Barry Galbraith

[Irez87]

Here's a chance to list out all the recordings of one of the most under-rated but extremely important sideman of jazz guitar lore. Barry Galbraith was a great teacher (my teachers had him as a teacher), an excellent sight reader, a sort after single line player on a lot of the modern jazz arrangements happening in the late 40s and 50s (more so), and a family man who kept to himself.

So, care to join me in going through his discography. I strongly encourage youtube examples so people can hear everything this man has created on his guitars.

Neatomic, I am looking at you to start us off, brotha!

[neatomic]

hey bud..wouldn't fail ya

got this one from sgcim here

good one




cheers

ps- lush bg intro

[neatomic]

another good one..this bg's session

from around the same time -1958

cheers

ps this cut -winter 58..benson brooks- summer 58

[PMB]

There isn't a lot on video and much of what's out there has Galbraith taking a backseat role as a superb accompanist. For instance, he features throughout the TV series "The Subject is Jazz" but most of the solos are taken by his onscreen partner, Mundell Lowe. Here's a clip from "After Hours", a proposed TV series that never got off the ground with BG soloing at 13'55":

[Irez87]

Those are both great. Hearing Cannonball with Barry G is a real treat, because Cannonball is my favorite alto player and Barry plays behind him like they were long lost friends.

His own album as a leader I still have to get into.

How about his stuff with Hal McKusick?

[neatomic]

yeah, i get you..guitar and the wind more of an acquired taste

mckusick i have to delve into more..i like that type of arranger/player horn ie giuffre, gil melle, hambro etc...love oliver nelson, though a bit more overtly rootsy

cheers

[PMB]

One of Galbraith's finest moments, "Love is For the Very Young" from the film "The Bad and the Beautiful" along with my transcription:

There's also a great duo version of this tune on "The John Lewis Piano" album that sounds something like a precursor to the Bill Evans/Jim Hall "Undercurrent" session:

[neatomic]

that john lewis track is exquisite..two masters


cheers

[PMB]

Here's another fave - love that low C tuning!

[Eddie Lang]

Jimmy Hamilton - Sweet But Hot (1954)
http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-But-Hot-Jimmy-Hamilton/dp/B000005OEQ

Hank Jones - The New York Rhythm Section (1956)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005MH8VGQ?

Marilyn Moore - Moody (1957)
http://www.amazon.ca/Moody-Marilyn-Moore/dp/B00004UFX3

Ruby Braff - Blowing Around The World (1959)
http://www.discogs.com/Ruby-Braff-Bl...elease/3569629

Freddie Cole - Waiter, Ask The Man To Play The Blues (1964)
Freddy Cole - Waiter Ask the Man to Play the Blues - Amazon.com Music


Galbraith was such a tasteful, inventive and supportive sideman. He really swung too!

[pubylakeg]

Some personal favourites,
I'm much obliged to forum member thegrandwazoo for recommending the Mckusick/Galbraith quartet studio album "East Coast Jazz 8" (same line-up as the "At The Academy" album).

He's also on the Joe Puma album "East Coast Jazz 3"

And not forgetting "The Tal Farlow Album". Farlow's first recording for the Verve label.

[Eddie Lang]

Let's not forget Sheila Jordan - Portrait of Sheila

[sgcim]

BG was on most of George Russell's early records, because they couldn't find anyone else who could read and play his charts.
The Russell LP that best shows off BG's playing is "The Jazz Workshop" album, with Bill Evans, Art Farmer and Hal McKusick.
That was the recording that "Concerto For Billy the Kid" came from.
On one tune, BG has to play a difficult ostinato that goes on for about a minute.

Another record that has a lot of good blowing by BG is a record he made with Bobby Jaspar called "Clarinet Marmalade".
Johnny Carisi wrote a big band feature for BG called "Barry's Tune" that's featured on the Gil Evans LP "Out Of the Cool"- a kind of modern day "Solo Flight".

BG was supposed to be on the 'Birth of the Cool' album with Miles Davis and Gil Evans, but they decided to ditch the guitar for some reason.

[Rob MacKillop]

I'm loving this thread. What a musician!

[destinytot]

6

another good one..this bg's session

from around the same time -1958

cheers

ps this cut -winter 58..benson brooks- summer 58

I'm transported back to my teens by this sound. I love it - thank you for posting it!(Auld Lang Syne - and all that 'jazz'... Off to bury my nose into a deep pile of faded album covers!)

[destinytot]

Here's another fave - love that low C tuning!

Great to hear BG using lowered tuning - thanks!

[destinytot]

I'm loving this thread. What a musician!

+1 ¡Gracias, Irez!

[Irez87]

One of Galbraith's finest moments, "Love is For the Very Young" from the film "The Bad and the Beautiful" along with my transcription:

There's also a great duo version of this tune on "The John Lewis Piano" album that sounds something like a precursor to the Bill Evans/Jim Hall "Undercurrent" session:

PMB, have you noticed that a lot of his recordings are out of tune. Not the musicians, but the record itself. Like the orginal record was spun too fast or too slow?

[Mark78_blues]

This is a great one


1957
Kenny Burrell - Barry Galbraith Quartet
Kenny Burrell, Barry Galbraith (guitar) Leonard Gaskin (bass) Bobby Donaldson (drums)
Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, May 10, 1957
1246Billie's BounceStatus ST 8318; Prestige PR 7448
1247Prelude To A Kiss-
1248It Don't Mean A Thing-
1249unknown titlePrestige rejected
* Status ST 8318 Various Artists - Guitar Soul
* Prestige PR 7448 The Best Of Kenny Burrell

[neatomic]

as trumpeted by sgcim..the very far out george russell


check this...not only is bg playing almost contemporary classical (very outside) parts, but check his muted reverby tone.. at around the 4:10 mark ...very ahead of its time for 1956!!

this track approaches moondog territory

cheers

[Irez87]

as trumpeted by sgcim..the very far out george russell


check this...not only is bg playing almost contemporary classical (very outside) parts, but check his muted reverby tone.. at around the 4:10 mark ...very ahead of its time for 1956!!

this track approaches moondog territory

cheers

You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead—your next stop, the Twilight Zone!

[sgcim]

as trumpeted by sgcim..the very far out george russell


check this...not only is bg playing almost contemporary classical (very outside) parts, but check his muted reverby tone.. at around the 4:10 mark ...very ahead of its time for 1956!!

this track approaches moondog territory

cheers

I don't know why you chose that awful cut to post; it's the only cut I skip over on the CD I bought many years ago.
Here's the real stuff from the LP:

It's a shame that Russell disavowed and refused to grant performance rights to all of his pre-Lydian Chromatic Concept music.
He was writing great stuff like this and then he got obsessed with the LCC, and wrote music that lacked the drive, excitement, harmonic richness and swing of his pre-LCC music, IMHO.

Imagine playing Barry's chair in a group like this.
I remember reading in a Martin Williams book (Jazz Masters in Transition) that Barry was out of town one week, and they got Jim Hall to take his place in a concert with music like this, with Gunther Schuller conducting.

They got a few bars into the piece, and Gunther Schuller stopped the band and asked Jim Hall what was the matter.
Schuller then said, "Oh, I didn't know you can't read music like this." He then asked someone, "Where is Barry?"

They told him BG would be out of town for the concert, so they let Hall take the piece home and woodshed it, and Hall did a great job at the concert.

[neatomic]

I don't know why you chose that awful cut to post; it's the only cut I skip over on the CD I bought many years ago.
Here's the real stuff from the LP:

happy new year to you too!! hahaha

cheers

ps - btw, i posted it cause it was bg in an unusual setting and with an unusual tone for him

pss- i'd imagine you don't care much for moondog either!! hah

[sgcim]

I still love "Bird's Lament". My brother-in-law used to see him on the street every day, dressed up like a viking!

[PMB]

PMB, have you noticed that a lot of his recordings are out of tune. Not the musicians, but the record itself. Like the orginal record was spun too fast or too slow?

Not just BG recordings. So many recordings before the digital age aren't at concert pitch (and not just those such as Barry's solo posted above without a fixed reference point from a keyboard). Sometimes tapes ran at the wrong speed. The original Kind of Blue LP and CD releases famously suffered from that problem. Occasionally, as with certain Beatles tunes, it was done consciously for effect. Incidentally, there's an ongoing debate about whether Robert Johnson's recordings were radically sped up. The slower, transposed versions posted on Youtube exhibit none of the usual artefacts that are a byproduct of that process. In fact, both his voice and guitar sound to me much more natural and closer to those of his contemporaries.