Pat Bythe – All That Jazz Part VI

This is going to be a long one…….

For the early students of jazz, there were no books or educational courses. The best a young musician had was listening to the music live, following by recordings. You couldn’t take a live performance home, and recordings could be scarce, or simply out of reach financially. As jazz grew in popularity throughout the decades, more and more recordings made this rapidly changing genre more available and attainable.

Pat Blythe – Synth What? …and Music

Last week I entered a wormhole I haven’t quite surfaced from. It all started with a offhand remark and has now ended up to a be two-part essay on all things synthesizer(ish). You’ve all read the history of this beast (test on Friday) so I shall now segue into the “guitar synthesizer”, the “SynthAxe” and a new find…..the “Keytar”.

Frank Gutch Jr: Not Rolling Stone’s Top 100

I just took another stroll through Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Greatest Guitarists.  I do so occasionally just to remind me of what a fools errand such lists are.  I realize that it sells “magazines” (are they a magazine these days?), people being suckers for Top of’s of 50 Best’s if for no other reason to compare choices with theirs.  Jimi Hendrix?  Sure.  #1.  Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck?  Automatic Top Ten.  James Burton and Buddy Holly?  You have no choice but to throw in the originators on occasion.  John Fahey?  Can’t leave out the cool artist who never really sold in terms of the numbers necessary to chart.