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Just found some interesting jazz guitar vids by The United States Army Field Band and specially Staff Sergeant Jonathan Epley, guitarist with the Jazz Messengers.
World's mightiest army plays its jazz guitar with a Polytone!
And a short no bullshit lesson on Freddie King comping style:
I had no idea that US Army had a troops like this. Not bad! Go Jonathan, go!
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02-07-2017 03:48 PM
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The US military purchases equipment from the lowest bidder, unless there are special circumstances.
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Lol, reminds me of my favorite John Glenn quote:
Originally Posted by sgosnell
“As I hurtled through space, one thought kept crossing my mind - every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder.”
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Great lessons and gotta love the accent.
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The military musicians I know tell me they get some good stuff .... of course they can't keep it since it belongs to the service Originally Posted by sgosnell
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They have a long saxophone lesson too, called Saxophone Standard. Mostly basics and classical but anyway, great lessons.
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I thought tube amps were better at surviving an electromagnetic pulse.
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One of the finest musicians it has been my privilege to work with is a USAFB alum - an upright and fretless bass player who has worked with, among others, Bucky Pizzarelli. The Army may economize on equipment, but they go all-out on skill.
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Willie Thomas (trumpet) met Wynton Kelly (piano) when they were both in an Army band. Wynton taught Willie about "pentatonic pairs" (-I don't know if Wynton called them that).
I don't believe they ever recorded together. But here's a bit of Willie doing "Body and Soul." He's in his 80s now but can still blow that horn.
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Somewhere Originally Posted by Bluedawg
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i was in the army field band in ft meade MD for 3 years . They bought me a crown power amp, furman PQ3 parametric preamp and rack mount spring reverb in addition to a twin reverb.
It was a nice gig.
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I'd love to hear more about that. Originally Posted by agentsmith
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anybody here remember the $436 hammer?
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There s always a specification for the item being bid. Originally Posted by sgosnell
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
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Yup write a crappy specification and get a crappy product Originally Posted by amyFB
That said, the less money you are spending the easier it is to justify a sole source and avoid having to compete for purchases ....
And even if you do have to compete, you can specific the product and the contracting office will request competing bids from retailers ... not compete between various products
The lowest bid issues really come into play when your spending significant amounts of money ... under $10K is not really significant to the military contracting offices
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Wasn't the real story there the cover up of secret funding? Originally Posted by Longways to Go
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Sorry but that's TOTALLY wrong. When I joined the US Army Jazz Ambassadors in Ft. Meade, they asked me what kind of guitar and amp I wanted. I told them I wanted a twin reverb and a rack amp system. During the 1980-1983 period, they weren't budgeted to get a new guitar but they had 3-4 very nice guitars available that I could check out from supply including a strat, Les Paul, and some type of hollowbody. Might have been a 175. Originally Posted by amyFB
I chose to use my own guitars which ultimately was a mistake because one of my personal guitars was stolen off stage after a concert and had been given to me by the mom of one of my best friends after he died in an auto accident. Because it was my own instrument, the army wouldn't reimburse me and I didn't have instrument insurance at the time. Very sad.
And they bought their instruments from Washington Music in Wheaton MD which at the time had the best prices of any music store in the country.
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Originally Posted by agentsmith
Very cool ... where you in the service or were you a civilian volunteer? I ask because I know some civilians who play with the local Army band when the positions are not filled by service members.
I currently play with a guitar player who made a full Army career playing guitar and retired ... I think he managed to get an L5 or maybe a Johnny Smith for his unit's jazz band .. can't remember which ... the budgets aren't always there for getting what you really want but sometimes they come through. He spent almost half his career with the Army in Japan and some time in Germany as well.
Not sure how the bands buy their gear ... but most Army purchasing does require some details ... even if it's just specifying a brand and model number i.e. Cisco 3945 or whatever.
On the other hand ... if the price is low enough and the leadership approves the purchase sometimes they can just go out and use the unit credit card without having to deal with the contracting crap. Most guitar amps are probably well under the usual credit card upper limits.
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I was in the special bands program and I was an Spc-6 for 3 years in the army.
Originally Posted by Bluedawg
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i had many good (and many bad) experiences playing in the army field band. We traveled all over the country and I performed in every state except HI.
The musicianship was extremely high and I had a chance to perform with quite a few "name" jazz artists as well as performing at major jazz festivals throughout the country.
Less exciting was performing morning high school shows while we were on the road. I probably played 300 high schools during my time in the army. For high school shows, we mainly did pop music which (for me) was uninspiring and involved little actual jazz or improvisation but it was good experience reading and playing intricate arrangements.
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Wow, You all have some experience in military jazz band, unbelievable!
I am very surprised and delighted to find serious interest in jazz in this kind of environment. But hey, isn't jazz very uniquely American music!
Also the mixture of army discipline and high level artistry is quite fascinating. Try to be bohemian in these bands!
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With respect I don't think you are fairly comparing to my comment re a specified item being bid on by sellers competing for the sale. Originally Posted by agentsmith
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Yes I am. I actually was in the army band and have some experience with the procurement process. There was no specification for the items we purchased other than the musician specifying what instrument or amp they wanted. The purchase orders did go out for bids but washington music always had the lowest prices so they pretty much always won out. Originally Posted by amyFB
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I did and unfortunately was disciplined for it. The bass player (Jim Roberts) and I were both on the same page in terms of being free from the confines of standard rhythms, keys, etc. During solo sections, particularly if either of us was soloing and if there were no horn part harmonies, we would often exercise freedom in terms of harmonic and rhythmic structures. There were more than a few times where we spontaneously modulated rhythms and harmonies and we both felt that we were making *REAL* music. However, the military discipline and its cronies often came down on us for being creative. One time that I will always remember, after a rehearsal in which Jim Roberts and I did "our thing", the director dismissed the entire unit other than us two and famously yelled, "It looks like you two were back there having a good-ole-time?". Originally Posted by Herbie
To which Jim replied, "Yes sir, we certainly wouldn't want to be having a good time playing jazz".
We both had extra duty for a couple weeks after that...
So there were good *AND* bad experiences. Jim and I both felt that it was a good band, good musicians and such but the army clamped down as much as they could to keep the creativity in check. Sometimes I would get yelled at for playing "out" during a solo and you always had to edit your playing.
After three years, I got out and pursued other options. It just wasn't "the life" for me...Jim stayed in for 30+ years and recently retired as an E9. He is now teaching guitar and bass at a couple local colleges in virginia and playing classical guitar concerts.
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