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

november 2024

November 1, 2024

Happy Birthday, Lee Ritenour!            [1952]

“I always recommend to any player to always compose their own music. It's one of the best things you can do to find a road to your own style.”  Lee Ritenour

November 2, 2024

Happy Birthday, Jim Mullen!   [1945]

“Most of the albums that I love were made by musicians just turning up in the studio and deciding there and then what they were going to play. I think back to some of these Miles Davis Quintet albums where he was looking to get out of his contract and he owed them four albums. He took the band in one weekend and just whacked down the first takes of anything he fancied. And it sounds great! Sometimes that kind of natural, spontaneous thing is what makes jazz catch fire and really happen.”   Jim Mullen 

November 3, 2024

 “I talked to him [Charlie Parker] some; he was always an enigma to me. I could never tell whether he was kidding or not. He always had a strange personality to match his music. I could never figure him out personally. I asked him, “What do you think about when you’re playing?” He got serious for a moment; he said he felt like everything disappeared when he put the horn to his mouth; he forgot the outside world, the girls. He said, “Sometimes I look at my fingers and I’m surprised that it’s me playing. I get an idea, and I try it out ‘till it comes out right.”  Jimmy Raney

November 4, 2024

“I worked three years at Birdland in New York, and all the bebop players were there—they were right up on it. But it didn’t bother me at all; I just got things together and kept swinging—keeping the voutie going! Charlie Christian and I used to jam together up at Minton’s Playhouse, at 117th Street, on Seventh Avenue in New York. That was great fun—he set a pace with his style. Actually, we played the same style as one another. Of course, I learned things from him.”              Slim Gaillard

November 5, 2024

The 1980s were preceded by a decade in which jazz was undergoing a bifurcation of sorts. What had always been a downbeat style was changing. The fusion players were emphasizing the backbeat and the avant garde players were moving away from anything even resembling a steady beat. Straight ahead jazz was getting marginalized and many players were relocating to Europe.  Armstrong and Ellington died during the 1970s and Coltrane a few years before. When Wynton Marsalis moved to New York in 1979 the scene was ripe for some sort of major readjustment. He became the personification of the jazz renaissance and the reemergence of the blues and swing tradition which Stanley Crouch identified as "a bulwark against forces of cultural decay in America". So the 1980s, far from being the "worst" of times, were really years when the "young lion" phenomenon was seeing the emergence of some amazing players like Terrence Blanchard, James Carter, Roy Hargrove, Christian McBride and others come into their own. It was an incredible time.

November 6, 2024

"It's impossible for me to feel like there's only one way to do a thing. There's nothing wrong with having one way of doing it, but I think it's a bad habit. I believe in range. Like, there's a lot of tunes that I play all the time-sometimes I hear 'em in a different register. And if you don't have complete freedom, or you won't let yourself get away from that one straight line, oh, my goodness, that's too horrible to even think about."

Wes Montgomery

The improvisational mindset that Wes is talking about places a premium on flexibility both on a conceptual and technical level. The complete freedom he refers to is only possible if you have a sound foundation of instrumental technique. Only then is it possible to depart from what he calls "that one straight line". When listening to a recording of Wes Montgomery you get a strong sense that he is completely spontaneous and free within his style. He is able to take his improvisation anywhere he likes within those stylistic parameters.

November 7, 2024

“I forget exactly how I met Emily [Remler] but I do remember that she called me up one day, she had just moved to New York from New Orleans, and she was living on the Upper West Side and she wanted to play. Emily was always very eager to play with a lot of different people so she was always having sessions and trying to get together with people. She was really great about that. So we got together and started playing and we became friends. I would play a bunch at her place or she would make it out to Jersey and then we got a gig, a week playing at the Blue Note with three guitarists: Emily, me, and Barney Kessel.”  Joshua Breakstone

November 8,  2024

Happy Birthday,  Dale  Bruning!      [1934]

“As far as guitar players were concerned, I listened to all of them on the scene at that time; Barney Kessel, Mundell Lowe….. Of those guitarists …. that have kind of come out of the Charlie Christian school, the biggest influence for me was Chuck Wayne.“  

Dale Bruning

Happy Birthday, Russell Malone! [1963]

"I got to a certain age where I said to myself, “As much as I love all of the people who’ve influenced me, when it comes to being Russell Malone, there’s nobody better. There’s nobody better than me at me being me.” That was a revelation for me. I learned to embrace my so-called imperfections, my quirks, even my ethnicity."   Russell Malone

November 9, 2024

Jazz is central to the cultural identity of America. It is a product of our history as a society of immigrants and is based on African-American blues and folk traditions, the swinging syncopation of ragtime, various European harmonic approaches, lots of Caribbean and Latin American influences and African drumming styles. As an improvisational style of music jazz also celebrates freedom, personal expression and achievement. Many of the greatest practitioners in this style have been black Americans. Jazz stands athwart the mainstream of popular culture. 

November 10, 2024

“I think you have to know the history of the plectrum guitar. You have to go back to Eddie Laing and Carl Kress, and that’s sort of the bible of the way to play the guitar. And George Van Eps and those chordal guys were unbelievable players. They would play solos right into the mic without an amplifier. When you see what music they left for us to play, it’s just incredible; they were like little operas. They’d have three or four sections: they’d play a romantic part, then it would go very frisky and then it goes back to the theme again; the different things that went on: they’d even change the tunings of the strings. It’s something you need to have knowledge of in order to become a good guitar player.”  Bucky Pizzarelli

November 11, 2024

Happy Birthday,  Hank Garland!  [1930]

Happy Birthday, Peter Mazza! [1979?]

“Superimpositions are chords inside of chords. When you see a D minor chord written on a page, you are going to go back to it’s parent key which is C major. Then you are going to spell out a 13th chord that uses all the notes of the scale: D F A C E G B. So inside of this we have Dmin7, Fmaj7, Amin7, Cmaj7; chords inside of chords. “   Peter Mazza

November 12, 2024

The Wes Montgomery album that wasn’t: In 1966 producer Creed Taylor of Verve records recorded orchestral and choral arrangements of Claus Ogerman with the idea of bringing Wes Montgomery in at a later date to improvise over these tracks. Before they could schedule Wes to do this, he terminated his relationship with Verve and signed a contract to record for A&M records.  To recoup their investment on this project Verve brought in Stan Getz to do what they originally had in mind for Wes. The result was an album called “Voices” which was released in 1967. The rhythm section includes Herbie Hancock, Grady Tate, Jim Hall and Ron Carter. Dan Morgenstern called it one of Getz’ finest albums. So if you ever hear it you can only imagine what Wes would have done with this music. The choral arrangements are especially beautiful; hence the title of the album. 

November 13, 2024

Happy Birthday, Chris Flory!!     [1954]

“I had a gig with Benny Goodman. I was appropriate to play in his sextet. I had really absorbed my Charlie Christian and I was very influenced by him. My sound and attack still is very much rooted in that. I remember hearing that tune, “Topsy,” which was recorded at a live jam session at Minton’s in 1941. I remember also that I even tried to fool around with that song and learn what was going on in the chord changes by ear. It’s a fairly simple tune, but partly because it was in a minor key, it was more accessible to me…….”     Chris Flory

November 14, 2024

Happy Birthday, Billy Bauer!  [1915]

“After an All-Star Date, I was driving with Serge Challof who won the baritone award. He says ‘Do you realize me and you won these awards. What could be better than this?’ I told him I think I’d be happier if Charlie Parker would call me up and ask me to do a record date. I had worked with him before but if he called because he wanted me-that would be an honor. Two days later, I was sitting at home and the phone rang. ‘BB?’ I said ‘Yeah.’ ‘This is the Bird.’ I said ‘Hi, how are ya?’ He says ‘What are you doing Thursday?’ I said ‘I’m all right.’ He says ‘Do you want to do a record date with me? Here’s the date—be there!’ That’s it! I got there an hour before time. Nobody was in the studio. The place was pretty dark. I was practicing this solo ‘Blue Mist’ because I had my own record date coming up. I heard somebody right behind me. Charlie was standing there. He said ‘Whatcha doing?’ I said ‘I’m running this down because I have to record it. I haven’t got it written out but I know approximately what’s going on. What d’ya think?’ He said ‘It sounds like music to me.” Billy Bauer

November 15, 2024

Happy Birthday, Kevin Eubanks! [1957]

"It was my first time being in a great band with a legendary artist like Art Blakey. Yes, it was a huge break. I got to meet so many young musicians that were destined to be major contributors to the art form, like James Williams, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Bill Pierce. My brother Robin was also in the band. It also made it possible to draw the attention of other great band leaders who I would eventually work with. It was after that tour with the Jazz Messengers that I decided to move to New York. When you’re traveling with someone like Art you learn so much on and off the stage. One of the most important things was understanding the difference between life and music being the expression of life. As I grew and hopefully evolved, the music would follow in turn."     Kevin Eubanks

November 16, 2024

Happy Birthday, Eddie Condon!  [1904]

“[Louis Armstrong] could play a trumpet like nobody else, then put it down and sing a song like no one else could.”  Eddie Condon

November 17, 2024

“In Paris in the early 1950s, you had to play guitar like Raney, and like Stan Getz if you played tenor. Jimmy Raney was definitely an innovator harmonically. He recorded lovely tunes like “Signal”, which are harmonically very intricate and refined. Jimmy brought a new beauty and color to the guitar. He was widely listened to, and not only by guitarists. John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins told me the great esteem they had for him. Besides, in some of their records, you can find phrases of Raney or Getz, phrases straight out of the famous Storyville recordings made in Boston in 1951. Rollins and Coltrane were able to use the harmonic richness found on these sides, which made them what they are. Of course they went beyond this stage, but the influence of Raney and Getz, whose mutual understanding was prodigious, is still present in their harmonic conceptions. It’s been said that Raney was the Lee Konitz of the guitar. It’s pretty true.”  Rene Thomas

November 18, 2024

Happy Birthday, Ken Hatfield!!! (1952) 

“Sometimes a story, like the myth of Ariadne’s thread, can inspire the structure of a tune. At times a painting or drawing speaks to me so clearly that I compose a work that evokes the feeling I get from viewing that work, as with Alberto Giacometti’s ‘Surrealist Table.'”      Ken Hatfield

November 19, 2024

“(Wes) was very jovial. He was kind of a quiet practical joker. He had a dry sense of humor. He wasn’t the kind of person who would hold court and be going on for a long time. But every now and then he would say something, and you’d laugh. He was happy, because he loved the music. He loved to play that guitar. You can hear that in the music; it speaks for itself.     …….he was very generous. No egotistical stuff, no putting you down if you made a mistake. His thing was like, if you didn’t know you made a so-called musical mistake, it wasn’t his place to get on you. He’d just look at you and smile. He was easy to be around. A truly great human being.” Harold Maybern

November 20, 2024
“Practice 15 or 20 years and then it comes out spontaneously.” Barry Galbraith

Barry Galbraith was one of the great and prolific studio guitarists in New York during the 1950s and 1960s. Renowned for his reading abilities, Galbraith worked for CBS and NBC and performed with a “who’s who” list of people in the music business including Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan, Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald, Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum and Billie Holiday,  to name but a few. In the 1970s he transitioned into a new role in education, teaching at CUNY, the New England Conservatory and publishing guitar method books. 

November 21, 2024

Happy Birthday, Sal Salvador!!! [1925]

Happy Birthday, Robert Conti!   [1945]

“I play melodies, chords and bass lines all at the same time. It’s difficult to explain how I do it. You just have to come hear me. There’s a lot of freedom, I have the opportunity to explore a tune, tinker with the voicings, the harmony. The entire musical scope of a song is open to me since I’m not within the confines of a rhythm section, which is not to say I don’t enjoy playing with rhythms sections; I do.”  Robert Conti

November 22, 2024

 “Gibson had been after me for many years to design a signature guitar and in 1961 Ted McCarty came to visit me in Colorado. He spent several days with me and right on my kitchen table I drew up what I was looking for in a guitar. I believed in Ted and was also interested in starting my own business so the collaboration at that time made sense. I designed everything myself. I designed how the guitar would be braced, how the top would be carved, the dimensions, the binding, and you name it. The only aspects the company did were some of the cosmetic touches which really did not matter to me…...During the years I lived in New York I spent a lot of time in the workshop of my dear friend John D'Angelico. He made the finest guitar I had ever played and really headed me in the direction of achieving the sound and playability I was looking for. “ Johnny Smith

November 23, 2024

Happy Birthday, Jack Marshall !  [1921]

Happy Birthday, Jean-Paul Bourelly! [1960]

“What we are trying to do is to redefine Rhythm and Blues. So each person [in the band] can be melodic or rhythmic as he chooses.” Jean-Paul Bourelly

November 24, 2024

Jazz is the crucible of American musical creativity. It is a reflection of the diversity of our society and of our history. It places a high value on virtuosity, spontaneity, innovation and personal expression. The style has been in its developmental process for over a century. Jazz is drenched in blues, syncopation and swing. It has sophistication, majesty and dignity. Louis Armstrong said, “If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know.” 

November 25, 2024

"Then around 1945 I was playing at the Paramount Theatre in New York, and the stagehand yelled up to the dressing room, "There's a fellow named Django Reinhardt here to see you." So I said, "Send him up and send Jesus with him," you know, I thought it was a joke. He came upstairs with Johnny Smith, and of course I was very surprised. I considered him the greatest guitar player around. Django asked for a pick, so I reached in my pocket and gave him a choice of a whole bunch. He made me feel good, because he picked out the Les Paul pick and I doubt that he knew it was mine. Johnny Smith grabbed one of my spare guitars, and they started to jam, and I heard Django play for the first time in person. I was very honored and pleased to have him in the dressing room there, playing it." Les Paul

November 26, 2024

"I've come up with the theory that the music is within. We don't bring it in; it's already there. We have to figure out how to get it out." Howard Roberts

November 27, 2024

Happy Birthday, Mitch Seidman! [1953]

"I only met Johnny Smith once, but I will never forget the experience. I was visiting my sister in Boulder (It must have been in the early 1970s) and gave him a call to arrange for a lesson. I drove to his store in Colorado Springs, and walked in to see Johnny Smith behind the counter, patiently waiting on customers. I was flabbergasted, and wondered if they knew who he was? Johnny asked me to play some solo guitar for him, so I played an arrangement of a standard that utilized every harmonic technique I knew to date, making it a musical equivalent of including everything but the 'kitchen sink.' Johnny said something like, "You know what you're doing, and I think I know what you're doing, but no one else is going to know what song you are playing." He suggested that I first play the song more simply before re-harmonizing it as I had so that the audience can recognize it. We then played a couple of tunes together until he had to return to the store. It was a very valuable lesson, not to mention quite a thrill for me, and he would not take a dime in payment." Mitch Seidman

November 28, 2024

“I replaced Mundell Lowe in Red Norvo’s trio. Mundell was working with him, I had never heard them so  I  didn’t  know  they  played  that  fast!  Mundell  had  a  commitment  with  Frankie  Laine,  he  was going  on  the  road  with  him,  and  Red  had  been  working  around  the  East,  but  his  home  is  in

California, he wanted to go back there and I didn’t have any reason not to go there, so...and I had wanted to go to California, and that was the ticket for me, and I went out there and spent quite a bit of time out there. I was with Red for about two years and we worked around California and we made a couple of tours and ended up with me being in New York and going all the way back to

California!  I  got  so  I  spent  more  time  there  than  any  place  else  during  that  period,  it  was  sort  of strange  after  I  had  gone  to  all  that  trouble  to  get  an  802  card  —  I  had  just  got  it  and  I  left  New York and stayed away. But it was fruitful in that Red got me a 47 card as we worked so much in

California  —  it  wasn’t  strictly  by  the  rules  of  the  Union;  he  went  before  the  board  and  explained that I had been working with him and I was an essential part of his group, and he asked them to give  me  a  card  and  they  did  without  me  having  to  put  in  the  six  months  work,  which  I  couldn’t

afford to do, which was a real bonus. There’s real history there now ‘cos since then they have sent me  a  Gold  Card  —  sort  of  combination  Senior  Citizen  and  honorary  philanthrope!  I  got  it  here,  I don’t have to pay any dues! Actually, I should have one from New York, I was in that one longer

but they say you’ve got to go up there and ask for it — in other words, they’ll accept your dues so long as you’re willing to pay!”  Tal Farlow    1981

November 29, 2024

Happy Birthday, Ed Bickert!  [1932]

“My teacher said ‘It’s not working out. You might as well just go and buy yourself some jazz records and learn what you want to know that way.’ I guess that’s what I did. “ Ed Bickert

November 30, 2024

“I started on a Harmony guitar, an acoustic model with steel strings. I began on simple chords like most everybody, and then I studied for a year on the Nick Lucas book. After that I got on to the Carcassi classical method for a while because the pieces in it were a lot better. They had a lot of movement in them, more chord changes and sophistication than the books of chords I'd come across. So I think that developed some sense of harmony in me.”   Joe Pass   1974  

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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