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Good day my fellow jazz lovers, I'm looking for recommendations regarding modern (by modern I mean players from the year 2020 up until now) and up-and-coming jazz players who play at fast-paced tempos or/and can play at high speeds. All recommendations are welcomed, but you will have my eternal gratitude if you also post guitarists who play along big groups like quintets, sextets or big bands. Hope we can make a good list.
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11-07-2023 03:02 PM
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Tbh I think most if not all of them can do that
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If you were a "fellow jazz lover" I'm sure you could provide the list !
I like me some burnin' Jazz too, but not so much from guitarists. There's thousands of guys that can play 8ths at 300bpm + all day, but it's kinda boring and most true jazz guitarists move past this as a goal as they get a little older. I see this is your first post, so if you're young, and/or into stuff like Metal I can understand why the speed thing appeals (I hope I'm not being presumptuous), but for most of the cats here, Melodic invention, Harmonic and Rhythmic sophistication is where the rubber meets the road in Jazz guitar soloing. I think you can get fast picking chops pretty early on if you concentrate on it for a coupla years, but the decades go into the really hard stuff! Which keeps it challenging and fun.
Anyway, having said that, I'm sure you will get plenty of suggestions for the new shredders on the block, but honestly, after guys like Birelli or Oberg, or more recently Grasso or Mancuso (all of them more than just "shredders" BTW), there won't be too many new kids that will raise too many eyebrows around here
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Yeah most guys worth listening to can play fast, so I guess this is more a question about guys that play with bigger groups. David Gilmour has some stuff out there with the Mingus Big Band. Lage Lund (past) and Ben Monder (current) with Maria Schneider.
Lage does lots of quintet stuff too for his solo stuff.
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Meant to see this guy (Tom Ollendorff) the other day, but couldn’t go unfortunately. As Christian says, most of the young players can play like this now, certainly the ones I see here in the UK, e.g. Ant Law and David Preston, who often play in larger groups.
Last edited by grahambop; 11-10-2023 at 10:01 AM.
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Tom is a case in point, as are Dave and Ant. Ridiculous technicians. See also Nick Linnick.
these are real musicians playing gigs out there in the world, not backing track Instagram virtuosos.
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Pasquale Grasso and Jonathan Kreisberg leap to mind. Allan Holdworth is another fleet fingered guitarist to listen to and is as modern as anyone will ever be. Al DiMeola and John McLaughlin are not within the parameters you listed, but there are few if any faster guitarists in the history of the instrument. And there's Matteo M-something, Mancuso?, who's practically an alien come to Earth in terms of facility
Hard to make recommendations about this, I don't tend to listen to uptempo stuff. Too much ear fatigue.
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From the straightahead world, Dan Wilson, Pasquale, Cecil Alexander.
a million players from the gypsy jazz scene. Virtuoso picking technique is a prerequisite practically in that world.
Tbh I wonder if not easier to name players who don’t have insane chops, or at least choose a less notey approach, tbh. I can think of two or three in london…
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I'd add Adam Rogers, even tho he's been around since before 2020 (as have Kreisberg and others mentioned already.)
Check out Mark Lettieri's work with Snarky Puppy.
And though he has one foot in the rock world, there is plenty of jazz harmonic sophistication informing Martin Miller's prodigious picking technique.
Also, take a look on youtube for Ben Eunson.
HTH
SJ
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How fast can you hear? Are you asking who can move their fingers fast or who can think fast enough to make meaningful music?
A lot of players can play notes really fast, and they chose not to.
If you want to know who can play the fastest, go to the clubs in and around NY and see live music, where players are playing for the moment. A lot of times you can't tell how fast someone can play by their recordings, because the medium is one where your priority is making a musical statement. It can be a different mindset from a live situation where you're given a comparatively larger amount to explore musical development and more notes can be a part of that process.
Not to be too obvious here, but jazz is about the notes, and you need to practice a lot to play as fast as you can think. Just about anybody can play faster than they can think.
At some point if you want to check out a smart guitarist who can think and play fast, I'm always floored by Kurt Rosenwinkel and Max Light.
You want just fast notes regardless of content? Check out the practice rooms at Berklee, there are lots of kids working hard to achieve that.
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Find some things by Joe Diorio. You'll hear,speed, articulation, and modern intervallic concepts combined with maturity taste, and musicality. Joe was a master.
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Straight ahead the obvious answer is Jimmy Bruno. Fusion is Frank Gambale and Holdsworth. But Carlton has played at lightning speed too.
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Kevin O'Neil on "20 Standards" by Anthony Braxton.
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collective fascination with speed..in all things..yes it appeals to the young and inexperienced..
add years of playing and some cuts and bruises..it becomes just one of the tools of the trade
if speed is the top priority..you are going to miss smelling many flowers as you pass them by
my take: learn all the essentials..then KNOW them..ingest them into you being
then at will..at any speed..explore them..invert them..let them show you their magic
there are many artists of all forms who display their skills in modest ways..few..if any want praise at the showing of
"..look what I can do.."
speed is impressive in context..alone it is lonely
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Speed is simply required and at some point, it is like shooting free throws and your percentage. In the NBA 70-80% is average a few get close to 90%. Speed becomes an athlete mark at some point but naturally guitarist need to keep up with the tempo and improvise.
The funny thing is I have never heard Kenny Burrell play with quite the speed of John McLaughlin or Adams Rogers. Kenny has speed for sure he played with Oscar Peterson and had to survive. However, in the notes-per-second contest I guessing he is not in the elite crowd. The thing is I can listen to Kenny Burrell any day of the week and not get tired of his playing. I am not down grading the need for speed a guitarist has to reach a certain level to manage as a working professional. The good ones all are "in the ballpark" of fast, it has to be part of the skill level.
Being creative and fast is the hard part. How to sound good without sounding like you are at the typewriter as Howard Roberts would say.
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Maybe we should discuss slow players, to test the claim that speed is required. Jim Hall is said to have had a sticker on his guitar case that said "Can't play fast; won't play loud"
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Wes doesn't seem fast until you try to play his stuff.
One name I'd add to the list of players capable of playing fast: Chico Pinheiro. Of course, Chico can make great music at any speed.
The guitarist in the Spok Frevo Orquestra is another player who comes to mind, but I don't know his name.
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Adam Rogers
But also playing at fast tempos doesn't necessarily mean burning 8th notes. Sometimes the hippest thing to do is play really strong quarter notes or syncopated rhythms. Isn't there a Metheny quote to that effect? I'd rather hear confident, cohesive melodic ideas in quarter notes than someone struggling to play eighths.
For examples of that kind of approach, check out...also Adam Rogers
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That said, Adam on a superstrat
I have to say I like the way him and Moreno have remained consistent on the hairstyle front.
I like a dude who can study Palestrina and still has time for divebombs
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Good genes for music and good genes for hair. Really the complete package, both of them.
Originally Posted by Christian Miller
Hearing him dive bomb and use a wah is kinda hilarious, but even there he does some more (relatively) restrained melodic and syncopated stuff before coming in guns blazing. Not even a super strat and a mesa turns him into a *complete* shredder haha
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btw listening to this today and I find it absolutely hilarious that this was Allan’s idea of going commercial Originally Posted by BreckerFan
I guess he plays some tapping licks to show he’s down with the kids.
I’ve now decided like the tapping double stop bit. It sort of sounds like a slightly out of tune pub upright piano, it’s a bit ‘knees up muvver brown’. Except of course Allan is wasn’t a cockney. Whatever the Yorkshire equivalent is. I have no idea.
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This came up in my YouTube. Tim is both fast and modern
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Mike Walker
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