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Originally Posted by coolvinny
First time I heard Billy Bean was 2006 - a good friend of mine has what must be one the best jazz guitar CD collections anywhere. Up till that point my main cats were Raney + 50's era Tal. Anyway, he would always play me different CD's by all these different guitarists without telling me who they were and would ask my opinion - About 8 bars into to hearing Billy Bean I was floored, and knew straight away this guy was as good as it gets.
As for albums to check out: I'll be uploading the rest of those 80's bootlegs to youtube this week that I took the Straight No Chaser clip from - they're pretty rough recordings but still worth checking out. I also really dig the jam sessions he did duo with John Pisano and Dennis Budimir in the kitchen that got released on CD not that long ago.
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02-19-2014 05:55 AM
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1. this thread finally inspired me to really learn Straight No Chaser. It was one of those heads I only kind of knew but did not know cold. I know it cold now, any key. I learned it by ear after repeatedly listening to the last 5 bars until I had it rhythmically figured out, then the notes were easy. Go figure, I learned Monk's "Sixteen" by ear months ago, which is much trickier!
2. I ordered the books and they arrived today. Looks like good stuff.
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The Billy Bean book is an interesting read. It's become more interesting as I approach the stories about his later playing days. Also, I've been listening to The Trio a lot and that has helped me get deeper into the book. The guy could really really play - just ridiculous fluency and inventiveness.
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I went all-in last week and ordered three more Billy Bean albums, even reluctantly paying $50 for one of them...which makes it the most expensive album I have every purchased! I can't get enough of his playing, and I find it easier and more motivating to transcribe guitarists than horn players. The Trio is widely available and it gets my highest recommendation.
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Originally Posted by ecj
Scott McGill studied with Dennis Sandole and has published a paper on the Maestro's pedagogy. A great read.
Scott is a phenomenal player. You might reconsider about technique. I am working through Scott's Arpeggio book now. Great stuff. Happy reading!
https://bimm.academia.edu/ScottMcGill
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Airegin !!!!
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Had a lesson last week with Coryell. He had written a tune called "Billy Bean" and asked if I had heard of him. I had not but I have now. Great player. Thanks for the thread guys.
Last edited by jaco; 06-26-2014 at 09:34 PM. Reason: spelling
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Originally Posted by WahmBomAh
It's basically me talking to myself so I won't forget my thought processes as I was working things through. Not meant as an instructional video but only as a note to myself.
You may get something from it though.
I tend to repeat myself in these 3 videos……so you can see that I had already forgotten what I was documenting!
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Originally Posted by Philco
Is that a Jazz III in the first video?
In the third one, you seem to be back to a Fender Medium.
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Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
I'm not the first Benson picker to discover that a plectrum with a sharp point is way more accurate than a Fender Medium.
My next choice choice would be a JD Delrin .073. Seriously fast and accurate pick.
But I keep going back to the FM because of the sound. They make a beautiful "thump" when you hit the string. Fat and warm.
The pointy plectrums go "plink" and don't seem to excite the body of the instrument.
It's also a trade off between a sharp points accuracy and the way a FM glides on triplets….string sweeping. FM is better for me at that.
Because I am a pick slut I try everything that anyone mentions…….so……….at the moment I am using a Pickboy Vintage Pearl Classic .073.
Been using it before I went away and as a preference as soon as I got back. Great sounding pick and ever so slightly more pointy than an FM.
At the moment its my go to……but I reserve the right to change my pick slut mind in the next nano second!
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I'm really enjoying this thread, the clips and info, the admiration for a great talent too little known.
I was unfamiliar with him but am glad that's no longer the case.
A Fender Medium pick, eh? That's my brand! Do the white ones sound much different than the brown ones? I remember 3625 mentioning, in another context, there were differences but I've forgotten what they were....
Really enjoyed the "Straight No Chaser" clip.
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Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
Sadly I can answer this question.
The brown or faux tortoise shell is to my mind the best sounding AND it seems to be a different material than the white and black. It degrades faster so I think it is a little "scrapier" …..that's a new word I made up. It make a slight high pitched scrape that neither the black or white does.
I have bucket loads of black and white and a variety of Green, Blue, Red tortoise shell that IMHO sound inferior and feel different to a tortoise shell.
The pick boy I mentioned is the same size but slightly thinner and pointier than a FM but maintains the warm sound.
Yes we are crazy.
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Just getting back on track with Billy Bean…..
Quite telling when you see how much effort it took me to work through just 2 phrases and get them understood and under the hand.
Meanwhile Billy was just ripping through these changes and substituting chords of his own and doing it while in the pocket and probably with his eyes closed.
The mind boggles.
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Brown fender mediums and Thomastek 0.14s have become my religion.
Bean was a total freak of nature. Any thoughts on his organizational concepts, Philco? As you're transcribing, do you notice a preference for a particular approach for the left hand. Position playing, chord-tone focused, etc.?
Now that I've gotten my picking together, I'm focusing on learning more about how the left hand is employed by the greats. I'm devoting the next year to getting as good as I can at the Leavitt 12-position system, but I'm not sure that I see many folks using that much.
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Originally Posted by ecj
So I am no Bean expert. In the book it mentions his obsession with Coltrane and the Giant Steps solo which he (as rumour has it) could play fluently in different keys. It also mentions that he studied a lot of Parker solos and could play many.
From that small snippet I transcribed he obviously is outlining chords. The first Gm7 to C7b9 phrase clearly outlines the chord tones. The second phrase….even though scalar in nature….perfectly outlines Fm6 until he hits the F7….which he covers and then the Bbm7 which he also nails. It's all under the fingers. At that speed it has to be.
So I think that he was old school in that he played chords, like Benson. The next phrase over the Bbm7 is different though. It's like a pet lick or something. Like playing a half- whole scale over a alt dominant chord is always an option, and that lick is more scale like.
I can't add any more than that.
After transcribing that short section I stopped because I'd had enough of guitar type licks. I have been practising a lot of similar stuff……lots of Melodic Minor.
I want to get more into tune playing so I decided to start with a good old Jazz Blues. So I went across to Stitt and Rollins to see how they handled those changes and now its time to play some tunes and stop transcribing for a while.
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I've transcribed about 24 bars of Billy's playing and I have most of that really under my fingers (i.e. can play them starting from different finger positions, can use them for various functions, etc). I would call his playing less "vertical" than a guy like Jimmy Raney who was, based on my transcriptions, more heavily arpeggio oriented. Bean obviously plays off the chord changes but he seems to at times ignore them, or skate over them, more than a Jimmy Raney...Raney seems to sub his own changes often (chromatic dominants to connect) whereas Bean just sort of goes "ok, I'm going to go from this chord to this other chord in the most bebop-y way possible" which he seems to achieve with a more linear approach. He also isn't afraid to throw in some blues licks - something you don't really hear from Raney (at least, I don't). In some ways, Raney "makes the changes" more than Billy but Billy uses more bebop phrasing cliches, though they don't sound cliched when he plays them of course!
So IMO Bean's playing is a mix of ridiculous bebop phrasing, arps, scales with passing tones and changes in direction, blues ideas and bebop cliches. Mostly, it just seems he had a very clear inner voice, a big imagination and total mastery of the fretboard. He's my hero! I'm pretty much only transcribing his stuff these days - his stuff also inspires me to come up with my own lines that try to be in that Billy vein.
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Thanks, great player, have not heard of him. definitely can hear the Bud Powell sound in that tune.
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Great thread to read as Billy Bean is my current jazz guitar crush! I've recently read the biography by Seth Greenberg and am a big fan of 'The Trio'. A couple of kind friends hooked me up this week with copies of the kitchen recordings with John Pisano that were released as 'Makin' It Again' and 'West Coast Sessions' - superb bop playing of the highest order. It's Billy Bean week in this house!
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Originally Posted by Richb
Last edited by David B; 07-09-2014 at 06:49 AM.
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He keeps playing non stop in my mp3 player since I got introduced to him last winter in this forum...
Not only his playing, the guy has such a tone also!!!
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I am late to the party with this older thread but Billy's name has come up so much I had to do some research about him and his music.
I ordered The Trio CD today after sampling it.
Funny how I have listened to Jazz for years but never really paid attention or processed that some songs I liked did not have a drummer.
But drummer-less music fulfills a certain mood or need that I have at times, and like no other Jazz.
Thanks for the thread on Billy. I look forward to getting his CD.
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The Trio is a fantastic album, maybe my favourite. Another great album is "Slippery When Wet" under Bud Shank's name. Billy is on guitar and plays great. And if you can find it, "Makin it Again". I had to pay $50 for my copy of that one...but well worth it.
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I just picked up the compilation of "Makin' It" and "Take Your Pick." I can't believe how wonderful the playing is; phenomenal really.
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In part inspired by this thread, I transcribed Billy Bean's solo on Have You Met Miss Jones, from the Trio record. I haven't double checked this, but I think it's in the ball park. I haven't done much analysis yet, but am looking forward to that this week.
Bill Moll John Pizzarelli Signature
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