JAZZGUITARHARDBALL
JIM BASTIAN
Down Home with Cal Collins
Welcome to Jazz Guitar Hardball. This
month we are putting the spotlight on
Cal Collins (b.1933 – d. 2001), a relatively
obscure and under-celebrated jazz guitarist who has been one of my favorites for
decades. Cal was well known for his tours
with Benny Goodman in the seventies, for
his combo recordings on the Concord label
and as a fixture in the Cincinnati jazz scene
between the seventies and nineties.
To a large degree, the studying of jazz has
moved into the university system, and with
that, jazz programs run the risk of producing players who tend to sound similar in
technique, tone and in the application of
the traditional principles of jazz. Listening
to FM jazz stations, it is sometimes difficult
to distinguish current jazz guitarists
from one another. Hail the likes of
Cal Collins! He was a self-taught
player who learned on the street,
and in his early days, on the farm.
He learned to play by ear, without books, and disdained trying
to read music. In spite of that, or
perhaps because of it, the result
was a unique, personal style that
is instantly recognizable to anyone
who has listened to him. Cal was
a down-home guy that liked to
smoke, showed up at gigs rumpled
and overlooked the many cracks
in his Gibson archtop as long as it
sounded good – he preferred the ES-350,
L- 7 style guitars and Gretsch archtops. He
reached the goal that we all strive for: an
individual and highly evolved style that
comes from inside.
I became aware of Cal’s lack of academic
training when I heard him speak at a clinic
in the late eighties. Cal had little academic
ability to explain how he played or to discuss his application of jazz theory. He was
not a schooled player and he stumbled over
theoretical questions. His final answer to
many questions often had to do with the
earth-shattering revelation that he would
use particular chords, lines and ideas “if
they sounded good to him.” His method of
practicing involved a kind of “going fishing,” where he would substitute chords
under melody notes until he found combinations that sounded good to his ear. One
might consider that his performance style
actually benefited from a life free of scholastic influence.
Cal was not voluminous in the recording
studio, but what he did was of very high
quality and always very swinging, traditional
combo jazz. His improv vocabulary, while
relying on the traditional bebop language,
was also heavily colored with Texas swing
and blues influences. These influences likely
came from his early musical start, playing
bluegrass music on the mandolin at the age
of five on the Indiana farm where he grew
up. Anyone who thinks jazz players can’t
bend strings should listen to Cal, whose
lines are imbued with a rolling Texas country
twang. Aside from well-crafted single line
soloing, Cal is well known for his mastery of
improvising in lines of chords in the midst of
his solos (He is featured for this technique
in my book Chordal Bebop Lines, for Guitar,
Volumes 1 through 3). Applying this pianis-tic approach to the fretboard, Cal could be
.a powerful dynamo in combo settings in
which there was no piano player. It took an
unusual mind to work out these harmonic
improvisations solely by ear. The By Myself
LP is a masterful work of art that raises the
bar in the realm of solo jazz guitar.*
Aside from simply enjoying his music, here’s
the most important lesson we can learn
from the unschooled-play-from-the-heart
Cal Collins: if you’re in a college jazz program, or if you are already a serious student
of jazz guitar, it is important to realize that
the technical aspects of the style (scales,
patterns, chords, exercises) are valuable in
laying a foundation of technique, but they
are of secondary importance in the development of a unique individual style. Studying
those technical aspects normally will not
increase one’s intuition, ear-to-hand skills
(being able to recreate on the guitar what is
first heard in one’s head) or one’s capacity
to hear and recreate stirring music.
Like many players from that era, Cal had
the added advantage of growing up in
the decades which created the “standard”
tunes that later became jazz vehicles, so
the melodies were “in his head” already.
The best we can hope to do in this era is
to become steeped in that music through
active listening. A combination of listening,
performing a variety of ear training activities
(such as singing intervals and sight-singing), memorizing the repertoire
and singing the solos of earlier masters all have much more to do with
the development of a unique, intuitive style. It is through developing our
capacity to hear, in combination with
spending years of absorbing music
through intentional listening, that one
can hope to evolve into a unique and
intuitive player. Cal’s honest, play-from-the-guts style reminds us that
it’s so.
*Many of his best recordings are out
of print but can still be found on vinyl:
Cincinnati to L.A. (Concord Jazz), In San
Francisco (Concord Jazz), Blues on My Mind
(Concord Jazz), By Myself (Concord Jazz),
Cross Country (Concord Jazz) and Crack’d
Rib (Mo Pro). On CD, although possibly out
of print: Ohio Style (Concord Jazz).
Jim Bastian
A clinician and jazz educator, Jim Bastian is a ten year
veteran of teaching guitar in higher education. Jim
holds two masters degrees and has published six jazz
studies texts, including the best-selling “How to Play
Chordal Bebop Lines for Guitar” (available from Jamey
Aebersold). He actively performs on both guitar and bass
on the East Coast.
An avid collector and trader in the vintage market, you
can visit Jim’s store in Gear Search at
premierguitar.com
(dealer: IslandFunhouse).
