Jazz Festivals » Traditional Jazz

Jazz Guitar Pickups – Putting The Swing On The String

admin2 — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 06:39:55 +0000

Traditional jazz guitar pickups are usually the P90 soap bar type or the humbucker pickup. If you look at the classic jazz guitar, it is a hollow body arch top type with the pickup on the neck.

Some Jazz Guitar Pickup Facts

The electric jazz guitar pickups are of the electromagnetic type. These transmit the vibration in the string to an amplifier. Electric guitars can have both single coil and humbucker pickups. While both work similarly, they sound quite different. Humbuckers use two single coil pickups that are wired together to produce a thick warm sound. Single coils tend to have a lot of electric interference and to avoid this a differential amplifier is used. Different Humbuckers produce different kinds of sounds. The jazz Humbuckers are rich with an even tone to produce the clean sound associated with jazz guitar pickups.

Selecting The Jazz Guitar Pickup

If you look at electric guitars, most of them have two pickups – one near the neck and the other near the bridge. By using the pickup selector switch, you can opt for the appropriate pickup to pick up the string’s vibration and send it to the amplifier. When the pickup selector switch is turned up, the neck or rhythm pickup picks up the string’s sound. When the switch is turned down, the bridge pickup picks up the string’s sound. If the switch is in the middle position, both the pickups pick up the string’s sounds. Usually, the pickup whose proximity is more to the next has a warmer and sweeter sound. The one near the bridge can sound brighter. It is easy to see from this which one jazz players will use – obviously the neck pick up. The bridge pickup is ignored.

To avoid the possibility of notes getting mixed when the player plays fast, today’s jazz guitar pickups are usually the floating type. Some jazz guitars don’t use any pickups. This helps them achieve a clean sound.

Instead of the parallel bracing commonly used, Cross bracing is used to tone down the sound and increase sustain. This results in the jazz guitar’s tone sounding like the traditional steel string acoustic guitar.

Some jazz guitar pickups are embedded in the instrument so that sustain is increased. These show limited acoustic response. Many jazz guitars have the pickup installed on the underside of the ebony finger rest. The finger rest fixes to the side of the guitar’s neck via an aluminum bracket and a couple of screws. The pickup is fixed with epoxy. The large contact surface strengthens the instrument. Large finger rests are not preferred basically because they block the F hole on the right side, and this completely changes the quality of the sound projection.

A common jazz guitar pickup used is the Benedetto S-6 mini humbucker, especially for the arch top design. A highly durable “ebonova” housing protects it. You also get jazz guitar pickups that can be fixed so as to not affect or change the acoustic characteristics of the guitar. Some fix with the help of screws at the neck.

Positioning the jazz guitar pickup in relation to the finger rest is very crucial because the sound is likely to be unclear if the pickup is too close to the strings. Being too far from the strings, on the other hand, can lower the output level drastically.

Jazz guitar pickups are a tricky issue in terms of the effect they can have on the sound output. This results in many jazz guitar players preferring to have theirs custom made. As mentioned earlier, many players even prefer to have no pickups at all.

By: Logan Young

Oscar Peterson – Jazz Pianist Extraordinary

admin — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 09:26:44 +0000

One of the most influential players of jazz that the world has known, Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was born on the 15th of August, 1925 in Little Burgundy, Montreal. His living environment was one imbibed with jazz music since lived in a locality where most of the people were African Americans. When just five years old, he was taught the piano and the trumpet. After being affected with tuberculosis a couple of years later, he dropped the trumpet and turned all his efforts towards the piano.

His main teacher these years, was his self taught father who was a porter working with Canadian Pacific Railways. He taught Oscar and his four brothers all that he garnered while playing the piano when he was in the merchant marine. His sister brought to his attention and taught him classical music.

Since starting to play the piano, Oscar made sure he got his basics right he would faithfully practice his scales and classical etudes daily – a habit which gave him a good grounding in the basics which in his later years contributed to a large part of his mastery over the piano. One of his piano teachers in his early years was Paul De Marky who also like his sister imparted lessons on classical piano playing to Oscar.

He started to catch onto traditional jazz recordings which prompted him to learn many ragtimes and boogie-woogie tunes of his time. This ability of his earned him the tag “The Brown Bomber of the Boogie-Woogie”. By the time he was nine years old, his playing was as mature as any other professional. He spent anywhere between four and six hours every day perfecting himself at the piano – a habit he kept when he was long into his professional career.

When he was 14 years old, he took part in a nation-wide competition organized by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in which he emerged the winner. This marked the beginning of his professional career. His first permanent gig was playing for a once a week show on the radio. He also played at hotels and music halls.

The inspiration for his style of playing came from most of the jazz musicians whom any pianist at the time idolized – Nat King Cole, Teddy Wilson, James P Johnson and Art Tatum. The tables turned later in his career when Art Tatum was compared to him in his later years of success. His first hearing of an Art Tatum piece was when his father played Tiger Rag for him. After hearing it, he almost lost faith in his abilities to play the piano as well as he could. He admitted later that he was intimidated by Art Tatum’s technique and that it made him decide to be humble at his own ability to play. Oscar Peterson ended up becoming good friends with Tatum eventually but he never let go of the awe he was in of the man. He rarely ever played the piano when Tatum was around.

Not only was he mesmerized by Tatum’s music, he also looked up to the pianists that Tatum looked up to as he started playing. His work had a lot of inspiration and note for note picked up sections from some of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s music. His work with his trio -the Oscar Patterson Trio – with Herb Ellis on guitar and Ellis Brown on bass had many such references.

His influences extend toward classical music which he has attributed to his sister Daisy Sweeney. The discipline that it involved was one of the key skills he picked up when he started learning piano from her.

Peterson found a good friend and collaborator in Norman Granz. Granz discovered him when he listening to Peterson playing at a club via a live radio broadcast. He was traveling in a taxi at the time. Upon hearing him play, he asked the driver to take him straight away to the club where Oscar Peterson was playing.

Granz got him a gig at Carnegie Hall as a part of his Jazz at the Philharmonic series. From then on, Granz served as his manager. Granz was behind Peterson in the fight against segregation. He stood in between the trio and a police who was trying to stop them from traveling in “white only” taxis.

Peterson was plagued with health problems throughout his life. He had arthritis to the extent that he could not button his own shirt. He was too heavy for his size which affected his mobility. But physical problems or not, history will certainly record Oscar Peterson as being one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time.

By: Duane Shinn

Chromonica Harmonica – The "Classic" Pop, Jazz Chromatic Harmonica

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:35:07 +0000

The Chromonica is a truly classic model of chromatic harmonica – made by the Hohner Company of Germany, it has been around for several years, and looking at pictures of chromatic harmonica players over the decades past, you can see the Chromonica in the hands of several famous players, such as Stevie Wonder and Toots Thielemans. Most often in these pictures they are playing Hohner’s Super Chromonica, the 12 hole version of the chromonica, model #270.

Stevie Wonder is famous for his pop/funk style of playing the chromatic, a choppy, slurring style that he created and that a lot of players aspire to imitate.

Toots Thielemans style on the other hand is much smoother, a legato jazz style that fits beautifully with traditional jazz accompaniment.

The Chromonica harmonica has a wooden comb, which means that the middle part of the instrument, the basic body of the instrument, is made of wood. Quite often these days, the comb of the harmonica is made of plastic .

There are varying schools of thought about whether it’s better to have a wooden comb or a plastic comb – they definitely have their pluses and minuses. Wood, as you can imagine, reacts to humidity and swells and shrinks accordingly, a little bit. Plastic combs on the other hand don’t have this problem but may not have the beautiful tone that wood has.

However, the Chromonica has been in production for several decades, and is still a really great instrument. It is not Hohner’s “top of the line” anymore, but it is a good reliable instrument that you can get a “classic” sound with, and if taken care of, the Chromonica harmonica can last and be one of your favorite instruments.

The Chromonica comes in various sizes: the 12 hole and the 16 hole models. The 16 hole chromonica has an extra lower octave on the left side of the harmonica, which can be fun, but on the other hand the 12 hole harmonica tends to fit in your hands much better, is lighter, and is easier to hold cupped to a microphone if that is the way you play.

Chromatic harmonicas are designed to play every complete scale in any key — major, minor, pentatonic, blues, etc. — all on one instrument. Nevertheless, they can be bought in various keys – the most common by far is the key of C.

A chromatic harmonica theoretically can play in any key because it has as part of its mechanism the ability to play all 12 notes of the “Western” (standard do-re-mi) scale, so that by using the button slide on the side of the chromonica you can build your various scales. But as you can imagine, the various keys start in various places on the scale of western music, such as G typically starting lower than the C scale harmonica.

The c scale-tuned harmonica is midrange, and also is very easy to understand music theory-wise, so that if you were using the chromatic harmonica (a Chromonica in this case) to build scales for whatever song you are playing, it is easy to start with the basic “blank slate” (no sharps or flats) of the key of C harmonica, and build it up from there.

An example of this would be if you were playing a key of C Chromonica in the key of D, then you would use the button slide to give you the C sharp and the F sharp in the scale of the key of D to play your C chromonica in the key of D.

In summary, Hohner’s Chromonica harmonica is a classic chromatic harmonica that has quite a lot of history behind it, has a beautiful tone, and is reliable. It is a midrange model Hohner harmonica and is a great place to start playing the chromatic harmonica.

By: Matthew Shelton

Jazz Guitars – 5 Guitars for a great Jazz Tone

admin — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 14:17:22 +0000

As a musical genre traditional Jazz requires a fairly specific Guitar sound – generally this has involved a very clean dry tone – with little to no effects (perhaps only a hint of reverb) – usually the neck pickup is used with the resultant sound required to be clear enough to pickup the subtle nuances and articulation of the playing.

Jazz Guitarists therefore need to carefully consider their Guitar when setting out – luckily Jazz has been around for many years and there is a wide selection of instruments available. Traditionally Jazz Guitars are hollow body semi acoustics (though not always) and these have tended to favor P90 or Humbucker style pickups to produce the required sound – as stated there are many guitars on the market today – but here we list 5 classic Jazz guitars that helped shape the scene.

1 Gibson ES150

Made famous to the jazz community by Charlie Christian the ES 150 became his guitar. The ES150 became one of the world’s first commercially available electric guitars. With its single coil pickup fitted at the neck and its acoustic shaped body with f holes – the 150 has that sweet warm jazz tone that became a world favorite.

2 Gibson L5

Another of Gibson’s Jazz power trio (the others are the ES150 and the ES175) – the L5 features a large resonant body. With a history that goes back nearly 90 years the L5 has changed a little over this time and has featured different pickups (from P90’s to Humbuckers). As the prestige rhythm guitar it has been played by a variety of greats including Wes Montgomery.

3 Gibson ES-175

With it’s stylish Florentine single cutaway – the ES175 represented a departure for Gibson from their usual design – Debuting in 1949 – the 175 has been associated with a variety of Jazz greats from Herb Ellis to Pat Metheny.

4 Gretsch Country Gentleman/Nashville

While Gretsch are not considered jazz guitars per se – both the Country Gent and the Nashville are able to produce both versatile and authentic jazz tones. Both guitars offer a range of controls for adapting the tone of the guitar and can produce some versatile jazzy results – whilst the FiterTron pickups produce something that’s unlike it’s Gibson counterparts.

5 Fender Telecaster

With it’s sweet and mellow neck pickup tone the telecaster offers something a little different that the usual Jazz fare – Traditionally a country guitar the telecaster has been featured with Jazz artists including Ed Bickert and Mike Stern.

By: Adrian Martin

Play Jazz Now

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:01:49 +0000

Getting that jazz sound can be a complex process. It is impossible to say who have the greatest jazz tone and sound as we are all different and are subjective in our listening. What I’m about to share with you acts as a general guide in the area of getting that jazz tone and should be improvise upon should you feel like it.

The Guitar

For an authentic jazz tone, you should have a semi-acoustic hollow body electric guitar. The Gibson ES-175 or the Gretch Tennessean can run into thousands of dollars but there are also excellent entry models such as Ibanez Artcore line of guitars. Guitars by Yamaha or Guild also make great entry level semi-acoustics. Epiphone, owned by Gibson are designed for the aspiring musician to own a Gibson but lack the budget to do so. What you get is a fantastic sounding guitar made by Gibson but at a much much lower price. Look for a guitar which provides a clean tone with plenty of sustain.

Jazz guitar players often plays with a rich mellow tone that is suitable for the style. Roll off the treble on your guitar’s controls to achieve that.

A Jazz Guitar Amplifier

The playing style and sound that you wish to attain will determine the amp you need. Very often, traditional jazz guitar players uses solid state amps that can produce a clean sound which compliment acoustic arch-top guitars. For others seeking a more distorted sound, a tube amp might be just what you are looking for. Many jazz guitarists use a Fender Pro or a Polytone. On board effects maybe another requirement you are looking for. This can range from a overdrive channel to a reverb channel.

Effect Pedals

A hint of reverb is all you need if you are one who does not want to meddle with effects. However, many modern jazz guitar players today includes an arsenal of effect pedals in their effects chain ranging from chorus, overdrive, distortion and even wah-wah pedal. A word of advice. When using effects, ensure they compliment your playing style and that you retain that “clarity” in your tone. Many guitar players often make the mistake of cluttering their guitar tone with too many effects which results in a poor quality muddy sound.

In summary, listen, listen, listen. Listen to recordings by all the jazz guitarists. Listen closely to their sounds and try to emulate them. When done enough, you’ll be able to find that unique tone in your guitar sound which you have crafted. Congratulations! You have found your very own signature sound!

By: Andy Ng

What Are The Best Jazz Guitars?

admin — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:15:30 +0000

In finding the best jazz guitars, it is important to look at some of the historical icons in the genre. The tone of any jazz instrument is of the utmost significance. Many famous jazz guitarists have developed signature sounds that have come to be viewed as standards in jazz music.

By looking at players who made a distinct mark on jazz with their signature tones and techniques, you can discover the reasons behind their choice of guitar, and this might influence your decision.

Charlie Christian

Charlie Christian was the first musician to make a name for the electric guitar in jazz. His work was so pivotal that jazz enthusiasts often talk about jazz “before Charlie Christian” and jazz “after Charlie Christian.” He played a critical role in developing the type of jazz known as bebop. Guitar legends like B.B. King and Eric Clapton followed in his footsteps and learned their craft from the efforts of Charlie Christian.

Charlie Christian was an arch-top man. He is the reason that the Gibson ES150 is such a legendary instrument. The arch-top guitar became a standard piece of equipment in jazz music. It features a hollow, resonant body, and f-holes. They are designed to produce a clear voice with little sustain that is free of distortion or feedback. If you want to focus on maintaining a traditional jazz sound, then an arch-top guitar is definitely the way to go.

Les Paul

Les Paul was not only a jazz guitarist, but he was an innovator who actually made some of the best jazz guitars. The solid body electric guitar appeared in the jazz world, much due to the efforts of Les Paul. These instruments got rid of the two things that no jazz guitarist wants – feedback and lack of sustain. Solid body electrics play an important role in jazz, and one of the most notable instruments is the Gibson Les Paul guitar. Many more affordable imitations of this instrument are also popular choices for jazz guitarists, like ESP and Heritage guitars.

Django Reinhardt

Django Reinhardt revolutionized the world of jazz. He was an acoustic guitar man, and he played a flat-top acoustic guitar made by Selmer, which was capable of resonating above the large bands in Europe. The instrument is commonly known as a Maccaferri, which happened to be the last name of the creator. While Selmer is not necessarily a leader in the guitar world (only about 1,000 of this particular model were manufactured), other companies have created successful models that are similar to Django Reinhardt’s instrument. Typical acoustic guitars that are commonly found in jazz music include Gallato and Dell’Arte models.

The best jazz guitars are designed with the functionality of the music in mind. Jazz should not be distorted or heavy, and the guitar does not typically play a role that requires a great deal of sustain. Arch-top, solid body electric, and flat-top acoustics can all accommodate the needs of the genre, and the best instruments are the ones that have stood the test of time, yet still come out on top!

By: David Smithe

10 Top Jazz Guitarists

admin — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:47:04 +0000

Some of the most influential and innovative guitarists have emerged from the world of Jazz – often with breathtakingly fast technique and intricate phrasing – Jazz maestro’s can match anything that rock and roll can produce – indeed the Jazz genre has been popular for almost 100 years and from trad jazz to new world fusion pioneers they are a diverse breed producing a wide spectrum of sound.

So what makes a great Jazz guitarist? Flamboyance – technique and a dash of magic – our top 10 list features guitarists who have their own unique styles and sound – often mimicked but never matched. Want to get into Jazz guitar? Well check out these ten great players.

1. Joe Pass

With a career that spanned 50 years, including time spent with Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie and Herb Ellis – Pass became renowned for his solo style that utilized complex finger picking technique coupled with a deft left hand phrasing. With an Epiphone signature guitar released in his honor – Pass is a true great

2. Pat Metheny

Part of the modern Jazz set – Metheny is a real innovator on guitar – mixing a broad palette of musical influences from rock to folk, orchestral and traditional Jazz. Hard to pin down with a specific technique but with influences from Joe Pass to Wes Montgomery he’s has a career that spans 30 years and remains highly regarded.

3. Les Paul

One of histories most important guitarists. Central in the development of the modern guitar and recording techniques. It was however as a Jazz Guitarist that he became famous – with a fast fluid style reminiscent of the great Django Reinheardt but with a distinctive country twang he’s blazed a trail throughout his career – the fact that Les Paul still played to audiences in his 90’s is testament to how important this man is.

4. Wes Montgomery

Montgomery played with a distinctive style – discarding the use of a pick he played with mostly with his thumb resting his fingers on the guitar’s body. With intricate phrasing including use of Octaves – Montgomery sound is easily distinguishable – despite a career that was cut short at the tender age of 43 – Montgomery still had time to record a string of hit Jazz albums and influence a wealth or artists.

5. Charlie Christian

Hugely influencial in the Jazz genre and one of first mainstream Electric Guitarists but with a frustratingly brief career (dying at the age of 25) – renowned for his playing with the Benny Goodman orchestra in the 30’s and 40’s

6. John Mclaughlin

Incredible Jazz Fusion artist – part of the Mahavishnu Orchestra fusion group in the 70’s. With a blinding fast technique and influenced by world music sound – McLaughlin is a unique voice in the world of Jazz.

7. Herb Ellis

Reaching the Jazz audience with his stint with the Oscar Peterson trio in the ‘50’s Ellis has continued to record and play with a range of artists – with a fast – fluid but still melodic style – Ellis has a distinctive voice in the world of jazz guitar and inspiring tecfhnique.

8. Charlie Byrd

Grammy award winning and with a career that spanned 40 years – classically trained Byrd was heavily influenced by the South American bossa nova sound made his name playing with Stan Getz during the 1960’s -

9. Kenny Burrell

With a style that marries a soulful technique with a love of bebop, Burrell has played with a bucket load of greats including Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz and Benny Goodman – with a treasure of over 40 albums and career spanning over 50 years Burrell is a true Jazz master

10. Django Reinhardt

No list of Jazz guitarists would be complete without mentioning Django – with a Gypsy upbringing and musical influence he had a fascinating technique which involved picking close to the bridge and one string solo’s – influenced by few but influencing many – he remains perhaps the most important Jazz Guitarist of all time.

By: Adrian Martin

Finding A Good Amp For Playing Jazz Guitar

admin — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:15:58 +0000

Jazz guitar talk is generally focused around one thing – sound. The tone of your instrument will play a huge role in the sound that you achieve. If you are engaging in live performances, and jam sessions, no doubt you will be using an amplifier too. Finding a good amp for playing jazz guitar is just as important as finding a good guitar. Let us avoid discussing which amps are “better” than others, and get down to the important issues you need to focus on when you are looking for a good amp for playing jazz guitar.

Traditional Jazz

Players who are concentrating on developing a traditional jazz sound are going to be looking for just one thing in a guitar amp – a clean sound. If you want a traditional, clean jazz sound, then you will commonly gravitate toward a solid state amp or a tube amp. Solid state amps are easier to care for than tube amps, they are less prone to damage and most importantly they deliver clean, distortion free sounds on a regular basis. This is what makes them extremely popular among jazz guitarists. The biggest complaint about solid state amps is that they tend to sound “flat” and elicit little life from the tone of the instrument. Tube amps, on the other hand, are believed to deliver a much warmer tone, and some players insist that their sound is more alive when they use a tube amp. Unfortunately, tube amps are prone to distortion, typically something traditional jazz guitarists want to avoid at all costs. Despite their expensive maintenance bills and extreme weight on the move, tube amps are exceptionally popular, for those who favor the clean, traditional sounds of jazz as well.

Contemporary & Modern Jazz

For the more modern and contemporary jazz guitarist, a good amp may come in many shapes, sizes and forms. Players who are looking for a more mixed up and funky modern vibe in their sound will regularly employ effects and alterations. They might be more inclined to own and perform on a solid body electric, and may gravitate toward amps with more bells and whistles. Digital amps are increasingly popular for modern jazz. Modern jazz guitarists may also be dabbling in other genres, and digital amps are extremely effective in other arenas of music as well, thus it is a very practical choice. These players are going to want a lot of on-board effects at their fingertips, and a digital amp provides just that.

Industry Standards

Within the world of jazz, there are several amps that have emerged as industry standards. This includes the Fender Pro, often heralded as a good amp for playing jazz guitar due to its extremely clean sounds and lack of distortion.

It is unfortunate that manufacturers do not produce amps that are labeled “jazz guitar amps”. This means you will need to spend a lot of time listening to others, and trying out amps in order to find your own signature sound.

By: David Smithe