Category Archives: Guitar

Django Reinhardt / Stéphane Grappelli / Eddie South – Improvisation On 1st Movement From Concerto In D Minor by JS Bach (1933)

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Improvisation On 1st Movement From Concerto In D Minor by JS Bach is arranged by Django Reinhardt and recorded in Paris in 1933.

Gypsy jazz (also known as gypsy swing or hot club jazz) is a style of jazz music often said to have been started by guitarist Jean “Django” Reinhardt in the 1930s. Django was foremost among a group of Gypsy guitarists working in and around Paris in the 1930s through the 1950s, a group which also included the brothers Baro, Sarane, and Matelo Ferret and Reinhardt’s brother Joseph “Nin-Nin” Reinhardt.

Many of the musicians in this style worked in Paris in various popular  Musette ensembles. The Musette style waltz remains an important component in the Gypsy jazz repertoire. Reinhardt was noted for combining a dark, chromantic Gypsy flavor with the swing articulation of the period. This combination is critical to this style of jazz. In addition to this his approach continues to form the basis for contemporary Gypsy jazz guitar. Reinhardt’s most famous group, the Quintette du Hot Club de France, also brought fame to jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli. [source]

Django Reinhardt – Guitar
Eddie South – Violin
Stéphane Grappelli  - Violin

 

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Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane – Why Was I Born ? (1958)

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Why Was I Born ? is the fourth track on the album Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane, recorded in Hackensack, NJ, March 7, 1958.

Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane is an album credited to jazz  musicians Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane. It was originally released on the New Jazz label as NJ 8276 in 1963, then reissued in 1967 on Prestige as PRLP 7532, with a different cover and retitled The Kenny Burrell Quintet With John Coltrane. [source]

Kenny Burrel – Guitar / John Coltrane – Tenor Saxophone / Tommy Flanagan – Piano /                 Paul Chambers – Bass / Jimmy Cob – Drums

 

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Fred Frith – No Birds (1974)

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No Birds is the last track on Fred Friths album Guitar Solos:

This is a record of unaccompanied guitar solos. It was made in four days at Kaleidophon Studios, London. All the pieces were improvised, some completely and some to a roughly preconceived idea. No overdubs were used, the music is heard at is was played except for No Birds, which was made in two parts, and Not Forgotten, from which we removed two notes. The only sounds not produced ‘naturally’ by guitar or prepared guitar area those of the fuzz-box used on track A4, B3 and B4, and echo delay used on track B4. The extraneous noises on Heat c/w Moment are those made by my breath and feet while I was playing. The middle part of No Birds was played on two guitars simultaneously. [source]

Fred Frith (born 17 February 1949) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor. Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rockgroup Henry Cow.

After Henry Cow’s first album, Frith released Guitar Solos in 1974, his first solo album and a glimpse at what he had been doing with his guitar. When it was released, Guitar Solos was considered a landmark album because of its innovative and experimental approach to guitar playing. The January 1983 edition of Down Beat magazine remarked that Guitar Solos ”… must have stunned listeners of the day. Even today that album stands up as uniquely innovative and undeniably daring.” It also attracted the attention of some “famous” musicians, including Brian Eno, resulting in Frith playing guitar on two of Eno’s albums, Before and After Science (1977) and Music for Films (1978). [source]

Fred Frith - Guitar, Prepared Guitar

 

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[inspired by Ronnie Rocket. Thanks a lot]

Derek Bailey – Paris (1980)

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Paris is recorded at ‘Dunois’ Paris on 4 July 1980 and is first track on the album Aida by Derek Bailey.

Derek Bailey (29 January 1930 – 25 December 2005) was an English avant-garde guitarist and leading figure in the free improvisation movement. [source]

Aida, consisting of two live recordings from 1980, captures Derek Bailey on the cusp between his early-career thorny and more drastic explorations of the outer limits of guitar playing and the subtler, softer (though no less idiosyncratic) approaches he would often employ later on. Throughout his career, Bailey has championed what he calls “non-idiomatic improvisation,” an attempt to improvise without reference to any pre-existing musical styles. While perhaps impossible to achieve 100 percent, he has certainly made it difficult to describe his work with the normal allusions and comparisons to that of others. The first track on Aida, “Paris,” is a gorgeous and relatively smooth excursion in Bailes sound-world. One imagines that if England had a tradition of koto accompaniment for Noh plays, it might sound something like this. Not that there is an overt Asian influence, but the sparseness and careful choice of notes gives one a slight sense of both Eastern asceticism and luxury within that asceticism.

Though he has professed to not particularly enjoying solo playing, that circumstance is often the easiest introduction to Bayley´s work. Aida is a remarkably beautiful entry to one of the world’s masterful musicians. Indeed, he sounds like no one else. [source]

Derek Bailey – Guitar

 

 

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