Great advice from Jimmy Raney

[fasstrack]

Evidently at an Aebersold clinic just before he died. Check out what the man has to say about playing, learning, hearing.

[fasstrack]

Music speaking loudest, here is a clip of the master in good form blowing on Dancing in the Dark from '84:

[7/4]

lengthy previous thread.

[Joe G]

Music speaking loudest, here is a clip of the master in good form blowing on Dancing in the Dark from '84:

I came across this just last week and sent it to my students. Good stuff.

[fasstrack]

Music speaking loudest, here is a clip of the master in good form blowing on Dancing in the Dark from '84:

I came across this just last week and sent it to my students. Good stuff.

Good. He lived it, too. The most no-BS, straight ahead artist I ever knew. I hope his following grows. I'm sure it will.

[fasstrack]

lengthy previous thread..Thanks, but unfortunately it's hard to get around different links for me with my slow laptop a friend gave me. I get free Internet w/the wifi card it came with and I'm better off quitting while I'm ahead/not pushing it. (insert wink emoticon my screen would freeze by me trying to get)

[fasstrack]

It gets better and better. This is from a record long out of print, and very expensive: Jimmy Raney in 3 Attitudes. There are 3 tracks up, at least. I promise to buy this, not merely steal it from Youtube. I always wanted this anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLdrnP1vrts...feature=related

[Chuck Nessa]

That record was stolen from my dorm room in 1962.

[fasstrack]

That record was stolen from my dorm room in 1962.

It wasn't me. I swear. (I wish it was, though)......

Actually, a guy with a record store saved it for me some years ago but, jerkoff that I am, I never went to pick it up.

I just practiced 'So in Love' along with them, but the tempo kicked my ass so I put the metronome on instead and played it for about 45 minutes. It still kicked my ass but at least I have crutches on every 4 beats now.

Nothing like the masters to humble you and make you work towards something........

[James]

Music speaking loudest, here is a clip of the master in good form blowing on Dancing in the Dark from '84:

I came across this just last week and sent it to my students. Good stuff.

Good. He lived it, too. The most no-BS, straight ahead artist I ever knew. I hope his following grows. I'm sure it will.

One of the great things about having a jazz radio program is that it provides you with an opportunity to advance your own jazz agenda. During the time I was on the air I played a lot of my own Raney collection -- both because I felt he was under-rated and because the station library was thin in the Jimmy dept. Nice to see him getting big kudos here on the O.

[fasstrack]

Music speaking loudest, here is a clip of the master in good form blowing on Dancing in the Dark from '84:

I came across this just last week and sent it to my students. Good stuff.

Good. He lived it, too. The most no-BS, straight ahead artist I ever knew. I hope his following grows. I'm sure it will.

One of the great things about having a jazz radio program is that it provides you with an opportunity to advance your own jazz agenda. During the time I was on the air I played a lot of my own Raney collection -- both because I felt he was under-rated and because the station library was thin in the Jimmy dept. Nice to see him getting big kudos here on the O.

I always thought he was a great improvisor. He started out as one of Charlie Christian's gifted acolytes, hung with Bird, found his own style. It's pretty impressive when a 23-year-old kid can hang on the stand with Stan Getz and actually give him a run for his money---on guitar, no less. Finally, he absorbed a lot of classical music, especially was into Bartok. His compositions were very well crafted, melodically beautiful, and witty. And they showed great knowledge of form, as his solos did. His touch and time were first rate.

I had the opportunity to hang and also study with him in 1979. We got together at Attila Zoller's place, where he was staying. His perception was such that he saw right into the heart of what I needed as a developing player. Instantly. When we played tunes I could hear him breathe (I mean actually breathe, not metaphorically) between phrases. He was a man who lived his music and lived for it. He also was very dryly funny. There are a lot of funny stories I remember but the episode that most shows his quiet wit involved some guys from back home who shared an apartment on Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn, near the waterfront. He came up to play the 1980 Newport Festival (or whatever it was called then), reuniting with Stan, Al Haig, and Roy Haynes. He called the place the 'Louisville Ghetto'. I remember him sitting quietly for a while, then saying to one of the guys, Tim Whalen: 'You know, Tim, I've seen furniture on the street, but it always looked better than this...' He had a middle ear infection by then, and went to take a nap. He told the guys: 'I'm sleeping on my good ear. Let me know if someone calls.' We wanted to have a session while he was there, so Tim walked to my place blocks away and helped me carry it over without wheels. I thought I was gonna play, but he was bringing it for Jimmy. On the way the amp broke somehow---I think we hit something. I told Jimmy I was drug b/c I had planned to sell it. (I was practicing for lifelong poverty and already very accomplished...). I was sweating like an ox, a sedentary youth carrying this heavy Fender tube amp, which was the size of a small Buick, up a steep flight of stairs. For him. He turned and without missing a beat drawled 'you won't get much for it now'. He instead played through the stereo, sitting on the floor in green gym shorts with spindly legs sticking out---like the proverbial kid that 'turned sideways and the teacher marked him absent'. He really looked undernourished. But he played choruses worth their weight in gold. I remember he played 'This is New', and wrote out a tune he recorded with his on Doug soon after: 'English Brick and Chewish Chives'---a dedication to himself and his girlfriend, Cyra Green. He was the English Brick....

Other examples of his wit can be found in an article he wrote for a Louisville paper not long before he died (his father was a well-known journalist in town). It was about thinking as a young jazz-struck kid that he was going to live in NY in a penthouse like all the famous jazz musicians did, only to find that he was to record on 'way-out labels', live in cribs with more roaches than people, and broker than a 'po' boy that couldn't afford the rest of the word 'poor'. He concluded that 'it's probably good I never got to live in a penthouse. I probably would've got drunk and fallen off the balcony'.

Edited April 5, 2009 by fasstrack

[Joe G]

Thank you for that, Joel!

[Stereojack]

It's pretty impressive when a 23-year-old kid can hang on the stand with Stan Getz and actually give him a run for his money---on guitar, no less.

Especially when he and Getz were the same age - both born in 1927!

Nevertheless, I thoroughly applaud your appreciation of Raney - a giant whose work is far less well known that it should be. He was a true original.

[fasstrack]

Thank you for that, Joel!

Thank Jimmy. Anything I play that sounds decent comes from guys like him, besides whatever talent I work to bring out. I'm so lucky to have been exposed personally to guys like him, Eddie, Chuck Wayne. Joe Puma was another, I didn't hang with him too tough. Hilarious, too. That era is over and there's no one around like them now, to me anyway.

I guess guys like me and my generation of players have to carry the torch/bring our own experiences, feelings and ideas. That way they sort of live on.....

[fasstrack]

It's pretty impressive when a 23-year-old kid can hang on the stand with Stan Getz and actually give him a run for his money---on guitar, no less.

Especially when he and Getz were the same age - both born in 1927!

Nevertheless, I thoroughly applaud your appreciation of Raney - a giant whose work is far less well known that it should be. He was a true original.

Trust me, it's extremely hard to pull off what he did on a guitar---especially his early smoothness and ease at fast tempos. The vocabulary was created by horn players and is punishingly difficult---especially the control---to transfer to guitar, a lowly rhythm instrument that wasn't even audible before the time of Durham/Christian. But the better players have taste, at least, and know the guitar vocab is not enough to reach for. At least that's the way I see it.

[Denis]

Thank you for this thread. Just a marvellous musician. Truly a master.

Anybody knows if any recorded music is left from that meeting with Stan, Al and Roy in the 80's ?

[fasstrack]

Thank you for this thread. Just a marvellous musician. Truly a master.

Anybody knows if any recorded music is left from that meeting with Stan, Al and Roy in the 80's ?

You're welcome. The concert was at Carnegie Hall, 1980, so who knows? If not officially, I'm sure fans/players snuck in recorders on the sly. I remember another set that same concert was led by Dizzy, and had Stan, Dexter Gordon, Chuck Wayne, and I think Walter Davis, Jr. Jimmy told us Stan hated playing with Walter. 'Hard snd glassy'. But he started describing Walter Bishop, Jr. When this was pointed out he said 'same thing'. Jimmy cracked up at that.

[AllenLowe]

I've mentioned this before, but Raney was the only guy I ever heard Barry Harris compare to Bird -

I used to ask Haig about him, but could not get much out of him on the subject - all Al would say is "he's down in Louisville. He's a nut."

[Jim R]

Thank you for this thread. Just a marvellous musician. Truly a master.

You might want to check this out too: previous Raney thread

[Denis]

Thank you for this thread. Just a marvellous musician. Truly a master.

Anybody knows if any recorded music is left from that meeting with Stan, Al and Roy in the 80's ?

You're welcome. The concert was at Carnegie Hall, 1980, so who knows? If not officially, I'm sure fans/players snuck in recorders on the sly. I remember another set that same concert was led by Dizzy, and had Stan, Dexter Gordon, Chuck Wayne, and I think Walter Davis, Jr. Jimmy told us Stan hated playing with Walter. 'Hard snd glassy'. But he started describing Walter Bishop, Jr. When this was pointed out he said 'same thing'. Jimmy cracked up at that.

Thank you.

Love the story about Stan's description of Walter Davis Jr. and Walter Bishop Jr.'s playing. Funny (-:

I tried to find a review of that particular concert but to no avail. Only found a few reviews of Stan's quintet and Dexter at

Carnegie Hall July 1980.

[fasstrack]

Thank you for this thread. Just a marvellous musician. Truly a master.

Anybody knows if any recorded music is left from that meeting with Stan, Al and Roy in the 80's ?

You're welcome. The concert was at Carnegie Hall, 1980, so who knows? If not officially, I'm sure fans/players snuck in recorders on the sly. I remember another set that same concert was led by Dizzy, and had Stan, Dexter Gordon, Chuck Wayne, and I think Walter Davis, Jr. Jimmy told us Stan hated playing with Walter. 'Hard snd glassy'. But he started describing Walter Bishop, Jr. When this was pointed out he said 'same thing'. Jimmy cracked up at that.

Thank you.

Love the story about Stan's description of Walter Davis Jr. and Walter Bishop Jr.'s playing. Funny (-:

I tried to find a review of that particular concert but to no avail. Only found a few reviews of Stan's quintet and Dexter at

Carnegie Hall July 1980.

I've been trying to read anything on a piano concert at Town Hall I went to as a teenager, in 1971. I saw a reference on the web to it on some sort of event listing but nothing about what happened or who played. It was hosted by Billy Taylor, who played with his trio, and had Bob Greene's world of Jelly Roll Morton, Bill Evans trio, and ended with Cecil Taylor. My buddies and I tripped on Cecil. We cracked up the whole train ride home b/c he put his shades down on top of the piano, played a bizzare little theme, took it out for about 1 hour, played the theme again then picked his shades up and abruptly left the stage. He never looked at the audience for a second. My friend Steve Goericke called his performance 'knipsified'. We thought he was too hip and weird. I wish I could remember what Bill played. He was into something and I was too young to know what. I remember how intent he looked playing, the lightness of his and the trio's sound, and how long his hair was when he came out to chat with Dr. Billy before anyone played. Edited April 6, 2009 by fasstrack

[7/4]

Thanks for bringing up the master...when I was first checking out more "traditional" jazz, I found a bunch of his albums at the Princeton Record Exchange. I loved them immediately, never understood why he's ended up so obscure - even among guitar players.

dB

[fasstrack]

Thanks for bringing up the master...when I was first checking out more "traditional" jazz, I found a bunch of his albums at the Princeton Record Exchange. I loved them immediately, never understood why he's ended up so obscure - even among guitar players.

dB

He's not that obscure. Guitar players of taste know him and love him. He was received like a hero in Europe and Japan. He may be underappreciated and not a name like George Benson, for example (nothing against George, I dig the hell out of him, too). Them's the breaks. Jimmy never entertained or played the game politically or otherwise, just sat quiet with dignity and played his ass off. That doesn't always get the bacon here in the land where jazz was born......

He also was, candidly, an alcoholic, and that couldn't have helped.

[7/4]

Thanks for bringing up the master...when I was first checking out more "traditional" jazz, I found a bunch of his albums at the Princeton Record Exchange. I loved them immediately, never understood why he's ended up so obscure - even among guitar players.

dB

He's not that obscure. Guitar players of taste know him and love him.

well yeah, we know that!

He was received like a hero in Europe and Japan. He may be underappreciated and not a name like George Benson, for example (nothing against George, I dig the hell out of him, too). Them's the breaks. Jimmy never entertained or played the game politically or otherwise, just sat quiet with dignity and played his ass off. That doesn't always get the bacon here in the land where jazz was born......

He also was, candidly, an alcoholic, and that couldn't have helped.

He went into retirement for a while and didn't record. He also had Meniere's Disease and went deaf (maybe this helped push him into alcoholism). For ever value it might have: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Raney

Edited April 8, 2009 by 7/4

[fasstrack]

Thanks for bringing up the master...when I was first checking out more "traditional" jazz, I found a bunch of his albums at the Princeton Record Exchange. I loved them immediately, never understood why he's ended up so obscure - even among guitar players.

dB

He's not that obscure. Guitar players of taste know him and love him.

well yeah, we know that!

He was received like a hero in Europe and Japan. He may be underappreciated and not a name like George Benson, for example (nothing against George, I dig the hell out of him, too). Them's the breaks. Jimmy never entertained or played the game politically or otherwise, just sat quiet with dignity and played his ass off. That doesn't always get the bacon here in the land where jazz was born......

He also was, candidly, an alcoholic, and that couldn't have helped.

He went into retirement for a while and didn't record. He also had Meniere's Disease and went deaf (maybe this helped push him into alcoholism). For ever value it might have: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Raney

It was the other way around, if anything. He had a middle ear infection. I don't know what caused it, but he had those problems way before he went deaf. He was mostly in Louisville since the 70s, where he did concerts and had friends like Jack Brengle, guitarist/bassist, and some things with Cal Collins (which are up on youtube). Went to Europe, too. I know he went with Attilla to Germany a few times up through the 90s when he got sick in '93, so he wasn't quite retired, but not in the greatest shape either b/c he really was nearly deaf. He still could play and watch a foot pat and hear close to him on the stand. He was pretty close to his mother and either lived with her or an aunt Lil that he mentioned. I don't know, and don't claim to have known Jimmy well beyond those times in '79-'80, or even then---and that was a hell of a long time ago. I was a student and he was passing through. I knew Attilla a lot better. He was a great guy too, and talk about underrated... Anyway, I'm sorry I brought it up now, though it's a matter of semi-public record. We should stress the good things and he was the artist he was and set a very high standard to aspire to.

Edited April 8, 2009 by fasstrack