Manouche with trumpet for a change

Romain Vuillemin · October 12

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/126209#Comment_126209

Exactly, i m also a huge fan of Chet, and during a couple of years when i moved to Paris i felt people would play too many notes in the gypsy jazz genre and wents nuts for chet as it was the opposite. Then i realized as you did that the guitar cannot exactly improvise the same way as we can t hold the notes

Romain Vuillemin · October 12

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/126223#Comment_126223

You're right i think Django s tremolos and huge chord work were invented to emulate the sound of big band backs etc.

About the Django s period with Benny Carter and Rex Stewart etc it is very interesting, i like some more than others but there are some masterpieces. We often play Farewell blues that Django played (without playing a chorus) with Benny Carter as a 10tet if i recall well. We ve played a few of those arrangements with the Umlaut Big band and recorded also 2 tracks of Django with Americans , the Honeysuckle rose version with benny Carter and all the reeds, and I'm coming Virginia

paulmcevoy75 · October 12

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/126227#Comment_126227

I think there was an older american guy living in Paris who used to go to the L'Apostrophe jam session on trumpet and sounded just like Chet. Maybe I'm hallucinating. He was great.

Joonas · October 13

@aidan_s Yes, I think I'll try some Chet tune again soon. I have a number of tunes that I'm practicing one by one like a pack of cards and when I'm through I'll get back to start again but, if I feel confident, I go and pick a new one. I've discarded Chet's stuff for a while but do think that I'd like to try some again.

djazzy · October 13

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/126227#Comment_126227

Just want to chime in here. I understand the point about the difference between the instruments. It is a valid point. But I still struggle accepting it because I still think lots of people in this style still just play too many notes with the guitar, and that there could be a different way of thinking about playing the guitar. Kinda like Django did on Exactly Like You & All Of Me. Maybe there are better examples to illustrate (sometimes with Tchavolo too?) but that kind of phrasing ("less is more"?) sounds so singable & musical to me. And maybe almost against the nature of the guitar.

Buco · October 13

I thought for a long time that big part of the reason for too many notes is because of the absence of sustain.

I played with trumpet player in our band in Chicago. He had a nice collection of mutes and with one of them on the trumpet he really wasn't much louder than our guitars. Very mellow sound. They all had their own thing going so he could make his trumpet sound in many different ways, super fun. Typing this and thinking back, I miss that sound.

aidan_s · October 13

@djazzy 100%, I think as well as sustain the disconnect with breath is a real handicap of our instrument when it comes to rhythm & phrasing in our lead playing (both because it's natural to play without leaving enough space and because there's not an innate physicality/strain in reaching for the higher registers which both detract from that singability/musicality element)

I always notice my favourite players almost invariably spent a long time thinking about immitation (Django obsessed with Armstrong, I think Oscar Aleman was heavily influenced by Bill Coleman, so much of Charlie Christian's phrasing and style comes from Sax I think, Grant Green was really influenced by horn & reed players, Herb Ellis is always on about how to imitate the phrasing and ideas of a vocalist, or stepping slightly outside of jazz Chuck Berry & T-Bone Walker are both really influenced by horns too I think) & I think the nice thing about this is you've so many options for what to imitate & ways to do so, you've got almost endless ways to add individual character to your playing (not so much fitting in with the point above but I love the Ferret brothers too and I think a lot of their unique approach comes from copping ideas from accordion players)