Jazz Festivals » Wes Montgomery

Jazz Guitar Players – Immortalized By Their Musical Style

admin2 — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:28:13 +0000

Jazz guitar players are distinguished by their ability to improvise and each one has a unique style of their own. While there is no specific rule for improvisation, there are some great jazz guitar players who develop a pattern and technique, which sets them apart and makes them immortal in the world of music.

Different Styles Jazz Guitar Players Use

Some famous jazz guitar players develop the style of focusing on a few specific ideas when they play a solo. They tend to modify these with various techniques and rhythms – and this performance gives their audience the sense that they are experiencing something amazing. What’s more, it is possible for the audience to join in and sing with the song, making it a totally enjoyable experience. Every fan of Wes Montgomery will testify to this, as practically all his solos are wonderful to sing along with.

There are jazz guitar players like Holdsworth, Pat Metheny, etc. who follow a particular pattern where they focus on an intricate harmony, underplaying the rhythm part. You will find that it is not as easy to join in vocally with these kinds of solo players; nevertheless, these players are masters in terms of technique and hold their audiences enthralled with their music.

Another type is the kind of player with whom you can sometimes sing along, and sometimes not, depending on what he or she is playing. These players put in some work before their performance and time them with accuracy. When they play, they sound extremely practiced since it is like a preplanned performance flowing through a familiar chord progression. If you listen to Robert Conti, Pat Martino, etc. you will recognize the style.

Here is an inspiring look at ten of the most well-known and well-loved jazz guitar players who have inspired millions of aspiring guitarists through their most famous works:

Pat Metheny, best known for American Garage in 1999 has a very unique style with a blend of the Midwestern blues. He puts a lot of attitude and freedom into his jazz guitar playing, making him stand out. Jim Hall has the distinction of being a composer and a jazz guitar player who saw no limits. His “Concierto”, in 1997 was a masterpiece of his tonal abilities. Joe Pass’s work “Virtuoso” put him among the world’s best. He has a sense of melody and improvisation that is unmatched – so much so, he can play alone and yet sound like a band. Kenny Burrell, a Detroit player, has been a source of influence for players through the generations with his outstanding lyrics and blues-style. Wes Montgomery hailed from Indianapolis. But jazz music fans all over the world know him for his “Incredible Jazz Guitar”. He was so creative that he set a whole new trend to jazz guitar music with his techniques. Tal Farlow was an expert with his solos incorporating hard bop into them. Johnny Smith’s Moonlight in Vermont will be fresh in any jazz music fan’s memory forever. He was a master of chord arrangement with his jazz guitar playing, blending it with superb technique and artistry. Charlie Christian was a member of the Benny Goodman Sextet. He has the distinction of being among the first to use amplifiers and his modern jazz playing influences every jazz guitar player in some way or the other. Eddie Lang of the ‘Yazoo” fame is the incredible jazz guitar player who performed the solo recording “Feeling My Way”. He was the first Jazz guitar Virtuoso. Django Reinhardt, a European is famous for his gypsy jazz music, giving the jazz guitar fresh new sounds. His deformed left hand did not stop him from carving a unique place for himself in jazz music history with his fantastic control over techniques.

What the above proves is that each jazz guitar player is distinctive, no matter what ’style’ they are typecast into.

By: Brian Trainer

How To Play Jazz Guitar – Become a Smooth Jazz Guitarist

admin2 — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:44:22 +0000

Jazz is an excellent language of communication for discerning guitarists. Jazz guitar has its own unique style and form of guitar playing. It is also a very popular form of music that you can play. Then if you let your creativity take over you can even create your own jazz licks. You can definitely emulate the likes of Joe Pass, Charlie Christian, George Benson, Wes Montgomery and many other great guitarists if you devote yourself seriously into practicing and learning jazz guitar. You can get paid lessons or you can even learn jazz guitar online. All you need is a guitar and determination!

First Thing First

The first step on the way to learning jazz guitar is that you should have a good jazz guitar. Although if you have opted to take guitar instructions from a music school which may have guitars for their students, learning to play jazz guitar is a demanding discipline and to be proficient, you need to be practicing at home also. One important point in getting a guitar for yourself is that instead of shopping for a cheap jazz guitar, you should buy a guitar, which has good sound characteristics, has excellent aesthetics and is durable. It is always advisable to buy guitars from reputed guitar manufacturers. They may not come cheap, but they are worth the money you pay for them.

Jazz Guitar Lessons

You can explore many avenues if you wish to learn how to play jazz guitar. You can learn jazz guitar online, as there are many websites that have free online jazz guitar lessons. You can opt for an electric guitar or learn acoustic jazz guitar. There are also many people who are willing to give guitar lessons to ardent students free. You can explore your locality to see if you have some guitar enthusiast who can teach you the basics of jazz guitar.

Learn Jazz Guitar Online

The goodness about online jazz guitar lessons is that they are accessible to you 24/7. You can have access to them at all times, night or day. There are many good online jazz guitar instruction sites where you will learn the basics of jazz guitar, basic and advanced chord construction theory, guitar licks and riffs. Although online guitar lessons should not be a substitute for one-to-one guitar instructions, if you can access to a good jazz guitar instructor, they are excellent for people who are short of time and money.

By: Max Cane

How to Use Jazz Patterns and Still Sound Original

admin2 — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 07:26:40 +0000

So…back again to the old dilemma. Do I have to learn licks or make them on the spot? I just want to be myself… I don’t want to sound like anybody else… sounds familiar?

Well, I was there, years ago in my late teens, when my guitar teacher wanted me to transcribe Wes Montgomery’s solos and learn them by heart. I just wanted to sound fresh, original… I just wanted to be myself. And learning somebody else’s guitar solos felt like repressing my creative instinct.

Guess what… I still want to be free from having to keep in mind licks. But I can’t help remembering them while I play… confused? You should be.

You see, a great deal of what you do today is the result of what you learned in the past… consciously and unconsciously. The words that you use, the gestures you make when you speak, and yes… the music you play when you solo on the guitar come from what you learned in the past.

Your brain acquired that information and internalized it. Filtered and reorganized it. This information is stored in your long-term memory and accessed every time it is needed to carry out a task that requires it.

So, when you are soloing, you are using all the information you have stored in your brain until that moment. However, the output will be filtered once again by your neurology and will also be the result of the adaptation to a specific context (a song with different chord changes for example, where you need to transpose the original key of your licks).

In other words, you’ll be playing original solos using the patterns that you studied. Voila’!

This seems quite easy to understand logically. It is a COMPLETELY different story when it comes to performing.

Have you ever been in a situation when in the middle of a solo you start thinking: “Maybe I should play a fast lick now”, or: “this is too simple…I should play something more complex…” And while you are busy saying that, you realize that you just lost the song form or your creative train of thought.

So how do you let the music come out and use your memory to your advantage?
I thought you’d never ask…

Try this: sit down and breathe deeply 4 or 5 times. Then from that state, play whatever note feels right, with no timing, following no harmonic setting. Just do this for 5 minutes. Don’t worry if it sounds terrible…

In fact, your goal should be sounding bad… as bad as you can… just let go of any judgment and let your fingers move as if they were 4 little mice on the fretboard. And whenever you catch yourself thinking, stop… just stop playing.

Then, as soon the 5 minutes have past, stop, get up and do something else. Do this every time you practice soloing, especially after you have been practicing within specific restrictions. Very soon you’ll be able to find this state of mind while you are playing your solos and you’ll find that you are capable of playing with more “taste” and creativity than you can possibly think of. Just leave worry and fear of being judged out of your mind. Enjoy your music… have fun.

Good Luck

By: Francesco Amico

How to Play Jazz Guitar – Become a Smooth Jazz Guitarist

admin — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:27:24 +0000

By: Max Cane

How to Play Jazz Guitar

admin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:40:56 +0000

There are many ways of starting to investigate how to play jazz guitar. Some guitar players see jazz as a way to learn improvisation. Others see jazz guitar as an instrument that accompanies a certain repertoire of songs. But once you start to actually study jazz you are confronted with a head-spinning array of odd looking chord shapes and endless discussion of modes and scales.

Just what is your average beginner guitar player supposed to think when all he wants to do is learn how to play jazz guitar? Well, jazz kind of grew like Topsy from its beginning as part of Black American culture in the early twentieth century. The rest of America and the rest of the world started adding their own interpretations of jazz music.

So now under the heading of jazz guitar we have widely diverse styles as those of Wes Montgomery, Lenny Breau, Joe Pass, Charlie Byrd, John McLaughlin, Herb Ellis, Pat Metheny and Charlie Christian. This list is just off the top of my head and these guys’ playing styles are as different from each other as cheese is from Shinola.

So where is the starting point for anybody who wants to learn how to play jazz guitar? I would have to say the repertoire. There is a body of songs and instrumental pieces that are called jazz standards. There is a website called Jazz Standards dot com that has twenty pages listing one thousand jazz standards.

Here is a list of familiar titles from the top one hundred jazz standards: Body and Soul, All the Things You Are, Summertime, ‘Round Midnight, My Funny Valentine, What Is This Thing Called Love?, Yesterdays, Stella By Starlight, Autumn Leaves, Star Dust, Willow Weep for Me, Honeysuckle Rose, Sweet Georgia Brown, Caravan, The Man I Love, St Louis Blues, How High the Moon, Oh, Lady Be Good!, Take the “A” Train, Embraceable You, On Green Dolphin Street, These Foolish Things, Sophisticated Lady, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Night and Day, Georgia on My Mind and Satin Doll.

So the jazz repertoire seems to be the one common thing amongst the diversity of styles of playing and levels of innovation. Of course you need to get into subjects like what jazz chords are and why they have evolved and the various movements in jazz music but in order to keep it simple start with a list of your favorite songs. Once you have a list of maybe twenty or so songs from the repertoire of jazz standards you can listen to how jazz guitar players have interpreted the songs on your list. From listening to interpretations you can go to learning the chords that you need to play your songs and start practicing them.

As for improvisation, many people feel that in order to learn jazz guitar improvisation you need to learn to play a multitude of exotic scales and modes. A much more enjoyable alternative is to simply play along with your favorite songs. Learn licks from other jazz guitarists. You can always put what you have learned into the theoretical framework later if you feel that you need to. As a general rule, while you are learning, stick to the major scale all over the fretboard.

So, as with any style of music, if you want to learn how to play jazz guitar the jumping off point is the jazz standards and how you want to interpret your favorite pieces.

By: Gyorgy Huba

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

How to get a Jazz Guitar Sound

admin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 03:55:19 +0000

The word Jazz often evokes a darkly light Smokey club with musicians expertly improvising against seemingly complex chord progressions. Featuring passionate tone – getting that jazz sound can be a complex process – in this article we’ll address what you’ll need to get a great jazz guitar sound.

A Jazz Guitar

Getting the right guitar for a jazz sound used to be expensive. Jazz masters such as Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass may have played expensive Gibson Semi’s but these days there are a variety of entry level guitars that are suitable for getting a jazz tone.

For an authentic jazz tone, you should have a semi-acoustic hollowbody electric guitar. Models such as 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. Guitar manufacturers such as Yamaha or Guild also make entry level semi-acoustics similar to the more expensive Gibson 335. There are also numerous Epiphone hollowbody guitars that will also be suitable and come from the Gibson stable. Explore your local music store and try out what they look for something that is comfortable to play and can produce a tight clean tone with plenty of sustain.

Hollow body guitars will provide a suitable mellow tone and most will be fitted with two humbucker pickups allowing you to vary your sound accordingly. Most guitars will be fitted with tone controls. Practice rolling the treble off your tone and experimenting – Jazz guitarists often play with a less trebly sound as it produces a rich mellow resonance that is suitable for the style.

A Jazz Guitar Amplifier

Whilst it could be said that there is “no jazz amp” there are a number of considerations for the jazz guitarist when selecting an amplifier.
Firstly it is important to determine the playing style and sound that you wish to attain. Traditional jazz guitarists often choose amps that can produce a clean sound which compliment acoustic archtop guitars. For this sound solid state amps produce a nice clean tone. For a more distorted sound a tube amp may be more applicable. There are many popular amps that are used by Jazz guitarists for example – try experimenting with a Fender Pro or a Polytone
Another requirement may be on board effects this may range from simple reverb to an overdrive channel – again this will depend on the style your trying to achieve.

Effects

Traditional Jazz may only require a hint of reverb but many modern jazz guitarists apply a range of effects from Chorus, Overdrive through to delay. There are many effects units available from single stomp boxes to complex digital “modeling” devices such as the Line 6 Pod. When choosing effects ensure they compliment your playing style and that you retain that “clarity” in your tone. Too many effects often muddy the sound and do not produce a quality sound.

Conclusion

In summary there are primarily 3 things that you should investigate when trying to get a jazz tone. Ultimately you should also listen to a wide range of jazz greats – listen closely to their sounds and try to emulate them. Ultimately when you have done this a few times they will begin to merge and you will begin to develop your own tone that will sound equally brilliant!

By: Adrian Martin

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