Is there such a thing as a jazz pedal steel guitarist?
A.R. Watts
Buddy Emmons, the great country pedal steel guitar player, recorded an
album on Verve (early 60's, I believe) of jazz standards with the jazz
horn player Jerome Richardson and a jazz rhythm section. I still enjoy
the tape I have of it, where Emmons plays the jazz horn solo lines on his
pedal steel guitar.
Thank you
Alan Watts
Thank you
Alan Watts Preparation is everything. Less is more.
William Denton
I was down at one of my local monster CD stores the other day and
heard some insane music while looking for The Wham of Sam, by Sammy
Davis Jr. The "Adult Pop" or whatever they call it section is in with
country and world music, and they were playing some wild
country/blues/jazz stuff. I just stood there listening, then found
out what it was and bought it.
The album is called Stratosphere Boogie: The Flaming Guitars of Speedy
West and Jimmy Bryant (Razor & Tie RE 2067). Apparently they were
extremely popular in the '50s and '60s, recording with all kinds of
country stars, plus people like Bing Crosby, Spike Jones and Stan
Freberg. Speedy West played the pedal steel guitar, and Jimmy Bryant
played a regular electric guitar (also twelve-string and a violin,
too, he hung with Stuff Smith sometimes). The liner notes say Bryant
was the first major player to ever use a Fender Telecaster.
It's some pretty crazy stuff. Most of the tunes are very fast, and
Speedy does some weird stuff that sounds like a Hawaiian player on
acid. It's country-ish, sometimes rockabilly, with a fair bit of
blues, and one song that is very boppish and wouldn't sound out of
place if Charlie Christian had played it. The album is only about 37
minutes long, but it's a lot of fun (all instrumentals, by the way).
All this leads me to wonder: are there any jazz pedal steel players?
I've always liked the instrument whenever I've heard it, but it's
pretty rare these days. If anyone knows of someone playing jazz with
it, I'd love to know. In fact, if there's a King of the Pedal Steel,
I'd probably go by something by him, no matter what kind of music.
Cheers,
Bill Denton
--
--------------
William Denton | <URL:http://www.io.org/~buff> | bu...@io.org | Caveat lector.
The line forms on the right, babe.
Thomas F Brown
>
>All this leads me to wonder: are there any jazz pedal steel players?
Aside from Speedy, there's Buddy Emmons, who has some jazzy stuff
out. If you want the King of Pedal Steel, Buddy is the major
contender.
PS: I know a cat in LA who actually does transcriptions of
classical pieces for pedal steel. Weird, wacky stuff.
2 jazz pagans
Lenny Breau that includes Scrapple from the Apple, a Bach Bourree, and
a few other things. As I recall, the rhythm section is adequate, more
rooted in country than jazz. I think the label is Flying Fish, and the
recording date is probably mid-70s.
- JRB
Ton Maas
isn't straight jazz, but how about Satie's "Gnossiennes" on pedal steel?
Cole has recorded an album for Hannibal/Rykodisc called "Transparent
Music".
Ton Maas, Amsterdam NL
Engineered Plastics Corp
>
>I was down at one of my local monster CD stores the other day and [heard]
[snip]
>The album is called Stratosphere Boogie: The Flaming Guitars of Speedy
>West and Jimmy Bryant (Razor & Tie RE 2067).
It's great that Razor and Tie has issued this collection. This set
culls material from about 6-8 albums (or more) of material that Jimmy
Bryant and Speedy West put out individually and together. It's sad
that Jimmy Bryant died in 1980 without being recognized as not only
a pioneer guitarist, but arguably one of the best.
>It's some pretty crazy stuff. Most of the tunes are very fast, and
>Speedy does some weird stuff that sounds like a Hawaiian player on
>acid. It's country-ish, sometimes rockabilly, with a fair bit of
>blues, and one song that is very boppish and wouldn't sound out of
>place if Charlie Christian had played it.
Well, Charlie Christian shares some of the same musical roots,
ie., Western Swing, Bob Wills, et.al.
> The album is only about 37
>minutes long, but it's a lot of fun (all instrumentals, by the way).
There are other items you may find either as imports, or in used bins..
[email if you want more info]
For example:
Jimmy Bryant - "Country Cabin Jazz"
Speedy West - "Guitar Spectacular", "Steel Guitar"
Speedy West/Jimmy Bryant - "For the Last Time"
And for great country/jazz/hillbilly guitar try:
Various Artists-Guitar Player presents Legends of Country Guitar Vol. 1 & 2
Various Artists- Hillbilly Music; Thank God.
And a whole series of long out of print Jimmy Bryant records on Imperial,
one of which features Barney Kessel on 2nd guitar and a killer version of
Little Rock Getaway. (This track is on the "Legends..Vol. 2" album listed
above, btw)
>All this leads me to wonder: are there any jazz pedal steel players?
You bet. There aren't a whole lot other than Speedy West, but two
others that come to mind are Buddy Emmons who played and recorded
with Danny Gatton and Johnny Bush, and Curly Chalker, who recorded
a delightful record with Joe Venuti, Eldon Shamblin (another Bob
Wills alumnus), and Jethro Burns called "S'Wonderful". There are
others too, I'm sure..
>I've always liked the instrument whenever I've heard it,
See if you can find the Guitar Player collections mentioned above,
that should get you started.
>Cheers,
>Bill Denton
regards,
-mm
--
Martin A. Miller, Systems Administrator - Engineered Plastics Corp.
Menomonee Falls, WI. | Email: e...@execpc.com
Take those bells off your neck, they're too small..
- Kevin Ayers
Glenn Brooks
Bobby Previte's "Claude's Late Morning" on Gramavision.
charlie_robinson
Group on the Blue Note Album "Bing,Bing,Bing". Charlie Robinson
Maurice Hogue
You might want to check out Michel Rose of The catholics band from
Australia. They have two releases on Terra Nova records. He's originally
from Mauritius. Has an interesting background, and really starting to
shine on this instrument.
Maurice Hogue
gordon smith
: All this leads me to wonder: are there any jazz pedal steel players?
: I've always liked the instrument whenever I've heard it, but it's
: pretty rare these days. If anyone knows of someone playing jazz with
: it, I'd love to know. In fact, if there's a King of the Pedal Steel,
: I'd probably go by something by him, no matter what kind of music.
You want to hear Buddy Emmons. A great pedal steel player. He did some
things with Lenn Breau and has a few solo albums out there.
Leon McCallauf (sp?) Used to play with Bob Wills also did some great jazz
pedal steel.
One guy who is considered one of the best and does a lot of jazz is Curly
Chalker.
--
_____________________________________________________________
I Gordon Smith I
I Dundas, Ontario, Canada I
I aa...@freenet.hamilton.on.ca I
I http://www.freenet.hamilton.on.ca/~aa637/Profile.html I
-------------------------------------------------------------
Don Steiny
>William Denton (bu...@io.org) wrote:
>One guy who is considered one of the best and does a lot of jazz is Curly
>Chalker.
There is an album: 4 Giants of Swing, with Joe Venuti, Eldon Shamblon
(lead guitar for Bob Wills), Curly Chalker, and Jethro Burns. I heard about
it here, ordered it from CD now (telnet cdnow.com) and it has been one of
the albums in my 5 CD changer ever since. I play guitar and sing and
really like the older, swing style jazz (some person in this group
explained to me why if I really took the time I would learn that John Coletrane
was much better than Joe Venuti, but it hasn't worked so far :-). This
CD is terriffic.
-don
--
Don Steiny - ste...@infopoint.com - http://www.infopoint.com
InfoPoint - voice 1+(408) 425-5343 - fax: 1+(408) 425-1919
Central California shopping, entertainment, dining and lodging
A creation of Don Steiny Software - 1+(408) 425-0382
-- success is 99% failure - Honda --
gordon smith
: There is an album: 4 Giants of Swing, with Joe Venuti, Eldon Shamblon
: (lead guitar for Bob Wills), Curly Chalker, and Jethro Burns. I heard about
: it here, ordered it from CD now (telnet cdnow.com) and it has been one of
: the albums in my 5 CD changer ever since. I play guitar and sing and
: really like the older, swing style jazz (some person in this group
: explained to me why if I really took the time I would learn that John Coletrane
: was much better than Joe Venuti, but it hasn't worked so far :-). This
: CD is terriffic.
Yes you get that a lot around jazz folk. I'm a big fan on Coltrane but
that has never stopped my from liking people like Django or Eddie Lang or
Venuti. For that matter I also sit around listing to koto music. They all
scratch a different itch. There's a good story about Charlie Parker and
his band in a restaurant and Bird starts playing country records on the
jukebox. The band starts moaning and complaining so Bird says. "These
guys have got something to say and I can hear em".
Peterbwms
good example or two. Buddy Emmons is fantastic. The release is "Minors
Aloud" with Lenny Breau on Flying Fish. Buddy has also worked with Buddy
Spicher a fiddle player. There is a label devoted to jazz on pedal steel.
I'll look it up tomorrow and inform. Also look at music from Speedy West
and Jimmy Bryant there is a new issue out on Razor and Tie. It is
basically country music, all instrumental but they cut loose and burn
through changes on several tracks.
Along these same lines, how about jazz banjo?! Look for an album titled
Higher Power from Pat Cloud, great!
Peter Williams, KAZU-FM
Joel Glassman
record "Jazz on Ten" from Double 10 Records Americana Records Group Inc.
20 Music Square West Suite 200 Nashville TN 37203
gordon smith
: Did Hank Garland have a pedal steel player on his jazzy C&W LPs?
: John Reinschmidt
: jrei...@luthersem.edu
I've got a nice old Eddie Arnold record with Hank Garland playing on it
with a pedal steel player but there are no credits on the cover. Pretty
jazzy stuff as well leaning more to the Texas swing sound.
Russ Ellis
Haggis" (Bing, Bing, Bing. Blue Note)
Russ Ellis
QHead1
Guitar Jazz" which featured such excellent New York jazz players as
saxophonist Jerome Richardson. It included tunes like Sonny Rollins'
"Oleo" and Horace Silver's "the Preacher".
JBAlbin
think it's ca. 1976, when the two of them had a band called Redneck Jazz
Explosion. Some people might not think of this as a Jazz record because
the tunes are in a rock/bar band mode, but it has some great playing.
Brian D. Phillips
If no one has mentioned Alvino Rey, I'll do so. He fronted his own band
and occasionally featured the King Sisters.
If you take into account Western Swing, there is Leon McAuliffe(sp?)
formerly of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys and a host of others.
Brian