fasstrack

Phil is pretty out. I know him a long time, don't see him much anymore. He was always cool with me, so it's not personal. But I just can't listen to Birdflight anymore without major groaning. It's not that he makes things up, though I've heard this before. It's his ego---and love of the sound of his own voice. And he has, sadly, taken to using non-profit WKCR airtime to relentlessly plug his JALC classes. Not cool. But then he'll turn around and do like he did on a recent Bix Biederbecke birthday show: play some record I never heard, and that only he would think (and have) to dig up. This time it was 5 guitars, arranged by Bill Challis and led by Bucky Pizzarrelli. 5 top guitar players, playing in tune, time, and synch so beautifully I had to call the station and thank him. Sometimes I think what Phil needs is a challenger on Birdflight----a pretender to the Throne who will do a 2-hour show and actually play music most of the time..

I never really heard him as a blues player. Of course all those (Brit) guys knew the blues masters---or should have. I think Clapton and Peter Green, and later Mick Taylor were the guys, having played w/John Mayall, a real blues band. Peter Green I'd like to listen to again from those days. He was into something real as I remember. Not such a trickster like Beck. Beck is just a cloud from my past, one out of thousands of people our ears encounter, especially if we play. He was one of the guys we talked about and played his shit when passing a guitar around or listened to music. He was a good, but gimmicky player with a nice sound and nice, spurty creativity sometimes. A lasting influence? Hell no.

I'm embarrassed that I stopped listening to classical. You remind me now to start again. Maybe I could start a side biz: quote recognition Let us know what you find. I always loved that title by Falla, can't ever remember the music (speaking of scrambled brains).

I'd have to go back to my teens on this one. These guys were all heroes, the white brit boys leading us eventually to the black creators. We used to hear them all at rhe Fillmore. Beck was a no-show at Woodstock, I recall. I liked him a lot at the time but as I myself became a better guitarist and musician I came to see how gimmicky a lot of his stuff was---like Beck's Boogie. He does tricks like going up the high E string with a 3 fret pattern. But when you're 16 and getting your first wind you're knocked out. I remember liking his lyricism. He played a really nice solo on Lookin' For Another Pure Love on Talking Book (Stevie Wonder), one of my favorite 70s records. Funny, it had that same ascending lick. Must be a franchise... Buzzy Feitin, another youth guitar hero I still admire (his time, especially as a rhythm player, is just sick) was on that track, too. I liked the second Jeff Beck group with Jan Hammer, it was pretty good. That tune Definitely Maybe (amazing I remember this s%^t) was pretty nice. I guess Beck was as good as any of those 60s guys. I remember how Beckola ended abrubtly with like some feedback and it just ended cold. I remember getting pissed at a flatleaving friend and telling him 'you left me hanging like Beckola'.... He had a sense of humor, too, it seems. He supposedly told an interviewer 'girls are pretty, but they're too much trouble. I prefer my drummer'...

Ha ha! A man of constancy....

What tunes are on it?

Is this the Bill Black that sang with Krupa and made one album of heartbreaking ballads? What a singer. Jonathan Schwartz is always playing that CD on his show, mostly Spring is Here. Great guitar, and I'd love to know who it is. Hope I got the right guy........ Nope...bassist...started the Bill Black Combo after his split with Elvis in the late 50s. Died in the mid-60s. Paul McCartney owns his double bass today. Black was one of the first pop bassists to embrace the Fender Electric Bass! Like Monk Montgomery.... Yeah, I had the wrong guy. I can (gurgle, sob, sniffle) deal with it, I tell ya.... A temporary setback

Is this the Bill Black that sang with Krupa and made one album of heartbreaking ballads? What a singer. Jonathan Schwartz is always playing that CD on his show, mostly Spring is Here. Great guitar, and I'd love to know who it is. Hope I got the right guy........

I wish there was a way to tell him how much I enjoy his work and his focus on jazz as a symbol of freedom. Obviously that's what a lot of his writing is about. There's no contact info on the site and he deserves his privacy. Well, with honors from Havel, etc. he doesn't need me to tell him, it just would be nice if I could. I can forward a note to him if you pm it to me. I did, and thank you so much. I love this board at times!

I second that. I read it b/c Teddy Charles played a joke on both of us by telling me to 'call this # and ask for Julius Gubenko'. Little did I know what I was getting into. I played along and tried to come up with a prank myself, but just had to much respect, and besides he doesn't know me from Eve. Terry answered and after I asked in a funny voice if it was Gubenko he said 'could be'. I couldn't go any further and fessed up that crazy Teddy put me up to it. But no way I was gonna be on the phone with Terry Gibbs without paying my respects, so I took the phone upstairs and checked in with the great man. In about ten minutes Teddy, 81 any day now, raced up the stairs to tell me to watch his phone bill (he was the one telling me to call and also had a hilarious, and pretty unprintable conversation with Gibbs before I took the phone again). So I took the # and called him from home. I figured he'd have great stories about the cats. He said, sure, but read my book so we'll have something to talk about. He wouldn't even sell it to me, he's that cool, instead said to get it from the library. I read it and we had plenty to talk about over a few conversations, long ones. He has energy and memories to spare and is a funny MF---and a hero. The book is definitely worth reading/owning for the stories. Benny Goodman, Miles, Buddy Rich, Bird, more. I wish I lived in LA so I could visit or at least go hear him. Maybe those in LA will. He's going strong at around 85.

This is a very understated performance,looks to be soon after the album Talking Book came out and from a TV appearance. Just Stevie singing one of his most beautiful songs IMO, no 'melisma', no production, just brass tacks: voice, piano and a pretty tasteful and non-intrusive superimposition of two dancers as the lovers. Very well done, I thought.

I wish there was a way to tell him how much I enjoy his work and his focus on jazz as a symbol of freedom. Obviously that's what a lot of his writing is about. There's no contact info on the site and he deserves his privacy. Well, with honors from Havel, etc. he doesn't need me to tell him, it just would be nice if I could.

SEE?!!

Alexander: I have a feeling that last descending phrase in the 8th bar---dah de dah de daaah (last note held for a whole note tied to a half, I think, then 3 8ths, bah da dah. Too bad we don't have audio, or I'd sing it)---is what's reminding him of Carmen, somewhere from the March of the Toreadors. Maybe I'm wrong. Like I said it could be a lot of things. Look into Falla though, and let us know what you find. It has my ass hooked now....

Not sure what you said. If it's conciliatory you know how to find me........

Allen: My solution to us getting on each other's nerves is to put you on ignore---for now, not forever. It's just that these little squabbles are probably not all that interesting to others, and I don't come here to fight with people. We both have strong opinions and are seemingly easily set off. Certainly your opinions are at least as valid as mine (not about guitar IMO, I told you why, but any others). I've had bad experiences on the Web in the past and it's nothing personal, I'm sure you're cool in person and I do like your passion, just trying to learn from my mistakes and trying not to bore people. Beefs tend to hijack discussions and no one wins. And I like this space the best so far and don't want to be party to any bad vibes. Sorry if I caused any here. All the best and I hope you understand. Maybe we'll open it up again. Right now I just see where it's going and prefer to 'head it off at the pass', OK? (Sorry, couldn't resist one dumb movie cowboy cliche.....)

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Just what the doctor ordered. I love that they call H.S. 'gymnasium' in Europe. It reminds me of that Woody Allen line that 'those who can't teach teach gym. The Cowards. That was the title. I thought it was The Heroes! No wonder the commies came after his ass. (It was about the Russian soldiers in WWII, and they were portrayed as less than heroic. Quite. You didn't do that in Czeckaslovokia (sp) then, as our hero found out. Did you ever hear about Havel calling Jimmy Rowles to get George Mraz's #? That cracked me up. 'Hey, George, s'up, baby. This is Vaclev. The reason I'm calling....'

Didn't he post Temeuzen? Correct Where is that? North, South? I lived in Den Haag, on the North Sea twice, but never really got around except for Amsterdam, especially the last go round. Most musicians live in the 3 cities off the sea: Den Haag, Amsterdam, Rotterdam. Not all, though. Some guys I know teach in Groenegen and I was invited to a concert but it's 2 hours away and I didn't have a car. It's a pretty small country, around the land mass of NJ (which makes me wonder why it would take 2 hours anyway...). Just curious. Click on the "correct" link above and you will see that it's in the Southwest. And it's "Groningen", by the way, the city where I live. Sorry to ruin the spelling. Do you know a bass player named......ahh, s&*t I can't remember his name now. Little guy, and his brother is supposed to play guitar well. Good player, though, and he has a good band. Forget it, and sorry I misspelled your hometown's name. No need to apologize, it's an impossible name for people who don't speak Dutch. Groningen has a population of 185,000, so I don't think there's much chance I know your friend Everyone I met speaks perfect English. I used to get insulted when they would speak Dutch to each other. I felt stupid and you always wonder if they're either talking about you or it's something they don't want you to hear. But (I know you know) the Dutch lstart learning English in 3rd grade. They're the best European English speakers I've encountered.

There's also a guy named Dick Onstenk, a serious jazz guitar student. He used to run a session at a place called the Crow I never made it to. A lot of good players played there, and a few better than good ones like Ferdinand Povel. Dick considers himself an amateur, but he posted a video of him playing Bird's solo on something-or-other. I was impressed, b/c I know he worked his ass off. That stuff don't come easy on guitar.

Didn't he post Temeuzen? Correct Where is that? North, South? I lived in Den Haag, on the North Sea twice, but never really got around except for Amsterdam, especially the last go round. Most musicians live in the 3 cities off the sea: Den Haag, Amsterdam, Rotterdam. Not all, though. Some guys I know teach in Groenegen and I was invited to a concert but it's 2 hours away and I didn't have a car. It's a pretty small country, around the land mass of NJ (which makes me wonder why it would take 2 hours anyway...). Just curious. Click on the "correct" link above and you will see that it's in the Southwest. And it's "Groningen", by the way, the city where I live. Sorry to ruin the spelling. Do you know a bass player named......ahh, s&*t I can't remember his name now. Little guy, and his brother is supposed to play guitar well. Good player, though, and he has a good band. Forget it, and sorry I misspelled your hometown's name.

Didn't he post Temeuzen? Correct Where is that? North, South? I lived in Den Haag, on the North Sea twice, but never really got around except for Amsterdam, especially the last go round. Most musicians live in the 3 cities off the sea: Den Haag, Amsterdam, Rotterdam. Not all, though. Some guys I know teach in Groenegen and I was invited to a concert but it's 2 hours away and I didn't have a car. It's a pretty small country, around the land mass of NJ (which makes me wonder why it would take 2 hours anyway...). Just curious.

What city in Holland? Just curious.... Yeah, she sings her rear end off....

Thanks, everyone. I'm glad he is alive and well. Gonna catch up on my reading.

Read Alec Wilder's book. And I'm really getting weary of you lecturing me about guitar and guitar players. I'm playing 44 years, since I'm 10 and went through a lot of styles and hung with a lot of different type players before settling into jazz. Let me tell you. I know more about the traditions you speak about and have more respect for them than you are showing me with these comments. I wouldn't tell you about things on your instrument, I would ask. I don't really care about Elvis. At all. I care about what happened to the standard for my instrument. And I care about songwriting, having written music my entire life. The game changed, people---many very gifted, like Stevie Wonder and others came along, but along with the cream came a lot of dross and non-musicians, not at all literate and very defensive about things they put down as 'technical' b/c they are over their heads. I've worked with people like that and it's no joy. Soul, humanity, or anything else that is magical in music are not mutually exclusive with knowledge. Very few people have ears that good to go by the seat of their pants alone---otherwise classics would be written every five minutes. I only reacted to what I saw on a dumb commercial award show before. It has nothing to do with respect or dissing any of the people you mentioned. It just was lame---that 35 minutes---so I shut it off. And this is just my opinion. I'm entitled to mine, you're entitled to yours. But please get off the guitar soapbox, with all due respect. You're really getting on my nerves.

I just listened for a long while on youtube. He was really brilliant. The things he inferred harmonically in his solos, the time he must have taken to research and dig deeper to get what he got, his compositions, his asymmetrical rhythmic configurations, his beautiful sound on both trumpet and flugel, that vibrato (that always reminded me of earlier period players), the mood he created on ballads, his fire on up tunes......He was something. One of the best videos up there was only less than 2 minutes of a solo on Bye Bye Blackbird. He kept referring to Miles' famous solo throughout a totally different trip he was on harmonically and in terms of note density. He really came from somewhere and took it somewhere.