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"Best Guitar Performance Ever" according to Youtube


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Hey stranger, did you watch the video I linked too? I only ask because I wouldn't want anyone thinking I actually think Steve Vai is the best and that I don't "get" why Jimi might be considered better...I got not problems with Steve Vai. I don't ever listen to him either.

 

watch the Vai vid. It's hilarious and brilliantly done.

 

Anyway, I am sure we are ALL in total agreement that THESE GUYS are just about the tops when it comes to soul, skill, uncompromising standards and imagination: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWvQwrYXdYA

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I love the way Batten is playing the Jan Hammer parts in that 2nd clip. When I was starting out in San Diego as a musician, late 70's, early 80's, Jennifer Batten was in a band called Purl. They were the "Jazz Rock" band on the scene. They played a whole different circuit than me so I had to sort of go out of my way to catch them. She didn't have the hair then but she had most of those chops. Un-freaking-believable.

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I once saw the Hellecasters open for Mike Nesmith (and then back him up).

 

THe H'casters played for two and a half hours before Nesmith came on (after a break).

 

The first hour, I loved it, big {censored}-eatin' grin on my face. The next half hour my mind started getting a little burned out. The last forty five minutes or so I found myself thinking, It'd be nice to hear "Jo Anne" now -- or maybe, more appropriately -- "The Grand Ennui."

 

There's a balance in all things... or should be.

 

 

Props to the chicken-pickin' Albert Lee -- I was pretty sure that was him from the playing but I clicked through to make sure. Never saw him. Saw Clapton though on the Ocean Blvd tour. I went to the concert a big EC fan and walked away completely disillusioned. George Terry took most of the solos, nearly hidden at the back of the state while EC gyrated in the front with his guitar. It was the Fabulous Forum so folks toward the middle and back probably thought EC was actually soloing. Really sad.

 

I saw Mahivishnu Orchestra in the 70s. They were great but I think I was not in the appropriate head space. The memories are blurry. Alcohol may not be the best drug to watch Mahivishnu Orch under the FX of.

 

I saw Hendrix twice in a three day festival. That was in some ways, a sea-changer for me. I'd always kind of resisted Jimi before that -- I liked the savage fury of some of the first hits, of course, and the psychedelica. But after that and watching the Woodstock movie (with that cool dreamy music toward the end as they're closing down the festiva) I started really appreciating him. But it wasn't until one rainy day in the early 80s -- a time when I'd been slashing and burning my way through punk rock for just a little too long -- when I put some Hendrix on the box and just sort of really listened.

 

I saw Joe Pass, too. And Gabor Szabo (quirky, qurky, quirky). Nels Cline. Missed Roy Buchannan -- could have seen him with my man Rory at the tiny Golden Bear in Huntington Beach but I didn't even realize they were there... I was sort of distracted at that point in time. Kills me to think about it. Would have been one of my last chances to see Rory. Saw Bill Nelson. Steve Howe (w/ Yes). Bernie Leadon (with the Eagles). EVH when the band was starting out (hated him then but a few years later I found myself really liking what he put down for the first album or two)... Saw Nils Lofgren solo. Guy could play -- and do a backwards sumersault off a trampoline while doing a triple stop bend... but... I enjoyed the heck out of it, anyhow. Eugene Chadbourne (nutty, nutty, nutty -- but amazing, nonetheless). Jorma Kaukonen was a fave for along time. Saw Richard Thompson five times. Great acoustic and electric player. (Saw him with the odd little French, Frith, Kaiser, Thompson band... LOTS of great guitar in that one!) Never saw SRV, dang it. Saw Joe pass from approximately 6 feet away, solo and with a trio. THAT was an education. Would have LOVED to have seen Oscar Moore, Jr (Nat Cole Trio) ... an amazingly great player... so subtle, so hot, so very, very fine.

 

I'm missing some important links but you get the drift.

 

Anyhow, I guess we all have a couple guys deep in our hearts... for me it was Jimi and Rory.

 

 

PS... Oh, and I saw Frigid Pink... :D :D :D

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Beck is the great balancer. Batten just tears your head off. She's great... but Beck is a musician, not a guitarist.

No disrespect to Batten, I like her a lot more than the Satrianis and the Vais. But Beck... he's from another planet. A planet with soul.

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Hey stranger, did you watch the video I linked too? I only ask because I wouldn't want anyone thinking I actually think Steve Vai is the best and that I don't "get" why Jimi might be considered better...I got not problems with Steve Vai. I don't ever listen to him either.




Yeah, I was posting a response as I was watching it. I realized my error, but Jimi clips are always good, even if you don't know what you're talking about. ;)

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Beck is the great balancer. Batten just tears your head off. She's great... but Beck is a
musician
, not a guitarist.


No disrespect to Batten, I like her a lot more than the Satrianis and the Vais.


But Beck... he's from another planet...

 

 

Yeah, that's where the Beck's are from all right.

 

But IMO Batten is very musical and creative in her own right. There

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I'd like to see anyone else do this with two fingers....

 

[YOUTUBE]4v-6AH-S8L8&feature=related[/YOUTUBE]

 

Slide show only...not much vid of him....

 

[YOUTUBE]LoIJ4W7kXiQ&feature=related[/YOUTUBE]

 

 

And let us not forget the mighty Joe....

 

[YOUTUBE]Npy3DlV98yM&feature=related[/YOUTUBE]

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Django wins, and not even 'cause pf the fingers. Pass has never moved me as much as, say, Jim Hall on one end and Wes Montgomery on the other, but I did see Joe live later in his life and he played some chord solo-type stuff that just floored me.

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Is that Johnny Winter playing an outdoor gig in Alsaka in December? All I can see is white.

 

Speaking of Johnny, I just heard something more than a rumor that he's picked up 40 pounds, is regaining his health after leaving some bad habits behind, and is doing something like 180 shows a year. (And generally walking onto stage, whereas in the past he was using a wheelchair.)

 

So... welcome news on the Johnny Winter front. :)

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There's been some discussion on soul vs. tech vs. whatever. As soon as you mention "the best" all credibility goes down the gutter anyway. So I found this.

I can't believe I found this. Jan Ackerman? Was that his name? Focus. Check out how ahead of his time he was with that glassy, abrasive, yet totally in control tone. His "wankery" is so inventive. Listen how he punctuates between the flute phrases the amazing keyboardist / yodeler plays. It sounds like the flute making that noise it is so in time and right. That's guitar.

Jan is no jack off artist but he can melt your eyebrows too. And his rhythm chops? Yeah. Amazing clip. I forgot how really, really good these guys were. Go ahead... watch it twice.


[YOUTUBE]bpV5InLw52U[/YOUTUBE]

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Django wins, and not even 'cause pf the fingers. Pass has never moved me as much as, say, Jim Hall on one end and Wes Montgomery on the other, but I did see Joe live later in his life and he played some chord solo-type stuff that just floored me.

 

Yeah... it's not Pass's speed in his melodic runs (which is not always entirely mechanically precise) that worked for me but his harmonic knowledge, which really came out when was playing solo. He's not my favorite jazz guy, but he had a lot to give us.

 

As I said, I would have loved to have seen Oscar Moore, Jr. Or Charlie Christian. I should have seen Herb Ellis, who is thankfully still with us but is not a kid (and I'm not sure how active he is, at 87). I'd love to see one of Les Paul's performances, which, as far as I know still go on, even in his 90s.

 

I'm not sure who my 'favorite' jazz guitarist would be -- really, it can change from hour to hour -- I wasn't much into jazz guitar before I got my first Herb Ellis album (though I had a thing for Gabor Szabo when I was a kid and was lucky enough to see when I was in my first year of college; the girl I was in love with got us in on the list to see him, since she was also going out with the then-grad student who was Szabo's manager at the time -- those complicated 70s.)

 

But it might, ultimately, just be Moore. Really a great player with chords or melodic runs, always so tasty, and always in nearly perfect support of Nat Cole, whether he was taking a solo or singing.

 

 

That said, Django was truly an amazing, groundbreaking player... he's the godfather of modern guitar playing, seems to me. And his music, at least to me, is evergreen. There's always some new little thing to hear... and how could that be? ;)

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