Jazz music is often famous for featuring amazing improvisations and that is absolutely fair: Jazz did re-vitalize the art of improvisation which almost disappeared with the end of the Baroque period. Good Jazz, however, is not only, or even primarily, about improvisation, but it is about melody. For one thing, the melody is often the point of departure for improvisations but, even more importantly, a good, solid and lyrical melody invites a great deal of variation in possible harmonization, which in turn, opens new avenues for improvisations. Today I want to share with you one of my absolutely favorite melodies “Souvenirs de Villingen” which, apparently, was composed by Stephan Grapelli (although at least one site credits Django Reinhardt with this composition). First, here is a version by my favorite Jazz guitarist, Philip Catherine:
and next, a very beautiful version by Stephan Grapelli
Finally, for the musicians amongst you, I found this here: http://www.djangobooks.com/forum/uploads/FileUpload/3_029c32c0dd9b8dbeb6c0fe41e377eafc.pdf
Enjoy!!
The Saker
Beautiful! Thank you.
Yes, nothing like a good melody. The guitarists and musicians I enjoy are probably best known for their improvisations, one on top of the other, each improvising off the others. It can sound like chaos to a new ear that doesn’t grasp what they are doing, but it can be magic when you get it and can hear it and understand what they are doing.
But of course, they are all starting off that basic melody. That’s what keeps them all together, that they are all improvising off a good melody, or at least improvising off of someone else’s improvisation of a good melody. But take away that good melody, and there is nothing.
Life may be sweeter for this
See how it feels in the end.
:)
What guitarists and other musicians do you enjoy the most?
could you post some really good impro (from YT or any other video hosting) here?
cheers,
I always like to discover more musics and more musicians :-)
The Saker
Oldie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0fnOzu7WZA
Guitarists Wim Overgaauw and Eef Albers, playing Duke Ellington’s Prelude to a Kiss.
Can’t play anymore due to age & arthritis myself, but I still listen to Guitar music. Joe Pass had a good technique: Well there are many, but few measure up to Django; though Les Paul himself was very good. My older brother, who taught me to play was very good with Jazz as well as classical. I still have my old strat that I have used for 35 years.
The Stephane Grapelli recording here is lovely.
I enjoyed this while at breakfast before going to work. My life taken a huge turn almost exactly one year ago (I am now working at an outsourced ‘IT Help Desk’ of a 120,000 employees chemical company) and it currently feels very much like the ‘American Way of Life’ as illustrated in this fim of a guy with the name Steve Cutts: https://youtu.be/e9dZQelULDk
Thank you for nurturing a little bit my maltreated starving soul (excuse my English).
Really enjoyed the film by Steve Cutts.
I had never heard of him.
Before seeing that, and before reading your comment, I was thinking about how the guitarist writes out by hand his composition on paper held in an old-fashioned ring binder that is full of previous compositions on paper, keeps a blue pencil sharpener nearby, and a low-tech non-cyber companion, a calico cat. True tranquillity. Perhaps those are the souvenirs de Villingen. The absence of high tech shnickery.
As for the performances, not sure why these would be called jazz. Even though Grapelli was the greatest jazz violinist. But does being a jazz violinist make everything one plays jazz?
Some more jazz fiddling, from matt Glaser (and friends), who worked extensively with Grappelli at the end of the latter’s life (I think he transcribed all of Grappelli’s recordings, or some such):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwEF7vpADzM&list=PLdYesuIew2uZHud4fnaGPIp2W7djVJVMd
And here he shows how Grappelli did it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu_L540uFBU
And the transcriptions and more explanation:
https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Violin-Matt-Glaser/dp/0825601940
Katherine
It was my great privilege to see Stephane Grapelli play live at age 80, in a small club (Blues Alley) and sit just a few feet away.
Speaking of Django Reinhardt, here is a jazz band who call themselves Django Reinhard Group featuring some good musicians; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIVKW_2zs-I
I have just recently discovered Gustavo Santaolalla. His simple yet skilful and moving music has a way of touching something inside of you. He is a good guitar player and also plays an instrument called ronroco; https://ronrocoreview.wordpress.com/tag/gustavo-santaolalla/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9iQ0pcSVIM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVHJ_yYNJsU
Enjoy