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 am a big fan of the early 60's 175. I had one and the reason it is gone is that like most guitars of that vintage, it needed a lot of restoration. I had a lot of work done and was not happy with...
It's been some time I did this video so I don't remember. I made that backing with computer and played guitar to another track. It can't be played live.
Lähetetty minun SM-A035G laitteesta...
Just saw this morning that German Vintage Guitar (german-vintage-guitar.com) are going to close shop. Sad, they were doing interesting and good work and usually had a number of beautiful and...
Thanks! I subscribe to Truefire, (it's superb) but hadn't seen this new course. It's perfect for me especially as I am first a singer and this has tons of useful technique for accompanying vocals and...
I think the different guitar makes the difference. There was no rocket science involved with Harry DeArmond's pickups and Fender/Guild had (has?) them reproduced in the Orient pretty damn well.
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Maybe! It’s taken long enough.
This one hasn’t done amazing but it’s done decently. Given ones thumbnail and title is the only thing new viewers see it remains a mystery to me why some do really...
I think real musical development happens during creative exploration and application of what's already learned. So it's important to find a good balance between learning new material and working on...
Hi!
I probably deleted that comparison because I was using the free SoundCloud tier at the time and it limits the total recorded time you can store. I finally went to the first paid tier and no...
PSA: German Vintage Guitar closing shop
Today, 10:44 AM in For Sale