Topic: Other Musical Interests on YouTube

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Here you go:



All best,
Johnm

[lindy]

This is my first time to see a "visualizer" in action, I tend to be the last guy on the block to learn about these things. Seeing this visualization of a John Coltrane composition brings out the old "Wow, cool!" feeling from my high school days.



There's a Vevo version of the same video embedded in this NYTimes article, which for some reason strikes me as being clearer than the youtube version, but Vevo won't let me post a direct link.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/07/arts/music/john-coltrane-lost-album-both-directions-at-once.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&region=CColumn&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&src=me&WT.nav=MostEmailed

Powerful music.

[Stuart]

From "The King of Jazz" --I threw my back out and snapped my neck just by watching it:

[lindy]

This obituary caught my eye this afternoon, and I clicked on the accompanying YouTube vid of this alto sax player's 100th birthday party.

He was the organizer of an amateur gathering of jazz musicians that met every Tuesday at noon at some restaurant in Manhattan. He had to shut down the gig in 2011, but he made sure to get his friends together for one more session for his birthday.

Watch it all if you have 8 minutes to spare; if not, at least check out his solo at :36, then again at about 6:05.

100!



There's a bunch of other songs from this gig on YouTube

[Stuart]

Thanks, Lindy. Inspiring to say the least. Here's a link to the notice in the NY Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/16/obituaries/les-lieber-who-served-jazz-to-the-lunch-crowd-dies-at-106.html

[Rivers]

Love this! Hedy is playing a longneck banjo capoed up. I do it in sawmill tuning on a regular OT banjo and have no clue how she's tuned but love the playing and vocalizing. What a great groove and backbeat she has.

Yes that is MJH, transfixed at stage left.

[Rivers]

Doc Watson and Merle, with Earl Scruggs and his two boys. There's something here for everybody, wow!

[Johnm]

Hi Rivers,
Thanks for posting the Hedy West version of "Little Sadie".  She used the same tuning as you do, but it's neat to hear the song done with a different melody than the more familiar one that Tom Ashley, Doc Watson and many others have used.  Wade Ward recorded an instrumental version on which he played fiddle that had a different and very cool melody--different from either the familiar version or Hedy West's.  It transfers well to the banjo, too.
All best,
Johnm

[Rivers]

Thanks John for the tuning, I'll listen out for that Wade Ward version you mention. Hedy's version has piqued my interest in playing longneck banjo, I've never tried.

[Lastfirstface]

I don't think Hedy West is using sawmill. She's playing it out of the tuning Hobart Bailey used, which is dDGAD. She's capoed up to what would be the fourth fret on a standard banjo and has the drone string tuned down a half-step to f#, the resulting tuning being f#F#BC#F# playing out of the key of F#. The first and fifth string are tuned to the same note. Watch how she lands on the "home position" of fretting the third string at the second fret.

[Johnm]

Thanks for the catch, Pete.  You are certainly right.  Does she ever play the fifth string in this rendition?  Sometimes she rests her thumb on the string, but I can't hear or see her play it.
All best,
Johnm

[Lastfirstface]

Hard to say if she catches the fifth string, her thumb just seems to float around it! The sound of it could be blending in with the unison-tuned first string, but definitely seems to be avoiding the drone string in general.

[Rivers]

[lindy]

Stephane Grappelli 40 years later, with the cream of acoustic players at the time:

[Rivers]

Here's a video that demonstrates Mark Knopfler can do a good Blind Blake and Willie McTell impersonation. He also does a very good summary of various guitars and what they're good for, and developing out of simple I-IV-V into chord melody.

This would be a video I would recommend to any enthusiastic young guitarist just starting out. Don't get me wrong, I've always loved his playing, I had no idea it went this deep.