Inversions

[AllanAllen]

Oh my, you have committed a misdemeanor, sir! Freddie's playing is meant to be felt but barely heard.

I found a Freddie Green playlist and blasted it in my car. Felt but barely heard perfectly describes it. I can’t believe people can transcribe his playing.

[Christian Miller]

Oh my, you have committed a misdemeanor, sir! Freddie's playing is meant to be felt but barely heard.

For a guy that was meant to be felt rather than heard I always found him surprisingly easy to hear…

I remember hearing a Sinatra thing on the radio and getting confused because it was clearly Freddie on guitar. Turned out it was Sinartra with the Basie band, not a record I knew …

His style is like truffle oil once you taste it… he doesn’t sound like any other rhythm guitarist.. the one note thing may be why.

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[Christian Miller]

The other thing is I was told that the Basie band played quite softly. They were instructed to play at the level of the guitar.

Imagine talking most big bands into that!


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[AllanAllen]

Restraint can be so hard to find amongst musicians.

[Christian Miller]

Trumpet players are musicians now?


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[Jonah]

I think the incorrect terminology is confusing a bit. Pianists really use inversions and guitarist use perversions.

[rpjazzguitar]

I mean tbh as soon as I read the OG article on that site I couldn’t really unhear it… it seemed to stand out really clearly to me esp in moments like that with sparse instrumentation (which is often the case in Basie) but it’s good to hear it REALLY obviously, just to make sure you aren’t going mad.


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Apparently, Freddie fingered chord forms with two or three notes, but only pressed down, at times, on the D string. He then strummed. So, only the note on the D string was heard fully, but the other strings contributed some thunk and some muted pitch.

It's comparable in a way to Wes' octaves. He skipped one string, never two afaik. He deadened the string with his left hand (leaning on it, but not fretting it) and hit all three strings with his right thumb. The deadened string's thunk is part of the sound. You can't get that exact sound by picking the two octave notes with two right hand fingers.

Not so easy to sound like Freddie. First, you have to figure out which chord forms to use -- and they can move every beat to create a melodic line. Then, you have to play those moving grips with the right feel and, somehow, coordinate with the bassist and the rest of the band. You have to be unflagging and never get stuck for the next voicing. And, of course, you're varying the pressure on the strings you're playing to get that sound. And, you may have to do it all on a big archtop with high action. And, then you do it for half a century or so. Remarkable player.

[Christian Miller]

Apparently, Freddie fingered chord forms with two or three notes, but only pressed down, at times, on the D string. He then strummed. So, only the note on the D string was heard fully, but the other strings contributed some thunk and some muted pitch.

It's comparable in a way to Wes' octaves. He skipped one string, never two afaik. He deadened the string with his left hand (leaning on it, but not fretting it) and hit all three strings with his right thumb. The deadened string's thunk is part of the sound. You can't get that exact sound by picking the two octave notes with two right hand fingers.

Not so easy to sound like Freddie. First, you have to figure out which chord forms to use -- and they can move every beat to create a melodic line. Then, you have to play those moving grips with the right feel and, somehow, coordinate with the bassist and the rest of the band. You have to be unflagging and never get stuck for the next voicing. And, of course, you're varying the pressure on the strings you're playing to get that sound. And, you may have to do it all on a big archtop with high action. And, then you do it for half a century or so. Remarkable player.

Takes practice…. It’s good exercise to practice selective left hand muting in any case. I knew a few players who have worked on this …

Needless to say, no one does it quite like FG…


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[mr. beaumont]

Weather is warming up...getting the feeling it's going to be another summer of rhythm guitar at the Matz residence.

[mr. beaumont]

Speaking of rhythm guitar, here's my current "well recorded Freddie" favorite record:

[AllanAllen]

I listened to Basie Reunion one this morning. Had this on yesterday, great old school style blues album.

[PMB]

Speaking of rhythm guitar, here's my current "well recorded Freddie" favorite record:

Great! Love the sound of everyone here.

Another excellent rhythm guitarist who gave Freddie a few lessons when he joined Basie's band is Allan Reuss. His playing is particularly prominent on Kay Starr's Lamplighter recordings from the mid '40s

[AllanAllen]

Great! Love the sound of everyone here.

Another excellent rhythm guitarist who gave Freddie a few lessons when he joined Basie's band is Allan Reuss. His playing is particularly prominent on Kay Starr's Lamplighter recordings from the mid '40s

If you want to find more of Reuss, there's an episode of the Jazz Focus podcast on him. There's also an Allan Reuss playlist on spotify that someone made.

[RLetson]

Ruby Braff's "Braff!" was mentioned upthread, and it's one of the albums that let me hear Freedie Green clearly, with the added virtue of having tracks with Steve Jordan, which made the differences in their rhythm playing very audible. (The rest of the album, featuring Coleman Hawkins and Dave McKenna, ain't exactly chopped liver, either.)

[mr. beaumont]

Ruby Braff's "Braff!" was mentioned upthread, and it's one of the albums that let me hear Freedie Green clearly, with the added virtue of having tracks with Steve Jordan, which made the differences in their rhythm playing very audible. (The rest of the album, featuring Coleman Hawkins and Dave McKenna, ain't exactly chopped liver, either.)

That record just has a certain something about it. Nothing groundbreaking...just people playing really swinging jazz exceptionally well.

[djg]

The other thing is I was told that the Basie band played quite softly. They were instructed to play at the level of the guitar.

Imagine talking most big bands into that!


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yep.you really need to turn your speakers up for this gem

[djg]

check this out at 8:40. also 13:45 is probably the best recorded example of his playing in general and the one-note chords