Billy Bean Trio

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

[handsomefortune]

Apologies accepted, Calum. Incidentally, Buddy DeFranco recorded an excellent album, 'Blues Bag', playing bass-clarinet. Now I'm changing the subject!
www.allmusic.com/album/blues-bag-r137613

'kush' (gillespie composed track from jazzrook's link) sounds absolutely great, imv i can't help wondering if only things could've gone in that direction a bit more? but most things over exposed become tedious, and hidden histories hold their own quintessential unique magic. which is the context i appreciated 'the billy bean trio' in initially.

we forget about perfectly good artists like Bean] ...

well no, we don't 'forget' imv. 'we' just never got the introduction initially! presumably, the artists themselves never received the exposure that sometimes less committed/talented players did? notoriously, through chance, luck rather than merit necessarily. therefore, it's difficult to keep 'on topic' without looking at how music was/is assimilated into culture then, and perception that follow now; or, how current technology now plays a useful role in explaining things in a self directed, therefore more random way, rather than 'the received show biz history of a given genre' and popular perception that continues on from that history. it looks as though billy bean apparently plays a pretty miniscule role in jazz guitar history as far as i can see.


apologies i had no wish to offend merely to expand the thread away from other cultural memories into jazz

well maybe i owe jazzrook an apology there too then? tbh i'm usually interested in a wider context, than personal 'favouritism', based on personal taste - or based on first hand memory ....(which i'm bound to fail at as i wasn't here). not that this is any barrier, now that playing jazzrook's 'kush' track is less effort than eg making a phone call. (if you've got a phone of course).

i suppose an appraisal of 'the billy bean trio' would involve panning outward, as to bean's own guitar influences, and the style he arrived at as result/

however, much as i love jazz guitar, for me, the history of this instrument sort of leap frogs genres, counter culture guitar music is about to eclipse all else. or, the 'guitar trail' takes us to the reinharts, and links with gypsy guitar/jazz music ...even though the billly bean guitar sound doesn't automatically bring gypsys to mind...? if at all! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_Reinhardt arguably, this trail is useless, in that it takes us back to belgium 1910 ....rather than early 60s US and bean's approach to guitar. which is interesting in itself, in that it's often precisely these yawning gaps in collective knowledge, or memory, that indicate a tantalising missing wider picture of a given genre. just need someone to fill in the dots ideally. (where's alyn)?

so, in order to stay strictly on topic, maybe we need an early 60s geetar nerd to enlighten us, if anything? but i'm not sure if we've got one that contributes to this forum?

i wonder if in the late 50's, the age of the complete novelty of tv, whether visually clarinets weren't considered half as telly-friendly as shiney brass instruments perhaps?

also, maybe masses of jazz guitar got lost for good, once the instrument was adopted as the counter cultures' 'symbol of resistance' later in the 60s.....along with the bongos. imv this perhaps indicates that neither electric guitar, or bongos had the perceived negative connotations with post war dominant consumerism, war, and the power politics and mass media that accompany it. but that takes a blues route - not a jazz one.

sorry jazzrook, but 'far out' or the long view, is my only means of understanding where bean might have been coming from, (absolutely no offence intended though).

barry galbraith doesn't superficially look like a useful root to take me to billy bean's influences... but oscar pettiford is a really great find ....if nothing else, and perhaps takes me a smigeon closer? his wiki link definitely illustrates the fact that memory and taste aren't that reliable .... but pettiford's wiki link suggests an 'also ran' artist, ....barely worthy of a few paragraphs. when clearly pettiford was a massive influence in his own era, and on what was to follow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWLo8xkOxDc

pettiford would make a good 'jazz library' subject, if he hasn't been 'done' already? (hint hint). he sounds like a whole orchestra on his own to me ....

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

pettiford would make a good 'jazz library' subject