Did Freddie Green ever solo?

[Hardbopjazz]

Wow, my topic disappeared.

Anyway, my question was a simple one. I listened to about 30 to 40 Count Basie sessions, and not one does Freddie Green ever solo. On one Count says, "This tune will feature our guitarist" and all Freddie Green does is play cord at the end of the tune. Even his one session as a leader he doesn't solo. Did he ever take a solo on record? If yes, what is that record?

[Jim R]

It's been years since I heard it, but I believe it was on an album called "Memories Ad Lib", with Basie and Joe Williams. As I recall, the solos were mostly (if not all) chordal, and brief. Knowing my memory, I could be wrong...

[Jim R]

Well, maybe I should have googled before, instead of after posting. Here's a passage from http://www.freddiegreen.org/articles/gp_mrhythm.html

"Despite Green's commitment to rhythm, he played a number of single string solos over the years that frequently recalled Eddie Lang's work in the early 1930s. On "The Boll Weevil Song" from the album Brother John Sellers (recorded by an evangelist singer in 1954), he contributed an inspired bluesy solo. The small group recording Memories Ad-Lib [Roulette LP SR-59037], with Joe Williams and Count Basie, has several notable single string outings."

[AllenLowe]

I like Freddie Green; but I was quite amused when one day Dickey Wells said to me, "hey, Freddy was lucky he had Basie; he couldn't play nothin' but those damn chords."

[paul secor]

I like Freddie Green; but I was quite amused when one day Dickey Wells said to me, "hey, Freddy was lucky he had Basie; he couldn't play nothin' but those damn chords."

Guess Dickie forgot about the intro solo Freddie played on Well's "I'm Fer It, Too" - very, very short, but single string playing, not chords.

[medjuck]

He took a solo on Honeysuckle Rose at the Benny Goodman Carnegie Hall Concert. Supposedly he wasn't prepared to do it but Goodman just threw to him

without warning.

Edited November 24, 2009 by medjuck

[brownie]

Wasn"t Green's solo on 'Honeysuckle Rose' absent from the early editions of the Carnegie Hall concert?

[Shrdlu]

That solo was later dubbed in by Charlie Mingus.

[Lazaro Vega]

It was put back in on the Phil Schapp production for Columbia.

[AllenLowe]

well, one or two or even three solos does not a soloist make.

Dickey didn't think much of him as a musician, apparently, and was saying that he was lucky that he didn't have to fend off the big wide jazz world in order to make a living.

I thought it was an interesting perspective.

Edited November 24, 2009 by AllenLowe

[BillF]

Does some nice arpeggios on "Li'l Darlin'"

Did Eddie Condon ever solo?

[AllenLowe]

probably not - though something tells me that among those early recordings are some audible tenor-guitar strummings.

and speaking of guitar and Green - as I recall, another fine guitarist, Eddie Durham, died while getting ready to go to Freddie's funeral.

oy....

Edited November 24, 2009 by AllenLowe

[jostber]

Some more Green solos here:

http://swingguitar.blogspot.com/2005/10/so...k-solo-huh.html

[gmonahan]

I like the playing of Dickie Wells, but I think he was all wet on this one. Freddie Green was probably the best *rhythm* guitarist who ever lived. He didn't need to solo, and that wasn't his thing. His chords were nearly always perfect, and his time was even better!

gregmo

[Guest Bill Barton]

The Freddie Green Web Site

[AllenLowe]

well, Green played ok, but 50 years of chunk-a-chunk gets a little tired. It's funny, because people always praise his rhythm playing, but there were 50 Western Swing guitarists who did it as well if not better than he did it, because that lighter-than-air thing was pretty much a staple of Western music from the 1930s on, and there are a million good recordings that show everybody was doing it. And the model for those other guys tends to sound more like Eddie Lang.

Edited November 25, 2009 by AllenLowe

[brownie]

Freddie Green may have been chunk-a-chunking all those years but he contributed mightily to a unique sound.

There was no rhythm section like a Basie rhythm section and Green's presence there may have been discreet but it was unmistakable.

I don't mind his not soloing. Just give me back his chunk-a-chunk!

[Hardbopjazz]

 Saturday, I saw Russell Malone and his band at the Vanguard. He mentioned the Count Basie Recording, "Back with Basie." The track "The Elder", is the only recording with Freddie Green soloing. I don't have this recording, if someone does, is this true? I will have to track down a copy of this record then to here Freddie Green solo.
 

[Big Beat Steve]

I have it (released on Roulette, rec. July 7, 1961). The solo is there alright - a sort of "trading fours" with the band (or sections of it). Nice and effectful but not all that spectacular. It might well have been a sort of prearranged and written-out part for Green IMO.

[Jim R]

 Saturday, I saw Russell Malone and his band at the Vanguard. He mentioned the Count Basie Recording, "Back with Basie." The track "The Elder", is the only recording with Freddie Green soloing. I don't have this recording, if someone does, is this true? I will have to track down a copy of this record then to here Freddie Green solo.
 

Did you ever hear "Memories Ad Lib"?  I no longer own it, and haven't heard it since I posted in this thread before, and I still question whether there are any "single string" solos on that album.  I think Green's "solos" are typically a matter of the rest of the band laying out, and Freddie continuing to play chords (although perhaps containing fewer notes).

[Larry Kart]

One thing about Green's chordal accompaniment; it wasn't just his time;  a la Lester Young (though of course not as boldly) Green fairly often anticipated (and/or "played into") the next change, which had a subtly propulsive effect, pulling the whole band forwards.