. I did that with my Goya classical, and now the back's coming loose. It's just not a good idea to leave guitars in the trunks of cars -- the dranatic temperature changes will really loosen things up. That's why everybody needs a beater or two. Gotta see what I can find out there for $free to $25.

For those looking at good, cheap acoustics, Yamaha has a new line out, the Acoustic FG series, at right, with a nice range of models starting at $279, including six- and 12-strings, plus acoustic-electric. Here's a Musician's Friend review of the new guitars (predictably positive, since they're selling them, but it's some information to consider nonetheless).

To my ears, the Yamahas don't sound like Martins, they certainly don't sound like Taylors. These are just good working guitars that sound ... like a guitar. And the necks are very comfortable. My friend Bruce just bought a Takamine steel string (can't remember the model) for $200, and it sounds and plays pretty well, but the neck is a bit chunky (not that I'm not used to that, coming from the substantial neck of my Fender Lead I solidbody). I just got used to the comfortable neck of the Yamaha, which is that much easier to play because of its matte finish (the rest of the guitar is glossy).

Ted Greene and Cathy Segal Garcia

2005-09-20T11:35:00.000-07:00

Cathy Segal Garcia, one of L.A. best-known jazz singers and probably its most popular vocal instructor, tells on the Ted Greene Tribute Page about how she met Ted when she was a waitress at the famous Donte's night club (the site of many great jazz performances, and where I saw George Van Eps and Grant Geissman as a teenager). The cool photo above, from the Ted Greene Flickr archive, is from the period when they gigged together in Studio City.

Here is what Cathy wrote:

I came to Los Angeles when I was 21. I had come from a jazz-musical background, I was mainly a singer, and had attended Berklee, where Ted's name floated around the guitarists...that was 72-75. When I got here I waitressed at Donte's, the main jazz club in LA at the time. Ted was there one nite...happened to faint because the music volume bothered him! (you guys know how Ted felt about music volume!) We became friends and when he found out I sang, he suggested getting together... We did, and started rehearsing; we modulated every song at the bridge! Then we were ready for a gig...I put up about 4 or 5 signs at some music stores. I convinced David Abhari from the Sound Room in Studio City to let us play, we were one of the first live bands to play there. I showed up to my first gig in L.A. that nite...to a packed house...no standing room left! We played that club once a week for a year...

One time we were hired for a private party in the Hollywood Hills. About 3/4 way through the party people stopped partying and sat down and listened to the rest of the gig.....That happened more than once!

Words are just words...what they signify is important. To say that Ted was kind and full of humor brings to my mind and body the warmth that Ted, the spirit, is. Ted, the spirit, is not dead and will never die. He has and continues to affect thousands of people because of the quality of livingness that he put out into the world. To not be able to hug him or see the whole package, body and all, is so very sad. But I can visit Ted whenever I want to. He has affected me. Beautifully. What more in this lifetime could anyone want?
Love, Cathy Segal-Garcia

Ted Greene's "Jazz Guitar: Single Note Soloing -- Volume 1"

2005-09-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

There's always an argument in methods of jazz improvisation over how much of a role learning, using and thinking in terms of the modes of the major and minor scales should play in figuring out how to hit the right notes when soloing over jazz chord changes.

The whole thing is very Zen: You're supposed to do all this theoretical work on scales and modes, master it and then "not think about it" while you're playing and let the music spontaneously flow.

Some people think it's about learning a language: When you speak English (if it's your first language), you don't think about grammar when you converse, and there aren't even that many pauses between words. You just convey your thoughts in a continuous stream of sound. And that's the same principle in jazz improvisation. You've gotta learn the language of jazz. And just as phonics competes with "whole language" in the teaching of reading, there are a ton of ways to skin the cat in jazz music.

Anyhow, back to Ted Greene's "Jazz Guitar: Single Note Soloing." Ted's focus is on arpeggios, scales and written-out examples, or licks, using that primary material. For him, playing over standard changes is all about chord tones, hence the primary importance of arpeggios (chords broken up into their single notes).

To make your music "sound like jazz," and to learn the musical language, there are several theoretical constructs that will help you wrap your brain (and fingers) around it, and while Ted mentions modes at various points, as well as situations where you could theoretically be using modal thinking to play over diatonic (major and minor) harmony, he doesn't recommend it. Even if you are playing the same notes over two different chords, it's best to think of the harmony you are in, as opposed to some modal construct that requires too much mental work and provides no clue as to which notes are more important than others.

I was looking at Vol. 1 of Ted's book, and as far as scales go, he wants you to directly think of a scale or two that directly relates to the chord you will be playing it over (here related to the major scales for purposes of figuring out the notes):

Major 7th chords

Major (as in C D E F G A B C) scale
Lydian (major with #4) scale

Minor 7th chords

Minor 7th scale (major with b3 and b7)

Dominant 7th chords

Dominant 7th scale (major with b7)
Overtone dominant (major with #4 and b7, also known as lydian dominant)
Two flavors of "altered dominant," which I don't quite have MY head wrapped around.

Along with the many, many arpeggio grids, these scales, with the accompanying "jazzy" examples, will get you playing over just about all the chords you will encounter in jazz. Not that I'm anywhere near being able to do this, at least (in my own mind) I understand what's required.

Also introduced in Vol. 2, along with how to play over fast changes, plus work on the harmony in standard tunes, are many more scales (including diminished, whole tone and harmonic and melodic minor) and arpeggios. It's very interesting to see the order in which Ted introduces each piece of the jazz puzzle and compare it with the rest of the improvisation method books I have on my shelf.

Somewhere in the two "Single Note Soloing" books, Ted writes about converting the material for other instruments, something I wish he had done in his lifetime, because his way of thinking about music transcends the guitar itself in deep and profound ways.

A Ted Greene encounter

2005-09-13T11:44:00.000-07:00

Here's a great story about one guitarist's encounter with Ted Greene:

"Ted Greene," by Scott Detweiler
Photo by Pete Huggins from a seminar at California Vintage Guitar and Amp in Sherman Oaks.

Scott really captures the feel of what it was like to see Ted play after years of knowing him only through his books and sole CD. There's an added dimension to meeting a legend when the person you're in front of is not known to anybody else in the room, somebody who most guitar players knew about and were in awe of, yet who was humble about his importance and impact.

In this anecdote, Ted is playing at a gallery opening. From what I read, he liked the kind of gigs where the music could be construed as background. He could pull out an extremely diverse selection of tunes and weave them together in creative ways, all the while REALLY connecting with a few in the room who had never heard a guitar played like that before. Playing solo guitar at that level, with such command of the fingerboard and the harmonic and melodic language of jazz (and music in general) is rare indeed -- and definitely something to aspire to.

Leavitt vs. the CAGED system

2005-08-30T08:46:00.000-07:00

Leavitt, in "Modern Guitar Method" is not CAGED. For those who don't know, the CAGED system is based around the open-string "cowboy chords" in the first position, building scales and arpeggios off of these shapes -- the C, A, G, E and D major chords, moving them up and down the fingerboard to hit every other key. Worked for Joe Pass and plenty of others. Is Leavitt too complicated to be useful? Does the CAGED system rely too heavily on visualizing shapes and not enough on note awareness?

You can't get away from either one. The guitar is a visual instrument. You're going to see patterns -- they're there, and you can't avoid them. But coupling the visual and technical with genuine note awareness is key, I believe, to mastering the instrument and to musicality in general.

As far as note awareness goes, I think I'm solid up to the 8th fret, and everything on the 12th and later is just a repeat of the open strings and the lower frets, so it's the 9th through 12th frets where I need the most work. Thinking of the 11th fret as a half-step below the 12th makes that one easier. Just playing everywhere on the neck is the way to get around this, and that is where Leavitt is useful. By Vol. 3, you are all over the fingerboard -- that's when you really start hitting his method of position playing. It's a bit boggling, but for major scales, you can basically call on a Leavitt fingering to play in all 12 keys without moving from a six-fret area (as I've said previously, he calls for lots of 1st- and 4th-finger stretching).

Whether or not you could ever identify all of these ways to play a major scale, Leavitt Vol. 3 gives you quite a sight-reading and position-playing workout, playing through all keys in a single position and playing in a single key all the way up and down the fingerboard. It's a difficult but potentially rewarding way of learning the entire guitar and getting the sounds you want from as many places as possible.

One thing about Leavitt that causes controversy is all the stretching that's involved. I think some players just don't want to do all that 1st- and 4th-finger stretching, and there are plenty of fingerings that avoid it. Shifting positions also does this. Jimmy Bruno's "Six Essential Fingerings" also shies away from those stretches. And I remember seeing something in Just Jazz Guitar magazine that pushes note awareness and forbids the visualization of scale fingerings entirely (don't know how that one works).

I honestly don't know what's best here, but knowing the notes AND having some muscle memory as to how to make them can't hurt.

Leavitt on chords

2005-08-30T08:15:00.000-07:00

Leavitt's Vol. 2 is heavy on chord forms, even though "Modern Guitar Method" isn't billed as a chord book. It is known for it's reading and scale work, but there are tons of chord forms, some in Vol. 1 but many more in Vol. 2 that can really improve your comping. He doesn't get into any heavy talk about voice leading, instead saying something like "smooth rhythm guitar is made possible by knowing as many chord forms as possible." That's true. I struggle with voice leading myself, and for the guitar, I do think it's a matter of figuring out and using more chords, letting the ear help you figure out which voicings lead best from one chord to the next.

"Modern Guitar Method" by Bill Leavitt

2005-08-16T12:53:00.000-07:00

I'm in no way, shape or form a Berklee student, but I think there's a lot of good things in the three-volume "Modern Guitar Method" by Bill Leavitt, who founded the guitar department at the Boston music school.

I saw some posts in the Yahoo Jazz Guitar group recently recommending Leavitt as a beginning method, and it's there that I pause. Yes, there is plenty in Book 1 that is fundamental, but I think it's better as review for a guitarist getting into jazz from other genres than as a raw introduction for somebody new to the instrument or to music in general.

Somebody on that group said that it would take you until book 6 in the Mel Bay method to get to the same place as book 1 of Leavitt. I might agree with that statement. I came up with the Mel Bay Classic Guitar Method and, to a lesser extent, Mel Bay's Modern Guitar Method (not Leavitt's), and I think there's a lot of value for the beginner in those books. I see the same value in other beginning books (just saw the Hal Leonard method, and that looks good for beginners, too). For one thing, I think Leavitt will scare away beginners. It's just too much of a leap.

That said, for the guitarist coming from a rock and/or classical background (and that's me), Leavitt offers quite a lot in terms of position playing, chord forms, scales and arpeggios, all meted out in graded fashion and all designed to get you reading and playing all over the neck in all keys, major and minor. And there are more books by Leavitt to supplement this material.

I have the three separate volumes, but the Leavitt "Modern Guitar Method" has recently been completely re-set -- it's much, much clearer to read now -- and gathered in a single volume, which I recommend very much.

Now there is some controversy over the Leavitt scale fingerings, which use a lot of stretching by the first and fourth fingers of the left (fretting) hand. The Segovia scales, which I used to be able to play without even looking at the book (it's a thin book, don't worry) favor shifting instead of stretching (and there's only one way to play each scale), and I don't think there's much if any in the CAGED system favored by Joe Pass (see his "Joe Pass Guitar Method," the blue book). Additionally, Jimmy Bruno's "Six Essential Fingerings" book does not use much shifting, and there are few guitarists today that are better than Jimmy, so he should know.

In my analysis, the Leavitt fingerings tend to emphasize note awareness and fingerboard mastery over pattern-playing. As Jack Grassel demonstrates in his book, "Guitar Seeds" there's a PDF of this page on his Web site), the Leavitt system allows one to play in all 12 keys from a single six-fret position.

Berklee has turned out a ton of guitarists over the years, so there are plenty of proponents of this system out there. I think it's up to each individual player to figure out what works for him or her. The main thing is hearing the sounds in your head and then playing them on the instrument. That's the aim of this whole thing -- to learn the jazz language and be able to "speak" it on your instrument.

If you do learn all the major and minor scales, arpeggios and chord forms in the Leavitt books, you have a lot to work with. Improvising, accompaniment, ear training and sight reading will all benefit from this work.

Instruction books

2005-08-16T12:25:00.000-07:00

Go ahead, ask me about the Western world and it's relationship to books. The Jews are called "the people of the book," and all three of the major Western religions, Judiasm, Christianity and Islam, are all based on sacred texts. So the worship is focused on gods, prophets, saints and beliefs, to be sure, but there is plenty of devotion left for the books themselves, and that way of thinking is an integral part of how we look at every other subject and endeavour.

If only we could find the perfect cookbook, home-improvement tome, great American novel, even self-help book, then that part (or even all) of life will fall into place, and all the answers will be contained therein.

That's the thought with music books as well. Find any musician and ask how many instruction books they've bought over the years, and chances are (for guitarists especially) the number is staggering. Many (including myself) have probably spent as much or more on books as on gear -- unless you have some very expensive instruments.

And we're always hoping for the one book, the one author, the one approach that will open the gates and tell us exactly how and what to do to become the player we want to be. And sometimes this happens, even if it's not just one book but maybe three, five or more that, together, provide the path toward mastery.

I keep a list of what I have that I want to keep close to the guitar (someday I will put in links for all of these):

Modern Guitar Method - William Leavitt

Building a Jazz Vocabulary - Mike Steinel

Jazz Guitar: Single Note Soloing Vol. 1 and 2 - Ted Greene

Modern Chord Progressions - Ted Greene

Mastering the Guitar - Gene Bertoncini

Essential Jazz Lines in the Style of Grant Green

Joe Pass Guitar Style

Joe Pass Guitar Chords

Joe Pass Guitar Method

The Harmonic Language of Jazz Standards - Marc Sabatella

Eddie Lang Modern Advanced Guitar Method

Charlie Parker Omnibook

George Van Eps Guitar Method

Improvising Handbook - Putter Smith

Fretboard Basics - Arnie Berle

And here are the books I don't have but am interested in getting a look at (this list used to be a lot longer, but I've pared it down to what I'm really interested in):

Connecting Chords with Linear Harmony by Bert Ligon. Published by Houston Publishing.

Comprehensive Technique for Jazz Musicians by Bert Ligon

A Common Sense Approach to Improvisation for Guitar - Joe Negri

Jazz Etudes Over Classic Jazz Changes - George Benson

Voice Leading for Guitar: Moving Through the Changes - John Thomas

Linear Expressions - Pat Martino

Guitar Seeds
Bix Ax
Super Ax
Monster Chops - All by Jack Grassel (from his Web site)

Jazz Guitar Technique - Andrew Green
Jazz Guitar Structures - Andrew Green
Jazz Guitar Comping - Andrew Green (just released ... go to www.chopsfactory.com for all three)

Talk Jazz - Roni Ben-Hur (www.ronibenhur.com)

Modern Harmonic Technique by Gordon Delamont ($30 from www.sheetmusicplus.com)

Creative Comping - Daniel Davis (Neil A. Kjos Music) (out of print)

Classical gas

2005-08-16T12:01:00.000-07:00

No, not the 1970s instrumental hit.

I recently pulled out my Goya G-10 classical, the first guitar I ever played (I've had it since the 1970s, it's been in the family longer and is beat up as hell). The D string broke awhile ago, and I finally got around to restringing the basses. (Classical guitar tip: Once you have the guitar strung, the nylon treble strings can last for years, while the basses are good for a MUCH shorter time, from weeks to months, depending on how much you play them, so I have about a thousand extra treble strings lying around.)

Playing a different guitar, especially a different kind of guitar (nylon string vs. electric archtop or acoustic flat-top) can re-energize you, or at least change your perspective for the moment. While the Goya was at the bottom of their line (it's not 3/4 size, but not full-size either -- Goya calls it "Concert size," I believe), it does have a solid spruce top and sounds pretty nice. Just noodling around on it while the strings stretched out was fun, and my chordal approach definitely changes on the 2-inch-wide neck. Smaller voicings with fewer notes. And just listening to each note as I play it. Making nice sounds is what it's all about, and I don't have to worry so much about how much jazz theory or ear training I've done.

The ideal is to be able to play -- and play out, for that matter -- at whatever skill level I'm at. To make the tunes and the style fit what I can do at any given moment and work on that. That is my goal for the moment, to balance study of advanced concepts (for me, at least) while working on repertoire -- and not just jazz tunes -- that I can get out and play for people. All the exercises in the world won't help if you've got nothing to play for an audience. Nice words from me, but can/will I follow through?

Remembering Ted Greene

2005-07-28T10:42:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of Nick Stasinos, who was at the July 25 gig as well as the Dec. 12, 2004, performance pictured above.

The legendary Ted Greene -- one of the few to whom the word "legendary" really applies -- was found dead July 25, 2005, in his Encino, Calif., apartment. He was 58. Right now, the cause of death has not yet been determined, but suspicion is that it was a heart attack. I bought all of Ted's books and his only album way back when I was a young player, and there's just about a lifetime's worth of material in those four books alone.

A busy teacher for decades, Ted rarely performed, and while he recorded a couple of tracks each on two John Pisano albums, his "Solo Guitar" LP, long out of print but finally re-released on CD by Art of Life Records last year, provides a very complete picture of what Ted Greene, the player, was all about.

In 2004, Ted began playing Sunday brunch about once every other month at Spazio in Sherman Oaks. I was lucky enough to attend one of those performances and review it for Just Jazz Guitar magazine. It's a bit eerie that it was exactly a year before his death. Here is that review:

---------------

Concert review: Ted Greene at Spazio

By Steven Rosenberg

You don’t see Ted Greene every day. In fact, the elusive solo guitarist hardly ever gigs at all, and you can probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of times he has done so in the last decade.

But the busy educator and well-known author of “Chord Chemistry” and other now-classic instruction books mesmerized the Sunday brunch crowd at Spazio in Sherman Oaks, Calif., with three sets on July 25 (2004) that showed how a lone jazz guitarist can indeed deliver every bit as much musical nuance and emotion as the finest piano players.

Hunched over his signature Fender Telecaster, equipped with a neck humbucker, Greene’s playing is all about great songs with strong emphasis on melody, seemingly impossible chords and heartfelt delivery. From Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes,” through a wonderful “West Side Story” medley and even a soulful rendition of the Beatles’ “Hey Jude,” Greene has lost nothing in the decades since his long-out-of-print “Solo Guitar” album raised the bar upon its release in 1977.

For those who haven’t heard “Solo Guitar” or his tracks on John Pisano’s “Among Friends” and “Conversation Pieces” CDs, Ted Greene’s sensitive, harmonically rich approach to music and the guitar leans heavily on the pioneering chord-melody work of George Van Eps and the artificial harmonics of Lenny Breau. The other thing to remember about Ted is that he’s in love with the songs he plays, and his renditions can teach us to love them, too.

At Spazio, Ted’s clean and clear sound (amplified by a Fender Vibrolux Reverb and a very sensitive house PA) was just like it is on record, almost acoustic at times. He had a older Guild archtop on the stage but didn’t use it.

I couldn’t determine the extent to which Ted’s arrangements of the tunes were worked out beforehand or created on the spot, but there was a lot more harmonic experimentation on the Spazio stage than I remember from the “Solo Guitar” album (one of my chief reasons for keeping a turntable hooked up). Hearing the way Ted expanded the harmony of “Hey Jude” made me want to grab his “Modern Chord Progressions” book and start working on his extremely fluid (but often hard-to-finger) ideas.

It's easier to write about than do

2005-05-19T16:03:00.000-07:00

That's what I've been doing the last couple of years -- writing about it, for the Los Angeles Daily News, where I work, and Just Jazz Guitar magazine, where I've done many freelance reviews.

I'm also semi-active on the rec.music.makers.guitar.jazz newsgroup, which I access through Google Groups. It's a great way to take the pulse of what's happening in jazz guitar, and quite a few pro players participate in what is, for the most part, a lively and civil discussion.

At left is a 1976 ES-175T, the relatively rare, thin version of the ES-175. I got this picture from eBay. My 1976 ES-175D, which I bought from Betnun's Music in L.A. in the early '80s, is the full-body version and has the rosewood bridge (the guitar at left has a metal Tune-o-Matic).

Here is the side view of the thinline.