MEDIA
Preview
Exploring Jazz Guitar
John Pizzarelli carries the jazz guitar torch
direct from the old school. His dad is the great
Bucky Pizzarelli, and Bucky played with all the
old jazz guys you can think of, as well as doing
a ton of studio work. John grew up surrounded by jazz and obviously soaked it right up.
He is a darn fine picker and a good jazz singer
as well. If you haven’t heard John, check out
his public radio show called Radio Deluxe. He
also has a pretty vast catalog of CDs, too. So
now imagine getting to hang with John and
have him show you a bunch of cool jazz guitar
stuff—but wait! You don’t have to imagine it
‘cause here it is on this DVD.
John is an engaging guy; he is excited about
this music and it shows. His tone is lovely,
woody and rich on his signature Moll 7-string.
He starts by showing you the gear he uses,
which is always fun for us PG folks. Then he
moves through various comping styles and
tells you not just what to play, but gives some
pointers on using the material tastefully. He
covers reharmonizing the blues in one chapter, and the DVD is worth getting just for
that. Both Pizzarellis play great rhythm guitar,
and John gives you a lot of information here.
There is also a nice chapter on single line
playing. This is a must have DVD for any student of jazz guitar. —PS
List $29.99
halleonard.com
Folk Blues for Fingerstyle Guitar
with Stefan Grossman
and A Guitar Lesson with David
Bromberg
Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop has been
around for as long as I can remember, offering players of traditional music unprecedented
opportunities to learn from acoustic guitar masters. Grossman and Bromberg are part of that
early pantheon of fingerstylists that players of
my generation tried to emulate, so I was excited to check out their new instructional DVDs.
Grossman is a wonderfully supportive and reassuring presence throughout the lessons, which
start with some basic folk blues and progress
fairly quickly to more advanced left- and right-hand chops. I love the fact the Grossman
courses contain “homework”—audio tracks of
these traditional blues songs from recordings
made in the ‘20s and ‘30s that Grossman urges
the student to spend some time with before
attempting to play. He also gives a little historical perspective on the tune, and talks about
some of the additional recordings, to give you
a real sense of connection to a tune before he
plays a note of it. Disc One covers universal
playing ideas like economy of movement, chord
substitutions and additional voicings, damping
and muting, slides, bends, and hammer-ons/
pull-offs, in addition to teaching these blues
arrangements step-by-step with instruction, and
slowed down in split screen so you can play
along. Disc Two covers altered tunings including Drop-D, DADGAD, Open D and Open C,
right-hand rolls and double-stopping, and gives
helpful tricks and ideas for expanding your
playing and arranging your own tunes. Notation
and tab for each of the tunes are available in an
included booklet and as PDFs on the disc.
Bromberg’s lesson covers some of his most
popular arrangements, from traditional folk blues
to early folk rock. He covers concepts like parallel and contrary motion between bass lines and
melodies, the intricacies of Rev. Gary Davis-style
right-hand, single-finger rolls, use of diminished
chords in traditional blues and the challenge of
playing under a talking blues that doesn’t necessarily follow the groove your hands are laying
down. This is not easy, beginner stuff. It’s tough
and meaty, and Bromberg does a great job
slowing everything down and showing you many
possible variations of a lot of licks. He also tells
you if he got a lick from somebody else, like the
Rev. Gary, so you can do some additional listening. The format is the same as the Grossman
discs, with separate audio tracks of the tunes,
step-by-step instruction and slow split-screen
with the entire tune. Audio and video quality on
both discs is top notch. Notation and tab are
once again available in the included booklet and
as PDFs on the disc.
Grossman and Bromberg’s laid-back attitudes
and relaxed mastery make the lessons engaging, and the format makes them immediately
applicable to the fretboard. —GDP
List $39.95 – Stefan Grossman DVD
List $29.95 – David Bromberg DVD
guitarvideos.com
Books
Confessions of a Record Producer:
10th Anniversary Edition, Revised
and Updated
A decade ago, Moses Avalon wrote the ground-breaking and slightly terrifying Confessions of a
Record Producer, in which he turned the music
industry inside out to give outsiders a real taste
of its inner workings. Since then, the music
business has undergone some dramatic transformations wrought by the expansion of internet
marketing, music downloads and the indie revolution, and Avalon decided it was time to bring
his no-bullshit rough guide to the underbelly of
the music biz up-to-date. This time, he includes a
DVD-ROM with lessons from Avalon’s Workshop
and bonus reference materials for those who
want to dive in deep.
By looking at a model first recording contract of
a fictitious artist from three angles—the artist,
