Re: Guitars in jazz - Mike M. - Music Lane

Music Lane

It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes.

Re: Guitars in jazz

In Reply to: Actually, I'm not... posted by SE on May 31, 2002 at 04:40:43:

You make some valid points about guitars in jazz. I think I know what you mean, in a way. There is much that I admire and enjoy about the use of guitars in jazz too, and so such diversity! As I was reading your post, a few of these examples popped into my head:
Bucky and/or John Pizzarelli's wildly rhythmic, swinging style - either as rhythm, or back and forth between rhythm and lead as John does. The way the chords sing, the percussive attack quality of the strumming, the harmonics of the lead over the rhythm chords - great stuff, and really unique in jazz. I can't imagine that interplay being duplicated with any other instrumentation. (John P is on the new Ray Brown CD, btw)
The uniquely gorgeous tone of the acoustic guitar in jazz, either as lead or as backup. A fairly recent memory - I was mesmerized listening to Romero Lubambo play an acoustic backing for James Carter's "Gypsy" band in concert. That experience opened or re-opened so many avenues of listening to jazz guitar for me - from exploring Lubambo's own Argentinian based jazz, to going back and re-visiting the earlier Brazilian influence of Charlie Byrd and Laurindo Almeida, to further explorations of the 'gypsy' style Django jazz. That 'hot club' jazz form needs the guitar, whether in its original Django/Grapelli form or as contemporized by the likes of Charlie Byrd's "Du Hot Club de Concord" (a wonderful CD, btw), or by the incredible acoustic CDs of Martin Taylor like "Gypsy" or "Spirit of Django" (damn shame he's gone commercial!), or by the modern gypsy guitar of Bireli Lagrene (avoid his electric projects though), or by the Brazilian/World influenced CDs by Badi Assad - marvels of complex rhythmic chording and strumming interspersed with lightning lead runs.
Texture, and arrangements - The relatively recent string of Telarc releases by Jim Hall are, in some ways, as interesting as anything he's done - which is pretty damn interesting. The titles point the way towards his focus on various aspects of his use of the guitar in jazz, concepts which have been inherent in Hall's music for decades, but which he brings into unique focus through the use of... "Dialogue", "Textures", "By Arrangement". I place so much value on Electric/Acoustic guitarists such as Hall or Metheny for their arrangment and compositional skills, for their thoughtful use of those concepts - the dialogue, the overlaying of textural elements... but also for their playing - the clarion sound of the notes, the soaring, mercurial runs of notes in a Metheny solo can usually lift my heart and soul into ecstatic flight! Not just within a Pat Metheny Group context either - listen to the way that Metheny compliments Michael Brecker's sax sound on Brecker's "Tales From The Hudson" or "Time Is Of The Essence" - guitar and tenor sax perfectly in compliment with one another, in a straightahead jazz context of dialogue and harmonics. Speaking of straightahead jazz, modern style, post-bob jazz... "Enemies of Energy" and "The Next Step", two recent releases by guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel are among the most exciting CDs I've picked up in the past year or so. Rosenwinkel's improvisational guitar skills are exceptional, his creativity and sense of jazz is progressive and perhaps even visionary.
Fusion, if you call it that - I've always been one of the world's biggest John McLaughlin fans - I owe a debt of thanks to Mahavishnu Orchestra for leading me towards jazz back around 1970. Since then, McLaughlin's forays into Indian music, Spanish acoustic music ala the "Friday Night in SF" trio, his re-visits to Mahvishnu style 'fusion', on CDs like "The Promise", etc, have consistantly helped to evolve and broaden my listening base. His guitar solo's on Shakti are like nothing else I've ever heard in any context. The image of him playing with Shakti live will always be one of my most powerful musical images - from approx. 6' away, at the Bottom Line, his fingers were literally a blur. I can't think of that performance without the image of a hummingbird's wings coming to mind, or the stacatto brr-rr-rr-rrr-rrr-rr-rr-r-rrrr-rrrp sound of a machine gun fire, as he fired off his solo runs. I've never heard that sort of dexterity or virtuosity on any instrument other than Mclaughlin's guitar.
All in all, I think my appreciation of guitars isn't based on the "traditional" Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, Kenny Burrell sound. Likewise the contemporary equivalent of that style as played by Russell Malone, Mark Whitfield, or even George Benson - none of them hold my attention, talented though theyu might be. My appreciation of the guitar in jazz seems to run towards the fringe areas, the unique, special applications.
Have a good weekend
Mike

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - How do we like Ray Brown's best friends? - Mike M. 12:47:48 05/30/02 (13)

the next ray brown seems to be---- - hifitommy 19:00:51 05/31/02 (1)

Re: the next ray brown seems to be---- - Mike M. 13:31:18 06/02/02 (0)

I like them too.... - stevenk 03:28:37 05/31/02 (0)

I like Ray's Friends ... - Mike K 15:29:47 05/30/02 (1)

Me too! - Nemo 21:01:55 05/30/02 (0)

I like this series... - SE 13:52:23 05/30/02 (7)

You're kidding, right? - Allan Songer 16:16:33 05/30/02 (5)

Actually, I'm not... - SE 04:40:43 05/31/02 (3)

Re: Actually, I'm not... - Allan Songer 14:36:47 06/03/02 (0)

Re: Guitars in jazz - Mike M. 07:30:55 05/31/02 (1)

I just printed out your post... - SE 08:40:41 05/31/02 (0)

Re: You're kidding, right? - Muzikmike 20:28:37 05/30/02 (0)

Guitars in Jazz - John Coombs 14:13:09 05/30/02 (0)

Follow Ups

Re: Guitars in jazz - Mike M. 07:30:55 05/31/02 (1)

I just printed out your post... - SE 08:40:41 05/31/02 (0)

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