While the band needs a while to recuperate, the girls begin to learn the instruments to fill in for the Band, but of course no one learns how to play within a week or two. However, these girls have talent and within a relatively short time, they get good enough to enter a contest against other school bands. It’s a fun movie with some really quirky and amusing parts. If you want to see “Swing Girls”, it is in 11 parts on youTube – The first episode can be found here

The other link someone sent me was also a pleasant surprise – There are 8 Japanese girls that have put together a Jazz/Pop/Hip Hop Band and it is very cool. They are known as Pistol Valve. Their Website is the following:

What I like with Pistol Valve is that it’s not the same old thing I would be hearing on any radio station. Here is one of their cool songs.

I’ve called Scott Samuels the “Joe Pass of Pop” and “The King of Pop”. It’s not because he plays solo jazz guitar all day like Joe Pass or dances like Michael Jackson. What Scott Samuels does do though, is play each song like a one man band, as well as sing along with his guitar. Scott doesn’t play one style of music and this is why there have been many nights where 100 to 200 people have parked themselves all around him and watched as Scott and his regular fans joined in singing the choruses to all different styles. It’s not unusual to hear songs from Elton John, Billy Joel, Van Halen, Prince, Hall and Oates, Al Green, Bob Marley, The Beatles, Syreeta, Celine Dion, Jimi Hendrix, Tony Bennett, Al Jolson and the list goes on to roughly 2,000 songs. It just depends on the audience.

Scott has a decent voice, but what’s more he draws some excellent singers, that he gladly turns over the lead vocals to when he enjoys their style. William Galison and Madleine Peyroux have joined Scott on occasion. I was a regular in the Park in 2002 – 2004 and would find myself planted there listening and singing along for up to 10 hours — Scott actually played that many hours!  Sometimes Scott just didn’t take breaks, he’d be just sipping on a few Snapple Juices and back to playing. Scott was like the Energizer Bunny.

There was an early evening in 2003 that a few of us had been sitting listening to Scott for 3 or 4 hours; this was a day that Greenwich Village was filled with protesters opposing the beginning of the Iraq War. After the protest march had ended, many of those protesters decided to head into Washington Square and within about an hour the Park was packed with people that had added to our small group of listeners. Scott chose to play the song “Imagine” by John Lennon and strangely enough so many people had tiny candles that they passed around and this is a sight that should have been captured on the news, but roughly 1,000 people were all singing “Imagine,” waving candles and accompanying a single guitar.

Scott Samuels is a self-taught guitarist, that you’ll often see using piano voicings for his guitar, because he was heavily influenced by many composers that played piano. On the other hand Scott plays fast solos when he is joined by other players and he’s been seen by many of us not only playing Eddie Van Halen, or Jimi Hendrix solos, but even playing the music of Alan Holdsworth and all of this is being played on an acoustic guitar.

A funny tidbit about Scott is that his father is a song writer that wrote some funny tunes; one of his songs is “I Owe A Lot To Iowa Pot” and a song that was banned and became quite famous entitled “They’re Coming To Take Me Away.”

Being a regular to the Park Jam, is the one thing that I miss about New York, now that I live in Oregon. But, whenever I hear that someone is going to New York City in the summer, I tell them that if it is a warm summer day, they should  make their way down to Washington Square Park and look for Scott Samuels. I know I will!

Learn About Jazz

One day when I was driving the guys from uptown to the Blue Note in NYC, I asked what major difference was there between Ron Carter and Ray Brown; the guys laughed at my ignorance and gave me their views. From what I got out of that was that Ron Carter added color to a song, but Ray Brown was such a power house that when he played, Marching bands formed and never missed a step. Niels said “Ray Brown is so precise, you could set your watch by him” and then in stereo they all said at once “And we often do!”

These guys always showed appreciation for other players that earned that respect. One day when the guys were playing the Blue Note, just before going on, someone was close to the window and noticed Toots Thielemans down the street and they jumped from their seats to welcome him. They greeted Toots and walked him inside. You could tell the mutual admiration these guys had for Toots and for each other.

Joe Pass, Martin Drew and Niels Henning-Orsted Pedersen were all class acts and each could be called a musician’s musician.

You can learn more about jazz, see pictures or take quizzes at Jazzipedia. The jazz site that’s growing!

One night when Joe was playing a solo gig, my former guitar teacher, Leni Stern came to hear Joe. Leni has been called “Little Pat Metheny”, because of her tone as well as her picking style. Leni stayed till the end of the second show and till Joe was packing up his guitar. I was giving Joe his ride uptown that night and so I asked Leni , since she was on the way, if she wanted a ride as well.

Leni Stern was not only an excellent guitarist and writer, but she was also married to the gifted, silky smooth and blindingly speedy jazz guitarist, Mike Stern. As we drove uptown, Leni said to Joe that he should come over for breakfast the next morning and then have some fun playing with her husband, Mike. Leni felt that she convinced Joe and said, “see you tomorrow” as she got out of the car.

As I started to drive off, Joe looked at me and said, “You know I’m not going tomorrow, don’t you?” Actually, I didn’t know that at all; I asked him why he didn’t want to go. Joe had gotten so used to hot shot players wanting to jam with him and for the most part, he didn’t have fun at all. Fortunately, I knew Mike just enough to have heard him play a number of times at the 55 Bar in Greenwich Village, I had seen Mike when he was a member of Miles Davis’ band and also, I had been told by Leni, that Mike had transcribed many of Joe’s solo’s by hand and learned how to play them. So, Mike not only had his own style, but he was totally familiar with Joe’s and I told Joe what I had known and that he should go, because in my opinion, he was going to have a great time.

The next night I heard that Joe indeed had gone to visit the Sterns and brought the Bagels and Cream Cheese and played for quite a while with Mike. He told me that he had a great time!

It is disappointing that I wasn’t there to hear Joe and Mike that day, but it was satisfying to know that I said something that made for a memorable musical time to two people that I admired. I did help another excellent guitarist, Emily Remler get to the Blue Note one day and jam with Joe, but that of course is another story.

To get familiar with both of their styles, here are links to each of them:

Joe Pass

Joe Pass Plays "Satin Doll" Solo

Mike Stern

Mike Stern Band Live in Paris

When you look at Jack Wilkins’ portfolio, not only can you appreciate the talent that sought him out, but also the diversity of his collaborations. These gifted musicians include tenor saxophone player Stanley Turrentine, who played jazz as well as R&B. There was Jimmy Heath, often called “Little Bird”, because he was strongly influenced by Charlie Parker. A player that shared the stage with Mr. Wilkins is Eddie Gomez, who played with Dizzy Gillespie and had a mutual Latin influence. If that’s not enough to impress you, then let’s note his collaborations with Chet Baker and Buddy Rich.

Jack Wilkins has also been appreciated for his ability to compliment the vocal styles of Morgana King, Sarah Vaughn, Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Bennett, Manhattan Transfer, Cassandra Wilson, Chris Conner and the list goes on.

Jack Wilkins does not have to be satisfied with just having backed other artists, because he had the ears of guitar lovers everywhere standing straight up when he released his album “Windows” in 1973. He’s been praised in Guitar Player, Just Jazz Guitar and Downbeat magazines, as well as being a highlight of a number of J.V.C. festival  tributes.

Brooklyn born Jack Wilkins came from a home that appreciated music, where his mother sang and played the piano and his step-father played both sax and trumpet.

Jack recently discovered that his real father, Jack Rivers Lewis was a really successful West Coast guitar player and singer. Jack Rivers Lewis was well known in the Tacoma and Seattle areas as a Western Swing player that also shared a jazz feel and was influenced by jazz guitarists Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian and his favorite George Barnes.

The young Jack Wilkins started out playing the Rock and Roll of the day, such as Dwayne Eddy and Chuck Berry. The one guitarist that really caught Jack’s ear and helped mold his chordal style, was Johnny Smith.

A local teacher named Joe Monte helped Jack, as did Artie Shaw’s guitarist Sid Margolis. Feeling the need to grow as a musician, Jack spent time with John Mehegan, who was well respected as a jazz pianist and lecturer that was the head of the New York Metropolitan Music School and later held posts in both Julliard and Yale.

Some of Jack’s rhythmic development can be attributed to the fact that he spent several years apart from his guitar and being drawn to piano, vibes and percussion.

I asked Jack, who his favorite guitarists were and after Johnny Smith, he said that the list would have to include Barney Kessel, Django Reinhardt, Julian Bream, Raphael Rabello, Luiz Bonfa, Baden Powell, and Tal Farlow. But, there would be room on his list for more.

Jazz has been a big part of Jack’s life, but he also has a love for Classical and Brazilian.

No doubt, every musician has some musicians that they wish they could have performed with and Jack said that the first two that came to mind would be Oscar Peterson and Freddie Hubbard.

There are many advanced students that attend The New School, The Manhattan School of Music, NYU and LIU, where Wilkins conducts seminars. Never having a pat way of teaching, Jack listens and helps his students work on whatever will bring them to the next level of professionalism.

The advice Jack Wilkins gives to all is threefold. Find a good teacher, learn to read music and listen, listen, listen.

Maybe now you can say you know Jack!

Have a listen to Here’s That Rainy Day.

How does Chieli’s guitar playing stack up against some of the greats. Well, at the end of this post, just listen to Chieli’s version of Jeff Beck’s ” ‘Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers.” Chieli plays this with his own flair and makes the song his own.

There is a good chance you have heard some of Chieli’s guitar playing on other artist’s CDs, such as Celine Dion, Lionel Richie, Jennifer Lopez, Jewel, Jessica Simpson, Bobby Caldwell, Marion Meadows, Kim Waters, along with hearing his compositional work on CBS’s “The Guiding Light” and the live production work of “Dora the Explorer.” A special 25th year commemorative album, with the music of his own is soon to be released, so stay tuned.

You may soon have a new favorite in your CD collection and for that I say “You’re Welcome!”

Have a listen to this Chieli tune

Cause we Ended as Lovers

For more just visit Chieli Music

On Friday (May 9^th, 2008) the world lost a great musician and a wonderful human being named Wayne Wright.

Everyone that came to know Wayne Wright would have their own personal “Wayne’s World” story. Peter Pan must have still left some fairy dust on him, because he was always impish and wanted nothing to do with too serious a world. And yet it was Wayne that would always help someone to look at themselves when things kept going wrong. He gave out life lessons, while keeping his wonderful sense of humor.

Wayne was the rhythm guitarist for Judy Garland, Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee, George Barnes, Les Paul and a host of others. Many people grew as guitarists by being around Wayne. Wayne never considered himself a teacher as much as he viewed his role as a coach. His art was making people listen to themselves, where the melody was going and how they could support the melody at the same time.

Joe Pass introduced me to Wayne and he told us that we’d probably get along well, because we both have an off-beat sense of humor. Wayne made sure he introduced me to lots of great players, such as Tal Farlow, Martin Taylor, Jack Wilkins, Gene Bertoncini and Billy Bauer.

William L. Palminteri was the photographer for this last performance picture of Wayne. He pointed out something that I hadn’t noticed and other people may be wondering about — Wayne was not tuning his guitar in this picture, but rather had dropped the low E string for just a moment and readjusted it, all as part of the song; It was a Wayneism!

Wayne was surely a character. The last week of his life he was taken off a ventilator system and it was believed that he couldn’t make it past 24 hours, but it was about 3 days later, he woke up and the first words out of his mouth were, “how far did you park the car from here”. Wayne wanted to make a break for it. The very last day of his life, his wife knew she had to talk to him about the inevitable and she asked if there was anything he would care most to be laid out in, Wayne simply said “Surprise me!” That man was just one of a kind.

As terrific a guitarist as Wayne was, that’s not going to be what all his friends miss most. In Wayne we got to see a man whose love for life was truly great, who took such pride in his friends that it almost popped his buttons. We saw too, someone who spoke lovingly of his children Scott and Nancy, of his beautiful granddaughter Jenny and most of all we saw a man that was truly thrilled to have spent his life with his wife JoAnn.

Wayne helped us all pay attention to the whole notes in life and so we’re thankful for having known him and we’ll all miss him so much for that!

I wish I had a tape recorder with me that night, because up in the dressing room after the first set Emily asked Jim if she could borrow his beautiful cherry colored guitar. Joe told her to play a tune with him. They had one beautiful interchange after another and it was something the rest audience downstairs never got to see.

After playing with Joe, rather than stay for the 2nd set Emily asked me how my back was and wanted to know if I’d mind checking out Leni Stern, because she was playing that night at the 55 Bar on Christopher Street. So, playing horse again, we made our way over a few more blocks.

What thrilled Emily that night was seeing not only two legendary guitarists at the Blue Note, but seeing another wonderful guitarist, who was also a great writer. Emily said “hey, I know I’ve got the chops, but I would love to write like Leni”.

Leni was playing that night with a blazing guitarist named Wayne Krantz and as always her solos were silky smooth. I’ll tell more about Leni another time, but what I saw that night made me realize that every talented individual has something to glean from another. Beautiful music is always an interchange.

If you’re not familiar with Emily Remler than I’d suggest checking out the following.

http://www.allthingsemily.com/

I wasn’t the only one that was surprised that I spoke to Ella; that night her manager saw me and came over and said “how did you do that?” I said “do what?” He said “talk to Ella for so long on the telephone. Because when her soap operas start she doesn’t talk to anyone and I mean anyone, she even kicks me out of the room, and I’m her manager!” I can only guess that she felt like talking that day and was thrilled to be performing there at Carnegie Hall.

That night I didn’t actually get a seat out front. Somehow Joe Pass seemed to get me the most memorable ways to see his shows. This night he brought me up to Ella’s room where they had two small sliding doors which when opened up, were right above the stage and I could look down and see the whole show.

After Ella’s performance all the celebrities paraded up to her room, like Carly Simon, Peter Allen and Tony Bennet and a long line of people. Joe asked if I wanted to join them for drinks. What an amazing night, not only was I with the finest solo jazz guitarist in the world, the First Lady of Song, but at this hotel lounge (I believe we were on 56th Street) Wes Montgomery’s brother, Buddy Montgomery was on the piano. Now how can you get a better night in seeing jazz than that!

Jaco with Joni
Jaco sitting and playing