...does it take to screw in a light bulb?

only one, but he has to have the charts...

How many jazz guitarists...


...doss it take to remove a wool blanket from a guitar-amp before a gig?

No one knows for sure, it sounds like it's never been done!

If I could play half as good as Robert Conti, I would give up all other styles of guitar...

We're just razzin' and being goofy, Larry! I for one LOVE Jazz and Jazz Guitar, and I expect that picker's just jokin' around.

LOL - Good one!

Of course the beautiful top end on the guitar sound of pretty much all of the greats in the jazz guitar genre (George Benson as one example) flies in the face of this stereotype, still, plenty of guys DO think they're supposed to roll their tone knob full off when they try to fumble thru some jazz.

And come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen any of the titans such as Joe pass, Wes Montgomery, George Benson, with a chart in front of them either. Heck, the immortal jazz guitar super hero Wes couldn't even read a note.

At the local jazz gig, I'm afraid you may find some bozos who are glued to the chart though - I know, I was one of them at one time.

Well, the ongoing joke/comment I run into concerning jazz guitar tone is that you take a $10,000 guitar, plug it into a $250 amp, then turn all the treble off.

Scott Fraser

On the one hand, I was just making a joke; not only do I know that lots of Jazz guitarists actually have some pretty nice tone that's not so overly dark, I've sometimes liked to use that dark, rolled-back Tone-knob with flat-wounds sound, myself...

I like that tone sometimes myself. Reminds me of some early Steve Stills stuff, where he's got a super-legato, sustained thing going on

Yeah! Like on- what was it- "Wooden Ships", I think it was- sounds like maybe a Strat with the middle or neck-and-middle pickups, and the Tone-knob rolled way down...

Go figure: start a thread about guitar tone stuff, and there's a good chance that it'll wind up with a bunch of joke replies onnitt.

Start one about jokes, and it winds up being a discussion on guitar-tone...

I was only kidding...well, sorta...the whole "if you can't read music, you suck" thing kinda rankles a bit sometimes. When you consider Billy Cobham picked Tommy Bolin to play on his utter and complete jazz/fusion classic album "Spectrum" over Bolin's protests that he couldn't read a note, and the aforementioned Wes Montgomery's undeniable stature among jazzers, it does make it seem being able to play and being able to read are not necessarily tied together, and the sometimes patronizing and superior attitude those who can read music have sometimes taken to the children of a lesser god that can't seems at least somewhat unfounded...

But it was intended to be a gentle poke, not a cattle prod in the badoobies...

Hey, Ben! Good to "see" ya!



Yeah, I think it's better to think,
"if you can read music,
it's good". Not being a reader
doesn't automatically make you
suck- it may limit you in some
ways, but it's not the be-all and
end-all in music.

I'm not really a "reader", myself,
though I think I should get around
to working on that.

And, I gotta say that I'd enjoy bing able to sight-read like Tommy Tedesco, as long as I could play like him too...

Aw, admit it; you hat jazz musicians...& who wouldn't?

Hate 'em? Heck no, I love the stuff a lot of those guys do. From what I can tell, it's the same with them as it is with everybody else. Some of 'em make great music, some of 'em don't.
Harmonic complexity and pristine technique don't make music great anymore than simple melody and rhythmic drive do. Great music communicates and induces an emotional state.

One can and should recognize, even applaud technical excellence. I believe that even a piece that is nothing more than a display of technique can be good music. But music isn't great unless it renders it's audience emotional, involves them in more than just an intellectual experience. That's when music is art.

Too little of what we hear is great, but I really think it always was that way. The Mozarts and Montgomerys don't happen along every day...

Don't hat the player, play the hat...

________

Too much hat; where's the lov?


____

Aw, you guys know I'm kiddin', too, right?!
I do agree, however, that there's

You know it was just an idle threat as I'll never be half as good as Conti, so it looks like I'll be play'en the same ol same ol for quite a while and won't be giving up on the other styles anytime soon...I like classic rock but I like some old bar standards with a little jazz edge too...I knew you were joking and I was having a good laugh...just thought I'd stick up for the jazz guys at the get go...Django...Montgomery and all the others who probably couldn't screw in a light bulb, but a lot of lights lit up where ever and when ever the played...I did like the tone joke and where it took us on this thread...cool daddy-O...

I can understand where the whole "you can't read music, you suck" thing would rankle. But a lot of classical musicians are not good at playing by ear... not that they CAN'T, but they're so trained to be PERFECT that they're afraid to!

That I can understand, but I heard where a Juilliard sutdent was afraid to play "Happy Birthday" without the written music... although he could play difficult Beethoven pieces.....
I'm sorry but that just seems way beyond ridiculous to me!

Thank goodness not all of the Julliard alumni are like that, though.

I'd kill to have this guy's job.



Jordan Rudess does tend to read music for his keyboard parts in Dream Theater (note the Freehand music notation device in front of him), but he does know how to improvise. And yes, he can play some guitar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_HFmRt8IsI