More Barney

Nicolai Foss

Here is an interview with Les Tomkins that Barney gave in 1969. Barney on Hendrix:

“Do you think the people who have played guitar in more outlandish ways have aided the instrument?

Not at all. No, they haven’t really done anything for the guitar or music. Like, someone once asked me: “What did you think of Jimi Hendrix?” First of all, I don’t discuss guitar players. I don’t think it’s ethical; it’s like asking a jazz critic about another jazz critic. I’d rather not. But it didn’t even have to be Jimi Hendrix it could be anyone. The fact that any man would go out on the stage and set fire to his guitar, or urinate on his guitar there’s nothing in there that makes me admire it; there’s nothing admirable about that. So I can’t get past that to examine the ‘genius’; if that’s my own hang—up, then it is if I’m limited in my outlook. I can’t get past the disrespect shown the instrument, and I can’t imagine someone having enough genius to justify that”.

Memories of Barney Kessel and More

Nicolai Foss

Jerry Pippin has established a memorial page for Barney. Very nice. Some interesting interviews and songs.

Julie Is Her Name

Nicolai Foss

I just received my copy of Julie Is Her Name from Amazon. The Julie in question is Julie London (real name: Gayle Peck; 1926 - 2000). She was quite big in particularly the 1950s, and making Billboard Most Popular Female Vocalist in 1955, 1956, and 1957. London’s career was no doubt much helped by her very good looks — according to The Independent she was “the most tasteful sex symbol of the time” — but she did have a real unique intimate lounge-style smoky voice.

That voice is heard very effectively on Julie is Her Name. This is Julie, Barney and a bass player, Ray Leatherwoord, covering a series of standards (Julie’s version of “Cry Me a River” was a hit in 1955, was used in The Girl Can’t Help It and has recently been featured in V for Vendetta).

Barney’s accompaniment is just expert. He doesn’t solo, just comps and provides intros. Brent Stuntzner has taken the trouble of transcribing Barney’s chord work (here).

Barney the Hardbopper

Nicolai Foss

In my post below on hardbop I listed Grant Green, Kenny Burrell, Wes Montgomery and George Benson as the quintessential hardbop guitarists. I am certainly not the first one to do so; this is pretty much conventional wisdom. However, I forgot one: Barney Kessel!

To claim that Barney belongs to the hardbopping crowd surely is not conventional wisdom; he is usually thought of (correctly) as an early bebopper. In fact, he (along with Herb Ellis) has sometimes been talked about as somebody who is somehow in between swing and bebop, supposedly meaning that he never fully absorbed the bebop language (which I think is wrong).

Specifically, the claim here is that some of Kessel’s 1960s albums lie clearly within the hardbop approach. The first indication of the style in his playing may be the last of the Pollwinners’ abums, Exploring the Scene, where his playing on, e.g., Ray Bryant’s “Little Susie” is so bluesy and hard-driving that Bobby Timmons or Lee Morgan seem like softies in comparison. His 1961 album, “Workin’ Out” (even the title sounds hard-boppish) also exemplifies the approach with even more earthy and bluesy performances.

In general, there was a more stomping, funky and harder dimension to Kessel’s playing in the 1960s than to his 1950s playing. While it is tempting to attribute this to the influence of rock (and Kessel’s studio work), it may well be that was primarily a matter of the influence from the hard bop movement.