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

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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.

George Benson, The Shadow of Your Smile, 1972

I suspect that a take-down notice on this one will arrive soon, so enjoy it while you can.

Jazzerman

A playlist of 21 solo guitar tunes by Jazzerman. Absolutely wonderful ....

Ted Greene Memorial Site Continues to Grow

The Ted Greene site continues to add videos, lessons and performances.

"Ted Greene was renowned world wide as the author of “Chord Chemistry,” one of the most in-depth studies of chord harmony & theory ever published for guitar. Ted was also a brilliant, innovative and diverse guitarist capable of playing dazzling solos from jazz to neo-Baroque improvisation. Yet his chosen and most beloved path was as a teacher. He was highly sought out for his insightful and instinctive gifts in this area. As a testimony to his teaching abilities, for many years there remained a long list of guitarists waiting for an opening in his schedule." Continue ...

Borrowing the Blues: Copyright and the Contexts of Robert Johnson

"Robert Johnson was a poor African American itinerant blues musician who died in obscurity under mysterious circumstances in 1938 at a country crossroads near Greenwood, Mississippi. Johnson was one of a number of musicians who made their way through the Mississippi Delta during the time period of his life and death. The legend of Robert Johnson, however, surpasses that of his musical contemporaries: Robert Johnson is the most well known bluesman of his era today. From his humble beginning and obscure death, Robert Johnson later emerged to become one of the biggest influences on rock and roll music, particularly through musicians in Great Britain, many of whom like Eric Clapton, count Robert Johnson as one of their greatest influences."

Continue reading this article by Olufunmilayo B. Arewa, a professor at Northwestern University School of Law

Borrowing the Blues: Copyright and the Contexts of Robert Johnson - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: Borrowing the Blues: Copyright and the Contexts of Robert Johnson

All Things Emily

Click the photo .....

Jim Ferguson on Joe Pass

Irascible yet funny and warm, a high school dropout yet very well-read, Joe Pass had more than his share of personal contradictions. Cigar chomping and adorned with a bristling moustache that hardly compensated for his baldness, he may have looked like a longshoreman or truck driver, but his music eloquently spoke of his brilliance as a world-class guitarist, one who ultimately commanded the respect of many of jazz' top figures. Given his awesome technique, competitive spirit, ability to shape long lines in a group context, and jaw-dropping approach to solo guitar-where he freely wove walking bass lines, sleek chordal passages, and deft single-note phrases into rich musical tapestries-he easily qualifies as the most versatile player in the annals of jazz, and arguably was the greatest mainstream guitarist since Wes Montgomery. [continue reading ....]