Other acoustic archtop players like Al Casey.

[bratistofeles]

Hi,
I was wondering if members of the forum could help me find players and recordings of players who used an unplugged archtop in the post swing and big band era.
I'm familiar with the likes of Alan Reuss and Freddie Green but I'm looking for players who recorded without an amp in a trio/quartet/quintet setting.
So far I only know of Al Casey (I really wonder how he was able to convince Ruddy Van Gelder to record him this way).
He has an antire album recorded for the Prestige subsidiary label Swingville playing acoustic:

He has a few later recordings which (to me) sound as if they were recorded with a flat-top acoustic.
Thanks!

[wintermoon]

Casey has 2 lps on Prestige subsidiaries, Buck Jumpin on Swingville and The AL Casey Quartet on Moodsville, the latter using an electric. I have them both and they're great.
Are you referring to postwar acoustic recordings up until the present or only during the post bop big band era?

[wintermoon]

He mentioned AR in the orig post, he's looking for others.

[bratistofeles]

Casey has 2 lps on Prestige subsidiaries, Buck Jumpin on Swingville and The AL Casey Quartet on Moodsville, the latter using an electric. I have them both and they're great.
Are you referring to postwar acoustic recordings up until the present or only during the post bop big band era?

I'd be interested to learn about any unamplified acoustic archtop recordings up to the present day but particularly in the 50s-60s.

[wintermoon]

the first one that springs to mind is this one but let me think about it....

[pcjazz]

Marty Grosz
Bucky Pizzarelli
John Pizzarelli
Matt Munisteri
Tony Mottola
Carl Kress
Dick McDonough
Frank Victor
Harry Volpe
George Van Eps
Jonathan Stout
Martin Taylor
Steve Jordan
and many more …

[wintermoon]

Marty Grosz
Bucky Pizzarelli
John Pizzarelli
Matt Munisteri
Tony Mottola
Carl Kress
Dick McDonough
Frank Victor
Harry Volpe
George Van Eps
Jonathan Stout
Martin Taylor
Steve Jordan
and many more …

I didn't mention some of those guys because I'm not aware of post bop/big band acoustic records they made.
but if we're including everyone we can start w/ Eddie Lang

[RJVB]

If it can be up to the present day there is of course

which I think is about the best possible imaginable acoustic recording. The recording is available via Wilson's bandcamp page.

Can it be home-made and other not-a-full-album recordings? If so you'll find quite a few by Rob MacKillop on his archtop website, there are all the recordings on YT of the various instruments in the Chinery collection by various artists including the Michaels Chapdelaine and Watts. And there are one-offs like

or (not entirely purely acoustic)
'The Dome' Nylon String Archtop - YouTube

EDIT: come to think of it, most of Maybelle Carter's recordings probably have her playing her original L5, acoustically.

[RJVB]

Is that still western swing? I'd swear I'm hearing parts boogie-woogie and rockabilly too.

[bratistofeles]

the first one that springs to mind is this one but let me think about it....

This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!!

[bratistofeles]

This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!!

Another recording for the list. Courtesy of Youtube's algorithm recommending it to me while listening to that Howard Alden album.

[Mick-7]

Well, Charlie Christian was the first to play an electric guitar in 1936, so most of his contemporaries at that time (e.g., George Van Eps) and all guitarists before then would fit the bill.

[bratistofeles]

Well, Charlie Christian was the first to play an electric guitar in 1936, so most of his contemporaries at that time (e.g., George Van Eps) and all guitarists before then would fit the bill.

Right, but I was asking about recordings using an unplugged archtop in the post big band era.

[Mick-7]

Right, but I was asking about recordings using an unplugged archtop in the post big band era.

Ah, o.k., George Barnes would be at the top of the list.

[bratistofeles]

Ah, o.k., George Barnes would be at the top of the list.

I really like George Barnes, can you point me to a recording where he is playing unplugged though? I'm not aware of any.

[wintermoon]

Another recording for the list. Courtesy of Youtube's algorithm recommending it to me while listening to that Howard Alden album.

I was gonna suggest that one.

[Mick-7]

I really like George Barnes, can you point me to a recording where he is playing unplugged though? I'm not aware of any.

Apparently I was mistaken, even on his earliest recordings he had a pickup installed on his acoustic guitar. Electric guitars were not being made yet but transducer pick-ups for guitars were available.

[RJVB]

Courtesy of another thread, an example of a very NON-Grasso-esque tone:

Both guitars appear to be unplugged and have a mic pointed at the appropriate location but the left one does sound a bit electric to my ears.

The other 2 instruments are archtops too, BTW

(Probably the 1st time I see a double bass with a slanted bridge!)

[RLetson]

Acoustic archtop recordings from the 1950s onward tend to be retrospective/revivalist/specialist projects--the Grisman-Taylor Tone Poems II album, for example. I've been accumulating such material for a long time, but right now the cat on my lap prevents me from going to read my shelves for a survey of titles and players. Off the top of my head, I'd name Matt Munesteri and Jonathan Stout, of course--and if we allow western swing as a close cousin, there are Whit Smith and Ranger Doug. I think I most often hear acoustic archtops in small-group contexts, particularly backing singers--I think Jordan Officer is playing acoustic on a Suzi Arioli album. (But I still have that cat on my lap. I'll check later.)

In the Grappelli video, both guitars appear to be operating acoustically--no signs of cords, and they sound acoustic to me.

[RJVB]

Acoustic archtop recordings from the 1950s onward tend to be retrospective/revivalist/specialist projects

(why did I never find this one before and am I the only one who hears a kind of (but nice) electric sound in its voice?!)

If that one member in the archtop section of the American Gutt Fearing hangout is right there would probably have been a lot more people playing archtops as a sort of transatlantic equivalent of the classical guitar, had Segovia not toured the US when he first did. I.e. back when people like Lang & Kress were beginning to play different, sometimes downright classical music on their archtops. That would probably not have prevented them from being the precursor to electric guitars and I don't think he made any predictions about whether or not that hypothetic, missed role would have been acoustic or electric.

I do think there's more attention nowadays to the fact that archtops can do so much more than just play jazz (through a pickup), so we may start seeing more acoustic recordings.

[Mick Wright]

Hi Bratistofeles

Tal Farlow's 1959 album The Guitar Artistry of Tal Farlow has a few acoustic tracks with Bobby Jaspar (flute) and Milt Hinton (bass) - if only he'd recorded more of these. The story that I heard, a long time ago, was that Tal had played an acoustic D'Angelico owned by Vinnie Bell (inventor of the sitar-guitar).

I'd love to know more about this session, which is unique in Tal's discography... anyone??
all the best
Mick W

Check out Sweet Lorraine, A Foggy Day and Telefunky, here:

[L50EF15]

Any discussion of acoustic jazz guitar, certainly about current players in the pre-bop style, is incomplete without discussion of the great Jonathan Stout:

He has multiple recordings available, including a couple of marvelous solo records (Bandcamp and iTunes).

[L50EF15]

Before he turned to the electric seven string, George Van Eps (mentioned upthread) did some amazing trio records on acoustic archtop. If you can find it, grab a copy of the old Yazoo Records collection "Fun On The Frets", which includes the Van Eps Trio as well as a side of duets featuring Carl Kress and Tony Gutuso (before he became Tony Mottola).

Here's some more Van Eps. Note recording date of 1949; so, no, he's not overdubbing...

And Kress and Gutuso here (granted that it's earlier than the period you're interested in by about a decade):

And Kress solo, from 1939 (so also earlier):

I absolutely recommend getting the collection these last two are from. Although it's pre-war stuff, it's a superb compilation of acoustic archtop playing.

[GuyBoden]

The famous Jimmy D'Aquisto Blue Centura acoustic archtop guitar.
Played by Sean McGowan. 'Love is here to stay'.