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

march 2025

March 1

Happy Birthday, Ralph Towner!  [1940]

" The classical guitar is really just a keyboard. There's a very important difference between plectrum playing and , not just fingerstyle, but the whole classical approach, which is the control of the volume and identity of each voice. You approach it with a keyboard sensibility , which means a lot more control of the individual notes you're striking simultaneously . That's a very important distinction, which is usually lost on plectrum players who switch from pick to classical. I can usually identify someone who is a converted plectrum player.”   

Ralph Towner  1975

March 2

Happy Birthday, Larry Carlton!  [1949]

March 3

“I heard George Barnes who was doing quite a different thing. He was from Chicago and was younger than Charlie Christian, actually and even as an eighteen year old was making some interesting arrangements of classical pieces for jazz guitar. He was a great player….  It was a long time before I heard of Django Reinhardt because Charlie was in Benny Goodman’s band which was basically a popular band and was heard every night on the radio. Django’s music was only heard on jazz music radio stations and the area that I lived in never got the benefit of those stations. So I learned about him later on in my career.”   Tal Farlow

March 4

Happy Birthday, Jim Nichols!  [1947]

“I had an opportunity to meet Wes Montgomery who had been invited for a private cruise on Lake Washington. I’m not sure who invited him, but Seattle was like that….. I stowed away down in the hold with my guitar and waited until we were out in the middle of Lake Washington before I came up on deck. I found Wes…  I told him how great he was and then I played his solo from “West Coast Blues”........  He seemed to dig it.  While we were talking Wes shared a detail about improvising. He said that he envisioned each note “a fraction of a fraction of a second” before he played it. I never forgot that.”     Larry Coryell

March 5

Happy Birthday, John Basile!     [1955]

“I don’t play like anyone else, I can play like anyone else. I can play octaves, like Wes (Montgomery), or fast, like Joe Pass. But a whole lot of notes just shows that I practiced. I want to say something. At first, I played nothing but be-bop, but when people said I sounded like Kenny Burrell--and why wouldn’t I, since we both came from Charlie Parker--I started adding a little blues to my sound to be different. Because of Creed [Taylor] people think all I can play is funk.”     Eric Gale 1987

March 6

Happy Birthday, Wes Montgomery! [1925]

“I don't know that many chords. I'd be loaded if I knew that many. But that's not my aim. My aim is to move from one vein to the other without any trouble. The biggest thing to me is keeping a feeling, regardless what you play. So many cats lose their feeling at various times, not through the whole tune, but at various times, and it causes them to have to build up and drop down, and you can feel it.”  Wes Montgomery

Happy Birthday, Dom Minasi !  [1943]

March 7   

“Sometime in 1977 I began to see warning signs that Pat’s [Metheny] time in the band was coming to an end. I noticed that he took too long with his solos, sometimes playing too loud. He also argued with me over even my smallest suggestions about how to handle some of the songs. This caused problems…  I realized, perhaps even before Pat, that he needed to move on. Pat was planning to leave, but not soon enough for me. I was increasingly unhappy with the tension that was building. From my perspective it was better for Pat to leave the group sooner than later. Pat was truly thrown by my decision. It upset him to have to leave before he had decided for himself and it led to some terribly hard feelings.”           Gary Burton

March 8

Happy Birthday, Gabor Szabo !  [1936]

“I don't feel that so called electric guitars come close to a satisfactory guitar sound. You probably know yourself that it's really just the strings that you hear and the tubes. Those strings could be put on a broomstick and still sound the same. “  Gabor Szabo

March 9

“Originally [my main jazz influences were] Wes and George. It was equally Herbie Hancock and Erroll Garner, who were tremendous influences on me. Thelonious Monk. Also, a lot of keyboard players, and Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderly, Charlie Parker. I’m playing a very specialized style of music, using the guitar in a very specialized way. Their music turned me into a musician. I’ve learned how to hear music, how to listen to a Miles Davis album and hear the voicings Herbie Hancock played behind him. I’ve also learned how to hear the solos and details of phrasing, just the fabric of music and how to use it in a completely different way, with the fingerstyle approach that I love now.”     Tuck Andress

March 10

“I had made my first record with Stan Getz. I played it a lot, looked at it a lot. Just think! I was one of those guys who had made a record for an offbeat label. Maybe there were kids out there somewhere wishing they were me. I made some more records with stars such as Buddy DeFranco and Terri Gibbs. I even worked jobs at Birdland with them. Still, all I had was a furnished room on 81st Street and less money in the bank. By the time I got down to $60 I really started to get worried. I had started out with $2000 in 1948 dollars. I played and recorded with Stan Getz in 1950,’51, and ’52. Then I did a one-and-a-half year stint with the Red Norvo Trio. After that I got married and settled down in New York City. I found out soon enough that you can’t make a living playing jazz in one city. Not even New York City. So I started doing other things in order to get by. TV jingles, club dates, recordings-both commercial and jazz-along with other stuff. I even played the full run of two Broadway shows. That’s the nearest thing in music to stuffing mattresses for a living.”    Jimmy Raney

March 11

Happy Birthday, George Pritchett!   [1931]

“Chet Atkins was probably my biggest influence by far. I started playing guitar in December of ’63. I was playing finger style because the folk craze was so prevalent. I really liked the sound of classical guitar so that’s what I played. Along the way, from listening to Chet’s records, I found out about people like George Van Eps and Kenny Burrell, and classical players like Julian Bream, Segovia, Jorge Morel, Howard Roberts and all of the fine players who were available at that time. I really stuck with the finger style and the nylon string guitar.

That was probably the most unique thing about my learning to play modern guitar, and that I was really interested in everybody, like Wes Montgomery and Johnny Smith, too. For me, I wanted to adapt what I could of their styles into my own style of acoustic and classical guitar. “  Earl Klugh

March 12

“I ran into Wes. I said, “Mr. Montgomery, could you show me something on the guitar?” He said, “No, I can’t show anybody anything.” I said, “Really? You can’t show me anything?” I said, “Why not?” He said, “I’m too busy learning myself.”    george benson

March 13

“I’m not saying a guy shouldn’t take lessons, but if you want to play like the artists, you have to go and get what they are putting on records and take it from there.”   Grant Green

The idea of going directly to the source that Green is talking about here is something I agree with wholeheartedly. I would hasten to add that you should only steal from the best, however. Green himself was so highly original though that this sort of larceny was unnecessary. You could always hear the blues in his lines, his indelible groove and the passion in his expression. As the “house guitarist” at the Blue Note record label Green appeared on 100 different albums between 1961 and 1972. He recorded 34 albums as a leader and recorded as a sideman with Art Blakey, Herbie Hancock, Lou Donaldson, Stanley Turrentine and many others.

March 14

“Dizzy was a joy to work with. He was a positive kind of guy, not dark and bitter like some of the bandleaders I’ve met along the way. He treated his musicians well, paid them well, a great role model. I had never done any international travel before him. I saw that he was friendly and respectful to everyone. He was a stickler about being on time for the gig. He had a supportive wife Lorraine who kept him grounded. She worked the phone and kept the house in order. I had my eyes and ears open to all of it. I carry a lot of this with me today; treat my musicians and people I meet along the way with respect.” Ed Cherry

March 15

“I played with Ella on a couple of occasions at the Hollywood Bowl. I played with Sarah Vaughn and Carmen McRae, they used to come and sit in at Dontes every now and then.  I played with Morgana King and Mark Murphy…..and I played with some great local guys,  especially  Warren Marsh, who’s my favorite player, I used to follow him around like a little puppy dog hoping some of his greatness would rub off on me.”  Ron Eschete

March 16

“I first met [Pat Martino] in Atlantic City, Pat and I were playing in the same club. We ended up spending a lot of time in the back room in between sets, just playing. The gig didn’t stop until one o’clock, and so we used to head back to his hotel and play all night. And I remember one night after playing with 

Pat for hours, I left the hotel room at 4:30 AM and told him, “I’m gonna go home and get a couple hours sleep; when I wake up I’m gonna pick you up and we’re gonna go for breakfast.” Well, he was playing on the side of the bed when I left, and when I came back he was still in the same spot. So the thing about it is, people call Pat Martino a genius, and he probably is, but he worked very hard at it. Very hard, The guy never stopped playing. So that may be his secret: hard work and perseverance.”  Joe Diorio

March 17

“I remember playing at the Blue Note in NYC to a packed house and at the end of the performance I went upstairs to the dressing room. There were two gentlemen standing there, Joe Pesci and Tommy DeVito, Joe’s personal manager. Pesci gave me a few compliments about the show. Then there was a pause and he said, “You don’t remember me, do you? You don’t know who I am.” And I said, “Of course I know who you are. I’ve enjoyed quite a number of your films; My Cousin Vinny, Goodfellas, Raging Bull…” And he stopped me and said, “No, it has nothing to do with that. You don’t remember ME, do you?” I was bewildered by this and told him, “I don’t understand what you’re referring to.” And he said, “I’m going to tell you what you used to drink back in 1963 ay Small’s Paradise.”.......  And then I remembered Joe Pesci who at the time was a vocalist/guitarist singing at a lounge on route 46 in northern Jersey. After their sets were finished they would come……  to hang out at Small’s. Joe and I had actually become close friends way back then, but I had forgotten all about that.”  Pat Martino

March 18

Happy Birthday, Bill Frisell!  [1951]

“I don’t have anything to prepare for, no gig. It’s just pure. I’ll start playing, and that’s been kind of amazing, realizing after all this time that I still love this thing. My whole life it’s been what saved me, and it’s what’s saving me right now. As soon as I wake up I grab it and whatever, or I’ll try to write some little thing. But it takes me out of all the doom-and-gloom stuff.”   Bill Frisell 2020

March 19

"I’d say there’s too many books! LOL and one asks why? Well, the reason is books sell better than the music itself! There’s money to be made in music books! Many students of this music are looking for answers to help improve their playing and they think it’s in a book! But really, it’s not in any book! It’s in your favorite players recordings. If you could study with Charlie Parker you’d run over to his house and take lessons if he were giving them, right? Of course, but really you CAN study with Bird. All you got to do is learn his solos and the best way to do that is transcribe. That’s the real deal and the truth of it. You might get his solos from a book if the transcriptions are accurate but the best way to retain, remember and assimilate is to do the work yourself." Mark Elf

March 20

Happy Birthday, Sister Rosetta Tharpe!    [1921]

“I think if you don’t look at jazz as a “thing” but a way of “doing something”, you get a better understanding of how jazz has so many branches and styles. All of the elements and confluences that help shape and evolve the music are still very much present in New Orleans as was at the time when jazz first began. So, put together virtuosity, collective improvisation, a heightened sense of rhythm, the blues, and creative minds, and you get the ingredients for playing jazz. In the future, I see many very talented musicians building on what has been done, and evolving the music in new and inventive ways.”  Steve Masakowski

March 21

I accept what I do in the studio as it is, with an understanding that people create new worlds wherever they may be, pretty much regardless of the circumstances. Now I can enjoy the entire process from start to finish.” 

Pat Martino 2004 age 59

March 22

Happy Birthday, George Benson! [1943]

“My stepfather had an electric guitar. He went to his pawn store one day to get a guitar and an amp, and I couldn't understand what I was hearing. All afternoon, I just sat against the amp and let it reverberate through me. Something must have stuck.”  George Benson

March 23

Happy Birthday, Oliver Gannon! [1943]

“I played with (Jimmy Smith) for two years. I met him in '87 and joined his band in '88. Jimmy was playing at a place down in Atlanta and I had been listening to Jimmy, he was one of the first guys that I listened to when I started getting into jazz. After I finished playing my gig at the Holiday Inn, I drove down to see him because that was like a big deal down there. It was funny, Fred, Jimmy Smith, down in my hometown of Albany, Georgia, you couldn't find a whole lot of jazz records, but there were certain things, certain records you could always find. You could always find a Jimmy Smith record…... I drove down to the club where he was playing. This was when I was living in Atlanta at the time and Jimmy was everything that I expected and more. Then I met him that night and I got a chance to sit in with him. It was great. He kicked my behind. It was such a great experience because I had never been on the bandstand with a musician of that caliber before. Afterwards, I got a chance to hang out with him in his room. We hung out until like six in the morning and I just listened to him talk about his life. He talked about Wes Montgomery. He talked about Art Tatum. He talked about Bud Powell and so it was great. I was down there every night listening to him play. We exchanged numbers and I would call him up every now and then and check up on him, just to be in contact with him. And then I eventually got hired to play with him and I stayed there for two years.” RUSSELL MALONE

March 24

“The truth of it is, once you record something, the minute you look back on it you realize you could have done it better. And sure, there’s so many things that I did that I feel I could have done better. I believe that’s just being truthful and honest with yourself.”   Johnny Smith

March 25

“These instruments have six strings and they're acoustic -- there is no solid-body plank involved in this thing.    All of us play with our fingers, which I think is the best and only way to play your guitar, because you're actually in touch with the instrument -- you actually feel it, like a horn player feels a horn in his mouth.  I need a little volume on my guitar, but if I had a real good acoustic guitar , I would probably play just acoustic; usually mics don't work good on a steel-string acoustic guitar.  But outside of that, I see no difference between us.

I do see a difference in the guitarists that use those planks and synthesizers and all that junk to alter their sound so that it does not sound like a guitar.  It sounds like a keyboard, a trumpet, whatever you want.  That is a different instrument totally to me; that is not a guitar.”       Joe Pass

    Acoustic Guitar, July/August 1994  roundtable with Joe Pass, Pepe Romero, Leo Kottke and Paco Peña

March 26

“To be 22, 23 years old and to be asked to play with Stan Getz was like a dream come true. I’ve always been involved not only as a guitar player but also as a composer. Stan was not a composer, so he was always looking for other people to write music for his group. He asked me to write for him, Andy LaVerne wrote music for him. So I not only to got play with this guy, but I also had my music performed by this

great jazz group all over the world, traveling to the jazz festivals and meeting all these people, an amazing experience that was very important for my development, I think. He really had a very big influence on me. He didn't have to play a lot to say a lot. And I think that's stayed with me also. As a bandleader he was very good at designing what to play and who to let play. He was very democratic, he let us play a lot. It wasn't like we were just accompanying Stan Getz. He wanted us to play.”    Chuck Loeb

March 27

“What I like is that both jazz and classical help each other. What I mean is that one prevents me from being bored by the other. They are very different languages and that’s very interesting to learn from both at the same time. You don’t really find Jazz like improvisation in classical music, for example, and so I can’t work on jazz like I work on classic. Since I have to work both jazz and classical guitar, I dedicate a few hours a day for each subject. I usually work around one hour, then take a break, resume another hour, and so on.”   Antoine Boyer

March 28

"I've started to use a chorus on a couple of tunes. Pat Metheny is really into that kind of stuff. I played a concert with him and he had so much electronic stuff, the stage looked like Mission Control."  Jim Hall

March 29

Happy Birthday, Remo Palmier!  [1923]

“Pat Martino is one of the greatest ever to play the guitar. He is instantly recognizable, as everything he plays is completely ”him”. Like all iconic players, his playing seems to come so naturally from the instrument, yet no one else ever thought to do it that way. His harmonic and linear mastery, as well as his articulation and attack are what set him apart. He showed you could phrase with the intensity of the horn players that came out of the 1960s. Pat’s musical personna is a beautiful and unique blend of ferocity and finesse.” Peter Bernstein

March 30

Happy Birthday, Dave Stryker! [1957]

Like most of us, I've watched all my gigs get cancelled or rescheduled. I'm grateful for my university-teaching positions at Indiana University, Rutgers and Montclair State University, as well as my online school at ArtistWorks. We finished the semester online and that has been a learning curve. Mainly I've been staying home practicing solo guitar, teaching and trying to stay positive.”      Dave Stryker 2020

March 31

Happy Birthday, Freddie Green!  [1911]

“[Count Basie] is about the greatest guy I have ever met both musically and socially. Knowing what he wants and what sounds good is [how he] keeps the band going. There are so many different personalities in the band and understanding each individual is important. It’s one big happy family. “  Freddie Green

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

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Press

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