Jazz guitar (what to listen for)?

[wesbed]

I've been in a Fantasy Jazz and jazz guitar mood in recent days. I just purchased and listened, once through, to the K2 release of 'Virtuoso' by Joe Pass.

Being a solo guitar offering, 'Virtuoso' is not the normal bebop fare. Yes, the music is pleasant but I'm not yet at a point where I can say I 'get' it. I haven't heard anything that makes me want to squeel and listen to the music again. This is meant as nothing against Mr. Pass, and only shows my ignorance at this point. If I'd heard Bill Evans' 'Alone' on a once-through, I'd have thought the same thing... the music is pleasant but so what? On becoming more familiar with the music of Bill Evans... well, you don't mess with Mr. Evans.

I'll be listening to Virtuoso for a second and third time. Joe Pass sounds, at times, almost more classical than jazz. What should I be listening for? What makes Joe Pass so great? What makes him unique? What did he do to set him apart from the rest of the jazz guitar elite?

Edited May 2, 2004 by wesbed

[king ubu]

Jim,

Are you a fan of Barry Galbraith? He also didn't do as much as a leader, but his playing is often fascinating.

Yeah, although like Roberts, I wish there had been more recordings that really featured his playing. Galbraith has a great reputation among his fellow-guitarists, and it's hard not to respect somebody like that from all the glowing reports you read, but so often his work was part of a large ensemble or orchestra and difficult to really appreciate (kind of the way I've always felt about Freddie Green). Anyway, he was pretty prolific as a session player, and appears on quite a few recordings in my collection- from vocalists (Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Anita O'day, Carmen McRae, Dinah Washington, Helen Merrill, Johnny Hartman, Eddie Jefferson and Joe Williams) to orchestras/large ensembles with Claude Thornhill, Jimmy Cleveland, Cannonball, Art Farmer, J.J., Michel Legrand, Johnny Griffin, Curtis Fuller, Stanley T; to smaller groups (Tal Farlow, Coleman Hawkins, Kenny Burrell, Hank Jones, Milt Jackson, John Lewis...). Pretty impressive list of credits.

I tend to love everything I have with Galbraith on! Don't forget the half album with Gil Evans, "Into The Hot", and his contribution to George Russell's "Jazz Workshop" album!

ubu

[hununu]

Great Jazz guitars players you should not miss out:

Pat Metheny

Joe Pass (if you can, get Joe and Ella)

Wes

There are many many more! Meola, Paco, Django, John Mclaughlin, etc. I wondered how no one mentioned metheny but I guess people here don't like him much :-)

I don't know what makes guitar players so unique but I guess when you get to a point when someone hears a player play 10 sec and you know who is playing, that normally indicates that you are listening to a player with an unique vocabulary. That happens with all the great players. I can listen to a bootleg from Joe, Metheny, Wes, etc and I will immediatly know who is playing. Also, another great thing great players have is that they normally play with lots of different musicians and in quite different styles.

It's quite normal not to like several artists when playing differently, either solo or in an ensemble. For example, take Metheny. He has worked on so many different projects with an enormous ammount of musicians that almost no one will like all of his work. Not many like Song X or Zero Tolerance for Silence for example. wesbed, try to hear Joe in an ensemble and see how he stands out, or simply delight yourself with Joe and Ella... can't get much better than that.

ps: for a classical virtuoso, check out Andreas Segovia.

All the best,

BA

Edited May 3, 2004 by hununu

[7/4]

Song X

That's da shit. Pat and Ornette. I wish they would record as much as Pat did with Derek.

[Jim R]

Being a solo guitar offering, 'Virtuoso' is not the normal bebop fare. Yes, the music is pleasant but I'm not yet at a point where I can say I 'get' it. I haven't heard anything that makes me want to squeel and listen to the music again. This is meant as nothing against Mr. Pass, and only shows my ignorance at this point.

I don't think "ignorance" is the right word. If the music doesn't do much for you, it doesn't do much for you. Maybe it will in the future. I think the impact of VIRTUOSO may be greater for guitar players who have spent some time working on creating their own chord-melody arrangements, but even that doesn't mean that everybody in that category should be knocked out by it musically. Hopefully they can appreciate it from a technical standpoint, but that's a different matter.

I think the special thing about Pass (as I mentioned above) is his fluency. He was a master at playing all over the fingerboard and changing keys (basically just knowing the fingerboard inside out and upside down) and playing at a variety of tempos, in a variety of settings, excelling both at playing chords and single lines, and always being (or at least appearing) comfortable. Only a monster player can pull that off all the time. One thing that really strikes me about VIRTUOSO is that his execution and command of the instrument make it sound like it's easy to play like that.

[jamn]

Great Jazz guitars players you should not miss out:

Pat Metheny

Joe Pass (if you can, get Joe and Ella)

Wes

There are many many more! Meola, Paco, Django, John Mclaughlin, etc. I wondered how no one mentioned metheny but I guess people here don't like him much :-)

I don't know what makes guitar players so unique but I guess when you get to a point when someone hears a player play 10 sec and you know who is playing, that normally indicates that you are listening to a player with an unique vocabulary. That happens with all the great players. I can listen to a bootleg from Joe, Metheny, Wes, etc and I will immediatly know who is playing. Also, another great thing great players have is that they normally play with lots of different musicians and in quite different styles.

It's quite normal not to like several artists when playing differently, either solo or in an ensemble. For example, take Metheny. He has worked on so many different projects with an enormous ammount of musicians that almost no one will like all of his work. Not many like Song X or Zero Tolerance for Silence for example. wesbed, try to hear Joe in an ensemble and see how he stands out, or simply delight yourself with Joe and Ella... can't get much better than that.

ps: for a classical virtuoso, check out Andreas Segovia.

All the best,

BA

You are absolutely correct about all of these guys. I love them all. The guitar is a wonderful instrument (spoken from the mouth of a brass player).

I have many albums by McLaughlin, Di Meola, Metheny, Pass, De Lucia, Coryell, Burrell, Montgomery and others. I love funk guitar as well, especially early George Benson. And don't forget John Scofield....or Mr. Zappa (I have been told that Frank invented the wah, wah pedal. Does anyone know for sure if that is true?).......and I really like some of Jeff Beck's work. Back to Jazz, there are two highly underrated guys that, coincidentally, both play in organ trios. Paul Bollenback who plays with Joey DeFrancesco and our own Joe Gloss.

Here is the beautiful album I am listening to at the moment.

John McLaughlin Trio - Que Alegria

[Joe G]

I wondered how no one mentioned metheny but I guess people here don't like him much :-)

There's a few Metheniacs around here.

[7/4]

....or Mr. Zappa (I have been told that Frank invented the wah, wah pedal. Does anyone know for sure if that is true?)

I don't think so, but he made some amazing music with the wah.

[A Lark Ascending]

My championing of Phil Robson continues...

Just come out of superb gig - Robson with UK pianist Liam Noble, Tom Rainey and Drew Gress.

Apparently they met yesterday, tried out Noble's tunes, did the concert today.

Robson is a marvellous player with a real breadth of style. Well worth going out of your way to hear if you're a guitar fan.

[jamn]

I wondered how no one mentioned metheny but I guess people here don't like him much :-)

There's a few Metheniacs around here.

Glad to hear it. I am one.

[BruceH]

Jim Hall: he da MAN.

[.:.impossible]

Speaking of Bill Evans, Barry Galbraith shows up quite a bit in conjunction. Recommended listening.