Robben Ford’s “Soul on Ten”
Eight of the ten tracks on Robben Ford’s fourth and most recent Concord Records release, “Soul On 10”, were recorded last April at The Independent in San Francisco’s Alamo Square.
Eight of the ten tracks on Robben Ford’s fourth and most recent Concord Records release, “Soul On 10”, were recorded last April at The Independent in San Francisco’s Alamo Square.
In the music performance world some artists actually get better over time. The energy and the passion for their craft only increase as they mature. For several decades George Benson has distinguished himself as one of the finest jazz guitarists of his time. Add to that his expressive vocals and scat singing and the musical package is totally complete.
Pat Martino Unstrung documents the physical and psychological struggles faced by the legendary jazz guitarist before and after undergoing brain surgery in 1980 that resulted in the removal of more than half of his left temporal lobe. The film focuses mainly on the neurological aspects of Martino’s condition, both before and after surgery, with added snippets of music and concert footage spread throughout the documentary.
When I first became interested in solo jazz guitar in the early ’80s there was one name that stood out above the rest: Joe Pass. Joe had recorded more solo jazz guitar albums than anyone and with his special talent he kept the music inventive and engaging. With Norman Granz promoting him and issuing his Virtuoso series on Pablo records beginning in 1973, Pass raised the bar for all jazz guitarists that followed.
The pentatonic scale is often the first scale guitarists learn when they begin to explore the realms of blues, rock and jazz improvisation. Though most guitarists learn the basic fingerings of this oft-used scale, maybe in different keys and positions across the neck, few players delve deep into the scale’s vast harmonic and melodic possibilities. Whereas rock and blues players such as Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimmy Hendrix and Jimmy Page made careers by using common application of the pentatonic, and its closely related cousin the blues scale, during their improvised solos and riffs, jazz musicians such as Pat Metheny, John Scofield and Mike Stern have applied their knowledge of modern harmony to the pentatonic scale, greatly expanding the array of sounds and tonal colors that this scale can produce. In his book Jazz Guitar Soloing Concepts: A Pentatonic Modal Approach to Improvisation, Dr. Ronald S. Lemos dives into the modern world of the pentatonic scale and presents an exhaustive volume detailing the many harmonic and melodic variations this commonly used scale can produce.
