The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    Oh, this totally made my day.

  4. #3

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    I think on acoustic, Charlie sounds a bit like Teddy Bunn


  5. #4

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    Great stuff!

  6. #5

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    Those have been around for a long time, but for some reason people don't seem to find them often.

  7. #6
    joelf Guest
    Born to do it.

    Would be CC on a shoebox strung with dental floss (not used though)...

  8. #7
    joelf Guest
    I wish CC would have stuck to soloing. The 4 on the floor was a bit heavy, and with nowhere near the propulsion of his genius soloing. OTOH he knew, as all really swinging guitar soloists do, that it starts with 4/4. It was expected. Tal and Raney did it a few years later w/Norvo. But a heavy rhythm guitar when drums and bass (or just bass, like here) are already covering the 4 can take the airiness right out. Jimmy Raney correctly said that rhythm guitar became a '3rd wheel' in bebop (a music CC was an early pioneer of).

    It was a carry-over from the unamplified days and on Spirituals to Swing you can hear Freddie Green doing it to perfection, backing Charlie and other greats. When CC switches to a more piano- style comp behind the bass solo in Hall's group it not only FEELS better to me, but foreshadows the role of amplified guitar in a modern rhythm section, especially w/o piano.

    The genius soloists don't need to be genius accompanists too---that's a whole other way of thinking and takes a person who wants to support, maybe 1st. Not the great Charlie Christian, but 2 other geniuses, Monk and Bud---you played with THEM, they were in deep sound worlds of their own ingenious making and weren't gonna leave them. Even Horace Silver had a very strong personality that made his comping strong and kind of unyielding. And players that could hang ended up way ahead after that kind of challenge. It's another important discipline to learn.

    They're all giants and bless 'em all. No one HAS to do everything to a T---way too much to ask, especially of folks whose brilliant invention took all the energy they could muster...
    Last edited by joelf; 07-30-2021 at 12:40 AM.

  9. #8
    joelf Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Christian Miller
    I think on acoustic, Charlie sounds a bit like Teddy Bunn

    Teddy Bunn! The original thumb player!

    He was wonderful and in the '40s guitarist for the great singer-pianist Hadda Brooks. (I worked with her in '94---a thrill and joy).

    I'll try to dredge up Hadda's That's my Desire, with Teddy...

  10. #9
    joelf Guest
    AND---what a beauty then, OMG! (She looked damn good at 77-78 at Michael's Pub, and was performing like she was 20----great, great lady). Teddy's on this:


  11. #10
    joelf Guest
    That entire CD is a delight. Hadda had a devoted cult following here and in Europe (worked in Australia for some years). Her guitarist in those days was a guy best known for his work with a certain blue-eyed singer, Mr. Al Viola...

  12. #11

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    As cool as that is (I love CC, he's a fave), the vibes ruin it for me. I HATE that damned instrument, always have. Everybody has at least one thing that's nails on a chalkboard, and for me it's the vibraphone. Can't stand Lionel Hampton either. And this era is one of my very favorite eras of music (swing/big band). I love Benny Goodman's "Small Groups", "Sextet"- loaded with CC, but I have to try hard to ignore Lionel Hampton.

    Too bad CC wasn't plugged it, it would have been nice to hear him better. The band comes down for him, but on an acoustic, it's barely enough

  13. #12

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    That‘s not a vibraphone, that‘s a celesta, played like a piano.

    Celesta - Wikipedia


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  14. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by docsteve
    That‘s not a vibraphone, that‘s a celesta, played like a piano.

    Celesta - Wikipedia


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    Well it sounds like a vibraphone, so I hate it too LOL

  15. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by docsteve
    That‘s not a vibraphone, that‘s a celesta, played like a piano.

    Celesta - Wikipedia


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    The celeste player was the great Meade Lux Lewis--brilliant player and composer, who was highly influential with his boogie-woogie style. He kind of bridged the divide between ragtime and swing.

    I also am not a fan of the celeste. It was fairly popular in the early 1900's, but I don't know why they ever thought that would be a great idea in a jazz ensemble. It would have sounded 100 times better with a piano.

    Here is Mr. Lux Lewis more in his element:


  16. #15

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    Here's some more Meade Lux Lewis, featuring Big Joe Turner on vocals--an actor is lip-syncing the vocals in this video though.


  17. #16

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    It seems the way the vibraphone was picked up on microphones in those early jazz/studio settings often makes it sound harsh and overloud. I have no complaints about the instrument per se, but have noticed this, for example on the Benny Goodman Sextet recordings.

  18. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by cmajor9
    It seems the way the vibraphone was picked up on microphones in those early jazz/studio settings often makes it sound harsh and overloud. I have no complaints about the instrument per se, but have noticed this, for example on the Benny Goodman Sextet recordings.
    Yeah I love the instrument too. I think that sometimes with these old recordings our brains have to mentally "reconstruct" the music to account for the limitations of the recording. Otherwise it'd be hard to listen to, after listening to something like Kind of Blue or Crescent.

    Same with watching old movies...

    Not sure about the celeste, though to my surprise a number of jazz artists have played celeste. From Wiki:

    Since Earl Hines took it up in 1928, other jazz pianists have occasionally used the celesta as an alternative instrument. In the 1930s, Fats Waller sometimes played celesta with his right hand and piano simultaneously with his left hand. Other notable jazz pianists who occasionally played the celesta include Memphis Slim, Meade "Lux" Lewis, Willie "The Lion" Smith, Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Buddy Greco, Oscar Peterson, McCoy Tyner, Sun Ra, Keith Jarrett, and Herbie Hancock. A celesta provides the introduction to Someday You'll Be Sorry, a song Louis Armstrong recorded for RCA, and is featured prominently throughout the piece.[citation needed] A celesta is used by the pianist Russ Freeman on tracks from Chet Baker Sings (such as My Ideal and I Get Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes)). A number of recordings Frank Sinatra made for Columbia in the 1940s feature the instrument (for instance I'll Never Smile Again), as do many of his albums recorded for Capitol in the 1950s (In the Wee Small Hours, Close to You and Songs for Swingin' Lovers).

    Also celeste has been on a fair number of rock recordings, apparently even Iggy Pop on the Stooges album Raw Power.

  19. #18
    joelf Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by joelf
    I wish CC would have stuck to soloing. The 4 on the floor was a bit heavy, and with nowhere near the propulsion of his genius soloing. OTOH he knew, as all really swinging guitar soloists do, that it starts with 4/4. It was expected. Tal and Raney did it a few years later w/Norvo. But a heavy rhythm guitar when drums and bass (or just bass, like here) are already covering the 4 can take the airiness right out. Jimmy Raney correctly said that rhythm guitar became a '3rd wheel' in bebop (a music CC was an early pioneer of).

    It was a carry-over from the unamplified days and on Spirituals to Swing you can hear Freddie Green doing it to perfection, backing Charlie and other greats. When CC switches to a more piano- style comp behind the bass solo in Hall's group it not only FEELS better to me, but foreshadows the role of amplified guitar in a modern rhythm section, especially w/o piano.

    The genius soloists don't need to be genius accompanists too---that's a whole other way of thinking and takes a person who wants to support, maybe 1st. Not the great Charlie Christian, but 2 other geniuses, Monk and Bud---you played with THEM, they were in deep sound worlds of their own ingenious making and weren't gonna leave them. Even Horace Silver had a very strong personality that made his comping strong and kind of unyielding. And players that could hang ended up way ahead after that kind of challenge. It's another important discipline to learn.

    They're all giants and bless 'em all. No one HAS to do everything to a T---way too much to ask, especially of folks whose brilliant invention took all the energy they could muster...
    To clarify: it's not bad here, and with the lack of drums 4/4 guitar was expected. Let's remember that it was just a few short years ago then that guitar was even amplified. It had been almost exclusively a rhythm instrument, unless miced live or in studio. Christian was rightfully the star soloist, but Eddie Durham was out there 1st with the 1st recorded electric guitar solos. The guitar was liberated, into a whole new phase. Now they could catch up with (and emulate) the top horn players soloing---as CC did w/Pres, though he was 'hotter'. It was a new era, and we started seeing guitars in front lines and emerging as soloists to be reckoned with. CC was the innovator who opened that door, and that's what earned him hall of fame stature.

    With Goodman rhythm guitar fit more. Everyone in the rhythm section was playing 4. But on those Minton's recordings (that led me to a lifetime of poverty) Monk was already moving forward and so was the entire rhythm section concept. Raney correctly called the interaction of soloists and rhythm 'a counterpoint of things'. That's where CC's 4/4, his heart-stopping solos notwithstanding, sounds a little heavy and even unnecessary to me...

  20. #19
    Joe and Oscar did a while Lp of just acoustic guitar and Clavichord, another quiet precursor to the piano. Two days before my last day at college,, I lent this record to a guy who swore I'd have it back before the dorm closed. That was in 1978. I'm still waiting for its return.


  21. #20
    joelf Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by AndyV
    Joe and Oscar did a while Lp of just acoustic guitar and Clavichord, another quiet precursor to the piano. Two days before my last day at college,, I lent this record to a guy who swore I'd have it back before the dorm closed. That was in 1978. I'm still waiting for its return.

    Beautiful! I LOVE Oscar when he lays back. He did so many dates as accompanist where he was so humbly about showcasing the headliner.

    And Joe is Joe---what is there to say?

    You'll be waiting a long time...

  22. #21
    joelf Guest
    Funny how the sounds are so similar, yet they stand out well individually...