Hey sharke,
I'm pretty much a hundred percent with you on a few of the points you have made .
I happen to like a robust guitar tone ..not a thin plink'y tone . Also once the visual is gone , if I close my eyes and it ain't happening and I no longer want to listen to the performance ....I must not be happening
As far as Stanly goes , Yes , his playing was so innovative and different that I had to give him a pass on a few Key Things ....
Now a days he probably doesn't know me from a hole in the wall but back then I did talk with him a number of times one on one ... this took place at a time when he had yet to have a firm footing in his career ...
BTW ..before he had made it he sounded every bit as good as anything I had ever heard him play since ...
I think the main thing was he got to play with better Cats and make some dough ....
He did the Miles gig totally solo in front of a few thousand folks and brought the house down...
Two things come to mind on where I differed on my opinion during some conversations with him back then .
#1 , I asked him what he thought of the Chapman Stick and he did not have anything favorable to say ...
that one I let slide ....on that point I don't blame him ....heck , he broke new ground with a regular guitar ...
#2 , At the time I was hanging out with Joe Pass a lot and he was certainly one of my all time favorite guitar players So I asked Stanley what he thought of Joe's playing .He laughed right in my face and then he told me that he thought Joe sounded like a one handed piano player
that one i did not let slide
One nice thing about back then in NYC was most of the really good guitar players I met were very merit based ...
If you could play ...you could hang w them ...unless of course if there was a RUB
One of these day I may to decide to drop some names...honestly I don't think right now is the right time or place .
One thing is for sure a lot of them were very dedicated to getting better ..one story I can tell you ,
I used to hang around with Ed Cherry all the time because Ed took me under his wing for a couple of years...
Ed was Dizzy s guitar player for many years after Rodney Jones had recommended him to take over the guitar chair ...
Ed used to drag me all over the place all hours of the day an night ...
One Night after doing a gig w Dizzy Ed tells me he want's to meet up with a real good guitar player and Jam ...
So I say yeah I'll go ...it's like 2 AM and we head into Harlem by subway and we get to a real run down looking apt building and we head up the stairs ...4 or 5 flights no elevator ...
Ed knocks on the door and a guy answers the door with no shirt on , we walk in and the only pieces of furniture are 2 chairs a cot and a little metal closet ...lol
We all shake hands and Ed whips out his Super 400 and the guy looks it over and hands it back to ED ...then he gets down on the wooden floor and bangs out something like 85 fricken push ups w out even breaking a sweat LOL
I'm like Oh oh what did I get myself into ? ....the fella grabs his guitar out of the case shows it to Ed and at that point I figure it's time for me to sit on the floor because there is only 2 chairs in the place ....
These 2 guys start playing and it was like holly Effing $hit ..this Cat was burning ....
He was a freaking Monster on the guitar ...he spanked Ed , Dizzy's guitar player right before my very eyes and ears ...
then he hands me his guitar and I'm like NNNNOOOOPPPPE
I'm just here to listen
Wound up sitting there for hours ...this guy was just like sitting there and talking to Yoda ....
Very deep Cat and player ..both Ed and I hung on every word he said ...
I will never forget this experience as long as I live ....
If there is a lesson ....
it may be you never know where you can find inspiration ...
A lot of the greatest players out there may be cats that you will never hear about because they may have no desire to be popular ....one thing is for sure they are out there
oops the Johnath Higgins in me made me tell the OT story
any way have a good one,
Kenny
post edited by kennywtelejazz - 2016/01/17 09:00:02