Dedicated to jazz music performed (mainly) on archtop guitars.
Nicolai Foss
The rather trivial 1895 murder of William Lyons by Lee Shelton must have been covered in several hundred, slightly different, songs about “Stagger Lee”, “Stack-O-Lee”, “Stagolee”, etc., from Missisipi John Hurt to The Clash. I only realized today that jazz guitar pioneer Eddie Lang had participated in a 1928 recording of the song with Cliff Edwards (of Disney fame) singing. Note Eddie’s strange “slap-guitar” plucking, starting around 0.13.
Nicolai Foss
Here is a fun and informative page on National guitars. To be sure, the Nationals, Dobros, etc. have mainly been popular among blues players. Yet, there is a distant archtop connection, for like the archtop guitar, the National is a product of the 1920s jazz craze and the attempt to compete with banjo players, including trying to combine the loudness of the banjo with the richer melodic and harmonic possibilities offered by the guitar. And of course the incomparable Oscar Aleman played a National.
Nicolai Foss
Here is the link to the official site for the recent Unstrung movie on Pat Martino’s amazing musical recovery from a brain operation that essentially totally erased all of his musical and artistic knowledge. I am definitely going to order this, not just because I am an admirer of Martino’s playing, but also because the movie interestingly explores the broader implications for cognitive science of the Martino case.
Nicolai Foss
Mary Osborne was IMHO one of the major guitarists coming directly out of the Christian bag. Her style was direct, hardswinging and muscular (one hesitates to say “macho”). Unfortunately, there is precious little available on CD or on the internet. A compilation CD was isued back in 1993, a year after her death, but is rather pricey.
Here is a YouTube clip with Mary playing “I Love Paris” and “These Foolish Things” from the A Girl and Her Guitar 1959 session. Her playing on the former is twangy (as befits someone playing the Gretsch White Falcon), and an interesting contrast to Tommy Flanagan’s delicate piano playing. To repeat: We want more Mary!
Nicolai Foss
This was aired June 4, 1995, shortly after Raney’s death. Features excepts from an interview with Jim Hall, as well as interesting info that was new to me, such as the fact that Raney tried his hand at painting and knew some of the leading modernist painters, e.g., Mark Rothko. HT to Jon Raney.
Nicolai Foss
I am not sure who created this silly list. Check it out to see such great revelations as Tiny Grimes ranking higher than Howard Alden, or Al di Meola beating Barney Kessel big time.
Nicolai Foss
Billy Bean was one of the greatest late-1950s beboppers (which is saying a lot!). Various rumours have circulated about his life over the last 4+ decades and the reasons why he seems to have languished in obscurity. I actually wasn’t sure whether Bean was still alive. However, it turns out that he has a MySpace profile, apparently maintained by a friend. He is shown on a few, clearly recent, pics with an early ES-175.
Nicolai Foss
Pat Martino’s current European and North-African tour took him to Copenhagen yesterday. His trio with Tony Monaco on Hammond B3 and Louis Tsamous on drums opened the show on 8.05 pm on the small stage of the Jazzhouse with a blasting rendition of Wes Montgomery’s “Four on Six.” The show was a one-set, appr. 100 mins. thing which also included “Round Midnight”, “Road Song” and other standards. It was a high-energy, ultra-virtuosic affair and a marvelous display of classic hardbop playing. The energetic Monaco was a perfect match for Martino, the latter playing with a(n even) harder and more direct attack than on his records.
Pat, playing his Gibson signature model through a huge Marshall amplifier, didn’t talk much, but recounted an anecdote of how he, at the age of around 18 had played a gig with Les Paul in New York, after which he taken Les Paul to Count Basie’s where Wes Montgomery was playing with Mel Rhyne and Jimmy Cobb. Martino left Paul, who was mesmerized by Montgomery’s playing, for another job, and upon returning found Montgomery still playing, but now joined by Grant Green, George Benson and Paul. After the playing they all went to a diner and “talked guitar for the rest of the night”. I sure would have liked to have been the proverbial fly on the wall that night.
Nicolai Foss
As I have indicated in a number of posts I think the recession is visible in the archtop market: The supply is above-normal, and prices are clearly going down. Richard Autenzio offers the following interesting reflections on this theme:
In response to “Is the Recession hitting the Archtop market” I personally don’t know yet in relation to my business as it is too new. However, it might be intresting to know that in Australia the Archtop market is not big and it is getting harder and harder to find them in the shops. I feel that the new Archtop guitar market is not going well and the shops knowing this are not renewing their stock after a sale. One problem with the new archtop market is that there is an enormous choice for such a small but definate market. This makes it difficult for many shops selling new guitars to stock a big range of new Archtops as they are not a fast turn over product, like a Strat or Les paul. If the recession is affecting the new market sales I can see many of these newer guitars soon being discontinued. I think brands like the Eastman’s must be affecting the Gibson and others new sales, even though I am not that impressed by these cheaper carved tops but I know many are. The interesting thing about the rush on the latest carved Chinese Arch top guitars, is that it really should not matter if a guitar has a carved top or a laminated top, or even a pressed solid top as long as it sound right to you acoustically. On the other hand those that care more about the electrified sound of their new Archtop guitar could find that a carved top may be detrimental to what hey were trying to achieve with their electrified sound. Anyway, realistically I feel what ever the effect the recession makes on the guitar industry the Archtop market will feel the same. It would not be the first time the archtop guitar market has declined but it has always come back bigger and better because it has a much longer history behind it than the electrified slab.
Nicolai Foss
Here. Apparently from 1939. I love that tailpiece. Will be interesting to see what it ends up fetching.
