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This just appeared in my youtube feed. Lorne plays some nice solo guitar about 4 minutes in, influenced by Bill Evans.
Later Lorne talks about Ed Bickert’s approach, and then plays a great duet with Nigel.
Last edited by grahambop; 09-01-2023 at 05:21 PM.
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09-01-2023 04:59 PM
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There is something he said about solo guitar in the interview that was very interesting. If you want to have all three parts together (ie bass line, harmony and melody), then you have to work out the arrangement beforehand because you have to find specific fingerings. So, his approach is to break up these parts and play them at different times, sort of in the style of Bill Evans. He said he practices tunes this way as well. I've been practicing tunes this way in the last few years and I love it.
I really want to take lessons from him. I like how he approaches solo guitar. I mean he is great at many things but I am interested in delving deeper into improvised solo guitar. He also knows a lot about how Ed Bickert played as well.Last edited by Tal_175; 09-02-2023 at 07:41 AM.
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Beautiful! I've never heard Lorne speak at length. His voice, facial expressions and hand gestures are so similar to Pat Martino.
Originally Posted by grahambop
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Yes I like his approach here to solo guitar, it sounds great. Looks like there will be 5 more episodes so looking forward to those! Originally Posted by Tal_175
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Lorne was talking about playing at Ronnie Scotts, I am guessing it was probably this group:
Canadian Jazz Collective (new album ‘Septology’/ Ronnie Scott’s date: 13 May) – London Jazz News
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I studied with Lorne for several years, mostly in small group classes (held at Shelley Berger’s father’s former button factory!) as well as a few private lessons to address particular issues. Along with his own approach and Ed’s he knows a lot about Lenny Breau’s style, self-comping and harmonics. He is an excellent teacher and a really nice guy. I don’t know whether he is still teaching privately but you should definitely inquire. You might have to drive to Newmarket though. Originally Posted by Tal_175
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Lorne taught our improv class at Humber for a year. Awesome guy. The class was above the drum modules and he always had a different one liner at the beginning of class. "Sounds like they're building a deck down there", "I think I hear a grant in the works".
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Part 2:
New organ trio album:
A Passing Instant | PMB3
Last edited by PMB; 09-08-2023 at 04:56 AM.
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I liked Lorne's solo guitar piece in Part 1 so much, I transcribed it.
I included tab, as the fingering/positioning of the chords and lines is pretty important to make it all work. He does a lot of clever rhythmic displacement of the voices which made it quite tricky to notate!
Very nice use of simple quartal chords etc. to get that Bill Evans/Ed Bickert/Lenny Breau sound.
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Line's sound is so good on that Ibanez
with the SD cool rails ....
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I think there are four ways of self accompaniment.
1- Sustain accompaniment while playing lines.
2- Play accompaniment in synch with lines (ie. block chords).
3- Play accompaniment during rests (ie chord punctuations). Sort of the rhythmic opposite of block chords above. Alternate comping and lines.
4- Play accompaniment with a rhythm that's independent from the lines. Usually that involves breaking up the chords. Eg. play bass notes on one and three and stap middle voices anticipating beats one and three while playing your lines. More like classical fingerstyle.
The problem with solo guitar is, it's very difficult to play improvised flowing, 8th note single lines up tempo while accompanying yourself unless you alternate accompaniment and lines (number 3 above). Harmonizing with other accompaniment styles (1,2 and 4) pin the left hand on the neck in a way that make phrasing freely very difficult. You have to work out an interesting arrangement before hand and practice it until you can execute it perfectly.
The second most feasible approach to improvised harmonization perhaps is block chords. But even Wes couldn't do much more than quarter note lines with block chords.
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Even Joe Pass used to play quite a lot of single-note passages in his solo stuff, if you listen closely.
I guess the trick is to keep mixing up all the above approaches, to create the illusion that more stuff is happening simultaneously than really is. (Actually I think Joe said something like that in one of his videos, or in an interview).
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By the way Lorne Lofsky is doing some UK gigs with Nigel Price in October, according to Nigel’s website.
For some reason they are nearly all in Wales or the west country, so I doubt I’ll get to any of them.
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Part 3 is now up.
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Part 4 is up - lots more playing in this one.
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Found this album cover online showing Lorne with his Les Paul (this was his debut album I think).
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I bought that first album, and didn't like it, because he got a loud , annoying sound out of the Les Paul with too much bass pickup.I think he started out as a rocker, and still lacked a convincing jazz feel. Originally Posted by grahambop
Found this album cover online showing Lorne with his Les Paul (this was his debut album I think).
Then I saw him on Oscar Peterson's TV show on A&E and it was even worse. His guitar started feeding back,and I thought they were going to stop the show due to technical problems.
I didn't want to bother with listening to him after that, but I had to get the "This Is New" album, because it was with Ed Bickert.
I liked his playing much more, but I have the tendency to compare players to each other, and I much preferred to hear Ed's swinging melodic approach to music than LL's glib, non-swinging, chops oriented approach. You could easily tell who was who during the solos.
But I like his much more subtle approach here with his thumb pick and fingers approach. He has flawless coordination betwixt his thumb and fingers. How long has he been using the thumb pick and fingers approach to playing?
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He answers that question in the interview; about '84.
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All the tracks from his first album are on youtube by the way (here's the first track).
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I listened to the whole album this morning, sounds pretty damn good to me. Wish I could play like that!
He was already integrating those Bickert/Breau/Bill Evans type chord voicings into his solos back then, they’re all over the album.
Also it’s quite an endorsement that Oscar Peterson insisted that Norman Granz should record him.
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What a tasteful and accomplished player. I’d never heard of him, so thanks for sharing this! His choice of instrument and the use of a thumbpick are unusual and I admire such individuality.
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Lorne Lofsky is over in the UK later this month, playing some date with Nigel Price.
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Part 6:
New organ trio album:
A Passing Instant | PMB3
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Thanks for posting these. Looking forward to part 5.. hehe
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Just checked and there is no Part 5. Maybe Nigel's superstitious (after all, he did post the last clip on Friday 13th!). Originally Posted by bediles
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