Don't Throw Your Love On Me So Strong

The great guitarist and Roy Plumb student, Lance Olson, passed on the video (above) and note (below) from the National Guitar Museum on T-Bone Walker (1910-1975), probably one of the last great blues guitar players to use a hollow-body, arch-top jazz guitar. T-bone, we miss you, RIP (I'm not sure why he got the name "T-bone" but his split below kind of looks like one)!

Aaron Thibeaux Walker was born on May 28, 1910 . . . 103 years ago. Nicknamed T-Bone, Walker learned the guitar at age 13, and recorded as early as 19. He was among the first blues players—if not the very first—to use the electric guitar as his instrument of choice. He claimed to have picked up an “electrified” guitar as early as 1935, making him one of the first electric guitarists in any genre. T-Bone put on a sensational live show, picking with this teeth and playing behind his head (something Jimi Hendrix would later do), doing splits and strutting (later done by Chuck Berry), and wrote one of the blues’ most enduring songs, “Stormy Monday” (or, as he called it "Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday's Just As Bad).” Here’s an incredible live version of “Don’t Put Your Love On Me So Strong.” Enjoy.

Petra van Nuis and Andy Brown: Alone Together

Petra Van Nuis and her quartet gave a concert this afternoon in Ephraim, WI. Petra (pronounced Pay-tra) is a jazz vocalist from Chicago, IL and is "...one of the keepers of the flame when it comes to the fading art of tasty jazz singing" (from the playbill, front page reproduced below). Her repertoire is drawn from the Great American Song Book and her biography notes that "...she enjoys unearthing obscure songs and her extensive repertoire is both impressive and unique," both understatements! In the video above she sings Alone Together, from the 1932 Broadway musical Flying Colors, a great jazz standard. In the video, she is accompanied by her husband, jazz guitarist Andy Brown, arguably the best jazz guitarist you've never heard about.

I'm always surprised when high-level jazz hits the Door County Peninsula. In this case, the connection was through double bassist Joe Policastro who is, if I have this right, married to Robert Clarke's daughter (see the playbill below--click to enlarge).

On a personal note, Petra sang the great Ella Fitzgerald song A Tisket a Tasket (you can listen to Ella's 1938 recording with the Chick Webb orchestra here). This is the first jazz recording I can remember hearing and I must have been only five or size years old. I can remember walking into our kitchen, hearing the band on the radio doing the "So do we, so do we" chorus and understanding what it meant to be hip. Petra had her group do the "No, no, no, no..." response that was originally sung by Ella and I couldn't resist chiming in! A great, nostalgic afternoon of big-band jazz!

Back Door Slam: Gotta Leave

I just heard this cut on Pandora's Blues Channel from the short-lived UK group Back Door Slam (the group broke up in 2009). The sound of  Davy Knowles' guitar caught my ear (you can hear a little better version of "Gotta Leave" here).  Here are the lyrics from Lyric Wiki and a quick guess at the changes:

Ask me no questions, when I try to tell you
My best intentions, were always with you
And don't raise your voice, just try to understand
Save your loving, for some other man

Oh, you must have gotten me confused, with some other man
Who will lay you down, on the line for you
Tell me how, can I trust you, when you can't trust yourself
I've gotta leave you baby, find myself, somebody else
Ooooooh...

Thought we were over it, hmmm, thought we'd passed the worst
It was so always hard to tell, if it were a blessing or a curse
Sometimes it was so sweet, in between a lying
Every time we spent laughing, there was two times I spent crying

Oh, you must have gotten me confused, with some other man
Who will lay you down, on the line for you
Tell me how, can I trust you, when you can't trust yourself
I've gotta leave you baby, find myself, somebody else
Ooooooh...

Can't keep hiding...
No no you can't keep lying...

Oh, you must have gotten me confused, with some other man
Who will lay you down, on the line for you
Tell me how, can I trust you, when you can't trust yourself
I've gotta leave you baby, find myself, somebody else
Ooooooh...

To the changes:

Bm7, D7, A7, Em7, F#m7, Bm7
(bridge)Em7, Bm7, Em7, F major7

Fourplay Between The Sheets

My first encounter with the Smooth Jazz group, Fourplay, was in a boutique store across the street from Rowe Pottery Works in Cambridge, WI. The store was playing the song you can hear in the video above from their debut album. It caught my ear and I asked the very attractive young lady behind the counter what was playing. She picked up the CD jewel case, turned bright red and told me it was foreplay between the sheets.

"Fourplay," of course, is a "play" on the "4/4" time signature and "sheets" of music. At this point in the conversation, my mind had become clouded with other musical images and I wasn't able to explain the play on words to the young lady. Hopefully, she has become a Smooth Jazz fan. Lee Ritenour, the original guitarist in Fourplay, has become one of my favorites (their current guitarist is Chuck Loeb, no slouch by any means).

My Woman Ran Off With The Garbage Man

Johnny Adams (1932-1998) was an American blues singer with a great multi-octave singing voice. He is probably best known for his version of Release Me in 1968. One of his lesser-known songs was Garbage Man, played in the video above. I just love the lyrics and, since they are hard to find on the Internet, I've written them out below (at some point I'd also like to write out the blues guitar solo):

You know my baby, she ran off with the garbage man,
I ain't goin' worry 'bout it.

Lord, my baby, she ran off with the garbage man,
Yes she did.

Won't you come on home to me woman,
I need you to empty my trash can.

You know my woman, she ran off with my hard-earned cash,
Yes she did.

Oh my woman, she ran off with my hard earned cash.

I'm not worried about my money woman,
I just need you to empty my trash.

I don't know where you've been,
And I don't know where you're goin'.

I don't know where you've been,
And I don't know where you're goin'.

Come on home to me baby,
Cause my garbage can is overflowin'.

[Guitar Solo]

You know my baby, she ran off with my hard-earned cash,

My, my, my baby, she ran off with my hard earned cash.

I'm not worried about my money woman,

Oh I need you to empty my trash.

You know my baby, she ran off with the garbage man.

My, my baby, she ran off with the garbage man.

Won't you come on home to me woman,

Oh I need you to empty my trash can.

Oh, Yeah, Yeah.

Ximo Tebar Sound Check

The soundcheck in the video above might not be to everyone's tastes ("just let them play") but it really shows off the creative process and the talents of Ximo Tebar on guitar and Grant Stewart on sax.

I have been listening a lot lately to Tebar, particularly his "Champs" album and just heard the Stanley Turrentine song "Sugar" again the other night on Jazz With Bob Parlocha. You can read a little more about Ximo Tebar here.

NOTE: Ximo Tebar, guitar, Grant Stewart, sax, Rob Bargad, piano & organ, Cesar Giner, bass, Nathaniel Townsley, drums. SOUNDCHECK & REHEARSAL - SAN JAVIER JAZZ FESTIVAL - JULY 2005

Esperanza Spalding at Austin City Limits

Watch Esperanza Spalding / Madeleine Peyroux on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

Last night, Esperanza Spalding made an appearance on Austin City Limits, televised on our local PBS channel (WHA-TV). If you missed it, get a sample in the video clip above. Then you'll be taken to the PBS site, after another commerical (I guess it's not commercial-free TV anymore--who cares, if we get to see Esperanza), for the entire performance! Even if Jazz isn't your music, the visuals at Austin City Limits are great!

Esperanza also played at the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize ceremonies and was selected by Laureate Barack Obama. I'll follow up with that performance in a future post.

Karrin Allyson Moanin'

I recently heard Karrin Allyson sing Coventry Carol on DirecTV's Sonic Tap Music Channel 815. The cut is from the Concord Jazz Christmas CD. What caught my attention was Karrin's vocals and the guitar player (not sure, might be Howard Alden). She seems to like to work with guitarists, as in the clip above, and the musicianship of the entire ensemble always seems great.

Seven Strings Are Better Than Six

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.

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.

Red House Over Yonder

Jimmy Thackery Live in Decatur,IL 6-17-08 in Central Park (can't believe I just discovered this guy)!

Kettle Moraine Jazz Festival

On September 11, my wife and I went to the Kettle Moraine Jazz festival in West Bend, WI. I was interested in seeing Craig Chaquico who was the lead guitarist for Jefferson Starship and now fronts his own smooth jazz group. Craig works back and forth between classical and rock guitars and as my friend Gil Jevne would say "he's a slayer".