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It's that time of year again, when certain local stations put all those secular Christmas songs into rotation, some of the stations do that 24/7 through until the end of the year. Every once in a while, ya gotta tune one of those in when driving. And every year, one in particular puts a big gtin on my face, but likely not for reasons of sentiment, or not Christmas sentiment anyway. You see, there is one secular Christmas song that has become just about an international standard this time of year, and that would be Bobby Helm's recording of "Jingle Bell Rock". But for a geek like I am, who also remembers the days when session players ruled the charts with the frontman "star" -- it is often the performances and lore of those old session cats that is the interest. Man name of Hank Garland played those sparse lines in Jingle Bell Rock. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Garland After playing a tribute quote to the Jingle Bells riff as an Intro (and paying tribute to the Jazz greats while doing so, echos of Charlie Christian, hints of Kenny Burrell's inimitable sparse use of 4ths and the tritone, etc.) and then plays those two-note stabs off of the melody. But it is the Bridge that really brings the big grin here. He sits out. That's right, does not play a single note for the entire Bridge. Both times the Bridge is played. If you're thinking that he really did play during the bridge but the missing guitar part is due to a mix engineer just turning down the track during the Bridge, here's a headsup, they didn't record multitrack like that back then. There would have been no way to have his track that isolated. Layin' back, sittin' out, time to get a drink o' that coffee before I have to play again, man, that's the stuff of session man LEGEND. In case someone isn't sure of what the recording in question sounds like, here's a link to youtube: Hank Garland's Christmas Tune, Man. It is equally important to be able to know when it is time NOT to play. Walter Louis Garland -- "Have L-5CES, Will not travel" Fast Gun For Hire --Mac
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Great stuff, Mac.
As you say, knowing when to keep quiet is absolutely the trade mark of the pro session player.
ROG.
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Quote:
After playing a tribute quote to the Jingle Bells riff as an Intro (and paying tribute to the Jazz greats while doing so, echos of Charlie Christian, hints of Kenny Burrell's inimitable sparse use of 4ths and the tritone, etc.) and then plays those two-note stabs off of the melody.
--Mac
Played a Christmas gig the other day for a company dinner and the band wanted me to open Jingle Bell Rock with this intro lick. I had to beg off not really knowing it. When I got home I studied up and commited it to memory for the next time. 
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Great story Mac. Here's another: When asked what the hardest part about doing a session was, Barney Kessel replied "finding a parking space", lol. When you're good, you're good. 
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Quote:
As you say, knowing when to keep quiet is absolutely the trade mark of the pro session player.
I hear that a lot when I sing....
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I once heard a comment about a great drummer, saying that he could put more feeling into a one bar rest, than most drummers can put into a 32 bar drum solo.
Cheers,
Keith
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A good story about a great guitarist/musician. It is so true about knowing when not to play!
Waitress "How did you find your steak sir"?
Me "I just looked next to the potatoes and there it was"!
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Mac, thanks for bringing up one of my favourite guitarists. Hank was a fabulous guitar player and a great session player. My favourite album is his Jazz Winds From a New Direction where he plays with 18 year old vibist Gary Burton. This guy could play it all. Check it out! There is supposed to be a movie made called "Crazy" which is a bio??? of his life. Have not seen any sign of it so it may not have been released. I think the Gibson Birdland hollowbody was named after him and Billy Bird. Thanks. D.
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Very nice. To think of all of the times I've heard that song, and those guitar shots, it's nice to hear the "rest of the story" as Paul Harvey would say.
Have Fun!
Peter Gannon
PG Music Inc.
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Quote:
...I think the Gibson Birdland hollowbody was named after him and Billy Bird. Thanks. D.
Um, there's this cery famous old jazz club originally on 52nd street in NYC named, oddly enough, "Birdland".
After the great Charlie "Yarbird" Parker, whose friends called him just, "Bird".
And that is where the name for the Gibby of the same name came from.
"Bird made it, Bird played it, Bird heard it, then played it, well stated. Birdland. It happened down in Birdland."
"The music was good... The music was very good..."
--Mac
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I learned the mantra years ago. "When in doubt, lay out".
It's harder than it sounds I'll tell you. I heard myself on a recording years ago and it hit me like a two by four between the eyes. Way too much organ, I was overplaying like a.... well you know. When it's my time I'll go crazy with the best of them but when it's not my time, lay out man. Lay out.
Bob
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("I learned the mantra years ago. "When in doubt, lay out".) And it was brought home to me early on in my career.I was doing a Radio Show with the legendary Scottish Accordion player, Sir Jimmy Shand.The producer thought it would add to the dynamics of the show, to have Jimmy, his Double Bass player and myself on acoustic guitar, playing a Scottish Waltz.  So there I was........ "Ooom, cha, cha.....Oom, cha, cha".......with my Gibson Jumbo.......very, very nervous! But after a few times running though it......my confidence increased! And at the final rehearsal I started to to put in a few little Bass runs,, on guitar.......very pleased with myself I was!  Jimmy Shand stopped playing......the Bass player and I followed suit.....Jimmy looked over the top of his spectacles......and quietly said to me, "Nane o' your 'fal de rals' son!" I quickly learned "when in doubt lie out!" Joe G.
Last edited by Joe Gordon; 12/11/12 03:36 AM.
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Yes indeed, it is far too easy to fall into the trap of "overplaying".
When young, the want to let people know what you can do, to get noticed or get ahead, or simply the results of a youthful ego can get in the way of a being able to deliver Strong Performance.
When time makes the musician a bit, shall we say, more mature, it can still be problematic at times, the search for that Perfect Solo sort of thing.
Some certain musicians, I've noticed, seem to have a built-in reverence for melody and the song at hand, or so it seems. They *always* manage to tell a coherent story, which I'm convinced is at the core of the art and science of what we try to do.
Maintaining a good balance between the emotional and the cerebral is also of high importance. Don't play a lick or trick just because you recently learned it and are chafing at the bit to throw it out there. This one can prove to be very difficult to follow. But the song fulla Maj7 chording likely is not the place for the guitarist to try out a newly discovered use of Tritone subs, right? Don't worry, the aspiring organist has their list of this kind of thing as well, ever have to listen to a band in which the organist just discovered use of the BIG 13th CHORD, which then shows up in all turnarounds of the night? <g>
--Mac
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Quote:
Don't worry, the aspiring organist has their list of this kind of thing as well, ever have to listen to a band in which the organist just discovered use of the BIG 13th CHORD, which then shows up in all turnarounds of the night? <g>
--Mac
Or the guitarist who just bought a new stomp box and it’s in every song!
All I can add is been there-done that 
Waitress "How did you find your steak sir"?
Me "I just looked next to the potatoes and there it was"!
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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Don't worry, the aspiring organist has their list of this kind of thing as well, ever have to listen to a band in which the organist just discovered use of the BIG 13th CHORD, which then shows up in all turnarounds of the night?
Is that up there on the list of transgressions right near playing "THE LICK"?
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Whoever said that playing of The Lick is a transgression?
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Well, went for humor there... apparently missed.
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.
I think this is what made George Harrison great. He really did not play very much. His obbligato leads never covered up anybody else in the band. When he did a solo, it was simple and melodic, almost like what a singer would do. He even thinned out the tone of his instrument so as not to cover anybody else's piece of the sonic spectrum. He focused like a laser beam on what each song needed and hit it exactly. Never anything superfluous, never anything short of completion and balance.
Same with Merle Saunders, who played B3 with the Grateful Dead and many others. He could to a full jazz and repertoire with two hands and two feet, but when he played with some of the great rock bands he hardly ever played more than single notes.
And then, of course, there's Basie...
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