Why we don't have more jazz player members

dreadnut

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You make a good point - I play a lot of different styles, but not jazz. Seems likes it's a totally different animal, at least all the chords are different.

I like to listen to jazz; I just don't play it. If I did, I would probably play bass.
 

fronobulax

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I suspect if you make a list of music genres that used guitar, and ordered them by popularity (as evidenced by the number of players) jazz would not rank high. I would also guess that LTG membership would show a similar distribution.

However, I am amused at the idea that jazzers don't hang out at LTG because there are so many good Guillds for jazz and they can't afford them all.
 

Nuuska

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However, I am amused at the idea that jazzers don't hang out at LTG because there are so many good Guillds for jazz and they can't afford them all.


It could be because them "rockers etc" know 3 chords and play for 5000 people and them "jazzers" know 5000 chords etc
 

Antney

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I don’t play or listen to jazz. I prefer music where all the musicians are playing the same song at the same time
 

adorshki

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I suspect if you make a list of music genres that used guitar, and ordered them by popularity (as evidenced by the number of players) jazz would not rank high. I would also guess that LTG membership would show a similar distribution.

However, I am amused at the idea that jazzers don't hang out at LTG because there are so many good Guillds for jazz and they can't afford them all.
And some of the pics over there were enough to give me GAS....
guild1um5.jpg

It could be because them "rockers etc" know 3 chords and play for 5000 people and them "jazzers" know 5000 chords etc

LOL!
SO, was watching "The BlackBoard Jungle" last night, 1955, and noted a wonderful tune playing in the background of one scene.
A check on IMDB reveals it wasn't just the early Wrecking Crew doing another soundtrack, but:

"When having a drink in the bar with Dadier, Joshua Edwards refers to "Stan the man", who is big band leader Stan Kenton. The song they're listening to on the jukebox is "Invention for Guitar and Trumpet" featuring Sal Salvador and Maynard Ferguson from Kenton's 1953 album "New Concepts of Artistry in Rhythm".

Another one from the '50's that sticks in my memory is Sinatra's "The Man With The Golden Arm", wonderful soundtrack, but all "horns", of course (as I remember it).
That one did have some of the "first-call studio musicians" in Hollywood, later to be known as "the Wrecking Crew":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_with_the_Golden_Arm#Musical_score_and_soundtrack
Anyway, point was, some great stuff coming out of Hollywood in the mid-'50's with magnificent audio, too.
:friendly_wink:
 

F312

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I'll watch the oldies one more time, please.

Ralph
 

Quantum Strummer

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If I rated songs by the number of different recorded versions of 'em I've got, The Look Of Love (6, by 6 different artists, on my digital gizmos) would be my favorite. It's not actually my fav but it is IMO a great song.

I like jazz, and I really like jazz-influenced pop and rock & roll. I'm sure this goes back to my mom's love of jazz singers, and from there to Steely Dan via Stevie Wonder's first Meisterwerke, Superwoman/Where Were You When I Needed You. You wanna learn some basic jazzy chords? Learn how to play Superwoman. Then I discovered Miles Davis, Coltrane…and off I went. :)

-Dave-
 
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JF-30

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Jazz is hard, plus 3 chords is rock and 4 is Jazz.
 

Rich Cohen

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I have moved into jazz of late and have successfully adapted some of my blues songs to jazzified style. Plus as you can see from my signature, I am crazy into archtops, perfect for jazz, plus a fantastic amp which also can serve as a Fender Princeton sounding amp. Anyway, my opinion is that to expand your genres of music is simply leads to more enjoyment. BTW, I am offering my 1966 Guild Artist Award in very good condition.
Rich
 

walrus

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I've been on that site before, it's a good and informative site for jazz guitarists. I'm not a jazz guitarist, although I do know a few jazz tunes on guitar. My knowledge of jazz chords, jazz theory, etc. is extremely limited. But I know what I like!

I love John McLaughlin (jazz fusion and more), love Andy Summers (several solo albums of jazz guitar). And really, a lot of the songs on Harvey Mandels' solo records could be considered "jazz", same with Jimmy Herring. And, of course, there are other "rock" guitarists that could be mentioned.

I enjoy listening to it, and love to play around with soloing in a jazz style, etc. I would say it has clearly expanded my musical horizons to listen to and occasionally play jazz stuff on guitar.

I should add that I played in a little R&B/Jazz combo at the college where I work for 10 years. Made up of faculty, staff and students, although never more than 5 or 6 people. They stopped supporting it about 6 years ago. Really improved my playing, although I still lack much theory, it was a blast! The band was led by a professional musician and music teacher basically giving lessons to anyone in the band in exchange for using the college's space and some equipment for his Jazz School where he had many students of all ages from the local area. We played a show each semester, etc. Really fun, and definitively got me into jazz guitar more than I would have been otherwise.

walrus
 
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F312

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I have moved into jazz of late and have successfully adapted some of my blues songs to jazzified style. Plus as you can see from my signature, I am crazy into archtops, perfect for jazz, plus a fantastic amp which also can serve as a Fender Princeton sounding amp. Anyway, my opinion is that to expand your genres of music is simply leads to more enjoyment. BTW, I am offering my 1966 Guild Artist Award in very good condition.
Rich

I accept your offering, with open arms.

Ralph
 

dreadnut

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Of course, there's the old joke that "if you play a wrong chord it's a mistake, if you play it twice, it's jazz."

Actually, I really like listening to a jazz band, seems to me everything is improviational, I can't imagine those songs are actually written down in notation...I hear "This is Thelonius Monk's version of so and so" but I wonder if it's actually notated. However, I have been known to be wrong once or maybe twice.
 

adorshki

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Of course, there's the old joke that "if you play a wrong chord it's a mistake, if you play it twice, it's jazz."

Actually, I really like listening to a jazz band, seems to me everything is improviational, I can't imagine those songs are actually written down in notation...I hear "This is Thelonius Monk's version of so and so" but I wonder if it's actually notated. However, I have been known to be wrong once or maybe twice.

Depends on what and when, there's many styles of jazz.
Monk solo on piano may well have been doing an interpretation by ear while still following the changes to the tune in whatever key he happened to be in the mood for, and tossing in his improvs, but in general, the larger the band the greater the need for charts of greater or looser tightness or the result would have been sheer cacophony.
Classic example:
"Take Five"
Absolutely Brubeck charted out the basic chords and melody, but Paul Horn was allowed to improvise freely in his assigned set of bars.
The magic is in how well a guy can play around with the scale/melody formula and still evoke the theme and telegraph that he's winding up for the return to it.
Another: Benny Goodman's "Sing Sing Sing"
You can bet Goodman gave each player a chart just to be able to learn the tune with.
That's where it gets complex and necessary, writing out charts so that each of 3 horns actually plays a different part but when they're playing together correctly they're actually playing chords.
And then you've got to decide which parts are right for which horns: trombones; alto/tenor and even soprano saxes; trumpets; let's not forget Goodman's own woodwind clarinet...
"Take the A Train" 's another great example of that.
Also the Mingus Big Band "Haitian Fight Song" (itself, er, "borrowed" in almost complete form by Hendrix at Woodstock as "Jam Back at the House" IIRC)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPfSD0vJi8Y
That one's probably a little closer to what you were thinking of in more modern settings, so take a look at this:
https://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmus...MIwoSX1qm45AIVD9tkCh2WWwxvEAQYASABEgLvN_D_BwE
and the bass chart:
https://cdn3.virtualsheetmusic.com/images/first_pages/HL/HL-257779First_BIG.png
At the other extreme was Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, revolutionary at the time for his concept of basing a whole take around a theme and maybe 2-3 chords while the soloing was modal instead of based on a fixed melody in the traditional major or minor or whatever scales.
That's where Coltrane came from when he recorded A Love Supreme.
So even the "free jazz" had (has) structure based on a given set of modes or scales and yeah a lot of that is 100% uncharted improvisation , but even there I suspect there were at least some notes given out to the players for orientation, help 'em figure out what the common thread is.
Dixieland is also notorious for sounding like twenty guys all playing something different, but if you take a classic like "Saints Go Marching In", you can hear there's usually 2 or 3 (or more) playing the refrain while a couple of other guys play embellishments, and the various guys trade off carrying the parts so everybody gets a chance to "cut".
It's the counterpointing and syncopation that make it sound like everybody's off on their own, but when they're inside the band looking out, they know if a guy's off his mark or flubbing his scales.
Final example:
Zappa.
NOTORIOUS for charting everything out.
And guaranteed "Big Swifty" on Waka Jawaka is.
One of my top 3 favorite Zappa cuts pure instrumental big band jazz.
:friendly_wink:
 
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guitarslinger

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Rock guys say I'm a blueser, blues guys say I'm a jazzer, jazz guys say "one more time around".

Anytime you try to take it up a notch in musical sophistication someone will try to put a label on you.

Buy guitars, make music.
 
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bobouz

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I don't play jazz, but there are some forms of jazz that I listen to frequently - including the Swing Jazz of Reinhardt & Grappelli, and the small-group recordings of Benny Goodman with Charlie Christian.

Saw Miles Davis live once, and he played the most god-awfully boring refrain over & over & over & over again. To this day, it's a PTSD moment that sadly cannot be purged!
 
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