Brad Melhdau Liner Notes "Book"

The liner notes to many of Brad Melhdau's albums are here in a 57 page pdf file.

Many other articles on Melhdau are on his web site, here.

A New Pat Martino Video

The documentary Martino Unstrung is apparently still in post-production. From the production company Sixteen Films:

The human brain; three pounds of jellified fats, proteins, sugars and salts - a matrix of robotic cells housing a myriad of intricate machines. Stare hard at that machinery and you see... well that's all you see. Machinery. That's all there is. But look at the spirits bubbling up from the sludge. Look at the carnival of consciousness flowing from the void. How is this possible?

Neuropsychologist and author Paul Broks travels America in search of the soul of legendary jazz guitarist Pat Martino who was brutally silenced by memory stripping brain surgery. Through this remarkable story of his ascent from the depths of amnesia to the peak of artistry once more, Broks explores the nature of memory, self, creativity and the brain systems underlying personal identity making some ground-breaking discoveries on the way. Filmed in the US through 2006 & 2007, the film features Les Paul, Carlos Santana, Pete Townshend, Joe Pesci, John Pattitucci, Delmar Brown, Red Holloway...

Barney Kessel Tribute Site

Barney Kessel, Misty

Barney Kessel - Misty (Erroll Garner)
Uploaded by Delta_Mike

Gypsy Jazz Guitar Lessons by Romane

The first of three lessons by gypsy jazz guitarist Romane, in French with subtitles, is here. The other two lessons are easily accessed from the YouTube sidebar.

Blind Blake, Police Dog Blues

Courtesy of the Internet Archive

Liner Notes to "The Sun of Our Lives, Rev. Gary Davis

It's wonderful to see liner notes from old albums appearing on the web. The liner notes for The Sun of Our Lives at Arbiter Records are very extensive and biographical:

Seated on his footstool, I offered an approximation of Buck Dance, expecting only minor corrections. Davis broke into a warm grin: "Heh, heh..., now. . . watch my fingers. . . this is how it goes. . . and if you see something you don't understand. . . you just stop me and I'll explain it to you." He spoke slowly, spacing his words, often silent for awhile after a question, leading you to wonder if he had heard you, yet sometimes he responded at once. As he played my amazement grew. Not only were most of my chords wrong but I had overlooked a wealth of details which gave the piece its meaning. His nesting right hand seemed to brush or stroke against the strings, rarely moving. Two fingers picked as the others anchored his hand onto the body slightly below the sound hole. He wore a plastic thumb pick and one metal pick on his index finger ("it saves your fingertips", although his left hand calluses were quite developed, for he preferred thick strings which felt like phone cables.) "Why don't you use the middle finger too?" I wondered. "You don't need more than two." His left hand's shaping of the chords on the neck was sculpted elegance, ...continue reading

Click here for more stories about Rev. Gary Davis

Mississippi John Hurt - You Got to Walk That Lonesome Valley

Click the image, and advance to around :45 in the video

Liner Notes to "Great Guitars of Jazz" DVD

Here is a link to the extensive liner notes to this DVD. It discusses the lives and bios of Charlie Byrd, Tal Farlow and Herb Ellis. A wonderful history of jazz guitar in the 20th Century, as experienced through the lives of these three musicians. Al Quagliata has posted links to two videos from this DVD.