Robin D. G. Kelly's Thelonious Monk: The Life & Times of an American Original---to me one of the truly stellar jazz biogs.
Anything by David Hajdu; especially Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life and his biog on Nat Cole. (I've also corresponded w/him and he seems truly nice).
Frank Buchman-Moller's You Just Fight for Your Life---the Story of Lester Young. (All the Pres biogs are worth reading).
Art Pepper's autobiog (written with Laurie Pepper); and Miles (written with Quincy Troupe) are self-gratifying and hampered by loads of BS, but I've read them both numerous times. Pepper is a spellbinding raconteur, and his insight into other musicians' work is interesting to read (if his comments about his own 'genius' are slightly delusional). Miles talking about music has been great food for thought.
The Benson book was mentioned. One thing that cracked me up: some poetic justice. I knew Eddie Diehl for years, and he had a bug up his ass about Kenny Burrell. It had to do with a record date where he was sent home and replaced by Kenny b/c the company wanted a 'name'. He neither ever forgot nor stopped bad-mouthing Kenny's playing til it came out of your ears. I guess it's SOMEWHAT understandable. Eddie WAS one of the best, and a truly good-hearted guy underneath it all. We're all sensitive, and rejection---perceived or real---can really hurt.
Anyway, in George's book when he got the call to go with McDuff he was to replace Eddie. His comments---and they were respectful---were (paraphrasing): '(Eddie) was a formidable musician----not on the level of Kenny Burrell...., but he definitely could play'. Eddie was still alive when that came out. I hope he read it---it MAY have shut his mouth. I doubt it though---shutting Eddie's mouth about ANYTHING, especially guitar players he was jealous of (their stature in the biz, not their playing), was a tall order. But I had quite a chuckle over that one...
I’ve signaled this before, now for real: the TOOB/Metro cab business needs a successor/partner. Why: I’m 77 and beginning to feel it. I’d have to continue another 13 years until my elder son, the...
I enjoy Julian Lage’s playing. He is a blessed musician with immense talent. I am a lover of acoustic music and like his acoustic playing much more than the electric. He is great with the electric as...
That could be a part of it, altho it's not that simple.... for example, the Swart is stiffer than my Hot Cat, but the Hot Cat is solid-state rectified. I suspect it has "sag resistors" which are...
I’m thinking the Fishman is not the best amp for this application and the line out flavored your tone.
A nice quality Deluxe style tube amp or a Princeton style amp would work great plus you have...
Idem; I got it into my head that the saddle lean (I thought I) observed couldn't be good for the tone, plus the slots were all quite deep to my taste (except for the 6th where the saddle had been...
That is what I have found too in other amps. EL34s do have a mid range focus and perhaps a tighter bass and later break up than a 6L6. Regardless it is fun to be able to swap power tubes without a...
Very true, but you could lose a fair amount of gain, and you mentioned that that is what you're going for. I've found that using the guitar's tone control takes the edge off very effectively while...
Well, "smoother" sounds good... sometimes a 5751 "takes the edge off" a 12AX7, which can be good for the high end part of the gain, making it less strident.
There was this thread at the Gear Page
Did Gibson make a mistake….. with Epiphones….. | Page 2 | The Gear Page
People seem quite pleased with those new Epis. What if they did a "new" Epi ES-175 ?
I didn’t think it was an improvement. The EL34 sounded fuller, punchier, livelier. I intend to try a 6L6 and a KT88 one day but am in no hurry because the EL34 sounds killer.
TOOB/Metro business looking for successor/partner
Today, 08:15 AM in For Sale