Jazz and Loopers

[alltunes]

A subject I am interested in A google search turned up this book; if I get one tip out of it will be worth the 20 clams.

Amazon.com

[st.bede]

Interesting… I did once see a bass/guitarist with a novack guitar with 7 or 8 strings. He was working with a tenor saxophonist. The bass/guitarist 1st time through a tune, would lay down a bass line, and then loop that line. He would then comp. It seem to work pretty well. I felt like I had heard real jazz. Granted a bass player would of added a more nuanced approach but it was not bad.

As a musician, I think it is best to keep an open mind. I have picked up good ideas from many strange places.

(This makes me wonder. I bet some one, who is a very good musician with an Elektron Octatrack, might be able to really manipulate loops, and create solid improvised music… jazz or not… that would be a debate).

[Litterick]

The author has a website, with videos and tracks.

Max Otten also gives looper lessons:

[Alter]

I play with loopers all the time. It's like an instrument by itself, especially the multiple loops ones. Fun to explore, and they add great variety to solo or duet gigs.

[kris]

On more advanced loopers you can export and import waves.
Then the looper becomes your base to practice with backing tracks.

[oldHaus]

I listened to some of that author's work. Do you like his sound?

I personally don't care to learn from someone who doesn't have a sound I admire.

Matt Otten comes to mind as the master of smooth jazz guitar looping.

Interestingly, many masters have been doing this, especially for solo performance during the pandemic.

John Scofield, Jeff Parker, and others have great solo concerts on YouTube using loopers live. Jeff Parker also released a great solo album this year based around a looper and some other effects, especially the Freeze pedal.

[alltunes]

I listened to some of that author's work. Do you like his sound?

I personally don't care to learn from someone who doesn't have a sound I admire.

Matt Otten comes to mind as the master of smooth jazz guitar looping.

Interestingly, many masters have been doing this, especially for solo performance during the pandemic.

John Scofield, Jeff Parker, and others have great solo concerts on YouTube using loopers live. Jeff Parker also released a great solo album this year based around a looper and some other effects, especially the Freeze pedal.

Yeah the author is no Matt Otten. Got the book the other day. It does have a lot of useful information in it (licks, lines, arps, bass lines, chord dictionary) all in a very legible large print notation and TAB.

Been a fan of the looper vids from Sco and Friz ...need to investigate Jeff Parker.

There another YT guy "Docmansound" that has some good jazz looper vids.

[Lionelsax]

Very interesting, some love loopers, others hate them.
I sometimes play with a looper, it helps me to practice more and more.
Now I try to play without.
I wonder what you can find in this book.

[mikeSF]

cannot comment on the book, but I incorporated a looper (Boomerang III) some years ago to add another layer to my gtr/vocal duo work. For richer arrangements, I will sometimes create a bassline with comping on the fly, which frees me up to provide fills or secondary lines under the vocal. Then solo over same. My looper allows me to create 4 loops simultaneously so i can have an intro, A-section, bridge, outro and switch between them all at random.

Honestly, when it works, it elevates the duo, but there is so much room for me to make a mistake and sink the tune. If she comes in late, for example, i've got no time to correct, so it can be nerve wracking. When this inevitably happens, i will either kill the loop and go back to just me playing, or fade out the loop and quickly regroup and start up from a workable point in the tune, hoping nobody really notices.

good luck.

[kris]

The looper develops the creativity of the practise.
If you use the looper on stage the right way, it's great.
A big plus - playing one person - it's solo gig after all.

[Lionelsax]

It's sometimes a nightmare. Too predictable or too surprising tool. It depends.
I had stopped using it for more than a month. The other day I used it, I didn't feel the same.

[yebdox]

After watching Bernhoft videos over the past few years, I broke down and bought the new Boss RC-600 (waited several months for the long delayed and more powerful update to the old standard, RC-300)… but, life has been too busy to take it out of the box, knowing that it would be a complicated endeavor to get up to speed (it came 4 months ago!).

If you’ve not seen how masterful Bernhoft is with an RC-300, you are in for a treat, google him on YouTube. Much of that work is several years old by now, and he has moved away from the US and back to Norway, touring with bands, instead, but the way he layers vocals, guitar, bass and percussion slaps with different tune sections in and out is amazing… not jazz, but a great singer song writer who sounds like a gifted R&B American.

[Lionelsax]

Something I did at home and would like to do it in live.