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zigzag

By zigzag
in The Gibson Lounge

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Versatile

Versatile

Posted
Posted

Excuse the bump. Took me a while to find this one.

 

Django and the Hot Club. Rare film. Notice he plays the small round-hole guitar while his brother Joseph and Eugene Vees have the D-holes. Are these Maccaferris? Think so.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5jtcxtMzAE

 

Yes they are Maccaferris...as far as I am aware the first cutaway flat-top acoustic... [thumbup]

 

The 'Gypsy' jazz genre has grown in recent years to rival the 'Trad' or 'Dixieland' bands, favourites of every outdoor festival and garden event...

 

There are some excellent Macca copies available... [thumbup]

 

V

 

:-({|=

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milod

milod

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I know I'm gonna show my age on this comment, but during the 30s and 40s there were an increasing number of incredible "jazz rhythm" pickers who could hit any chord one might imagine and even run the chords up and down the neck playing the melody.

 

They did the same with 4-string banjo and tenor guitars. We seldom hear much of those two nowadays, but they were popular "back then" because they could be "rhythm" while at the same time putting out "melody." I've met some of these guys even "out here in the boonies" that could do stuff to boggle your eyes, if not your ears.

 

My bottom line for this is that yeah, Christian got to be quite well known in the media ethos of the time, and nothing should be "taken away" from him for that.

 

But at the same time, there were some incredible guitarists out there on live radio shows and doing dance gigs with "jazz." It just was a different playing concept for guitar than what Christian did.

 

And one might make a case that Bluegrass, for example, had the mandolin playing "lead guitar" long before. Although "Carter Family" and similar groups had "lead guitar," note that it too was a variation of rhythm guitar adding melody notes to the bass/strum chording. Certainly the "Gypsy jazz" followed the "lead and rhythm guitars" concept long before most others.

 

m

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fretplay

fretplay

Posted
Posted

I know I'm gonna show my age on this comment, but during the 30s and 40s there were an increasing number of incredible "jazz rhythm" pickers who could hit any chord one might imagine and even run the chords up and down the neck playing the melody.

 

They did the same with 4-string banjo and tenor guitars. We seldom hear much of those two nowadays, but they were popular "back then" because they could be "rhythm" while at the same time putting out "melody." I've met some of these guys even "out here in the boonies" that could do stuff to boggle your eyes, if not your ears.

 

My bottom line for this is that yeah, Christian got to be quite well known in the media ethos of the time, and nothing should be "taken away" from him for that.

 

But at the same time, there were some incredible guitarists out there on live radio shows and doing dance gigs with "jazz." It just was a different playing concept for guitar than what Christian did.

 

And one might make a case that Bluegrass, for example, had the mandolin playing "lead guitar" long before. Although "Carter Family" and similar groups had "lead guitar," note that it too was a variation of rhythm guitar adding melody notes to the bass/strum chording. Certainly the "Gypsy jazz" followed the "lead and rhythm guitars" concept long before most others.

 

m

 

 

It really is quite remarkable how the poor man of the band the guitar player was pushed to the back almost unheard playing a chord per note and still keeping the rhythm. In those dance band days even the singer was often pushed to the back too. On old wax recording the title was such and such band with vocal.

How it all changed in the fifties, singer to the fore, guitars everywhere and mostly only four chords. The whole music world turned upside down.

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milod

milod

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Dunno about some of the changes in music.

 

Sinatra was doing incredible things with T.Dorsey and then basically in the early WWII years was a solo act as a singer. He was the "bobby sox" idol - that meaning teen girls who went as nutty over Frankie as their younger sisters or daughters did with the Beatles.

 

The "singer name" dates back too in "country" and "blues" regardless that the big bands were the big thing with semi-interchangeable singers and even singing groups. Still, note that the singers did get a lotta credit. Also guys like Louis Armstrong, the Dorsey Brothers, Bunny Berrigan, etc., etc., were instrumentalists first and "band names" later. Ditto the Count and the Duke. Harry James, Goodman, Glen Miller, vocalist Billie Holiday (never hear about the backing band, eh?), Ella, etc., etc., etc.

 

The musicians' strikes during WWII... few mention what effect that had on "popular music" nowadays, but it was huge.

 

Guitar... well, it simply wasn't much more than a backing of various sorts until the electric instrument, added to the shrinkage of bands to combos, made it something special to listen to. And there... Django had already given a preview.

 

m

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