The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    I know. Not jazz. Probably the wrong forum to post on.
    Broke out of a sort of jazz comfort zone last year, started listening to tracks here and there for a little rock "snack", and kinda got hooked (going to hell now). They can be pretty tight at times, and it's really "chuggy". Good to let the demons out once in a while. And as far as a good distorted guitar tone, Toni Iommi's is pretty mean.

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  3. #2

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    Yes, I think they're a great rock band. Love Toni's playing.

    And we have Django to thank in a way

    The manager of the sheet-metal factory where Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi lost the tips of two fingers helped him regain his passion for the guitar — by playing an album from the gypsy jazzer Django Reinhardt.

    Iommi, whose new reunion project with founding frontman Ozzy Osbourne has become Black Sabbath’s first-ever U.S. charttopper, was injured at age 17 on the final day of his stint at the plant. In the
    attached BBC video, Iommi says doctors told him he’d never make music again.


    “I went to the hospital, and they said: ‘You might as well give up,’ basically,” Iommi remembers. “The manager of the firm who I worked for brought me a record around of Django Reinhardt and he said: ‘Can I play you this record?,’ and I said: ‘No, no, I’m not interested.’ I didn’t feel exactly up for it.”


    But Reinhardt had suffered a similar fate, having lost the use of two fingers — also as a teenager, also on his left hand — in a fire. The plant manager told the young Iommi how Reinhardt eventually taught himself to play again, employing a unique soloing technique.


    “He said: ‘Well, this guy plays with two fingers.’ And that really inspired me to do it,” says Iommi, who’d eventually begin experimenting with prosthetic tips — making the initial version out of metal. “I tried different materials, and then at the end of the day, I came up with a leather that would grip the string. It was very primitive, but it worked.”


    As with Reinhardt, overcoming the physical hardship eventually led to a style that was completely Iommi’s own — one that continues through to Black Sabbath’s celebrated current release,
    13. “It made me invent a new way of playing,” Iommi says, “because I had to make these caps for my fingers.”

  4. #3

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    Great look at Tony's prosthetic finger tips. Mostly about "War Pigs".


  5. #4

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    They don't get any credit for how varied the music was. They Started out as a blues band in the late '60s and drew from blues and jazz in their music as well as having quite a bit of acoustic elements and orchestrational elements. People hear the name Black Sabbath or hear Iron Man on the radio an that's all they can imagine.


    Iommi did a very brief stint with Jethro Tull after Mick Abrahams left the band:



  6. #5

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    those late 60's uk heavy blues rock bands all benefited from drummers who dug ginger baker...ginger was a jazzer first..studied legendary uk jazz drummer phil seamen!!..hooked up with bassist jack bruce and established themselves as the best rhythm section in england..the cream!!... that's how they got the name!

    he was huge influence!! bill ward of sabbath was no doubt highly influenced..(as was sabbaths bassist geezer butler by jack bruce) and the barebones sabbath instrumental trio setting gave them plenty of room

    iommi & blackmore, slightly non blues based off kilter..what made them interesting

    i remember hearing the first sabbath in my kid friends basement...it was jarring!

    cheers

  7. #6

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    Their rhythm section could swing, that's exactly why I love them. If you listen to things like the breakdown in "Electric Funeral", or the guitar solo in "Air Dance", you'll get outside the steady-four of so much 70s hard rock.

    Then they could turn around and piledrive you with a riff like "Symptom of the Universe." And yeah, Iommi is the master of the riff.

    Best band of the era and genre, for my money.

  8. #7

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    Love me some Sabbath...particularly the first 4 albums.

    Great excuse to post this, too:

  9. #8

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  10. #9

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    I'm a big fan. I copied many licks when I started out on guitar from Tony, and I can still listen to Black Sabbath and love it. Playing tight heavy guitar riffs, that's what rock music is all about.

    This is a track i was obsessed with for a long time, what a great playing, and the tone! And a vibrato to die for. Still gives me chills listening to it.


  11. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by cosmic gumbo

    Way to make a Black Sabbath discussion on a jazz forum relevant!


    It struck me watching that vid that the only reason Ozzy had a vocabulary was Geezer writing lyrics.

  12. #11

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    Funny this topic came up. I heard some Sabbath I've probably heard hundreds of times on the radio, recently. (War pigs, maybe?) I remember saying out loud, "man Bill Ward is a GOOD drummer." He was groovin! Maybe it was the combo of Geezer with Bill Ward?

  13. #12

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    I remember as a kid seeing that first album cover and thinking "this could be scary good or scary bad". I liked it.

  14. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by ScottM
    Funny this topic came up. I heard some Sabbath I've probably heard hundreds of times on the radio, recently. (War pigs, maybe?) I remember saying out loud, "man Bill Ward is a GOOD drummer." He was groovin! Maybe it was the combo of Geezer with Bill Ward?
    Def. Imo they were maybe the tightest of that era.
    The first album (among others) is a testament to their versatility and cohesion. Almost a Rush-like versatility.

  15. #14

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    Iron Man was one of the first songs I ever heard with them, unfortunately, and that made me postpone my appreciation for Sabbath until much later, until my late teens.

    They are great, but Iron Man is a terrible song, lol

  16. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by greveost
    Iron Man was one of the first songs I ever heard with them, unfortunately, and that made me postpone my appreciation for Sabbath until much later, until my late teens.

    They are great, but Iron Man is a terrible song, lol
    What's terrible about it?

  17. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hep To The Jive
    What's terrible about it?
    I want to know, me too !