OT: my other great musical passion . . .

[barry guerrero]

I think I mentioned this, but another good P & B is just a selection of songs from it, sung by Carmen McRae and Sammy Davis Jr. Yeah, that Gil Evans orchestrated stuff is great.

[Leo K]

Barry, I heard some very interesting jazz last night on the radio.  This guy, named Scott Robinson (perhaps you already know of him) was playing the obscure contrabass sax, and it has an amazing deep sound...as low as a tuba.  I checked his albums on amazon and discovered he plays other obscure instruments, like the C- Melody Saxohone among others.  This is great jazz though, and not just a novelty record.




--Leo

[barry guerrero]

The bass sax is a very efficient instrument. Some guys like to use them in trad. jazz bands (dixieland) instead of the tuba or string bass. The were most prevalent in the 19-teens and twenties. Since upright basses can now be so easily amplified, they've lost favor. I don't think that anybody builds new ones at all. But they draw a lot more attention to themselves than just a plain-old string bass. I like them.

[Jot N. Tittle]

Okay, okay. I'll be the only stick-in-the-mud here. It's Schubert for me. Especially the Quintet in C.

Stimmt.

     . & '

[Amphissa]

My other great musical passion is acoustic guitar music. Not necessarily classical. I love great fingerstyle guitar. Jazz (like Joe Pass duets with Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, Django with Stephane Grapelli, etc) -- and Brazilian (like anything by Sergio and Odair Assad or Egberto Gismonti) -- and all that uncategorizable acoustic guitar stuff at Acoustic Music Resource (like Lawrence Juber, David Cullen, Ed Gerhard, Alex DeGrassi, etc). I guess because I prefer to play that kind of stuff myself. Or used to. I don't play much anymore.

[Leo K]

I love acoustic guitar music too, in particular I like the old rural blues recordings from the 1920's and 1930's.  My favorite players being Skip James, Tommy Johnson, and Mississippi John Hurt. 







For modern guitar players, I like Leo Kottke.  Sweet tone.

--Leo

[Amphissa]

Leo was the first of the fingerstyle guitarists I heard do just instrumental stuff. I saw him play quite a few times, met him, got to know him a little back in the 70s, brefore he got married and straightened out. Some funny stories from that time. His early stuff was really innovative for the time, back when he was on Rounder. Never cared much for his contemporary on the label, John Fahey. Another guy back then was Dave Evans - a Brit who could flat out play. Made a record called Sad Pig Dance. Tune on there called "Knuckles and Buster" that was hard as hell to play. A few other guys followed - Duck Baker, Stefan Grossman, etc. But Kottke ruled back then. Until Micheal Hedges blew the fingerstyle guitar scene open. His album Aerial Boundaries remains one of the great solo guitar albums of all time, right up there with Kottke's My Feet Are Smiling. Hedges went wasted and tried to sing, then sadly crashed out of our universe, but a gazillion guys followed. Egberto Gismonti was the modern alternative. I saw him live his first trip to the U.S., and he blew me away. I ran out and bought the only album I could find. Turned out he had played the entire first album on stage with Nana Vasconcelos, just the two of them - Danca das Cabecas. Amazing. And then for the next level, it was the Assad brothers, playing a mix of jazz, classical and South American music. They still rule, as far as I'm concerned. Saw them in NY with Nadja Salerno Sonenberg. But nothing is better than the two of them playing together. Unbelievable.

But blues .... yeah. I like some blues too. Just about anything out of the old south. Especially slide guitar stuff. Do you play, Leo?

[Leo K]

Wow...thanks for that awesome overview Amphissa...now I got some albums to look for!!!

I play very basic guitar...enough to know all the usual chords (barre and open positions) to play though pretty much any Rock/Country/Folk/Blues number from a fake book, but no jazz or fingerpickin of any kind! 

--Leo

[david johnson]

for me, it's; bix beiderbecke, bruckner, colonial american sacred music, marches...

dj

[barry guerrero]

The local jazz channel here in the S.F. bay area occassionally plays a cut of Clark Terry playing an old Bix Beiderbecke tune that's just amazing - very challenging for the trumpet. I keep meaning to pick up the Clark Terry cd that has that. I can't remember the name of the tune right now.

Barry

[nickmolland]

...would you believe Bob Dylan?

Nick

[Leo K]

Bob Dylan is great...I've seen him 3 times in concert, and used to collect boots of shows and etc.  Blood On The Tracks and Infidels are among my fave albums.  The best thing he's ever done, at least for me, are the "basement tape" sessions...what a mood that sets...incredible stuff.

--Leo

[Vatz Relham]

I play very basic guitar...enough to know all the usual chords (barre and open positions) to play though pretty much any Rock/Country/Folk/Blues number from a fake book, but no jazz or fingerpickin of any kind! 

--Leo

It's nice to see there are others who also play musical instruments.
Playing an instrument even on an amature level is I think very good for the better understanding of music you listen too. and as a form of personal expression, of course you don't need to play an insturment to enjoy and understand music, but I think it helps.
I also play acoustic steel string guitar on an amature level, and drums on a more advanced level but no longer with a band.
I like going through the Beatles guitar book and stealing ideas  :-[for my own simple guitar tunes.
Also Mahler has helped me with some musical ideas, whenever I repeat a phrase I like to either vary the notes or play the phrase in another register then before, Mahler sometimes changes the orchestration when he repeats a phrase, this keeps things fun and interesting.

Vatz

[Amphissa]

Vatz, Laurence Juber was McCartney's guitarist in Wings for awhile. I typically do not like covers of Beatles songs, but he made a solo acoustic album of Beatles music that is quite good. A lot of the guitarists featured on Acoustic Music Resource have tab books and instructional videos.

For the acoustic guitar lover, I highly recommend a DVD called "The All Star Guitar Night." This is just great guitarist after great guitarist getting up on stage in Nashville and doing their solo acoustic guitar thing. They do this every year, but I think only 2 of them have been filmed. Each guitarist has a different style, of course, but that's what makes it fun. Watch for Juber doing his solo guitar version of Hendrix's "Little Wing" and Martin Taylor, who is best known for his jazz work with  play the best version of "Georgia On My Mind" that I've ever heard. And the camerawork gives good looks at how the guitarists are actually playing the piece.

http://www.amazon.com/DVD-Muriel-Andersons-Star-Guitar-Night/dp/B000BGPL2U/ref=sr_1_5/102-0928985-5999331?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1182691552&sr=1-5

[Vatz Relham]

Amphissa,

Thanks for the tip!!

Vatz