Showcasing the RT artists 5. Neil Swainson: Superwalker - 05/03/13 07:04 PM
This tune is based on the changes to Wes Montgomery's best and most challenging composition, at least in my view.
Improvising coherently on these changes would challenge any player, but poses a real challenge to the featured RT artist, bassist Neil Swainson, who solos on the last chorus before restatement of the head. You'll hear the unedited result (no cutting, pasting, pitch corrections, nada).
The structure is AB, starting in Gb but the true key is Db. The chords are changing every measure, at first in half steps up and back; later in the A section there is a sequence of 2-5's descending in half steps. In the B section this sequence is replaced by a 2-5 resolution to Db. This takes it far from the blues, but it is "blues-like" - sort of.
I learned to play guitar with my thumb, but not from Wes, rather from the "singing cowboys" Gene Autry and Roy Rogers! When I was 7, I thought everyone played guitar with their thumb. When I found out about picks, I hated the way they made a guitar sound, and at half the size of my palm they kept slipping through my fingers. You'll hear my own thumb/octave sound on this track. Wes began with a pick, but gave it up and for different reasons: His wife asked him to play more softly at night so as not to disturb her.
TRIVIA: Do you know this actor/graphic artist/standup comic: http://www.anthonymontgomery.com/current.html
... maybe from Star Trek during the 2000's? Wes's grandson. And he definitely has that Montgomery "look."
Besides Neil and RT artist Terry Clarke (drums), Aleck Rand wrote the arrangement, plays guitar, conga, MIDI drums (on the "train-wreck" ending) and part of the piano track, which is MIDI and based on an old BIAB McCoy Tyner style. I wanted to add some more modern "fourthy-sounding" substitutions and wound up editing the whole track.
Listen to WES'S BLUES here: https://soundcloud.com/aleckrand/wess-blues
Improvising coherently on these changes would challenge any player, but poses a real challenge to the featured RT artist, bassist Neil Swainson, who solos on the last chorus before restatement of the head. You'll hear the unedited result (no cutting, pasting, pitch corrections, nada).
The structure is AB, starting in Gb but the true key is Db. The chords are changing every measure, at first in half steps up and back; later in the A section there is a sequence of 2-5's descending in half steps. In the B section this sequence is replaced by a 2-5 resolution to Db. This takes it far from the blues, but it is "blues-like" - sort of.
I learned to play guitar with my thumb, but not from Wes, rather from the "singing cowboys" Gene Autry and Roy Rogers! When I was 7, I thought everyone played guitar with their thumb. When I found out about picks, I hated the way they made a guitar sound, and at half the size of my palm they kept slipping through my fingers. You'll hear my own thumb/octave sound on this track. Wes began with a pick, but gave it up and for different reasons: His wife asked him to play more softly at night so as not to disturb her.
TRIVIA: Do you know this actor/graphic artist/standup comic: http://www.anthonymontgomery.com/current.html
... maybe from Star Trek during the 2000's? Wes's grandson. And he definitely has that Montgomery "look."
Besides Neil and RT artist Terry Clarke (drums), Aleck Rand wrote the arrangement, plays guitar, conga, MIDI drums (on the "train-wreck" ending) and part of the piano track, which is MIDI and based on an old BIAB McCoy Tyner style. I wanted to add some more modern "fourthy-sounding" substitutions and wound up editing the whole track.
Listen to WES'S BLUES here: https://soundcloud.com/aleckrand/wess-blues
