How well do you know the great players? Test yourself!

**christianm77** · 07-09-2017, 07:34 PM

Anything post Django is modern.

**jameslovestal** · 07-09-2017, 07:38 PM

Originally Posted by christianm77

Anything post Django is modern.

I would say anything post Charlie Christian is modern.

(strike that, since it isn't post Christian, but starting with Christian, which is post Django).

**Hep To The Jive** · 07-09-2017, 10:42 PM

Originally Posted by christianm77

Anything post Django is modern.

I have a more complex system. Starting with John Scofield everything is modern. Everything after Charlie Christian and before John Scofield is old. Going back from Charlie Christian and earlier everything is modern again!

**jameslovestal** · 07-10-2017, 01:56 PM

Originally Posted by Hep To The Jive

I have a more complex system. Starting with John Scofield everything is modern. Everything after Charlie Christian and before John Scofield is old. Going back from Charlie Christian and earlier everything is modern again!

I agree that having only one cutoff point is silly since it creates way too wide of a category so I dig your 'everything is modern again'.

As for 'starting with John Scofield; using the Miles guitar players as a starting point for modern (post-modern), is a great place to start.

**henryrobinett** · 07-10-2017, 02:37 PM

6. Guitarists aren't my strong suit.

**Groyniad** · 07-10-2017, 04:10 PM

i thought tal farlow was jimmy raney and lenny breau was tal farlow - and george benson was grant green (very staccato)

jim hall is from a very late period - only the phrase at the very end is obviously him

methany was obvious to me - even though i never listen to him and hank garland too (just because i know about the country thing - not because i ever listen to him)

i imagine the only one it would be impossible to get wrong would be django

that's interesting by itself

who plays the best shit? i think it is more or less obviously django - and i don't listen to django (pass is 2nd for me - great feel with the pianist) - and the tal-raney person at the beginning too. but django generates some real swell - it just grabs you.

don't much like that benson-(green) super-staccato thing...

**christianm77** · 07-11-2017, 07:13 AM

Originally Posted by henryrobinett

6. Guitarists aren't my strong suit.

Yeah guitar is stupid

**christianm77** · 07-11-2017, 07:21 AM

Originally Posted by Groyniad

i thought tal farlow was jimmy raney and lenny breau was tal farlow - and george benson was grant green (very staccato)

jim hall is from a very late period - only the phrase at the very end is obviously him

methany was obvious to me - even though i never listen to him and hank garland too (just because i know about the country thing - not because i ever listen to him)

i imagine the only one it would be impossible to get wrong would be django

that's interesting by itself

who plays the best shit? i think it is more or less obviously django - and i don't listen to django (pass is 2nd for me - great feel with the pianist) - and the tal-raney person at the beginning too. but django generates some real swell - it just grabs you.

don't much like that benson-(green) super-staccato thing...

I think Django is so uniquely amazing as an improvisor, I can't give it to him as the greatest ever because he doesn't have that swing thing going on like the Americans do, but maybe that's silly.

If you compare Django to some of his contemporaries playing similar instruments - Oscar Aleman for instance - would it be so obvious?

I think I'd be able to tell Charlie Christian, Grant Green and Wes equally quickly. Their omission in that list is baffling to me, but I can think of a version of ATTYA by them off the top of my head (I don't think the choice of tune is important in this exercise btw, but rhythm changes or a blues would have been a better shout.)

Also would have been interesting to include some more recent players. Kurt we could recognise i think, but I have a suspicion the post Kurt players (moreno, Lund, heckselman) might be harder to distinguish.

**princeplanet** · 07-11-2017, 09:00 AM

Originally Posted by christianm77

I think Django is so uniquely amazing as an improvisor, I can't give it to him as the greatest ever because he doesn't have that swing thing going on like the Americans do, but maybe that's silly.

If you compare Django to some of his contemporaries playing similar instruments - Oscar Aleman for instance - would it be so obvious?

I think I'd be able to tell Charlie Christian, Grant Green and Wes equally quickly. Their omission in that list is baffling to me, but I can think of a version of ATTYA by them off the top of my head (I don't think the choice of tune is important in this exercise btw, but rhythm changes or a blues would have been a better shout.)

Also would have been interesting to include some more recent players. Kurt we could recognise i think, but I have a suspicion the post Kurt players (moreno, Lund, heckselman) might be harder to distinguish.

Sounds like you're putting your hand up to put up another round of blindfold tests?

**Jonah** · 07-11-2017, 09:27 AM

Kurt we could recognise i think, but I have a suspicion the post Kurt players (moreno, Lund, heckselman) might be harder to distinguish.

I thought about it too!

Players of Metheny, Sco, Frisell (I recognized him immidiately too) have very personal sound and technique... and then this post-Kurt generation - they have developed general trend and often sound very similar...

I noticed also that there are quite a few modern players from Israeli that seem to come from teh same school: very good virtuoso basic technique seemingly close to classical guitar... astonishing technical skills but a bit cold restrianed feel in general...
sometimes I feel like feeling is substituted with sentimentality and beauty with prettyness

**christianm77** · 07-11-2017, 10:58 AM

I don't think it's a purely Israeli thing although Israelis seem to be over represented in modern jazz guitar and jazz generally (good music education system perhaps?)

There are always camp followers. In 1941 everyone wanted to be Charlie christian.

**henryrobinett** · 07-12-2017, 12:04 AM

Originally Posted by christianm77

Yeah guitar is stupid

No!! Not at all. Just not what I spent most of my time following.

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**henryrobinett** · 07-12-2017, 12:07 AM

I thought the omission of Wes, Green, Burrell, and Christian was glaring and typical. I was surprised Benson made the cut.

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**princeplanet** · 07-12-2017, 12:15 AM

Like Henry, I must confess I spend very little time listening to Jazz guitar, I'd much rather play it

. I think in another life I would play piano and sax (don't shoot me, I'm just the, erm ... guitar player?...).

At some point the instrument doesn't matter, I'm just in it for the music, really.

**Jonah** · 07-12-2017, 01:11 AM

Originally Posted by princeplanet

Like Henry, I must confess I spend very little time listening to Jazz guitar, I'd much rather play it

. I think in another life I would play piano and sax (don't shoot me, I'm just the, erm ... guitar player?...).

At some point the instrument doesn't matter, I'm just in it for the music, really.

When I was a kid I did not listen to jazz guitar too... I listened to Bird, Train, Miles, Bill Evans, Peterson, Armstrong... just what was available around ... and there was the only disc of Wes and later I also listened to Django and in my 20's got interested in fusion Mark Stern and Pat Metheny but I did not think of them as guitarists.

Only much later I checked many jazz guitarists... today I listen to much more of them. I do not know why, just got interested...

And partly the records became more accessible...

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**christianm77** · 07-12-2017, 12:10 PM

Originally Posted by henryrobinett

No!! Not at all. Just not what I spent most of my time following.

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I'm just being stupid. I know you don't think that. Although sometimes I do.

**christianm77** · 07-12-2017, 12:14 PM

Originally Posted by henryrobinett

I thought the omission of Wes, Green, Burrell, and Christian was glaring and typical. I was surprised Benson made the cut.

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Yeah pretty ridiculous.

Not sure if there's ATTYA recordings for all those players.

Personally I would have chosen the repertoire to allow the inclusion of those players. It's like giving a selection of classical composers and missing out Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms.

**grahambop** · 07-12-2017, 12:28 PM

Originally Posted by christianm77

Not sure if there's ATTYA recordings for all those players.

I think there is one of Wes doing ATTYA now, pretty sure it's on one of those 'Unreleased tracks from the Half Note' or something, I have the CD at home.

**princeplanet** · 07-12-2017, 02:15 PM

Hey nice! Thanks for those, very enjoyable. Although I liked most of them, the Wes version moved me most. Strange, because so many things conspired against Wes on this occasion, he's out of tune, out of time, his sound is very uneven and he sounds a little uncomfortable. So how can this be considered "good"? Well, it's Wes, so it's always gonna have that vibe, always. He's just fearless, and that's what always makes him exciting in up tempo tunes. I mean it's poor by Wes' standards, but still better than most, I think.

Such relentless spirit! Damn!

**grahambop** · 07-12-2017, 05:44 PM

Louis Stewart (reckon he must have had a few pints of Guinness before this):

**maggles55** · 07-13-2017, 11:18 AM

New test posted; this time with ten guitarists on Autumn Leaves:

Once again, I got 7 correct (but this time out of ten; so an improvement for me).

**Hep To The Jive** · 07-13-2017, 11:52 AM

I got Barney Kessel (very surprisingly for myself!), Jim Hall, Bireli, and Mike Stern (the most obvious). That's 4, even worst than last time hahaha.

50's jazz guitar is still pretty much indistinguishable to me.