bruce forman - on the street

**Groyniad** · 05-21-2016, 04:02 PM

i particularly like the version of 'on the street' here - real confidence in the melody. much prefer it to the first original tune (where he sounds a bit too much like barney)

and isn't this an absolute paradigm of jazz guitar sound? - so straight down the middle its almost hard to hear how great it is

(interestingly to me - my new L5 sounds pretty much just like this. i'm sure if he was playing a new one it would sound pretty much exactly the same.)

----

and i just love bruce's answer to the question 'shall we go straight through to the studio then?'

i just wish he didn't feel like he had to follow it up urgently with 'i'm only joking man'

seems like a really great guy

do people have views about his best albums?

**neatomic** · 05-21-2016, 04:59 PM

watched that episode the other day...good stuff

they both hit the miner vino pretty good...haha...btw miner vineyards also does the benedetto labelled wine.. grapevines and guitar lines

cheers

**NoReply** · 05-21-2016, 05:05 PM

Originally Posted by Groyniad

can i just make 2 bitchy comments (no)

i'll take that as a yes then shall i?

first - the guy's first question is 'what drew you to using a 'clean' guitar sound?'. bruce's answer is very mild and generous.

You'd love the GuitarWank Podcasts with Bruce Forman and Scott Henderson. Scott will get into his GearSlut mode and start talking forever on gear minutia. Bruce will tire of it and say "or you could actually just practice playing guitar."

I only have Bruce's most recent CD's and if you want some straight ahead Jazz guitar they are excellent.

**lawson-stone** · 05-21-2016, 05:11 PM

That's super! I also increasingly think the classic, quintessential jazz guitar tone and approach is heard in the playing of Joshua Breakstone:

**Groyniad** · 05-21-2016, 05:12 PM

Originally Posted by NoReply

You'd love the GuitarWank Podcasts with Bruce Forman and Scott Henderson. Scott will get into his GearSlut mode and start talking forever on gear minutia. Bruce will tire of it and say "or you could actually just practice playing guitar."

I only have Bruce's most recent CD's and if you want some straight ahead Jazz guitar they are excellent.

sorry! i edited out the comments you quote here because i just felt i was being too bitchy - i'll chase up the bizarrely named 'guitar wank' podcast

**lawson-stone** · 05-21-2016, 05:20 PM

That's super! I also increasingly think the classic, quintessential jazz guitar tone and approach is heard in the playing of Joshua Breakstone:

**NoReply** · 05-21-2016, 05:25 PM

Originally Posted by Groyniad

sorry! i edited out the comments you quote here because i just felt i was being too bitchy - i'll chase up the bizarrely named 'guitar wank' podcast

Here's sources of Guitar Wank

Bruce Forman and Scott Henderson, known for their hilariously cantankerous opinions and mutual penchant for heckling, wank poetically on all things guitar and the music business; with giveaways, contests, special guests and performances.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/p...
GuitarWank
https://www.facebook.com/GuitarWank
https://twitter.com/GuitarWank

**lawson-stone** · 05-22-2016, 09:36 AM

Originally Posted by Groyniad

sorry! i edited out the comments you quote here because i just felt i was being too bitchy - i'll chase up the bizarrely named 'guitar wank' podcast

HA!

I think "wank" has very, very, very different connotations in the US as opposed to the UK!

In the US, a "wank" or "wonk" is someone who is totally into all the details of something. So someone is a "policy wank" or a "technology wank."

I won't go into the different connotation for the term for you guys in the UK! Wow, though, "guitar wank" seriously must set off some... interesting ... connotations for Brits.

**MarkRhodes** · 05-22-2016, 10:02 AM

Originally Posted by Groyniad

sorry! i edited out the comments you quote here because i just felt i was being too bitchy - i'll chase up the bizarrely named 'guitar wank' podcast

One of those "guitar wank" podcasts is a source of a current thread: Bruce Forman's list of 10 tunes for Beginners. (As becomes clear in the podcast, Scott Henderson claims to know only 2 or 3 of them. It's no surprise to me that I would rather hear Bruce play...)

Bruce Forman's list of 10 tunes for beginners

**MarkRhodes** · 05-22-2016, 10:08 AM

I love Marvin "Smitty" Smith's drumming...

**grahambop** · 05-22-2016, 10:12 AM

Originally Posted by lawson-stone

HA!

I think "wank" has very, very, very different connotations in the US as opposed to the UK!

In the US, a "wank" or "wonk" is someone who is totally into all the details of something. So someone is a "policy wank" or a "technology wank."

I won't go into the different connotation for the term for you guys in the UK! Wow, though, "guitar wank" seriously must set off some... interesting ... connotations for Brits.

In the UK we now have the term 'policy wonk' which probably came from the U.S. but I have never heard it spelled the other way.

You are correct about the meaning of 'wank' in the UK. Hence to us 'guitar wank' is actually a common pejorative expression, it basically means a tedious or flashy rock guitar solo.

**grahambop** · 05-22-2016, 10:17 AM

Originally Posted by NoReply

Bruce Forman and Scott Henderson, known for their hilariously cantankerous opinions and mutual penchant for heckling, wank poetically on all things guitar and the music business; with giveaways, contests, special guests and performances.

Can you wank poetically? I suppose you'd still have one hand free to write it down.

**Little Jay** · 05-22-2016, 02:04 PM

Wow, great playing by Bruce and Joshua. Nice.

**Cunamara** · 05-22-2016, 04:35 PM

I relly enjoyed that by Bruce. Too many jazz musicians get lost in endless streams of 8th notes that don't go anywhere and don't say anything. 256 notes in 32 bars is frequently supremely uninteresting. There are thousands of recorded solos that really amount to little. Bruce avoids that trap. He uses phrasing, dynamics, switching textures between chords and lines. He's got humor, comments, asides, in-jokes and swing galore in his playing.

**NoReply** · 05-22-2016, 04:58 PM

Originally Posted by Cunamara

I relly enjoyed that by Bruce. Too many jazz musicians get lost in endless streams of 8th notes that don't go anywhere and don't say anything. 256 notes in 32 bars is frequently supremely uninteresting. There are thousands of recorded solos that really amount to little. Bruce avoids that trap. He uses phrasing, dynamics, switching textures between chords and lines. He's got humor, comments, asides, in-jokes and swing galore in his playing.

I think it was in one of the podcast Bruce said.... God created 8th notes, but it doesn't mean you have to play them all.

**Groyniad** · 05-22-2016, 05:27 PM

interesting on pat martino - he seems to feel exactly the same way about him that i do

even goes so far as to say he influenced him by showing him the way he didn't want to play

i.e. with flat dynamics and endless 8ths or 16ths

he is constantly squeezing more interesting rhythms out of the guitar - you can see him digging in with the picking in all sorts of places and insisting on shaping his phrases the way he hears them not the way the exigencies of picking physics dictate

i am not at all surprised to learn that he is a living encyclopedia of tunes

**neatomic** · 05-22-2016, 05:34 PM

based on formans band - cow bop, i figured he was into jimmy wyble...one of the great western swing and way way beyond players..and sure enough found this nice duet clip