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I was talking to a friend of mine who's writing a book on Tal on the phone today, and I mentioned that the only fault I ever found with any of Tal's work in the 50s was that he sounded sloppy on "Cherokee", because he tried to play it too damn fast.
As usual, my friend had the answer to that one.
It turned out, Norman Granz, the producer of the album, was in the control room with his head buried in the New York Times when Tal was recording the album, "Autumn in New York".
Tal was annoyed that his producer wasn't even listening to him record his album, so he decided to do something that would catch his attention.
He called Cherokee at a breakneck speed that he didn't even bother to think about whether he could handle or not.
As he was playing it, he saw the newspaper slowly being lowered by Granz, until he was paying full attention to the session.
So he succeeded in getting Granz' attention, but went beyond his or anyone's ability to cut that tempo.
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03-21-2024 08:05 PM
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Doesn't matter now though, does it? It's like Parker being in a bad way during "Lover Man" and hating his performance. People loved it, and that's what drives record sales, not the musical opinions of other musicians. Cherokee was my first introduction to the guitar wizardry of Tal Farlow. I still dig the clip of him and Lenny Breau playing that one together.
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That recording is a complete shitshow.
And still better than any of us could ever dream of pulling off...and most of our heroes too!
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It;s like Tal was the inventor of a new type of artistic form of expression- playing something absurd, just to get a producer to stop reading the newspaper and listen to him!
Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
Maybe this will be written about by some academic somewhere and linked to bands like the sex pistols and Arthur Lee's band Love when they did "Bummer in the Summer" and "Two Plus Two Is", and Albert Ayler, and The Beatles "Wild Honey Pie", and Rick Beatoff can make a video on You Tube about it- ""20 Songs that were made to annoy someone". This could start a whole Movement!
Or then again, not....
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Then there's the famous 1960 session for capitol with Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West. The producer, concerned about the 3 min cap on run time for single records give them the cut sign thru the glass. Bryant gave him the musical finger and continued blazing for 6 mins+. You can hear the exasperated engineer say at the end "All right...only six minutes and 10 seconds." This meant they couldn't release it as a single and didn't do so 'til the CD era, after about 30 years!
Last edited by AndyV; 03-22-2024 at 04:27 PM.
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^
as many times as I've heard this it still kicks my ass. sure JB falters a few times but that tempo is sick and it's almost like what it must've been like hearing them in a club....
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I've read that Tal played at fast tempos on recordings mostly because Granz liked and wanted them fast. At least that was what Tal reportedly said. I wasn't there.
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Yeah, Tal had told my friend he was playing a ballad when he noticed Granz was ignoring it, reading a newspaper, so he figured playing Cherokee at a sick tempo wight make Granz put down the newspaper and pay attention to the record he was supposed to be producing. Originally Posted by sgosnell
It worked. Granz slowly lowered the newspaper until Tal could see his face.
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If he did it just to "make sure his producer was listening" and it's a "complete shit show", why the hell did they keep it???
(I did just listen to it, and yeah it doesn't sound up to the bar of Tal Farlow for sure)
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Just for fun
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This huge overlap between great country pickers and jazz guitarists is something else. Originally Posted by wintermoon
Besides Bryant, there's Danny Gatton, Jackie King, Buddy Fite, Mike Elliot, Johnny Smith, Lenny Breau, Clint Strong, Glen Campbell, Buddy Emmons, Jimmy Wyble, and Cal Collins.
I find their percussive single line approach to the guitar to have more clarity and drive than other approaches.
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Good post and don't forget one of the finest cross over guitarists, Hank Sugarfoot Garland Originally Posted by sgcim
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Roy Lanham....
Not quite crossover but Joe Maphis was a great picker...
George Barnes
Last edited by wintermoon; 03-23-2024 at 04:32 AM.
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Jimmy Bryant
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Even Brad Paisley has some jazz chops... (HUGE Hank Garland fan BTW, he's talked about it multiple times)
Intro (song with vocals)
The song INSTRUMENTAL- smokin' stuff in here
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Obviously a LOT of time listening to Les P. Originally Posted by ruger9
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I woke up in the middle of the night and realized i left the most obvious example of all, Hank Garland. I first heard about him when I was a kid in HS. A friend and I used to get driven by either of our parents to this scary guy's house that sold old jazz albums in his basement. I found out recently that he used to obtain the albums illegally, by some guy who worked for a record store, who would let him into their warehouse in the middle of the night. Originally Posted by wintermoon
He'd spend the time searching the warehouse for jazz lps, and then sell them to people for high prices. I paid him $40 for a Tal Farlow album I had to have., but that was a lot of money back then for a 15 year old kid, and I was totally broke after that.
He took out the Hank Garland album you posted, and told me, "You see that car he's got all those guitars in? That was the same car that he got in a car crash that killed him!"
Apparently, he didn't know that HG survived the crash, and was still alive, but couldn't play.
One time he let us up to his living room, and let us see his private collection. He said, " I should put down some plastic so you guys don't cum over my nice rug!"
He and his friends sat on the couch, watching us looking at his collection. They said to each other, "It's been so long since I've had something with a nice soft ass, I wouldn't mind porking these little kids right now!"
That's what you had to go through back then to get good jazz records if you were kids....
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Clint Strong was on fire on this one ....
Not to forget the late, great Tom Morrrell ...
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No, the name of that tune was fast!
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Hank Garland.....Ya beat me to it!
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I just got the book "Unfinished Business" The Life and Times of Danny Gatton, by Ralph Heibutzki, after hearing some of his stuff on you tube. I'm just on p.85, but it's got some of the craziest stuff I've ever read about the music scene in his area (Wash.DC, Maryland, Virginia) ....
Has anyone ever read this?
I've warned you guys about the demonic power of the Tele, and the trouble it can get you into...
Things were fine when he was a Gibson man, but once he crossed over to dark side of the Tele...
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[QUOTE=wintermoon;1325217]
Not quite crossover but Joe Maphis was a great picker...
Don't tell me Joe Maphis did this live! Looks like he's playing all those instruments, but he's not quite in sync, my guess he's miming, they did that on those ol' timey TV shows, no?
Last edited by princeplanet; 03-26-2024 at 01:59 PM.
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[QUOTE=princeplanet;1325947]
that's live all right, it's just the film that's a bit off Originally Posted by wintermoon
Not quite crossover but Joe Maphis was a great picker...
Don't tell me Joe Maphis did this live! Looks like he's playing all those instruments, but he's not quite in sync, my guess he's miming, they did that on those ol' timey TV shows, no?
here's another version
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[QUOTE=wintermoon;1325956]
Now that's entertainment! Originally Posted by princeplanet
The man obviously did that routine live many times, but I just can't believe the sound quality in those large TV studios could be so good with just one (unseen) overhead mic.
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