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Originally Posted by Christian Miller
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09-06-2021 07:31 AM
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Originally Posted by grahambop
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Last edited by Clint 55; 09-11-2021 at 05:20 PM.
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Originally Posted by Clint 55
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Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
"Phil Upchurch just walked in. Now I'm nervous!"
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Originally Posted by citizenk74
Back in the 90s, I had a Sunday brunch duo gig at a French cafe in center city Philly and played it for a few years with a wonderful keyboard player. Fitting right into this thread, he insisted on dragging his Rhodes everywhere, along with a JC120, despite the fact that the place had a decent upright piano kept in good tune. Sadly, he pased away suddenly and I was left with an empty sideman spot to fill on short notice. Right after John died, I had a gig along with Billy backing Lonnie Shields. Out of curiosity I asked Billy if he played any jazz - and he replied "a little". So I asked if he was interested in doing a two guitar date with me at the cafe, and he said he was.
He showed up with a fat archtop and played his @ss off!
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The world seems full of players that deny they play jazz while being better at it than me haha.
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Originally Posted by Christian Miller
"No, your honor - I'm trying to hide it!"
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Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
Sometimes this works but most of the time it is like pulling teeth and we end up just playing blues in either E or Am.Last edited by jameslovestal; 09-07-2021 at 02:20 PM.
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Originally Posted by jameslovestal
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Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
The classic "organ trio" was a B3 and a drummer with either a tenor player or a guitarist, and an amazing number of our idols (like George Benson and Pat Martino) played in that setting at one point in their careers. I first met Pat Martino when he played with Willis "Gatortail" Jackson at the Club Harlem in Atlantic City NJ in the summer of 1964. I was 17 and he's 2 years older than me - so when I went to hear him, both of us were in the club illegally
My own organ trio was playing 7 nights a week at the Golden Inn in Avalon, NJ that summer. The organist lived down there for the summer, but the drummer and I drove back and forth to Atlantic City every night. So if we weren't too tired, we could hit the last shows and after-hours sessions before going home and crashing. Those were the days!!!Last edited by nevershouldhavesoldit; 09-08-2021 at 05:53 PM.
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Originally Posted by citizenk74
I never thought of Phil as a Jazzer. We were playing around Chicago at the same time in the 60's/70's and he was the "go to" guitarist for R@B/Soul gigs and recordings. Anyone have any of his Jazz recordings to share? The closest I found was "Take Five" (2:45 and 3:34 to 3:50) that he recorded much later in 2001. In this recording you hear mainly hardcore R@B licks.
Play live . . . Marinero
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Originally Posted by Marinero
As I said earlier, he’s not the most sophisticated jazz soloist and there’s certainly nothing exciting on this one. I bought it out of curiosity and have probably listened to it half a dozen times in 30+ years, usually to satisfy the curiosity of other guitarists.
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Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
I think Joe P may have said the above remark as "tongue in cheek." Phil was a very experienced jobber. I don't believe he is a JG soloist and he might even agree. One of my drummers played with him on a couple gigs in the 70's. He's a Chicago legend.
Play live . . . Marinero
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I saw Phil Upchurch play as part of Jimmy Smith's trio that toured in the early 2000's. He sounded pretty damn good. Jazz guitar may not have been his bread and butter, but he could do it very well. I do not think his recorded output does his jazz guitar playing justice.
Regarding the Joe Pass quote, it was probably just Joe being funny. Other than Wes Montgomery, I doubt any jazz guitarist who lived in Joe's time made him "nervous".
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Originally Posted by Stringswinger
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Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
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Originally Posted by ccroft
At the beginning we had only some DIY marimbas. Funny but silent. Then the malletist found out the midi vibes instrument Mallet Kat. It was – and is – a heaven! At last we have vibes (and marimba) with a normal sound pressure.
I have learned to play my jazz guitar in that environment. Avoiding the bassists area have teached me to find out how to harmonise things with 3-4 notes, mostly in the strings 2, 3, 4 and sometimes the 5. Best area is between the frets 4 and 10, about. Lots of freedom in rhythm and harmonics. I am not a virtuoso but I fill my small box.
Now the malletist member has lately got bored in playing mallets and he wants to play piano. I was horrified when he suggested that: world is full of jazz piano bands – but the vibes are a rarity. Every music digger is used to hear jazz played on piano – but the sound of the vibes make listeners melt, they start to dream, they fall in love with it.
And now he wants to skip our band’s apparent ace card and make us a normal piano band with average players.
Once in the rehearsals I gave up and we tried the piano. It felt ok in the room, I was delighted and surprised.
But when I listened the recording (I record all my gigs and rehearsals with almost every band) I was shocked. The piano had operated on the very same notes that I had played and its sound just drowned my playing. There was nothing left of the guitar in the songs.
Now we are in a dead end. He does not like playing the ”old shit” and I can’t see how we could take the piano in without serious re-arrangements.
”Luckily” the clarinetist who is our band’s leader has artistic crisis and a bit deeper-than-normal depression so our band is on a undefined hiatus anyway.
Sorry ’bout the long personal rant!
Now back to the theme with a Barney Kessel quote from some live recording that was shared in here some months ago:
”It takes two exceptionally skilled guitarists to sound like an average pianist.”
So true!
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Originally Posted by Herbie
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Hey Man,
I know it's not the same but a lot of the electric pianos these days have very reasonable vibe sounds.
If the keyboardist his going to cruel your sound then you may better off parting ways with him and using the electric paint vibe option ?
Cheers
billy
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I highly recommend early George Shearing Quintet albums, especially if you like guitar, vibes and piano together. Shearing had a unique style in which he played his melody lines within 2 handed block chords that incorporated each note of the lead into 3 unison octaves. His guitar player doubled the low one and his vibes player the high one, which is what gave his group its cool sound. Chuck Wayne was the first in that guitar chair, and Toots Thielemans was his successor.
The vibes patch in the Roland guitar synths is stellar - I’ve fooled many a fellow musician in the audience with it. I love using it in unison with guitar for that Shearing sound.
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Originally Posted by billy23
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Originally Posted by billy23
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Originally Posted by Herbie
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Originally Posted by 2bornot2bop
Now we need a lyrical interlude, by a piano trio from Sweden!
EST, go ahead!
RIP Nick Gravenites
Today, 05:48 PM in The Players