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There was a thread here, well over a year ago I think, in which we discussed the guitar's role in New Orleans' jazz.
Anyway, the thread had some great videos posted in it, but I can't seem to find it.
Anybody remember this? One of the groups had a female guitar player who was playing a Godin 5th avenue...
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11-14-2019 12:03 AM
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I don't remember that thread but you can't talk about New Orleans guitar without this guy:
Leo Nocentelli.
A live version of "Cissy Strut" with The Meters.
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Earl King's "Come On" was covered by Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
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Snooks Eaglin with Professor Longhair (a potent combination). No vocals on this one (-both men sang), just a jam in G, but it's a very NOLA rhythm.
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Shane Theriot was influenced by Leo. Here's a great riff from a TrueFire lesson. This is neat because you can see what he's doing. A lot of New Orleans guitar is subtle. (And because of mixing, you can't always hear it as clearly on records as you might like.)
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Totally not what I was talking about, but who cares, this stuff made my morning, Mark
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The only thread I can find that discusses New Orleans jazz and guitar is this one: Guitar for New Orleans jazz?
No clips with female guitarists, though. One of the popular trad jazz bands in New Orleans, Tuba Skinny, usually has a rhythm section that includes a 6-string banjo, a resonator guitar, and an archtop. You don't often see a New Orleans band with that many strings.
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Tuba skinny is great!
Originally Posted by sgosnell
The band I was thinking of was the Jazz Vipers, but I'd still like to find that thread, there was a bunch of good stuff in it.
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Ah, you're thinking of Molly Reeves. She plays in several groups including the Shake 'Em Up Jazz Band, an all-female group that I like better than Tuba Skinny. The Jazz Vipers are also very good, and have a recent CD out. There are a number of guitar players in NOLA, of different genres, including trad, gypsy, and more modern.
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Could be this thread, scroll down to post #19 for the Lady with the Godin;
Chords used in Dixieland (Trad Jazz) and hot Chicago jazz?
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(duplicate deleted)
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I’m not sure how exactly the current crop of New Orleans hipster street jazz bands relates to the history of the music. They do anachronistic swing dancing etc, so I think it’s not necessarily super exact. I’ve hung out and played with enough of these guys to get a sense. They are players and entertainers, not historians.
Banjo and guitar together, that sort of thing. Not sure how that relates to historical rhythm sections. Certainly by the swing era it was all guitar. A couple of recordings I’ve heard have this - Johnny St Cyr and Lonnie Johnson together with Louis, that kind of thing, but I don’t know how common that was as a working gigging line up. Also that stuff was all recorded in Chicago.
I think they are up for doing whatever sounds good.
There are however many pictures from early 20th century New Orleans where we see guitar not banjo.
Some accounts seem to suggest the adoption of banjo and brass bass was down to limitations in recording tech.
Google Image Result for https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Music/Pix/pictures/2011/6/14/1308057023818/The-Buddy-Bolden-Band-007.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&
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What do you call 5000 banjos at the bottom of the sea ?
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A good start .
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I think a lot of the early players played both , Fred Guy , Eddie Condon , although neither of them were New Orleanian (?)
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Screw historical correctness, the music is fun Originally Posted by christianm77
I had read somewhere that guitar was the original instrument, then banjo took over, and of course, eventually fizzled out.
I'm totally getting a banjo. I think itll drive my wife CRAZY.
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That’s not very environmentally friendly, you’ll kill all the fish. Originally Posted by Pycroft
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Molly Reeves and the Jazz Vipers. This video is good because you can see her hands a lot.
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Haha I’ve got one. And my wife can’t complain because it was her brother who sold it to me. Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
Funny thing about this banjo (a Windsor) is that the company went bust in WW2 after the Luftwaffe bombed their factory. I do not know if Hitler meant to do that, not sure which side could claim that as a victory! Anyway it means this banjo must be WW2-vintage or older.
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Reminds me of how much fun playing that sort of music can be - it's so ?convivial . Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
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Exactly. Originally Posted by Pycroft
I got bit hard by this bug while we were on strike...a bunch of teachers from different schools got together, mostly band instructors but there was me too, and we marched and played a lot of these old tunes to pep people up--saints, Avalon, when you're smiling, etc...me banging away on my old Kay archtop basically just sounding like a snare drum(no strap buttons on my Django style guitar, which would have been louder)
Anyway, I'm actually tempted to try and put a group together, play a mix of Chicago, New Orleans, French swing...just simple tunes, make a raucous. No interest in authenticity, definitely no interest in wearing period correct clothing or any of that, just playing some fun old music, drinking beer, banging out some rhythm.
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That's it! Originally Posted by rabbit
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That's what I said when I brought my tele to a trad gig, but they weren't buyin' it.... Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
Screw historical correctness, the music is fun
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Well, that's why this is gonna be my band Originally Posted by christianm77
You and that tele: totally welcome.
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My sense of Dixieland and early NOLA jazz is, banjo and tuba.
About 15 years ago I dabbled in learning banjo, even took a lesson with Tony Trischka. He told me, if I played jazz guitar already, that "banjo is easy". There's different styles, of course, but I found the pattern picking, etc. to be monotonous. Being a lefty who plays right handed, the emphasis on right hand technique wasn't a good fit, either.
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