My Gibson ES-175

I really like the 16″, 24.75″ scale Gibson Archtops. I already have two, the L-4CES and L-4C. The somewhat iconic Gibson ES-295, played by Scotty Moore with Elvis, is also this same form factor. The ES-295 is also of exactly the same construction as an ES-175: a laminated maple body with a 1-piece mahogany neck. The L-4’s have carved, solid spruce tops.

Holiday Music Favorites IV (2009)

This is turning out to be a fairly productive year for new Holiday Music arrangements. It would appear that working in the Guitar/Bass/Drums format has been helpful in terms of coming up with ideas.

This is “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” , written by Hugh Martin & Ralph Blane. It is from the 1944 movie Meet Me in St.Louis, in which the song is performed by Judy Garland.

I was going for a little bit of a Desi Arnaz thing here. The guitar is my L-4CES.

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Holiday Music Favorites III (2009)

This is another all-new arrangement, Hark the Herald Angels Sing.  The arrangement is — as usual nowadays — for guitar, bass and drums. On this recording the guitar is again the 1949 L-4C about which I recently posted on the blog.

Here are the links to listen:

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Holiday Music Favorites II (2009)

This is an all-new arrangement. I’ve never actually done Jingle Bells before, although it might well be the most arranged of all holiday songs. It’s one of the simpler seasonal tunes, and it’s pretty easy to overwhelm it with harmony substitutions. It seems to me that I’ve seen and heard more arrangements that I considered to be poor than to be good.

Given that it has been arranged so many ways, it wasn’t until the idea for this approach developed that I thought I might have something at least a little bit original — and that also preserves the traditional happy-go-lucky  mood that I think most people associate with the song. Perhaps you can tell me how well the arrangement works.

The arrangement is — as usual nowadays — for guitar, bass and drums. On this recording the guitar is the 1949 L-4C about which I recently posted on the blog.

Here are the links to listen:

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Holiday Music Favorites (2009)

Yes, I realize that as I post this it is a bit on the early side. However, at least I did wait until after Halloween. I can blame the timing on my wife C., who is a piano teacher and begins working on holiday music with her students once November rolls around. In order for her to be ready, she typically orders new Christmas arrangements over the summer and reviews them in September and October. So the holiday music season starts pretty early around our house.

Pro Tools 2: Smooth Jazz Funk Trio

It’s been a while since I wrote and recorded anything, and I thought I’d get back into things with a simple trio tune. It’s called “Take a Seat”. I am continuing to stick to the guitar/bass/drums format which has been my focus for the past few years. However, I thought I’d try to adjust just a little back in the direction of “smooth jazz”, which was my my style for so long.

A Cool New Pickup

I have this L4-C that I bought in September, 2004. It’s very cool, and has a clean, well articulated tone that is yet a little darker than my Orchid archtop, though not as dark as my L4-CES. 1949 was the first year for the cutaway L-4. The standard construction for an L-4 (even today) is a carved spruce top, laminated maple back and sides, and a one-piece mahogany neck. This one seems to have mahogany sides, which is interesting.

Just the Three of Me

My latest release, Just the Three of Me, is now available on CD Baby.

This is the commercial version of the tunes I have been posting here over the past several months.

Rufous

This is the title of my latest tune and recording. As with all of my recent  material, it is a strict guitar, bass drums trio with no overdubs.

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My First Music Videos

The first three are tracks from my album, “Just the Three of Us”, which features all trio performances.  I have previously posted all of the tracks as audio here on the blog.

Fretless Bass

A couple of years ago I decided that it would be preferable for me to actually play the bass parts on my recordings instead of simply programming them and letting the computer play them. I purchased at that time a short scale P-Bass from Rondo Music in New Hampshire. This has worked out very well and I played all the bass tracks on my commercial release from last year, (could be) *LIVE* (but isn’t).

What Inspires You to Play?

A day or two ago, this question was posted on a listserve to which I subscribe. My response was so lengthy it reminded me of a blog post. So here it is:

More Trio Recordings

These are the tracks now in my current project.  Some are new, some are repurposed from previous uses, and some are older trio compositions. This is the current list:

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Starfire Way Out Willie By the Time I Get to Phoenix Shredding Just The Three of Us My Down Time Bovanosa Hoppin’ Retro Rocket Don’t Say Double Nickels Pipeline Trio on a Riff Bright Size Life Red Current Jam	Starfire Way Out Willie By the Time I Get to Phoenix Shredding Just The Three of Us My Down Time Bovanosa Hoppin’ Retro Rocket Don’t Say Double Nickels Pipeline Trio on a Riff Bright Size Life Red Current Jam

• 4/23/2009 — updated “Bright Size Life”, “Bovanosa” & “Way Out Willie”
• 4/18/2009 — updated “Hoppin’”
• 3/30/2009 — added “Bovanosa”
• 3/22/2009 — added “Bright Size Life”
• 3/20/2009 — added “By the Time I Get to Phoenix”
• 3/16/2009 — updated version of “Double Nickels”
• 3/15/2009 — added “Way Out Willie”
• 3/8/2009 – added “Pipeline” (yes, the surf classic)
• 3/7/2009 – revised version of “Don’t Say” and “Hoppin’ “
  
• 3/5/2009 — revised versions of “Just the Three of Us” and “Trio on a Riff”
• 3/2/2009 — revised version on “My Down Time”
• 2/7/2009 — added “Hoppin’”
• 1/27/2009 — added “Double Nickels”
  

(I will keep adding songs here as I finish work on them rather than starting a new post for each)

New Guitar :: New Song

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I really want to get in a groove with a fusiony, rock-toned guitar in a jazz trio setting. Coming from a classical background, my guitar concept is such that I think I shouldn’t need a keyboard or rhythm guitar behind me to handle the harmony. I think my vintage instrumentals are a good illustration of this — doing Ventures and Shadows stuff (successfully I hope) without the rhythm guitar one might think is essential to that material.

I am trying to be both original and traditional at the same time — I’d hope it sounds a bit unlike anything you’ve heard while still sounding familiar. Perhaps that is too ambitious a goal.

The song is named “Starfire” after my latest guitar acquisition, and is the guitar used. The influences are many, but certainly Johnny A is a major inspiration for me here.

I actually played the bass and used edited drum loops.

I really am interested in how well you think this works.

A New Guitar — Guild Starfire III-90

The Guild Guitar Company is a USA-based guitar manufacturer founded in 1952. The first Guild workshop was located in New York City, but production was later moved to Westerly, Rhode Island. All Guild production was moved to a factory in Corona, California after Guild was purchased by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation in 1995. In 2004, FMIC acquired the assets of Washington-based Tacoma Guitar Company and all American Guild acoustic production has since been moved to Tacoma, Washington, while production of Guild electric guitars was discontinued.