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I've also loved what Oz Noy has been doing. Great tone and a unique approach with some nice combinations of Scofield, SRV and his own thing. Not everyone's thing, but great stuff with great tone.
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12-12-2014 11:37 PM
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Tonewise, Burrell is in a class of his own.
Otherwise, my three guys are Oscar Moore, Dave Barbour, and Jordan Officer.
A longer list would include 1950s and early 60s Jim Hall, Johnny Smith (on his album Favorites and Beverly Kenney's Sings For Johnny Smith), Herb Ellis, Cal Collins (LP Blues On My Mind), and Chris Flory, among others.
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Listening to Peter Bernstein right now, so yeah.
My brain is overloading to only pick two others, so I'll go with Grant Greene's early Blue Note recordings.
For a third I'll go with someone not as well known as I really like Eric Skye's jazz acoustic tone and playing.
If you've not heard Skye:
By the way, long time lurker and I'm not sure if this will be my first post, but nice place here.
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I am glad that a couple of guys brought up Django's late period. I have listened to Django _all of my life._ My father, also a guitarist, was a big Django fan, so I grew up hearing Django. When The Beatles hit the USA hard, I was that kid who filtered everything rock and roll through a Django sensibility. Of course, I got caught up in other jazz sounds, especially guys like Wes, Barney, Herb, and Grant.
The deal, for me, though is that Django's playing always sounded better, IMO, on the _acoustic_ Selmer guitar. He had such a hard drive that he tended to just overwhelm the electric guitar. The Stimer-equipped Selmer, or (on his American tour) the archtop electric were instruments that I believe Django fought--to some degree.
Case in point: to me, Stochelo's tone on his pickup-equipped Selmer sounds _better_ than Django's tone does on '49--'50 recordings with Grappelli. Maybe this is heresy, and I am not saying that Django's tone is bad. I am saying that Rosenberg is getting a better tone out of the same rig. I think that Stochelo has a better "feel" for the electric. I could be way, way off base, but it sounds to me as if Django made no accommodations in his playing for the fact that he was holding an electric instrument in his hands. Mind you, he still had the most commanding technique I ever heard--and that coming from a guy who basically had only two good, working left-hand fingers to employ on the fretboard. Django's right hand, however, is still driving the soundboard.
The effect reminds me of a great stage actor whose first time in front of a camera reveals a technique that has the actor delivering lines to the back rows of the auditorium. The camera sees everything. You hardly need to move or make a sound. Actors like Brando realized this and relegated the stage guys obsolete on film.
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Hey Greentone, I think you're completely on-target about Django and his approach. The stage/screen analogy is perfect.
The steel guitarist Cindy Cashdollar says moving from acoustic to electric is like moving from a manual typewriter to an electric typewriter - huge difference in touch. That said, I prefer late-period Django because he took out a lot of the "look what I can do!" aspects of his earliest work and made more profound and poignant musical statements - especially in his last recording.
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I agree. I listen more to late Django. ..great ideas. I prefer his early tone. You can't beat Stochelo Rosenberg's electric tone, though.
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My favourite tones are from
Johnny Smith, Django Reinhardt's electric stimer sound, Oscar Moore...
others I love include
Les Paul (in all stages of his career), Kenny Burrell (particularly on Midnight Blue), Grant Green, Barney Kessel, Tal Farlow, Charlie Christian. My favourite sounds generally seem to come from single coil pickups.
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#1 Tal Farlow (mostly his early stuff like Ed Fuerst sets and The Swinging Guitar)
#2 Billy Bean (like on Trio Revisited)
#3 René Thomas
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Wes Montgomery
Kenny Burrell
Herb Ellis
(I might have missed it but in scrolling through this thread I didn't notice the name Joe Pass. Surprising--to me at least-- as he was both awesome and influential.)
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Barney Kessel,
Grant Green,
Jimmy Bruno.
It's hard to limit this list to three, but those are my favorites if I must.
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John Abercrombie
lenny Breau
Georges Benson
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I never cared much about tone as colour... but if I had to name preferences
- Wes (I never considered it to be 'fat' as often say - I think it is actually very bright just softened a bit with thumb-picking)
- George Benson
Grant Green's tone I used to like - I like bright tones - and it sounded fresh but with time something changed I began to hear something dull, something too electric in his tone...
Opposite with Jim Hall, I just could not listen to him - all was too dull (like inside a bell) at least records like LIVE! but now Live! and Jim Hall's late records with Ron Carter are my favourites and his tone seems to me sharp and clear- but I think it depends much on the gear you use to listen to this record, it is much brighter than it may seem
And I would like also to name some artists which approch to using tone in their music I like
- Emily Remler uses guitar tone with such a masterty and taste
- John Scofield has fantastic tone control as a musical expressive tool - tone is really a part of his musical vocabularyLast edited by Jonah; 12-25-2014 at 08:47 AM.
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Hmmm.
Peter Bernstein since getting his Ziedler.
Jim Hall especially on the Live! album and the recently released Vols 2-4 and "It's Nice To Be With You" (which he overdubs coping and solos, the only record I have heard him do that- check out "In A Sentimental Mood").
Ed Bickert on "Out of the Past" has some of my favorite tones and playing of his.
On acoustic nylon string, Gene Bertoncini's tone on his CD "Someone To Light Up My Life" is just gorgeous and beautifully recorded. What a lovely record from beginning to end. And Romero Lubambo with Cesar Carargo Mariano on "Duo." Oh man. And the time feel those two have... they could put drummers out of business.
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+1 on Bertoncini.
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For classic players I would say:
Johnny Smith
Jimmy Raney
Ed Bickert - such wonderful sound out of a tele!
For modern players:
Bill Frisell in his earlier volume pedal/bridge bucker phase
John Abercrombie - (the only guitar synthesis I ever liked besides Adrian Belew and Metheny)
Ted Greene - such wonderful sound out of a tele!
Picking 3 is really tough. There are 100's of players I like who have great tone.
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Ha! Well, each to their own I suppose, but I couldn't disagree more! The reason why non guitarists (as well as some guitarists too of course
Originally Posted by Greentone
) prefer to listen to Django over most other jazz guitarists is his attack! His dynamic range is exciting, from the early 30's strictly Gypsy stuff to his later electric Bop stuff. His years of acoustic playing were an asset, not a hindrance! Many players today sound anaemic compared to his tone, they pick too lightly and have no dynamic range, every note sounds the same. If I spoke to you in a light, monotonous voice with no rhythmic surprises, you'd find me very boring right? Well then why, oh why do electric jazz guitarists play this way? I'm noticing compression creeping in to current sounds now, great, even less dynamics! :/
Personally I think Django's electric years were his best, and of those I prefer his '47 - 48 sessions he did with his Epiphone. That's as raw and as exciting as it gets tone wise, and I don't even like GJ that much.
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Wow, this is the only Martino I've heard that I actually like! Thanks! Originally Posted by Philco
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are you sure that's an epiphone on those records? Sounds like a Selmer with a Stimer to me. Originally Posted by princeplanet
Ha! Well, each to their own I suppose, but I couldn't disagree more! The reason why non guitarists (as well as some guitarists too of course ) prefer to listen to Django over most other jazz guitarists is his attack! His dynamic range is exciting, from the early 30's strictly Gypsy stuff to his later electric Bop stuff. His years of acoustic playing were an asset, not a hindrance! Many players today sound anaemic compared to his tone, they pick too lightly and have no dynamic range, every note sounds the same. If I spoke to you in a light, monotonous voice with no rhythmic surprises, you'd find me very boring right? Well then why, oh why do electric jazz guitarists play this way? I'm noticing compression creeping in to current sounds now, great, even less dynamics! :/
Personally I think Django's electric years were his best, and of those I prefer his '47 - 48 sessions he did with his Epiphone. That's as raw and as exciting as it gets tone wise, and I don't even like GJ that much.
As for Martino, if you haven't heard El Hombre and Strings!, you should. If you like the above tone, you'll dig those big time.Last edited by mr. beaumont; 02-02-2015 at 11:34 AM.
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Django toured the US playing an Epiphone--when in Rome. I believe that his later recordings were made with the Selmer/Stimer combination. Django was always more comfortable on the Selmer instrument; he fought the Epiphone, by all acounts.
I certainly would agree with princeplanet that Django's later tone is raw. It has the 40s thing going on--in spades. It takes Charlie Christian and T-Bone Walker up a notch, in terms of the "hair" on the note. That's because, IMO, Django is seriously digging into his instrument--which he is treating as an acoustic. Again, the analogy I am coming up with is an actor declaiming lines to the auditorium, rather than a film actor hardly moving while the camera picks up everything.
ALL Django is great Django. His time and his drive were without peer.
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in order of favourite tone
Pass
Django
Wes
In order of favourite playing
Django
Wes
Pass
By the way, you HAVE to buy Amazon.com: Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelli: Classic Early Recordings in Chronogical Order: Music
Its the best at the best price. RIDICULOUS value
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Originally Posted by Greentone
i entirely agree with your assessment greentone
his whole approach is made for the acoustic intstrument - i heard he used to wear out his acoustic guitars very quickly
and his time and his drive are indeed without peer
i am not a django devotee - not at all - but whenever i hear him i'm always convinced he's the strongest and most musical guitarist of all. he's intense and exuberant like no-one else and humour pervades almost everything he does.
favourite tone:
django
wes
jim hall
but then there's
peter bernstein
ah well - i can't answer this question (kenny burrell; barney kessel)Last edited by Groyniad; 02-02-2015 at 12:45 PM.
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My Favorite TONE
1. George Benson
2. Grant Geismann (Chuck Mangione)
3. Al DiMeola
Left out are my favorite players Joe Pass and Johnny Smith, but I've never been fortunate enough to hear a recorded tone of these players that I would call, My Favorite Tone..
Joe D
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Ed Bickert
T-Bone Walker
Django
I also LOVE the tone (and playing) from:
Kenny Burrell
Wes Montgomery
Grant Green
Johnny Smith
Tal Farlow
George Benson
Charlie Christian
Joe Pass
Lorne Lofsky
Peter Bernstein
Eddie Durham
Bill Connors
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This thread has given me so much to think about and listen to since starting it.
For example, I found out that body parts have their own specific frequency at which they start to resonate. So with a certain tone your eye can resonate so much that you see blurry. And now I view our best players as wizards performing operations on our bodyparts, soul and heart...
I already gave my 3 faves and just found out something about my nr. 1 (and PKIRK's 1, 2 and 3) Peter Bernstein, which I guess most of you must know already. A great article series on Bernstein suggests that Grant Green has no doubt been major influence on the guitar tone that Peter has adopted. And looking it up, I thought: dang, that must be right!
I thought the thread would have been over by now, but good stuff keeps coming' in!
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I'm surprised so far how very few mentioned John Scofield's as their fav. tone, and yet Peter Bernstein is almost every other post. Telling upfront, I'm not having a dig at P. Bernstein, he's no doubt very accomplished guitarist with a fantastic style and tone. It's just to me his tone is almost too beautiful, too clean, too polite even, and combine with his phrasing I almost can't detect any blues or rock influences. Not that it's a necessarily bad thing I guess... but I kinda expect that from a guitarist of his generation... On the other hand, Scofield's tone is unmistakeably influenced by blues/ rock, which I wholeheartedly enjoy.
Now, does it mean that based on this thread so far, the tendencies in contemporary jazz guitar is to be more like a clean tone+adventurous harmonic content, and blues/rock influenced jazz guitar style has become a passe? I'm curious to hear the opinions, and don't kill me if I offended someone!
Oh, and no one yet mentioned Marc Ribot here either? Ok, I could be the first, love his tone!
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