The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Hello,

    I am a new member to this group, and I have a lot of questions.

    I am trying to study Jazz guitar, specifically the stuff from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. I am a big fan of old Blues and old Country music. I love the music of Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Lefty Frizzell, Merle Haggard, Ernest Tubb, Charley Pride and George Jones, and I can't get enough of the sound of a lap steel guitar.

    I am trying to find a way to combine Blues, Country, and Jazz together, and I am a solo artist so I feel its really tough, but I wanted to ask, has anyone on here ever tried to take an old Hank Williams song and try to make it sound like a jazz or swing song?

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    You might try extending some of the chords - 6ths to 13ths, 7ths to 9ths, etc. "Crazy" has some nice chords as is. Just keep it swingin'.

  4. #3

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    You might find some inspiration here.

  5. #4

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    I play lap steel, and generally western swing is considered jazz. Even jazz guitar ace Bruce Forman has a western swing band called Cowbop. Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys are the roots of much of it, and they played in the same dancehalls in the same era as Basie, Ellington, Miller, etc.

    Then there were guys Like Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West who many considered as pioneers of combining instrumental blues/country/jazz in the early electric era.

    This facebook group might be of interest. Lap Steel Jazz Public Group | Facebook.

    Asleep At The Wheel keeping up the swing tradition.


  6. #5

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    You can jazz up anything, seriously, but whether it sounds any good afterwards is another matter. Depends how you do it and how much you want to dilute the original sound.

    But, as a basis, as someone said, extend the chords to M7s, 6s, 9s, etc, extend doms to 13ths and 9ths, divide them into their ii-Vs, alter them, use substitutes, add diminished passing chords, and so on.

    Quite a few country songs already have some of those effects in them anyway. Crazy has CM7/C#o - Dm7/G7#5 as a t/around. That's plenty jazzy.

  7. #6

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    No chord charts, just the videos, but here's some Hank Williams played as jazz. You should be able to get a rough idea of how to do it.
    Roy Clark & Joe Pass Play Hank Williams - YouTube

  8. #7

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    Joel Harrison has three albums of just this with his 'Free Country' project - arranging country and Appalachian music for jazz.

    Albums – Joel Harrison


  9. #8

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    Willie's stuff is often great for this.

    I love old country music.

  10. #9

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    here is the great Bill Frisell playing Happy Trails:



    And the not so great me playing Tennessee Waltz:


  11. #10

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  12. #11

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  13. #12

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    Really dig some country flavoured Swing.
    I think you might really enjoy Pokey Lafarge:


    His music is always somewhere between Country, Swing and Blues, and he also has a Solo-Program.

    Absolutely worth checking out!

    Paul

  14. #13

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    Or alternatively, if you want to go crazy :-)


  15. #14

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    The only Old song I have done this too. Is a Tennesee Ernie Ford song Sixteen Ton's, Its not really a Country western song and more of a Blues song, even though you can play it like a country or blues, and add some jazz phraising to it.

  16. #15

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    It;s quite fun, this. Sorry!

    I can hear a 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry' coming on too, as the OP likes Hank.


  17. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by ragman1
    It;s quite fun, this. Sorry!

    I can hear a 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry' coming on too, as the OP likes Hank.

    That was really pretty!

  18. #17

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  19. #18

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    This is a must have for this genre .....

    https://georgebarnes.bandcamp.com/album/country-jazz

  20. #19

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    This is a must have for this genre .....

    Country Jazz | George Barnes


  21. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hankfan1953
    Hello,

    I am a new member to this group, and I have a lot of questions.

    I am trying to study Jazz guitar, specifically the stuff from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. I am a big fan of old Blues and old Country music. I love the music of Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Lefty Frizzell, Merle Haggard, Ernest Tubb, Charley Pride and George Jones, and I can't get enough of the sound of a lap steel guitar.

    I am trying to find a way to combine Blues, Country, and Jazz together, and I am a solo artist so I feel its really tough, but I wanted to ask, has anyone on here ever tried to take an old Hank Williams song and try to make it sound like a jazz or swing song?

    John Scofield made an album a couple of years ago called "Country for Old Men" that does this (though it his sound/concept might not be what you're thinking of).



    John

  22. #21

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    Scofield it's not...


  23. #22

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    hard to beat frisells- disfarmer...not exactly all old country covers, but definitely sounds inspired by..and with the mighty greg liesz on steel



    cheers

  24. #23

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    Sonny Rollins' Tennesse Waltz:


  25. #24

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    i've often messed around with the notion....tho not so much country SONGS as the roots--the ancient country TUNES....

    more-specifically the old, old mostly-appalachian fiddle tunes....catchy memorable melodies....many are inherently modal, thus lending themselves to all forms of re-harmonization, extended harmonic notions etc....some are also kinda polyrhythmic, especially the ones called 'crooked tunes'....

    one easy and fave example, among the earliest solo fiddle tunes recorded: 1922

    one player, one fiddle.....just what the heck IS this? ya know?


  26. #25

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    or this....again: just what the heck IS this?

    i've fooled with it often as a 'jazz' tune....trio or quartet, piano and/or guitar with drums & bass....it's like there's nothing in it and, at the same time, EVERYTHING is in it...

    Last edited by janepaints; 03-17-2020 at 09:41 PM. Reason: typo