The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Paul Jackson Jr.

    How many of you are familiar with his work? He's a studio guitarist who has played with a veritable "who's who" in the music business. He's played on albums of artists from Micheal Jackson (including Thriller), to Elton John, Aretha Franklin, to Jewel, Michel McDonald, Madonna, and he has been on several George Benson albums.

    He's a first call session guy, who was even the guitar player in the orchestra for the 2023 Academy Awards, that took place a couple of weeks ago. He's done big time TV gigs like that for decades, because he's so good at reading, writing, and arranging charts for orchestration, in addition to his virtuoso level guitar chops.He's the real deal, a consummate Pro.

    He's mostly known through his work with R&B and smooth jazz artists, but he's also worked with quite a number of pop, and some rock artists.

    That's for you who might not be familiar with him. I thought I should mention him in here because he also has some absolutely incredible solo albums where he is playing virtuoso level, clean jazz fusion style improv over R&B grooves. He often takes well known R&B classics and does them instrumental style, with great extended guitar solos, and improvisation throughout. The man can play over changes with the best of them, but he really has made an art form out of sounding like jazz while playing over vamps and R&B grooves, it really is incredible playing. His style is very lyrical, technically proficient, and exciting, all at the same time. His use of a mix of fast, complex double stop and heady triad runs, in conjunction with his single note lines, is genius level, amazing to listen to, and showcases his brilliant technical proficiency on guitar.

    On his solo albums he does brilliant instrumental covers of mainly R&B songs, and he also is a great writer, and has inspired original instrumental music on his albums too. For any jazzers who are also a fan of R&B, I would strongly recommend checking out his music. He's on Blue Note Records. You'll hear some really awesome, very easy to listen to, very technically proficient, modern sounding jazz improv on his records.

    Are any of you here familiar with him? If not, you should be, he's a magnificent player.

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  3. #2

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    Certainly know of him, but don’t have any of his solo albums…. Any recommendations?

  4. #3

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    His first two solo albums are called, "I Came to Play" and "Out of the Shadows" respectively. I would start with those two, and then go through them all chronologically. He only has 8 solo albums out to date, and all of them are great. He only has those 8 solo albums because he's so in demand as a session player, making other artists sound good. Check out his Wikipedia page to see his discography as a solo artist and as a session man.

  5. #4

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    Paul is a great player! He has some really good rhythm guitar lessons for free on youtube. "The science of rhythm guitar". It's more geared towards RnB but is good material for anyone who wants to improve their rhythm playing. Seems like a cool and down to earth dude to top it all off. I will definitely give those albums a listen. Thanks for posting James.

  6. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by DawgBone
    Paul is a great player! He has some really good rhythm guitar lessons for free on youtube. "The science of rhythm guitar". It's more geared towards RnB but is good material for anyone who wants to improve their rhythm playing. Seems like a cool and down to earth dude to top it all off. I will definitely give those albums a listen. Thanks for posting James.
    You're welcome. He's an amazing and gifted player, both his rhythm and fantastic guitar solos. Yes, he's a very humble and down to earth guy, too.

    Here's a link to his website: Paul Jackson Jr.

    There, you can read up more about his amazing career, all his Grammy Awards, and all the artists he's worked with, TV shows and movies he's scored for, etc. Once you take a look at that, you will realize this guy is MAJOR. Of course, you can also sample and buy his music there, and see his concert schedule, too. He's an amazing player, writer, arranger, and producer. That's why he has worked with pretty much everyone who is anyone in the music industry.

  7. #6

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    Paul Jackson Jr. has done the Smooth Jazz Cruise a few times with Marcus Miller. There is a lot of footage on YT.

  8. #7

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    I'm a big fan of PJJ.
    Also...
    Paul is Assistant Professor Of Practice, Artist In Residence,
    USC Thornton School Of Music, Popular Music Division.

  9. #8

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    Yep, I'm a fan, have an album or two.

  10. #9

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    No doubt he is a supremely talented guy.I'm just burnt out with the whole smooth jazz idiom.A lot of talented players but the majority of the tunes i find to be pedestrian at best.One of the rarest things is to be a great player and equally talented composer.

  11. #10

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    His pop and r&b work may only be second to Nile Rodgers'. That alone place him on the Olympus of guitar players in my book.

    His jazz/solo records are often too smooth for me but I have a hunch that it's more about production than his actual playing. He's one of those players that I'd love to hear in a stripped down format

  12. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by Average Joe
    His pop and r&b work may only be second to Nile Rodgers'. That alone place him on the Olympus of guitar players in my book.

    His jazz/solo records are often too smooth for me but I have a hunch that it's more about production than his actual playing. He's one of those players that I'd love to hear in a stripped down format
    You may not truly appreciate his artistry unless you like R&B Soul music, but the fact is, he's a truly amazing musician. I happen to absolutely LOVE Soul music, and his playing is amazing.

    One thing that has always made me laugh, is that some rock musicians have attitudes like rock is some uber sophisticated kind of cork sniffing music. Some of it is, but there is also a lot of simple "3 chord" rock songs too. There are simple R&B songs, too, that exists in a lot of "popular" music. But, if you look at R&B Soul overall, you'll see that there is actually a lot more sophisticated harmony going on than in most rock music, to be perfectly honest. More hip modulations changing key within songs, more use of chord extensions and more altered chords and chord substitutions being used. More music written for orchestration too, etc. Hey, someone had to write and arrange all those parts.

    Anyway, where smooth jazz, as a genre, lost me as a fan is because they didn't embrace the jazz side of the equation enough. There seemed to be basically no adventurous spirit in the music, the way there is in jazz. Because of that, it all started to sound the same after a while. I would have loved to hear some of those, obviously talented musicians, mix in some more daring, hip, progressive elements to their music. Granted, if you take that too far out into left field, you can start to play over people's heads. However, there IS a happy medium in there, a cross between jazz and whatever genre you want to fuse it with.

    I tried working with some smooth jazz musicians before, and it was very frustrating. They were all a bunch of followers. Sometimes as an artist, you have to lead.

    All that being said, Paul Jackson Jr. is an amazing/gifted player, and I happen to love R&B Soul music too.

  13. #12

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    those guys are very talented and can certainly play but they all basically kinda sound the same to me.
    Paul, Norman Brown etc, all seem to be Benson disciples soloing over smooth R&B.
    I have no problem w/ R&B tunes, a number of them are in our set list, and we play a ton of soul tunes [though my definition of soul music in jazz is the 60s and 70s w/ cats like Grant Green, Melvin Sparks, Wilbert Longmire and the organ bands. etc]
    no offense to them or those that dig them but after listening to Paul and those smooth cats my eyes start to glaze over after awhile. I can't listen to more than a couple tunes at a time. It's probably the idiom itself more than anything, because as I said they're very talented w/ plenty of chops.
    though obviously not their main thing I wouldn't mind hearing what they can do w/ jazz tunes.

  14. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by ESCC
    Yep, I'm a fan, have an album or two.
    Cool I'm glad to meet another fan. Most of his work has been as a studio ace, so not everyone knows of him as a solo artist.

  15. #14

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    Never heard of Paul but will check him out, thanks. I get that many members here would prefer to hear just about anyone play "jazz" rather than R&B, smooth, etc. but you guys know too well that know jazz players like Ted Lurch, Martin Taylor play gigs in pizza restaurants in addition to earning a good portion of their income by teaching. How much does a gig at Small's earn each member of a quartet? Sixty years ago, when jazz was more popular, Wes Montgomery couldn't earn enough to provide for his admittedly large family. Wes Montgomery had to play Tequila for shitheads in a Playboy club. Several years back in discussing the death of the CD and the loss of income from sales, Jimmy Bruno commented that "it was never very much anyway". I'm not a big smooth jazz fan but I have seen Norman Brown play live and I'm very confident that if you heard him play Donna Lee or giant steps you would be humbled by hearing what he is capable of playing. More than a couple guys here own 5 or more high end, custom made archtops and we're dismissing guys who are just trying to make money where they can with their instrument in hand.

  16. #15

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    Who dismissed anyone?

  17. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by whiskey02
    Never heard of Paul but will check him out, thanks. I get that many members here would prefer to hear just about anyone play "jazz" rather than R&B, smooth, etc. but you guys know too well that know jazz players like Ted Lurch, Martin Taylor play gigs in pizza restaurants in addition to earning a good portion of their income by teaching. How much does a gig at Small's earn each member of a quartet? Sixty years ago, when jazz was more popular, Wes Montgomery couldn't earn enough to provide for his admittedly large family. Wes Montgomery had to play Tequila for shitheads in a Playboy club. Several years back in discussing the death of the CD and the loss of income from sales, Jimmy Bruno commented that "it was never very much anyway". I'm not a big smooth jazz fan but I have seen Norman Brown play live and I'm very confident that if you heard him play Donna Lee or giant steps you would be humbled by hearing what he is capable of playing. More than a couple guys here own 5 or more high end, custom made archtops and we're dismissing guys who are just trying to make money where they can with their instrument in hand.
    I like smooth jazz... and there is loads more money in it than straight jazz. I'm sure that is a rub for more than a few of forum members. That said, I don't recall anyone being dismissive though. Usually it starts when someone mentions Pat and Kenny.

  18. #17

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    Aren’t we calling it lo-fi hip hop these days?

    Paul Jackson Jr.-cffef0fa-3215-4040-b5e3-e2b1dc62e0c9-jpeg

  19. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by SandChannel
    I like smooth jazz... and there is loads more money in it than straight jazz. I'm sure that is a rub for more than a few of forum members. That said, I don't recall anyone being dismissive though. Usually it starts when someone mentions Pat and Kenny.
    My reaction to this post, Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, you're funny.

    That is just not true, buddy. That is just some nonsense that you made up in your own wet noodle.

    JAZZ FUSION, is by far the most lucrative in jazz.

    I'm not asking you to take my word for it. Here are some quotes from some top smooth jazz artists.

    Former Yellowjackets bassist Jimmy Haslip, an in-demand sideman and producer, also speaks of declining album sales. “Now I see appalling figures,” he says. “I see a NUMBER 3 record on the [Contemporary Jazz] chart (that'smooth jazz) and I find out that they have only 3,000 sales.” Even top-name artists? “Yeah, it could easily be,” Haslip adds, recalling a time when Yellowjackets “would easily sell 100,000.” (The band’s 1987 top seller, Four Corners, moved 350,000 units.) “Those numbers just don’t exist anymore.”

    Keyboardist Jeff Lorber, who co-produced his latest release with Haslip, has some fun with the suggestion that people involved in smooth jazz might be heading for the exits: “No, they’ve already gone through the exits, they’ve taken the freeway home and they’ve gone to bed.” Those are quotes from top smooth jazz artist's themselves, not just some tripe that I'm making up and scrawling all over the internet.

    Now to contrast that, here are the sales of a JAZZ FUSION ARTIST:

    Released September 16 on Warner Music boutique label Nonesuch -- the home for both artists -- “Metheny Mehldau” has already sold more than 30,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and “considerably north of 100,000” worldwide, according to label president and album executive producer Robert Hurwitz.

    ^^^That article was posted only months after Metheny Mehldau was released. And remember, we're talking about a JAZZ FUSION ALBUM, that was just a guitar player and a keyboard player playing together, not even a whole band.

    Now here are the words of Pat Metheny himself on the subject:

    “All of my albums have high sales figures, and these two records that I’ve done with Brad will be the same,” he says. “My first album, ‘Bright Size Life’ (1976, ECM), sold 1,200 copies the first year. It’s sold hundreds of thousands since. These days people tend to react hysterically if a record doesn’t sell a lot of copies in the first month. Everyone is panicking because the compass of the music world is pointed too much on a business level. I’d like to see the compass pointing back toward the value intrinsic in the notes that are played.”

    Music with “good notes,” Metheny says, works in favor of albums that can have long legs in the marketplace.

    What Metheny said, that's what I’m doing with my original music, because I totally agree with what he said, and I also have a great ear for music and a beautiful vision. His viewpoint is exactly my viewpoint on it, too, a viewpoint I have had for a long time. Bands that try to make their music to pander to some damn category may sell some records at first, but when that category fizzles out, like smooth jazz did, then so do their record sales. Conversely, if you focus on what Methey said, the intrinsic value of the notes being played themselves, the audience will recognize that, appreciate that, and find YOU.


    **That being said, I absolutely LOVE R&B/Soul music and Hip Hop, too. I love jazz, and can play jazz extremely well, but I resist the temptation to become a snob. I actually have wide-ranging musical tastes. I can appreciate music from most genre's, as long as it is done well, mostly bebop jazz, fusion jazz, R&B Soul, rock, and blues. I love me some blues, too.

    For me, there is some crossover, and I will continue to listen to some smooth jazz artist's, especially the artists who can play the heck out of some guitar. There are still some very fine guitarists in there, like the great George Benson for one.


    Last edited by James Haze; 04-06-2023 at 09:57 PM.

  20. #19

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    I've seen this before online where people refer to Metheny as a fusion artist.Just not seeing it myself and certainly not Brad Mehldau.To me he is just playing straight ahead jazz with a delay on his amp.The whole genre thing is meaningless anyway,paraphasing Duke Ellington there are only two types of music,good music and bad music.

  21. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by James Haze
    My reaction to this post, Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, you're funny.

    That is just not true, buddy. That is just some nonsense that you made up in your own wet noodle.

    JAZZ FUSION, is by far the most lucrative in jazz.
    Sade has sold over 74 million albums. Last I checked she does a lot of jazz fests as a "smooth jazz" artist. I view her as RnB but no one calls to check up with me what genre certain artists should be listed as so I guess it's smooth jazz now. Meanwhile, most people couldn't even tell you what jazz fusion is. On top of that most people don't know who Pat Metheny is. Google lists Pat as having sold a bit less than a couple million albums.

  22. #21

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    I like the Watercolors smooth jazz station (66?) on Sirius Radio. They play a lot of guitar tunes.

  23. #22

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    Quote Originally Posted by DawgBone
    Sade has sold over 74 million albums. Last I checked she does a lot of jazz fests as a "smooth jazz" artist. I view her as RnB but no one calls to check up with me what genre certain artists should be listed as so I guess it's smooth jazz now. Meanwhile, most people couldn't even tell you what jazz fusion is. On top of that most people don't know who Pat Metheny is. Google lists Pat as having sold a bit less than a couple million albums.
    You know this is a jazz forum, right? Do you even like jazz? For one thing, you are wrong. Pat Metheny has sold a lot more than two million albums, a lot more.

    I absolutely love Sade, she is super talented and is one of my all-time favorite R&B artists. She actually makes my point, in a way. She is definitely a crossover artist. Her music, which is R&B Soul for sure, is obviously also influenced by jazz singers. You can just hear the influence in her style. I remember her saying that it was somewhat hard for her to get signed onto a label at first because her music was different. Her music doesn't all fit into one nice neat "category," However she went on to sell millions of records, win the Best New Artist Grammy, and become a much beloved highly successful artist. I used to have a big poster of her on the wall of my bedroom. That's how big of a Sade fan I am. Her band is absolutely fantastic too.

    Anyway, yes, dare to be different, and don't worry so much about fitting into "categories," just make good music, full of "good notes." A lot of super successful artist's have followed that game plan. Don't overlook that fact. I'm sure Pat Metheny and Sade would both agree with that, too.

    If I had my way, I would do something different in the music industry, like be a jazz musician with a great jazz band, who also has a great rock band, or a great rock musician who also has a great jazz band. That would be different, right?

  24. #23

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    Quote Originally Posted by James Haze
    You know this is a jazz forum, right? Do you even like jazz? For one thing, you are wrong. Pat Metheny has sold a lot more than two million albums, a lot more.

    I absolutely love Sade, she is super talented and is one of my all-time favorite R&B artists. She actually makes my point, in a way. She is definitely a crossover artist. Her music, which is R&B Soul for sure, is obviously also influenced by jazz singers. You can just hear the influence in her style. I remember her saying that it was somewhat hard for her to get signed onto a label at first because her music was different. Her music doesn't all fit into one nice neat "category," However she went on to sell millions of records, win the Best New Artist Grammy, and become a much beloved highly successful artist. I used to have a big poster of her on the wall of my bedroom. That's how big of a Sade fan I am. Her band is absolutely fantastic too.

    Anyway, yes, dare to be different, and don't worry so much about fitting into "categories," just make good music, full of "good notes." A lot of super successful artist's have followed that game plan. Don't overlook that fact. I'm sure Pat Metheny and Sade would both agree with that, too.

    If I had my way, I would do something different in the music industry, like be a jazz musician with a great jazz band, who also has a great rock band, or a great rock musician who also has a great jazz band. That would be different, right?
    I enjoyed your bombastic post. Ok great, Pat has sold over two million albums. Please show a credible source to back up your claim. The only source I found after a quick search was that Pat sold about 1.7 million records in the US and abroad with "Letter from home" making up the largest share of his sales at 500k. Maybe I missed a more credible source.

    Do I listen to jazz? Yes. Do I play jazz? No. You seem to imply that Sade isn't jazz. No shit. But she books a lot of "jazz fests" so guess what that means in the ears of the general public? Sade=jazz. No doubt our parameters for what qualifies as jazz are more narrow than the average listener but the average listener is who buys records in quantity, not a couple of guitar dorks on a jazz guitar forum.

    The idea that jazz fusion is the most profitable form of jazz is pretty laughable IMO. Anything with a distorted guitar and rock drumming doesn't really qualify as jazz in my book so we are back to your sade is not jazz argument. Most people couldn't even tell you what jazz fusion is. It's mostly self indulgent musician's music with little appeal because you can't dance to it and a big part of the reason jazz is irrelevant now. A dissociation from swing, which is what defined jazz. The entire fusion genre strikes me as driven by "self" at the expense of entertainment, which is what all music actually is. Yeah a few heads can latch on but most people aren't interested so please show me some stats proving your claims that a) Pat sold more than 2 million records and b) that jazz fusion album sales are the largest market share in the jazz genre. I would be happy to be proven wrong but I seriously doubt your ability to back up your claims.

  25. #24

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    Quote Originally Posted by DawgBone
    I enjoyed your bombastic post. Ok great, Pat has sold over two million albums. Please show a credible source to back up your claim. The only source I found after a quick search was that Pat sold about 1.7 million records in the US and abroad with "Letter from home" making up the largest share of his sales at 500k. Maybe I missed a more credible source.

    Do I listen to jazz? Yes. Do I play jazz? No. You seem to imply that Sade isn't jazz. No shit. But she books a lot of "jazz fests" so guess what that means in the ears of the general public? Sade=jazz. No doubt our parameters for what qualifies as jazz are more narrow than the average listener but the average listener is who buys records in quantity, not a couple of guitar dorks on a jazz guitar forum.

    The idea that jazz fusion is the most profitable form of jazz is pretty laughable IMO. Anything with a distorted guitar and rock drumming doesn't really qualify as jazz in my book so we are back to your sade is not jazz argument. Most people couldn't even tell you what jazz fusion is. It's mostly self indulgent musician's music with little appeal because you can't dance to it and a big part of the reason jazz is irrelevant now. A dissociation from swing, which is what defined jazz. The entire fusion genre strikes me as driven by "self" at the expense of entertainment, which is what all music actually is. Yeah a few heads can latch on but most people aren't interested so please show me some stats proving your claims that a) Pat sold more than 2 million records and b) that jazz fusion album sales are the largest market share in the jazz genre. I would be happy to be proven wrong but I seriously doubt your ability to back up your claims.
    First of all, dude, you don't know what you're talking about, it's obvious from what you wrote.

    If you think record sales are the only determiner of the value of the art to society, then just put on a skirt, some high-heeled pumps, and join the Katy Perry candy coated bimbo fan club. This is a JAZZ guitar forum, for people who appreciate jazz and jazz guitar for the genius music that it is. Also, I think there are a lot of people who appreciate Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, who would disagree with the premise that record sales are the only determiner of the value to society of art.

    If you think the term "jazz fusion" only applies to jazz rock music with distorted guitars, then you don't even know what jazz fusion means. Jazz fusion does not only mean jazz rock. "Jazz fusion" is an umbrella term that includes any form of music that is combined with jazz. So, technically smooth jazz is also "jazz fusion," R&B fused with jazz.

    Pat Metheny is primarily a jazz fusion artist, although he also plays straight ahead jazz sometimes. He's a very capable musical genius musician, so he can play anything he feels like playing.

    Dude, there are plenty of R&B artists who play at smooth jazz festivals. There is crossover there, because if a person is into smooth jazz, it's a pretty safe bet that they also like R&B music . I see R&B artists advertising that they are performing at some "smooth jazz festival" all the time. That is just a tactic the "smooth jazz festival" promoters use to sell tickets. So, an artist performing at a "smooth jazz festival" does not make that artist a smooth jazz artist.

    Also, you are wrong again, Pat Metheny has sold MUCH more than what you stated in your erroneous post, much more. Look it up yourself. If you know how to use Google, have some intelligence, and you can read, you can find the correct information yourself.

    You obviously like to argue, and I really don't like to argue, so I won't be responding to any more of your erroneous, argumentative posts.

    If you think record sales are the only determiner for the value of the art itself, to society and to the world of music, then the Katy Perry candy coated bimbo fan club would be glad to have you.

  26. #25

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    Martin Taylor is one of the finest solo guitar players that has ever done it. He is an extraordinary jazz guitarist.

    @whiskey02 I can tell you one thing, with your negative attitude, you'll never get anywhere of note as a jazz musician.