Posts tagged guitar

Guitarist John Pizzarelli from the 2012 Jazz Cruise

Mar14
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

This week I will be linking to some great video interviews from the JazzTimes YouTube page. There is so much more there than I’ll be posting this week, so be sure to check it out!

Today’s interviews are with singer/guitarist/bandleader John Pizzarelli and were conducted aboard the MS Westerdam during the Jazz Cruise 2012. In the three clips, Pizzarelli discusses his early years, including his first instrument, the first jazz album he loved, the first jazz concerts and his very first paying gig; part two covers his favorites from the Great American Songbook and beyond, his bucket list of artists with whom he’d like to play, and the genesis of the radio show he does with his wife, singer Jessica Molaskey; and finally he discusses the talks about performing on the Jazz Cruise. Interviews by Irene Lee.

—Peter Blasevick

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Charlie Hunter: Living the Music

Feb26
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

More interviews this week from the great AllAboutJazz.com! If you don’t regularly go there—and if you have found this site, I’m sure you do go there—you should…it’s everything you want to know about today’s jazz.

Eight-string guitarist Charlie Hunter has stunned audiences for years with his virtuosic ability to play simultaneous bass and guitar lines, sounding at times more like a Hammond organist than a guitarist. Whether playing in a quartet, quintet, trio, duo or solo format (he’s done plenty of recording and gigging in all these configurations), Hunter’s groove-based jazz/rock hybrid is immediately recognizable, and has produced some classic albums. Here, Hunter is interviewed in 2005 by Paul Olson and spoke about Hunter’s collaborative band Garage à Trois, his experimental Groundtruther collaborations with Bobby Previte, the Charlie Hunter Trio, his take on the jamband scene, his thoughts on comping, his much-vaunted bass/guitar technique, and more.

AAJ: I haven’t spoken about how you use your eight-string guitar to play simultaneous bass and guitar parts because, even though you’re known for that, to me it’s like talking about a tenor player about his horn: it’s just what you do. But I wonder if you’d explain how you do the simultaneous parts; not how you trained your mind and fingers, but what your hands do to play this stuff. Is your right hand doing all the work?

CH: Well, no. It’s too damn complicated; that’s the problem with it. The right hand is kind of the execution hand, rhythmically. If you think about it, there’s all of the rhythmic combinations, the counterpoint between the thumb and the fingers—thumb playing the bass, fingers generally playing the guitar. Tons of that kind of counterpart going on. Then you have the left hand, which is the conception hand, dealing, in any given millisecond throughout the music, with your four fingers having to act as a team. Then you put those two hands together and that creates a third set of combinations between those two hands. So, basically, through experience you just learn millions and millions of these kinds of combinations. The more you learn, the easier it is to get to the music.

Click here to read Charlie Hunter: Living the Music

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John Scofield – Guitarist of Many Talents

Feb20
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

The week of podcast interviews from JazzCorner.com continues! JazzCorner is a portal for the official websites of hundreds of jazz musicians and organizations. There is a ton of great info you can get to from there, so check them out.

Guitarist John Scofield started at the top, playing Carnegie Hall for his first gig in New York – and, he notes wryly in this interview, he hasn’t played there since. Scofield, a master of many guitar styles, also has a wonderful sense of humor. JazzCorner.com producer Reese Erlich caught up with Scofield early in 2012 for a quick seven minute discussion, where John talks about starting his career off with Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker, playing with Miles Davis, and his 2011 album “A Moment’s Peace”.

Click here to listen to John Scofield – Guitarist of Many Talents

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Bill Frisell On Piano Jazz

Feb05
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

I’m posting five great NPR Piano Jazz interviews this week. Though Marian McPartland no longer actively hosts the show (which has been running since the late 1970s), it still airs weekly with encore performances and in an updated version hosted by Jon Weber.

Int today’s interview, guitarist and composer Bill Frisell brings his sparkling, atmospheric sound to this episode of Piano Jazz in a session that originally aired in October 2007.

At one point in the hour long show,  Frisell’s give his solo take on “My Man’s Gone Now,” from George Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess. Frisell picked up this tune when he first began studying jazz seriously by listening to Bill Evans and Miles Davis.

“It’s one of those tunes that stayed with me from the late ’60s when I first heard it, and I’ve been trying to play it all along,” Frisell says.

During the interview, Bill’s performances include:

  • “When You Wish Upon a Star” (Harline, Washington)
  • “My Man’s Gone Now” (Gershwin, Gershwin, Heyward)
  • “All the Things You Are” (Hammerstein, Kern)
  • “He’s the One” (McPartland)
  • “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” (Williams)
  • “Strange Meeting” (Frisell)
  • “Echoes of Yesterday” (McPartland)
  • “Blue Monk” (Monk)

Click here to listen to Bill Frisell On Piano Jazz

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Three 1970s George Benson Interviews

Jan24
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

Today I’m posting three interviews from the 1970s with the legendary guitarist George Benson: “My Present Group” from 1974, and “This Way and That” and “A Personality Thing”, both from 1978. Here from the last of the three interviews is Mr. Benson discussing his awareness of other singers and guitarists:

How would you describe your vocal concept? Are there certain singers whose approach particularly appeals to you?

Once I hear a great singer, I’m very aware of him. I heard Nat “King” Cole when I was a baby, and I never forgot him. I followed him throughout, all the way up until the time of his death, and beyond—I’m still listening at his records, trying to find out what it is about Nat “King” Cole that is so great. It’s a personality thing, though, you know; you can’t be Nat—you can only enjoy him. I don’t think there’s so much of the technical thing that you could really put your finger on. He was a natural singer—though there were some techniques that he used in his lower tones that are very valuable.

There are many great singers—some today—who are using valuable techniques. And I’m aware of them—just like I was of the guitar players. I’m aware of Django Rheinhardt, Charlie Christian, Kenny Burrell, Wes Montgomery, Tal Farlow—all those great players. I mean, because once you hear those guys . . . how could I call myself a player, and not know who the real players are when I hear them? They’re the guys who helped to shape my concept, and to give me the idea on which to base some of my ideas. I’m never afraid to mention another great artist; I’m not trying to show that I’m better than any other player—what I want to do is to be as dedicated to what I’m doing, or to be as real about it, as I think these artists are. Because it takes a certain amount of dedication, and knowledge, and gift to be what they are. And I’m the first guy to go to their concerts when I hear of them being any placeI run and hear them. It’s a great experience, plus I learn something.

Click here to read Three 1970s George Benson Interviews

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John Abercrombie’s Uncut Downbeat Blindfold Test

Jan04
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

For the last day in my week of Ted Panken interviews, here is guitarist John Abercrombie in a Downbeat Blindfold Test from 2001. The Jazz great listens to 15 cuts and makes some pretty astute observations; it does amaze me sometimes how accurate these folks can be on these Blindfold Tests. From the piece, Abercrombie on James Blood Ulmer (who he was stumped on!):

Wow!  This is great.  I don’t know that tune.  I have to get this.  I’ve heard some other stuff by Blood and I liked it.  I have some of this stuff where he was singing that I enjoyed, but I’ll have to get this.  This definitely sounds very hip to me.  Very open.  And it’s kind of funny; that’s why I thought it was Sonny Sharrock, because of some of the similarities.  He sounds to me more harmonic.  I hear more harmonic information in his playing.  It’s cool.  And I think he does sort of play with his thumb a little bit, because it’s got a little bit of that feel.  It’s plucky.  He chokes the notes a little bit, so it… I’ll give this 5 stars.  I still like it. [AFTER] Now that you tell me it was Rashied Ali, it makes total sense, because I played with him once, and he has a great way of playing a sort of open music.  you really feel like they’re playing on a form or something.  It really has a great swing, a pulse to it.  It’s not just free.  I think that’s what makes it work.  That’s what makes everything sound so great.

Click here to read John Abercrombie’s Uncut Downbeat Blindfold Test

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In Conversation with John McLaughlin

Aug17
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

I’ll be posting some great interviews from jazz mega-site jazz.com this week, and today’s is a 2008 interview with the great guitarist John McLaughlin. A couple of excerpts from his talk with Walter Kolosky:

For the past four decades it seems guitarist and composer John McLaughlin has been about forty years ahead of everyone else. He has thrived in a cross-section of musical genres. In fact, his 50-year career has been a case study in how to create new genres.

John spoke to jazz.com from his home in Monaco. We discussed jazz education, John’s sojourn last year in India, his new releases and his future plans. But to begin the conversation I wanted him to talk about something he saw the very first week he came to America.

Click here to read In Conversation with John McLaughlin

 

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Pat Metheny On Piano Jazz

Jul26
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

More Piano Jazz interviews for this week!

Guitarist Pat Metheny is one of the most critically acclaimed jazz musicians of the past 35 years. A tireless sonic explorer whose style incorporates elements of progressive jazz, fusion, Latin, post-bop and New Age music, Metheny has an astonishing 17 Grammy awards and three gold albums. This year, Metheny released Orchestrion, a “solo” album on which Metheny uses his guitar to control an entire mechanical ensemble of orchestral instruments. Metheny has also worked alongside jazz greats such as Herbie Hancock,Charlie Haden, Ornette Coleman, Roy Haynesand Joshua Redman.

On this 2006 Piano Jazz session with Marian McPartland, the Pat Metheny Trio, which includes star bassist Christian McBride and drummer Antonio Sanchez, drops by for a set of Metheny originals and a few Ornette Coleman tunes.

The set list:

  • “Bright Size Life” (Metheny)
  • “So May It Secretly Begin” (Metheny)
  • “Ambiance” (McPartland)
  • “Go Get It” (Metheny)
  • “Question-Answer” (Metheny)
  • “Police People” (Coleman)
  • “Turn Around” (Coleman)

Click here to listen to Pat Metheny on Piano Jazz

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Rare Conversation with John Scofield and Joe Henderson: 9/3/96

Jul06
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

Courtesy of JazzVideoGuy:

“Guitarist John Scofield and Joe Henderson met with Bret Primack for an interview that would become an article for JazzTimes magazine. Bret documented the interview on a Sony High 8 camcorder and the tapes sat in his archives for fifteen years. While transferring some content for another video, Bret discovered the lost interview, found the content quite interesting, and decided to post it here, in its entirety, even though the technical quality is not up to today’s standards.”

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Two interviews with Herb Ellis

Jul05
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

For the fourth installment of Guitar Week at TNYDP, here are two interviews with the great Herb Ellis. Herb played with so many of the greats, but is of course best known for his many years with the Oscar Peterson Trio. Both interviews are from the Hamilton College Library Digital Collection, and are in text and audio format.

Click here to read Herb Ellis 1995

Click here to read Herb Ellis 2000

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