sounds

Please visit the joe finn YouTube channel to hear tracks from these albums, various live clips, solo guitar and more:

 INTERVIEWS

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Empire Radio Sounds Jazz Artist of the Month Joe Finn

This interview was conducted in April 2022:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGbdNjfwziU

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Joe was interviewed for the “Six count podcast” with xara wilde in 2019

https://sixcount.simplecast.com/episodes/joe-finn-post-bop-jazz-guitarist?fbclid=IwAR1qkh8YRvj10s_NRA-hh6nZZXcLg9ZnOD_PDZklsYUPxSiHkZXcHWYvBrk

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By Monica Waring

Old Chatham local and nationally recognized jazz guitarist, Joe Finn, released his sixth album in March of this year. The album, appropriately titled Generational Dynamics, is particularly special to the veteren instrumentalist with the addition of his son Tom on alto saxophone, the +1 of the Joe Finn Trio.

Both Joe and his son Tom grew up in Old Chatham surrounded by jazz music in their home. Joe was first introduced to music through his father’s jazz records collected during his days as a radio announcer and host of his own show “Spin With Finn” during the big band era in Connecticut. Joe’s father was not only a music enthusiast, but an amateur composer and piano player who saw to Joe’s musical education at the age of five with piano lessons. Joe didn’t stick with piano long however. The moment he picked up the guitar, he knew it was his instrument and hasn’t put it down since.

Forging a career in music

After receiving a BA in Music from Plattsburgh State followed by a decade on the road playing gigs across the U.S. and Canada, Joe returned to Old Chatham. He wanted to focus on local performances, recording and private guitar lessons taught from his private home studio. It was these guitar lessons that eventually peaked an interest in his young son, who wanted the same one on one attention he saw guitar students receive from his father. “I remember sitting him on my lap with the guitar when he was really little. He would try to press the strings down but he didn’t like it because it hurt his fingers. His Mom had played the alto saxophone in high school and she still had the horn in the closet. She got it out of its case, played a few notes on it, and then gave him the horn and he started playing. He really enjoyed it right from the beginning. We played together a lot, I mean seven days a week for years until he went off to school when he was 18.” Tom, now 30, plays the alto saxophone professionally and is employed as an instructor at The Bronx Charter School for the Arts in New York City and at The Litchfield Jazz Festival Music Camp in the summer, where his father once taught. Tom has grown as an artist and an equal in this recent album, according to Joe.

Father and son collaborate

“There is a musical maturation in Tom’s playing. I have included him on various gigs of mine since he was 13 or so, and we had of course played at home for years before that. Now that he is 30, he is really coming into his own as a performer and stylist. It’s gratifying to finally have a recording where we are together as collaborators. The give and take dynamic of father and son working together is something that happens only occasionally in jazz. So the CD title “Generational Dynamics” emphasizes this and when you listen it’s clear that Tom is a full partner in this endeavour.”

In addition to his son, Joe is also proud of the album as it’s the realization of a long time dream. Influenced by the music of guitarists George Benson, Wes Montgomery and Pat Martino, who had all recorded extensively with organists in a classic jazz configuration, Joe had hoped to do the same. For years he had no luck in finding a talented organist to play with regularly until he met Jon LeRoy, who finally helped fulfill the goal of producing a recording ensemble of guitar, drums and organ [+1]

Local influences

Looking back, Joe credits the Chatham High School Music Department for helping to make jazz music relevant and accessible to generations of local students through their program. Joe remembers touring with the Chatham High School Jazz Band , an experience that opened his eyes to a whole new world of performing , as it did for his son. 

“When I was in High School in the 1960s and 1970s Chatham had a jazz band . Tom’s experience a generation later was very much the same as mine. His band director’s name was Mark Giordano, who was a great mentor for Tom. He did amazing work with those kids. He took them to play at High School jazz festivals and he took them to perform at Lincoln Center, which was a real treat; especially for some of the students who had never been away from Chatham before.”

Old Chatham DNA

For Finn, his roots in Old Chatham have become part of his musical DNA and a family legacy. “Jazz for me is what I grew up listening to. It’s who I am. It’s my identity. Music is cultural expression. I played in all kinds of bands and I played every imaginable gig you could think of but I grew up in Old Chatham, New York, so in the end you just have to be who you are. Be true to yourself. That’s my own cultural experience growing up with jazz, and I guess I can thank my Dad for that because that’s what he introduced me to.”

Finn continues to perform and record locally and still teaches guitar from his home in Old Chatham. He is also the author of The Jazz Guitar Almanac, a blog style feature on his website that includes tips and advice for guitarists and other useful information for musicians of all skill levels.

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The following interview was given to Jazz Guitar Life in 2004

JGL: How old are you?

JF: I was born on January 29, 1953 in Hartford, Connecticut.

JGL: At what age did you first get into guitar playing and were you interested in jazz from the beginning or were there other musical interests before jazz? What was the motivating experience to get you involved in this particular music and instrument?

JF: I was exposed to music in infancy since my Father was an amateur pianist. He was also a radio announcer. He had a big collection of recordings that he had appropriated once the radio station was through with them. He was either playing the piano or playing records pretty much all the time. I remember hearing a lot of Nat Cole, Lionel Hampton, Stan Kenton, various big bands and lots of Frank Sinatra. He also listened to a lot of classical music. At the piano he would play a little Beethoven, various jazz standards like Green Dolphin Street and his own compositions. So I got to play the piano as a kid. They tell me I would spend hours sitting there plunking out little melodies and chords. I then got interested in guitar because my cousin had one. This was before I was ten. I don’t think he played it much and he let me borrow it. I hung on to it for an entire summer before getting one of my own.

JGL: What kind, if any, formal training do you have (ie: lessons, schooling, that sort of thing). And how did these experiences help you get where you are today?

JF: I have a bachelor’s degree in music from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. It helped me a lot to take those four years and focus heavily on music. The curriculum included ear training, composition, arranging, music history, theory, and the like. I also got my first opportunities there to work with and meet real professional players. Paul Winter, Chuck Mangione, Roy Burns, and Kirk Nurock, Billy Cobham, and John McLaughlin were some of the ones I remember. Aside from being inspiring musically, guys like this gave us the idea that a life in music was not just a dream. They were actually living that life. I had some great instructors too. Jim Miller, Jerry Lavene, Billy Hawkins and David Hoffman were people who really encouraged and inspired me.

JGL: What was your first guitar?

JF: The one I borrowed from my cousin was a Kay archtop.

JGL: Who were your influences on jazz guitar when you were beginning? And have they stayed the same or have they changed over the years? Who are you listening to today (guitarists or non-guitarists)?

JF: The first recording of a guitar I would have heard was Oscar Moore with the Nat Cole Trio. He was a very fine player that I learned to appreciate more and more later on. A lot of that music has been reissued and revisited by people like Natalie Cole and John Pizzarelli so it’s still pretty popular. I enjoy that style tremendously since I grew up with it. Later on I got interested in George Benson, Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery and Pat Martino. I copied each of their styles closely. I would transcribe their solos and practice them until I could play them note for note. Those four will always be really special for me. Listening wise I go for a variety of different things. I love free improvisation the way Cecil Taylor and Bruce Eisenbeil do it. I listen to a lot of big band music. Maria Schneider is one of my current favorites. I always liked Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, Toshiko, Carla Bley, Kenton and Buddy Rich too. I’ve listened to lots of Ellington, Basie and Wynton Marsalis also. I leave the radio tuned to the local classical station so I get to hear a little so called “serious” music every day. I even like to listen to opera. Among guitarists I like to listen to Fred Fried, Jim Hall, Paul Bollenback, Russell Malone, Mark Whitfield and Jimmy Bruno. I love what Pat Martino is up to these days. He’s the greatest.

JGL: Did you know early on that music was something you wanted to do as a career choice and if so, what were some of the things you did to make this choice work for you?

JF: Back when I was too young to have any idea what a career might actually be, I had a feeling that music would be something I would always be involved with. It was just intuition, I guess. I was always hanging around with the other players and when you are around these various musical situations you just get involved more and more. As time went on my interest in music continued to grow and various opportunities would just naturally come up. Before you know it you’ve got something people are calling a career.

JGL: When you were younger what was your band experiences like? Did you have friends who were involved in music as well or did you have to search for people to play with.

JF: I had friends in high school who liked to get together and play various easier tunes like Footprints, Maiden Voyage or Freddie Freeloader or whatever. We learned from listening to records and from each other. There didn’t seem to be as many instructors around back then so we were sort of on our own for a while. I also played electric bass in the high school jazz band. This I loved because we got to play concerts out of town. That was really fun for me. I think that was my first time away from home too.

JGL: What was your practice routine like when you were beginning and what is it like now? Are there specific areas that you work on or do you just play through tunes?

JF: As a kid I spent a lot of time playing along with records. I did this every day for years. It helped my ear and my time a lot. It’s still a good way to learn tunes. I continue to enjoy playing along with the recordings of other guitar players. Jimmy Bruno is a good one because he has so much imagination and facility.

JGL: How difficult do you find it making a living as a jazz guitar player? Or have you found it to be relatively easy?

JF: I think it’s a lot like being self employed in any other line of work. I’m basically a free lance independent contractor. I have to create my own opportunities and sort of make things happen. You’d have to do this in any business, though. It certainly has it’s ups and downs, that’s for sure. You don’t make the same amount of money every month. That can sometimes be a problem. I don’t seem to have any trouble staying busy. I just keep a lot of lines in the water, so to speak. The calendar seems to fill itself up.

JGL: How do you go about searching for gigs? And what have you found in your experience that makes looking for gigs easier?

JF: I keep the traveling to a minimum. Almost all my gigs are near enough so that I don’t have to stay overnight anywhere very often. I have lots of local contacts among musicians, the union, and various venues in the area. This helps a lot. It’s kind of a word of mouth thing where your contacts and your reputation are the things that get you booked. Having recordings and an internet presence helps a lot too.

JGL: What type of musical situation do you enjoy the most (ie: trio, quartet, duo, solo, etc.)

JF: I’ve learned to become comfortable in each of several musical configurations. There are aspects of playing in trio, quartet, duo, and solo settings that differ one from the other. I’ve played a lot more solo gigs in the last year or so for some reason and I really enjoy the freedom I have when I’m all by myself. I can do things as a soloist that are a lot of fun for me that I’d never get away with in a group. My regular quartet is a great little group too. Those guys are such strong players that it makes my job easy.

JGL: Do you like performing more as a sideman or as a leader? And if you could comment on the pros and cons of both.

JF: I’ve been working more and more as a leader. I like it a lot because I get to choose the material that best suits me and I like interacting with the audience. I always say a few words to the crowd to put them at ease and let them get to know me a little. This usually makes people more relaxed and receptive. Basically I just want them to enjoy the music.

JGL: How many CD’s have you released as a leader?

JF: There are now four releases. “Straight Ahead” from 1992, “Guitar Signatures and Duets” from 2001, “Blue Tomorrow” from 2002 and “Destiny Blue” from 2003.

JGL: What was the motivation to release your own CD’s? And what was your experience as such getting that first CD out (from the initial idea to the final product)? Do you have any plans for future projects and if so, will there be more original compositions on it or do you prefer playing standards?

JF: In some ways I record simply as a way of expressing myself musically. I’m looking to create a certain statement of where I’m at musically at a given time. I love being involved in the recording process. It takes time but the results are worth it. The last CD “Destiny Blue” was a continuation of the quartet concept that we began on “Blue Tomorrow”. I had a collection of standards and originals that we had been performing as a quartet and we just felt the need to lay them down in the studio. There’s a certain sense in which you want to document what the band is doing in the relatively controlled setting of the studio. Putting the tracks together into a coherent album of music is a very satisfying process. I haven’t decided if the next cd will be with the quartet or not yet. I feel a little like I’ve done what I can do with the quartet concept for the time being. I may record some duets with piano just to see where that takes me.

I’m in no rush to record right now. I can wait until the time is right.

JGL: Any advice for the younger guy or gal who is thinking about playing jazz guitar?

JF: I have a half dozen private students right now. I give them advice all the time. Some of them actually listen, too! I think the big thing for a lot of them is to learn as much of the repertoire as they can. A lot of them are good readers and many can improvise pretty well. One of the things that tends to hold them back is not knowing enough tunes. I usually ask a student to learn a tune every week. If they do this for two or three years they’ll have a pretty good list of material.

JGL: On your site, there is a wonderful resource called the Jazz Guitar Almanac…could you describe how that came about and do you put all the work in it yourself? It truly is a great resource. I visit it often and I really enjoy it. I always come away from it having learned something new. So kudos to you!

JF: About five years ago I began to notice that there were a lot of guitar players who had put websites up. Rick Stone and Jimmy Bruno were into this pretty early. I wanted to put up some instructional material and the usual audio clips and biographical information, but I felt like I wanted some other kind of content too. I wanted something that other sites didn’t have that would make my site a little bit different. I began to think about all the great guitar players over the last century who were becoming increasingly obscure. The idea of establishing a list of birthdays was what I came up with as a way of keeping the names of these players in circulation. I combined this with a list of tips for guitar players. It took me about a year to get the tips and the birthdays together but I’m glad I’ve done that. I always get lots of positive feedback regarding The Jazz Guitar Almanac.

JGL: I read somewhere that you appeared on BET’s Jazz Discovery Showcase in 1998 and won the award in their jazz instrumental category. How did that come about and what, if any, was the outcome of winning such an award?

JF: There was a local television show in Albany, New York at the time that had invited the quartet to play. It turned out that the audio and the video quality we got was excellent and one of the guys in the band asked why didn’t we submit a copy to Jazz Discovery Showcase? We had performed “Lucky Southern” and “The Days of Wine and Roses” on the tape which turned out to be good choices because they were very accessible and swinging. The funny thing about having won the award was that they put my private phone number on the screen after they had played the clip. This resulted in me getting all kinds of phone calls from all kinds of people I didn’t know in the middle of the night when the show aired. That was different. The phone calls were mostly good natured and amusing. All in all it was a great experience.

JGL: You play quite a few gigs as a solo guitarist and your CD “Guitar Signatures and Duets” is a solo guitar venture where you you pay tribute to jazz guitarists like George Benson, Joe Pass, Kenny Burrell, and others who have influenced your playing and/or listening habits in way or another. How did this CD come to be?. Could you explain why you have chosen this form of guitar playing and do you find it limiting at all or is there a greater sense of freedom not being bound by another instrument? How do you approach this method of playing?

JF: Well, as it turns out, there is a small group of my fellow guitarists to whom I owe a huge debt. These are the guys that taught me, through their recordings, not just how to play guitar but how to approach the art in a broader sense. What I decided to do was to record several solo guitar selections with each one being in the style of one of these players. I did this out of admiration and respect for these guys. Each of these players had a specific way of making a solo statement on the guitar that is very distinctive. To me it’s just as individualistic as a signature. That’s where the CD’s title came from. Playing unaccompanied solos in this way is very liberating but very demanding too. There is a lot of responsibility and a lot of freedom at the same time. Trying to keep all of this focused within the bounds of the “guitar signatures” theme made it a very challenging project for me. On some of the selections I did dozens of takes and was still not pleased with the results. After what seemed like weeks I finally got enough of what I was listening for to bring the project to fruition. It was really hard work, much more difficult than a combo recording.

JGL: How important is the audience to you? And how do you handle nights when the club is practically empty or when you are playing your heart out and everyone seems to be blabbing away and not listening to what you’re playing?

JF: The audience is everything. Without them I’m out of business. Everybody plays to a half empty house now and then. There will also be nights, in clubs mostly, when the crowd is inattentive or too busy socializing with one another to bother listening. It doesn’t bother me anymore though. I see every time I perform as an opportunity to make something beautiful happen. It doesn’t matter how humble or how spectacular the situation might be. It’s nice to have the audience with you of course, but if they aren’t that’s ok. Even on the worst nights there is still somebody out there listening closely.

JGL: I’ve read that you endorse guitars made by the Montreal luthier Michael Greenfield. How did all of this come about? Were you approached by these guitar makers or did you seek them out?

JF: I’m very pleased to be associated with Michael Greenfield. He makes some of the greatest guitars I’ve ever played. I’ve played all the best guitars on the market and Greenfield guitars are unsurpassed. I met Michael at a guitar show where I was performing last year. After playing his guitars and talking to him for a while we decided to get together on some promotional things. He had me up to Montreal to record some music for his demo cd and we’ll also be doing the Classic American Guitar Show on Long Island in May 2004. At this point in my life I can play any guitar I want. So I sat down with Greenfield and came up with some ideas for a custom archtop. He is building it to my specifications. I’m sure it will be spectacular; all select wood, with a carved top custom voiced by Michael. It should be ready pretty soon. This level of craftsmanship takes time. You can’t rush it.

JGL: You live in Upper New York State. Could you describe the scene their for jazz musicians and jazz guitar players in general? And have you ever thought about moving to a larger metroploitan milieu like New York or Boston or elsewhere? Is it a quality of life issue for you?

JF: There’s more than enough going on in upstate New York to keep me busy. There are a few other guitarists in the area too like Chuck D’Aloia, Jack Fragomeni, Joe Gitto and Sam Farkas. They are all solid players and nice friendly guys too. Good players will always stay busy. I play a lot in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont also. I haven’t played in New York or Boston lately but I really enjoyed my last trip to Montreal. I’d like to do some gigs there again soon.

JGL: Have you ever had second thoughts about your choice to have music as a career and if so, what other career path do you think you would have followed had you not been a guitar player.

JF: I don’t have second thoughts really. Not really. One of the things that continues to be important to me is to play well. What I mean is that I want my playing to be on a really high level. That’s not always easy even when music is a full time pursuit. It’s a constant challenge. I really don’t know what I’d be doing if I wasn’t a guitar player. I kiddingly say that I’m a guitar player because I’m not smart enough to do anything else. Actually, I’m really only half kidding.

JGL: Thank you Joe for participating in jazzguitarlife.com. It is most appreciated.

The Jazz guitar almanac

april 2025

April 1

Earl Klugh’s wonderful solo rendition of the under-appreciated Burt Bacharach tune “The April Fools” is certainly worth a listen today.

April 2

Happy Birthday , Larry Coryell! [1943]

The eclectic Mr. Coryell has recorded and performed jazz, rock, fusion, classical, and even vocals. His discography is a study in contrast.

“Over the years I hope I've become more of a musician and less of a guitarist.”      Larry Coryell

April 3

Happy Birthday, Paul Abler!!   [1957]

It's natural to engage in a certain amount of hero worship during your formative years. There is certainly a lot to be learned from those who paved the way in any given endeavor. The greater lesson is to learn to be the person only you can be. Finding one's own voice is the ultimate in personal expression and is at the very center of the process of maturation. In music a very high premium is attached to this sort of individuality but one of the stepping stones towards this destination is the imitation of what came before. As Clark Terry put it, "imitate, assimilate, innovate".

April 4

"A guitar is something you can hold and love and it's never going to bug you. But here's the secret about the guitar - it's defiant. It will never let you conquer it. The more you get involved with it, the more you realize how little you know." Les Paul

Studying music is a lifelong developmental process. The history of music is such that no one will live long enough to hear all of it, much less play all of it. It therefore becomes necessary to be something of a specialist. We choose and stick with a principle instrument and tend to focus on a particular style or era in the repertoire. Even then it seems like one lifetime is not enough. There is always new music to learn and perform.

April 5

Happy Birthday, John Parricelli!! (1959)

Being involved with music is to be a part of something that is much greater than any one individual. Music goes back to prehistoric times and spans the centuries. It is an essential element of cultural expression and is at the core of our humanity. Music is timeless and universal. Pondering these points fills me with awe and humility.

April 6

Happy Birthday, Gene Bertoncini!  [1937]

Happy Birthday, John Pizzarelli!  [1960]

I always look forward to performing with a pianist. The range of harmonic and textural possibilities are so interesting to explore. As with anyone else in a rhythm section, you like to work with people who are open to the possibilities and are trying to achieve a good blend. Most pianists fit this description but some do not. 

April 7

Happy Birthday, Sylvain Luc!!! (1965)

Happy Birthday, Harry Volpe!!! (1904) 

Each of the great classic jazz guitarists addressed the same repertoire. They were all great swinging blues players too. As a matter of emphasis they each had recognizable stylistic nuances. But as you go down the list that includes Pass, Montgomery, Burrell, Grant Green, Christian, Raney, Smith, Farlow, et. al. , it becomes clear that you are considering some of the great instrumentalists in the history of the jazz style. They gave us a combination of virtuosity and spontaneity that was of the very highest level. The achievements of these men will still be appreciated and studied for generations yet to come.

April 8

Happy Birthday, Phil Lee!!  [1943]

"Jazz attracted me because in it I found a formal perfection and instrumental precision that I admire in classical music, but which popular music doesn't have."

Django Reinhardt

Django's remark about "formal perfection and instrumental precision" is very interesting. In fact, there are a lot of people who don’t believe that Django could have ever said something like this. But if he did say this, it would have been a very astute observation. Over the years, the virtuosity expected from classical players has come to be the standard in jazz as well. This may not have been the typical back in the 1930s, but Django was actually one of the people who helped to raise the bar to where it is these days.

April 9

Happy Birthday, Al Gafa!    [1941]

“To me [sound is] what attracts people to all the great players in jazz. Their sound is like their personality. You hear Bird, you hear Lester Young, you hear their sounds, it's their character come to life. You hear masters like Jim Hall, Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian, Grant Green, Kenny Burrell... and everything is wrapped up in their tone. Tone is a broad term; it includes the sound of one note but also the sound of their phrasing and also their thought process.” Peter Bernstein

April 10

Happy Birthday, George Freeman!  [1927]

Happy Birthday, Tom Giacabetti! [?]

Marshall Stearns was a scholar and musicologist who wrote about jazz for Variety, Downbeat, Esquire and Harper’s. He is the author of “The Story of Jazz” and “Jazz Dance”.  He founded The Institute for Jazz Studies and accompanied Dizzy Gillespie on a tour of the Middle East in 1956 under the auspices of the State Department. Stearns also taught at The School of Jazz in Lenox, Massachusetts. He defined jazz as “A semi-improvisational American music distinguished by an immediacy of communication, an expressiveness characteristic of the free use of the human voice, and a complex flowing rhythm; it is the result of a three hundred years blending in the United States of the European and West African musical traditions; and its predominant components are European harmony, Euro-African melody and African rhythm.

April 11

"Never give up! Become as good a musician as you possibly can and find your own voice. Don't copy anyone and be sincere in your music. Don't talk yourself into wealth and thinking, "This way, I'll make more money" because you have to be sincere and really believe in the music that you're playing. Otherwise, I think audiences can tell and you certainly can tell -- so you have to be true to yourself. Otherwise you won't be happy."  

Jimmy Bruno

April 12

Happy Birthday, Dave Mosick!!     [1967]

All musicians need to spend at least some time at the piano. This is the way we come to understand counterpoint, harmony, orchestration and the way we learn to unlock our musical imaginations. The piano helps us understand our principle instrument better. And the instrument plays itself; just press the right keys at the right time.

April 13

Happy Birthday, Thom Rotella!    [1951]

Happy Birthday, Grant Geissman!! (1953)

“God bless him. [Joe Pass] was my favorite guitarist, and still is. We had a way of playing, we knew how to back each other up. But then we could both play at the same time. I mean both soloing at the same time. And that can be difficult, but with him…. we just fit with each other, you know. The reason was that we were both very selfless; he towards my playing and me towards his playing. So we would play these things where we were both playing at the same time; that’s dangerous territory. We could do it just like it was written out for us. Amazing.”

Herb Ellis 1995

April 14

Happy Birthday,  Bill Harris! [1925]

“[Gibson] started doing what they call an artist series — Barney [Kessel] did one, Johnny Smith did one and a guy not on the jazz scene, Trini Lopez did one…….   I did the design, actually. But they didn’t follow it very closely, in fact the guitar I have with me is the prototype of the one they produced — it’s not like the one they produced, my copy of that got stolen at an airport, I think that’s where it went anyway, somewhere between San Francisco and Newark, so I’ve been playing this prototype, it’s a different colour — basically — as far as the dimensions go, it’s the same thing. The only thing novel on it they couldn’t do, they declined to do it because they felt sure they would get them back for repair, was instead of having two stationary pick-ups on it, I suggested they make one on a track that could be moved into the fingerboard and the bridge, and that would cover all situations. I proposed they use one pick-up and move it from one place to the other, but they said they were pretty sure it would develop rattles or whatever, all that circuitry that was necessary would pick up a lotta noise, interference, and so out through the amplifier and they would get them back in great quantities to the factory to be repaired, and they said they wanted to avoid that if they can. So they went ahead and put two pick-ups on it, so there’s not really anything novel about it, except maybe the colour!”   Tal Farlow

April 15

Happy Birthday,  Bernard Addison!   [1905]

Happy Birthday, Joe Sodja!   [1911]

Jazz was well established and coexisted with the American popular style for a long time before the rock era emerged. The popular tunes of Cole Porter, Jimmy Van Heusen, the Gershwins, Irving Berlin, Oscar Hammerstein, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, Frank Loesser, Johnny Mercer, Harry Warren, Vincent Youmans, et al,  have been reinterpreted by jazz players for decades. Rock era material is a little tricky in the jazz idiom because it doesn't swing; but Herbie Hancock's  Joni Mitchell album and his previous "New Standard" album contained excellent examples of rock material in a jazz setting.  

April 16

Happy Birthday , Tony Rizzi!  [1923]

Happy Birthday , Ulf Wakenius!  [1958]

Tip of the day: Today’s birthday boy, Tony Rizzi,  is well known for bringing the “Supersax” concept to the guitar. His jazz guitar choir recordings are  wonderful listening and highly recommended.

April 17

Happy Birthday, Johnny St. Cyr! [1890]

A lot of music is easier to learn by reading than by listening or by rote memorization; so reading opens up a range of opportunities to better learn and understand music. Don't get caught in the trap of thinking that because  some legendary player like Wes Montgomery was not supposed to have been a great reader that you don't have to read. Musical literacy is crucial. And learning to read is one of life's lesser agonies. Your instructor will get you started. Its no big deal. 

April 18

Happy Birthday,  Tony Mottola!  [1918]

The jazz tradition has continued to grow and evolve over the last century. Jazz has become a significant and important musical style. Some of the greatest figures of this history have built on what came before and even departed from its tradition and broken its rules. People like this are sometimes called innovators. There are inevitably  other people who break the rules without knowing what they are. People like this are known as beginners.

April 19

Happy Birthday, Gene Lees (1920)   

Learning 500 hot guitar licks does not an improviser make. The best improvisation goes way beyond all the scale/chord stuff, all the licks and all the rest of the formulaic approaches that are the antithesis of spontaneity. The best improvisation is dealing directly with the origination of fresh thematic material and developing it in context.

April 20

Happy Birthday, Issi Rozen!    [1971]

When I was still in my teens I met some Caribbean musicians and for some reason they allowed me to play with them. I loved their music so much, but at times it made me feel like I didn't know how to count to four anymore. The rhythms were beautiful and exotic to me and I tried hard to fit in with their grooves, but it really wasn't happening and they eventually fired me. That was an important lesson in terms of cultural appropriation, too. I realized that even if I practiced for an eternity I would never play their music as well as they did. They grew up within a certain culture and what was second nature to them would never be something I would play very well. I would have always been a musical outsider; competent at times, but never quite "stylistically convincing".

April 21

Happy Birthday,  Mundell Lowe!  [1922]

When you are recording  you'll often just have a part in front of you and maybe have a chance to talk through it for a moment. Sometimes you'll even get to rehearse it but then you've got to lay it down. Other rehearsal/performance situations present similar circumstances. I think the expectation is that the musicians should "know" the music well enough after a quick look at it or a rehearsal to then go ahead and perform or record it. In many cases a musician may never again have a reason to remember what he just rehearsed and recorded. 

April 22

“When Julian [Lage] turned 15 he sent me a new demo of his playing, which impressed me greatly - more so when he told me that he had written most of the songs. It’s rare enough for someone that young to play on a professional level, and rarer still for him to be a credible composer too. I knew the time had arrived for us to make a record together.”         Gary Burton

April 23

My friend attended a Ray Brown masterclass years ago. Maestro Brown spoke about the importance of listening and the development of the ear as it relates to performing and developing repertoire. To illustrate his point, Ray put a $20 bill on the table. He said that if anyone could name a song he couldn't play they could have the twenty. His knowledge of the repertoire was comprehensive and legendary. Brown grew up in the pre-Real Book era; and he kept the twenty that day too.   

April 24

By the time Wynton Marsalis came along things were ripe for a kind of neo-classical revival movement. When he began playing with Art Blakey in 1980 jazz was quickly becoming an endangered species. The issue of stylistic purity was a hot topic because avant garde and fusion had begun to overshadow straight ahead jazz. Someone with a more traditional outlook was bound to re-establish the style sooner or later. Wynton was in the right place at the right moment.

April 25

There was a time when jazz was dance music and or entertainment. Rock became popular about the same time television broadcasting came along. By then jazz was already into a post bop style. It's avant garde phase was well underway by the mid 1960's too. Jazz was becoming less of an entertainment and more like an increasingly sophisticated art form. Some lament this development but what's done is done. My personal view is that jazz became more compelling, richer and more satisfying.


April 26

"Pops. Sweet Papa Dip. Satchmo. He had perfect pitch and perfect rhythm. His improvised melodies and singing could be as lofty as a moon flight or as low-down as the blood drops of a street thug dying in the gutter. Like most of the great innovators in jazz, he was a small man. But the extent of his influence across jazz, across American music and around the world has such continuing stature that he is one of the few who can easily be mentioned with Stravinsky, Picasso and Joyce. His life was the embodiment of one who moves from rags to riches, from anonymity to internationally imitated innovator. Louis Daniel Armstrong supplied revolutionary language that took on such pervasiveness that it became commonplace, like the light bulb, the airplane, the telephone." - Stanley Crouch

April 27

Happy Birthday, Calvin Newborn !  [1933]

Happy Birthday,  Lionel Loueke !!   [1973]

As a college student I transcribed a Neil Hefti arrangement that was recorded by the Basie band. The writing was very sophisticated and it was an intellectually demanding exercise.  I have heard more "modern" writing in the many years that have passed since then. Writing with polytonality, odd meters, exotic coloration, extended forms, etc. that was not present in the Basie style might be heard in the style of the Vanguard Orchestra, Maria Schneider, etc. Times have changed and things are different. I love the new music but that doesn't mean I love the old stuff any less. The ongoing development of the jazz style is one of gradual refinement. Part of what makes new music compelling and irresistible is the incremental introduction of something a little more sophisticated in the context of the familiar tradition of the music's history. This places new demands on the listener and invites them to think about what they are hearing. The riches that unfold during new listening experiences are, to me at least, compelling and irresistible. I'll continue to seek out new music on that basis. It satisfies the lust for new sounds.

April 28

Happy Birthday, Leni Stern  ! [1952]

Happy Birthday, Steve Khan!   [1947]

I grew up listening to my Father’s record collection. In the years before Elvis the line between pop music and jazz was quite different. The great tradition of American popular music including Berlin, the Gershwins, Porter, etc. was closely related to jazz due to extensive borrowing by jazz players. My Dad was a big band fanatic. He loved Kenton, Billy May, Les Brown and all the old swing era stuff too. He was somewhat less enthusiastic about Ellington and Basie but then he grew up in the era of segregation. When I got into the Gill Evans/Miles Davis stuff he seemed to like it. 

April 29

Happy Birthday, Toots Thielemans!  [1922]

Happy  Birthday, Will Matthews!  [1957]

Phrasing is what I think people mean when they use terms like "groove" or "playing time". I'm not sure they are exactly the same things. The ability to play a specific tempo without speeding up or slowing down is what I mean by "playing time" but the term "groove" is commonly used also. Phrasing has more to do with the various combinations of rhythm figures, accents, inflections, etc. that a player uses to animate the melodic line. Phrasing is a big part of a jazz player's identity. It's also very idiosyncratic. Guys like Ellis, Farlow, Hall, all had highly evolved ways of improvising and subdividing.

April 30

Many of my guitar students have been high school age and a lot of these kids are looking forward to going away to college. I've had a lot of them that have done really well and a few that have crashed and burned. In my case, when I was a freshman in college, the dorm director brought us all together for a little speech early that first semester. We were in an all male dorm with about 400 residents, three to a room. "I'd like each of you gentlemen to look at the man on your left and the man on your right," the dorm director said, "because one of the three of you won't be here next year." I'm not sure if he was trying to be discouraging but it turned out to be roughly true. Both of my roommates dropped out. A lot of young men seem to make a poor adjustment to academic life. Some chase girls and drink beer, some do drugs, some are homesick, some just hate to study; there are lots of specific individual circumstances, but the attrition is real. I knew a guy who quit without ever having visited the library. I think a lot of young men are lacking the emotional maturity to be honest with themselves about who they are. It takes a certain commitment to succeed in an academic setting. In music the foundation for college level success must be put in place years earlier. Students will have a better chance at making a good adjustment to the extent they can be honest with themselves about the serious commitments they will have to make regarding academic discipline. Part of what teachers and other responsible adults need to do is to provide some guidance in this regard in encouraging students to be realistic in understanding what it may take to flourish in the college setting. 

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The Jazz Guitar Almanac is published in monthly installments on the first of each month.

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Here is a review of the Joe Finn Quintet from 2021:

https://www.nippertown.com/2021/09/03/joe-finn-quintet-jazz-on-jay-9-2-21/

“Finn has a special way of taking on this music. Like modern guitar pioneer Wes Montgomery, Finn brings out the up-to-date elements of music without ever losing contact with the listener. The music stays lyrical and melodic, intelligent and pensive, never becoming discordant or unpleasing to the ear. If we awarded stars, this album would get five.” 

Dave Nathan  AllAboutJazz.com

 “Finn's technical prowess on the guitar is impressive while managing to be understated and not obviously imitative of any in the jazz pantheon.”   

David Hewitt JazzReview.com

“Finn's playing reveals a smooth tone and immaculate technique, reminiscent of such players as Barney Kessel and Herb Ellis.”

Dave Nathan AllMusic.com

“Taste, musicality, chops, maturity, and swing. These are words to live by when one steps into the ring as a jazz musician, and it's obvious from the first listen that Joe Finn and his quartet live by these words...and more.”

Lyle Robinson   JazzGuitarLife.com

“Finn proves to be a formidable player who rarely stumbles. His mostly single note licks fly by with ease, with an occasional octave twist a la Wes Montgomery.” 

Jay Collins  Cadence Magazine

“There's a fluidity to Finn's playing that always makes me smile whenever I hear him. The notes just flow out like water over a gorge.” 

J. Hunter AlbanyJazz.com

“Finn plays a straightforward, uncomplicated, but highly melodic and deftly harmonic instrument. He adopts that clean sound that seems to be the preference of his peers. This style also lets the listener get a grasp around each note Finn plays rather than trying to sort them out among a cacophony of over-ripe chordal structures.” 

Dave Nathan    AllMusic.com

“A top jazz guitarist based in upstate New York, Joe Finn has a mellow tone (a little reminiscent of Jimmy Raney), creates harmonically adventurous improvisations, and swings at every tempo.

            The COVID pandemic made it very hard for jazz musicians, but for As Luck Would Have It, the guitarist’s seventh release as a leader. Joe Finn took advantage of the fact that the top players living in his geographical area were available. His sidemen, vibraphonist Mike Benedict, pianist-keyboardist Wayne Hawkins, bassist Mike Lawrence, and drummer Pete Sweeney, have not only had extensive experience playing with major musicians but have also led bands of their own. On ten of the guitarist’s originals, they form an attractive group sound and their performances are full of subtle and inventive interplay.

            The opener, “The Good Word,” is a relaxed minor-toned medium-tempo piece that introduces the quintet and (as is true on all of the other selections) features inventive and concise guitar, vibes, and piano solos. “As Though I Had Wings” is an attractive jazz waltz which hints at “Inchworm” in spots. The uptempo “As Luck Would Have It” (with Lawrence particularly prominent in the ensembles and Sweeney taking a fine solo) is followed by “Elan,” a slow ballad that one could imagine pianist John Lewis and the Modern Jazz Quartet playing.

            “Come What May” a happy piece utilizing the chord changes of Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation,” is followed by the harmonically complex but still cooking “Purity Of Essence,” the atmospheric and moody “Dedalus,” and the swinging “Asymetrical Reflections.” The CD concludes with one of the strongest original melodies of the program (“Born Yesterday”) and the joyful “Blue Ullon.”

            Each of the ten performances on As Luck Would Have It (www.joefinn.net) is enjoyable with Joe Finn displaying an original style that, while connected to the jazz tradition, does not sound like any of his predecessors. The musicians all were clearly inspired by each other’s presence and quite happy to be playing together. The result is a high-quality set of music that is easily recommended to anyone who enjoys modern straight ahead jazz.”

Scott Yanow The Los Angeles Jazz Scene