There was an interesting article in today's NY Times by Joe Nocera (here) talking about the career of John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molasky. For the last five years they have been playing the Cafe Carlyle in New York City and they are finally getting some critical notice. The video above is of John Pizzarelli and Jane Monheit.
What is interesting to me is the musical history of John Pizzarelli, his father Bucky Pizzarelli, my guitar teacher Roy Plumb and guitarist George Van Eps who taught both Bucky and Roy. Here's the family tree:
The interesting link between all these guitarists (except me) is that they played seven (rather than standard six) string guitars. The seventh string allowed them to run a base line along with the standard harmony. From the clips in this posting you can hear, I hope, that these guitars sound much fuller and richer than the standard six string.There is not a lot of information available on Roy Plumb; if you type in "Roy Plumb Guitar" or "Roy Plum Guitar" in a Google search (here) you will find other lists of his students. His Masters Thesis at the University of Wisconsin "The influence of the lute and guitar on musical texture and idiom of Renaissance keyboard literature" was published in 1961 (here). He went on to become an arranger for Frank Sinatra and later returned to Madison to teach guitar in a studio above Patti Music on State Street. I took private lessons from him in the 1970's. I'm not sure whether or not he is still alive and have been unable to find an obituary listing. When I took lessons from him, he always seemed in bad health and had particularly bad eye sight. He once played seven string for me but the guitars appeared to be unavailable when I was taking lessons.
I met Bucky Pizzarelli once in the 1970s at a dinner club in New York where he was performing. His advice to me "There are tons of great guitarists in New York who you have never heard of and who aren't working regularly. Don't come out unless you're asked!" I have to say, that was great advice.
I met Bucky Pizzarelli once in the 1970s at a dinner club in New York where he was performing. His advice to me "There are tons of great guitarists in New York who you have never heard of and who aren't working regularly. Don't come out unless you're asked!" I have to say, that was great advice.
It is a little hard to listen to George Van Eps in the clip above. Guitarists will be knocked out by the chordal improvisation. For non-guitarists, compare this to the standard guitar solo, maybe Barney Kessel, which doesn't harmonize every note. Barney Kessel was also a student of Roy Plumb.
The clip above is actually a pretty good lesson on guitar improvisation and harmony! Barney played a six string guitar.
I have many more stories about Roy Plumb. Possibly if I can find a little more information about his life I'll do another blog posting.
I look forward to more about Roy Plumb. I took lessons from him in 1970 in Madison. Although I am a non-musician musician, Roy was a patient teacher with interesting tales to tell about working with Sinatra. I've forgotten a lot, but I recall his telling me he did some arranging for Sinatra. I still have my work books. His arthritis prevented him from playing, but he wrote out guitar arrangements with ear-opening chords for tunes like Nevertheless, Don't Get Around Much Anymore, Mood Indigo, and Drifting and Dreaming.
ReplyDeleteLory, thanks for commenting. There is a Facebook group (FRIENDS/STUDENTS OF ROY PLUMB) if you're interested at . Keep your workbooks. I am trying to find a repository for Roy Plumb arrangements. Right now, I am at a dead end (the repositories all want solid documentation of Roy's time with Sinatra and I don't have it). I have all my arrangements stored in a safe and I'm still hoping for a break! P.S. I would love to see the arrangements of "Nevertheless" and "Drifting and Dreaming"!
ReplyDeleteGeorge - thanks for the response. I still look at the workbooks. In fact, every once in awhile I take another crack at learning the pieces. If you like I can send scanned versions of Nevertheless and Drifting and Dreaming. my email: lrobbin@sbcglobal.net. Unfortunatly, I can't view the facebook profile cause I havent yet joined FB. But I was able to view pix of worksheets. Right away I recognized the handwriting and method of noting fingering and fretting.
ReplyDeleteI knew Roy Plumb in the 1950s in Madison. He was working on his thesis, something about the influence of current culture on popular music--what a field day he'd have today. I took some guitar lessons from him, although I was a pianist. Roy often sat-in with my group known then as the "Modern Jazz Trio plus One." We used to broadcast over WKOW on Fridays for an hour of Jazz music. Warm wishes and thanks, Jack
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