Alon Marcus

Jaco! He is the single most important musician who played that instrument. Ron Carter and Holland are personal favorites of mine as musicians, but their playing on the electric bass is not very impressive or important. The truth is, that the upright bass is a different instrument and being a specialist there doesn't automatically make you a good electric bassist. Apart from knowing to walk and improvise you must be familiar with how the instrument sounds and responds. You have to spend a lot of time with the electric bass to really get to know his sound possibilities. Swallow is a good player. He contributed an approach of playing very smooth sounding and swinging walking lines. But Jaco, he discovered new possibilities that people didn't know about. His playing is funky and soulful and he also was a hell of a bandleader and composer.

Herbie Hancock! His funky chords fit the fender Rhodes sound like a glove. Also he was the first one to use all the ugly and synthetic instruments in a smart way.

Read and have fun.

When I first heard the Piccolo album I thought it was unbalanced. I changed my mind after hearing almost the same team on Pick 'Em. Riley, Barron and Williams are enhanced with 4 celli. Don't remember noticing an out of tune piano on Piccolo. Anyway IMHO Pick 'Em is a bit better.

Affinity - with Toots and Larry Schneider

There seems to be a consensus (at least in my family!) about this guy. Everybody loves and have respect for his playing. Ron Carter has an immense and an impressive list as sideman but he also has terrific solo albums. I'll be glad to here recommendations and opinions on him. One of his latest efforts is "Golden Striker". The album was recorded in the summer of 2002 and it has Mulgrew Miller on piano (great player, and he deserves his own thread) and Russell Malone on guitar. It can be thought as commercial jazz because: 1. The album contains another version of the famous "Adagio" from Aranjues and "Autumn Leaves" (probably the most worn out sentimental tunes) 2. It has an easy going feeling like in the best Oscar Peterson records in this format (IMHO - a virtue!) Nevertheless this is a good and solid mainstream album. All players are in top form. Robert Freedman arranged all the songs. By the way – the cd is copy controlled.

I hope this disc can be the center of discussion on related topics like other recordings on Atlantic by the classic Coleman quartet.

Try this album Conversations

After recording an entire album solo it was easy for Joe to take part in exotic ensembles. I didn't hear many records with vibraphone, bass and guitar like this one. The duet with NHOP is terrific He was probably the only guitarist who could compete with the virtuosity and technique of Peterson (also with NHOP). One more collaboration with Peterson is this wonderful 80's album. The Bach suite Piano less band with Dizzy The big 4 The duet with J.J.Johnson was already mentioned, more great duets are with Zoot Sims and with Ella.

This is quite biased, IMHO! If Django´s music doesn´t have swing, who on hell has? I wasn't talking about Django! I think that Bireli's records as a child prodigy are monotonous.

A few words about this guy. He was a child prodigy playing in the style of Django (technically spectacular but somehow monotonous). Later he started recording for Blue Note (it was in the eighties and mainly fusion) and sometimes sounded heavy influenced by Metheny. After Bireli found his own voice he finally became one of the best guitarists (not only in Europe). His best recording shows technical perfection with smooth and fast bebop lines, lots of chord solos and great articulation. This is his trio called "Standards" with NHOP and Cecarreli. He took the best from Kessel, Pass and Benson and built something original. "My favorite Django" is also a good record. Surprisingly the only connection to the old master is his compositions. The album arranged with rock rhythms supplied by Anthony Jackson and Steve Gad. Bireli plays great. Somehow less successful is his "Blue eyes". This is a lame tribute to Sinatra. He tries to sing in his style and improvise like George Benson (playing and singing simultaneously). The only good parts are where he just plays. The live trio album is scary. He shows too much technique there. Bireli works today with a European label called Dreyfus. This year they published a live show that was recorded with: Petrucciani, Marcus Miller, Kenny Garrett and Lagrene. IMHO one of the best albums this year. Contains three long jams with truly inspired statements by all participants. The album with Sylvan Luc that was mentioned is also great.

Actually, no. That is an error that's kind of widespread, unfortunately. It was definitely important as a solo jazz guitar album, but it's not even close to being the first. George Van Eps is the godfather of solo playing, and probably did the first solo "album"; Johnny Smith recorded a solo album; as did Al Viola; and there may be other players I'm forgetting. All of these guys did their first solo albums in the 50's. Thanks for the info JimR. I'm not familiar with the players you mentioned at all.

Here is a short review of his solo albums that I have: Virtuoso – has some good moments musically, mostly standards. Not my favorite though the version of How high the moon is classic. Sometimes he works with a thin sound that I don't like very much. Nevertheless it's historically important (the first entire solo jazz guitar album). Virtuoso 2 – much better album, Joe is playing some more modern songs like Joy Spring (this solo version is amazing), Giant Steps and two songs from Chick Corea. Virtuoso 3 - – the best in the series (IMHO). Joe sounds very inspired, playing his own compositions. The interest is maintained throughout the whole disc. Virtuoso 4 is just for guitar and Joe Pass freaks. Blues for Fred – nice record, some tracks are great (like Cheek to cheek). I remember Charlie Parker – Joe doesn't sound good when playing on acoustic guitar with fingers (IMO) but some of the tracks are very good. His harmonic and structural imagination is evident on "Summertime".

The Pacific records are amazing. I think that the new mosaic box doesn't contain everything he did in that company. For example "Sounds of Synanon" is not there.

I think there wasn't a thread about him. IMO he was a genius of simplicity. Joe really made the guitar move more to the spotlight. Many fine guitar players had difficulties, especially when playing long and fast bebop lines, compared to wind instruments. Jim Hall and Wes somehow managed to solve the problem by original concepts (technique and music) of playing and improvising, but it was Joe who could really compete with such virtuosos as Bud Shank, Dizzy or OP. His musical abilities are even greater than technical (IMO): 1. He has a terrific sense of rhythm and swing and never looses it playing even by himself and in fast tempos. 2. Joe had a rare melodic gift. The ways his lines interweave and develop logically is really outstanding concerning every other instrumentalist. Now it's time to talk about your favorite recordings from him.

The track on "Milestones" called: Sid's ahead. That's what Brownie said a few posts back... Sorry, I noticed it after posting my reply.

The track on "Milestones" called: Sid's ahead.

I don't get this sentence. Please elaborate. I meant to say that Miles wasn't intentionally looking for a totally different player than Red. He didn't have anything against his style and the proof is that Kelly was much closer conceptually to Garland than to Evans.

I think there were also more "prosaic" reasons. Most of you probably remember that Miles played piano on one track of Milestones instead of Red. I believe that Garland's tenure with him was close to an end. Evans was the right man in the right place but Davis didn't choose him because he was less immersed in tradition than Garland. Wynton Kelly who was next, is a symbol of hard bop tradition, one of the more conservative players ever (he was really good and tasteful though) and he replaced Evans.

Well you are right in a way. Imagine that Payton and Davis were going to the same school of trumpet playing. Nicholas would probably get higher grades. I like him very much and never heard a mistake note from him. Miles on the other hand always makes mistakes; sometimes he really tickles your nerves. But this is exactly what I like about his improvising. The element of surprise. Payton is somehow more logical player. Miles' playing (or better say the way he thinks and improvises) stayed on a high level even in his less successful records from the eighties (less successful doesn't mean no good!).

I really like most of his recorded output. The collaborations with Evans (including "Sketches") are all superb but some have more appeal. "Porgy and Bess" is so beautifully orchestrated that it catches you from its first notes. BB is really (like was said before) should be listened in a relation to IaSW but also it has relation to "Kind of Blue". Essentially this is modal music (I'm talking only from harmonic point of view; the record is much more advanced rhythmically and melodically). My belief is there only one step separating between modal and free jazz. BB like many Miles' records from the middle of the 60s somewhat closer to modal but has elements of free jazz (playing out of harmony, unusual song structures etc.). These are actually very unfriendly records (not like other Miles from Prestige for example) and really may require some time to understand them. I will add another advice for BB listening: there is a lot going on there, many "layers" of music. You should try and listen for each layer separately (a time consuming task).

And here is a page with some examples of free jazz greats (this is really "free"! ) http://www.shef.ac.uk/misc/rec/ps/efi/eaudmp3.html

Can you speak russian? Here is a link to a website of a guy whose name is Kozlov and he was leading a band called Arsenal for years. They played almost everything from free jazz to disco. The blue titles are links to mp3, right click and choose "save target as". http://www.musiclab.ru/templates/enc.asp?i...=table_mainmenu Another link to his solo projects (plays alto). http://www.musiclab.ru/templates/enc.asp?i...=table_mainmenu

Thanks again!

Well, thank you guys!