-
It always seemed to me one of the main reasons he never caught on with more guitarists was because he's playing an almost entirely different instrument. The same rules don't apply. I can't really get his thing out of my guitar conceptually.
I greatly admire his playing but never got into him at all.
In the mid 70s a couple of musicians used to tell me about this guy from Stanford or Palo Alto who played this way. I never heard him, but I realized years later they were telling me about Stanley Jordan.
-
01-21-2017 05:36 PM
-
I'm not sure I'd have this in the "other styles" section, but guys like Stanley and Charlie Hunter, as Henry said above, play a whole other instrument. FWIW, I've seen both Stanley and Charlie, and I've walked away thinking, "Wow - amazing!" but then I don't go home and try to play their stuff or buy up all their CDs (like I do with other musicians!).
-
I admit I was always more of a "Nay" on Stanley Jordan. I've seen him before and I just didn't bond with the sound or the concept. I thought he was mainly an interesting curiosity and that's about it. Then recently I saw this and was happy to change my mind! This illustrates his impossible technique and ability while playing great stuff in a more conventional sense. I still don't think I'll pick up any of his recordings, but he's definitely got it goin' on.
-
Originally Posted by VinceMGuitar
-
Originally Posted by John A.
-
Someone else mentioned Charlie Hunter, who is a more blatant example of the faults of a technique "gimmick." Seeing Charlie Hunter live as a guitarist is fascinating. I saw him perform at a smaller club standing right up by the stage and just stood there with my jaw on the floor at what he was doing. But... imagine listening to him without knowing that the bass and guitar were one guy on one instrument. Both his bass lines and his solos suffer musically for the restraints of staying together on the neck to facilitate the limits of the technique. There's no denying that.
Stanley Jordan with his tapping technique on multiple instruments is more proficient at keeping the multiple parts going at the same time without the technical aspects of notes and rhythm suffering. However, as many have mentioned, the tone suffers greatly. Close your eyes and listen to the Autumn Leaves video linked above thinking of the comping and lead as separate entities. You'd ask yourself why doesn't that guitarist pluck his strings, you can barely hear him and it sounds so hollow? And also, why is the pianist playing such a crummy sounding synth?
If the end goal is producing beautiful music, then no matter how cool it is that you can play 2 guitars at the same time (or a bass and a guitar), if the music sounds worse than it would with multiple musicians filling the role(s), have you really done your audience a service?
-
Originally Posted by jim777
48thst (guitar row) was my heaven
cheers
-
Originally Posted by henryrobinett
John
-
Originally Posted by lammie200
John
-
Originally Posted by lammie200
John
-
Originally Posted by pants
John
-
Originally Posted by John A.
-
Originally Posted by John A.
I was pretty young as well but I don't remember much intimidation at Mills Tavern back then. It might have been a year or two after the bikers left - I don't know. I do think that the musicians were doing coke in the back room between sets. My cousin and I just nursed our beers.Last edited by lammie200; 01-22-2017 at 02:47 PM.
-
Originally Posted by lammie200
The only Bleecker St. spot I spent any real time in was the Village Corner. There was a blind piano player there named Lance Hayward who was there for decades, and he was pretty amazing, very Art Tatum like. I started checking him out regularly IIRC .ca. 83 or 4.
John
-
I saw Stanley Jordan at a Music Therapy conference in Southern California. He jammed with a violin player on Autumn Leaves. He swung so hard that night that I wanted to throw my guitars off a cliff. After I talked to him, he made me realize so graciously that there's so much guitar out there, and that his method was only one way of doing it. Very nice man, and studied music therapy too. Glad I didn't toss my guitars.
-
Of course I was blown away when I first heard him.... So I had to learn at least a couple of his tunes. All I can say is wow. Figuring out some of his stuff did have some good benefits for me though, Once considered impossible tapping runs by various artists like Steve Via and Joe Satriani seemed completely do-able after working out some serious Stanley Jordan.
-
Since people are swapping Stanley Jordan stories, I guess it was about '82-83 my buddy & I went to the Vanguard- it was so packed we couldn't get all the way down the stairs. It sounded like a band of guitarists, but we couldn't see- it was just Stanley.
I moved to the Trenton area a couple years later, turns out my girlfriend, who was into the jazz scene, knew him because he was around Princeton.
Much later in life, my current wife's friend is good friends with him, a year or so ago she had a party he came & played at. Wish we'd been invited, somehow I've never met him!
-
I got to say this thread sells short how great Stanley is. The tone on Magic Touch, his first album, is amazing. I know it isn't straight ahead but it's some of the best guitar playing I've ever heard.
-
Originally Posted by Max405
-
This is any old thread but I have strong opinions so I might as well give mine. I don't care for the sound it is very 2 dimensional and I don't see him as a guitar player to any great extent. He certainly is a talented musician but frankly just play the keyboard and be done with it. Being an acoustic archtop player foremost what he does as zero interest of mine.
-
Originally Posted by jim777
JD
-
The way he plays the guitar is amazing and very original. I've seen him live and have one or two of his albums. But as many others have said, I'm not crazy about the tone. That and the music taken as a whole falls short of what it would be with separate instruments playing it.
-
I find it totally shocking that a lot of conservative archtop playing bop fans are finding little interest in someone trying something different.
-
You have to give players like Stanley Jordan and Charlie Hunter a lot of credit for their originality and for advancing the instrument the way they did.
I have albums of both. I too am not concerned whether it's one, two or three people playing, I just listen to the music. And they both sound very original. Especially Charlie Hunter, when he plays a regular guitar Joe Pass style, he's incredible! And what a groove he's got!
-
Jordan and Hunter are certainly original but not sure they really advanced the guitar.
Julian Lage Trio - Sat 27th April - Marciac,...
Today, 03:57 PM in The Players