38 in the solo section. It will take some
practice to get the tempo of the recording.
Take advantage of any and all places to add
legatos and slides to keep it swinging. Jimmy
would never want you to copy this as much
as he would want you to improve on it.
Jimmy went old-school on this solo,
playing more in a tonal center than on the
changes. He primarily used a C Mixolydian
mode with an added
3 to get a bluesy
sound on the A sections. He also used some
chromatic approaches to strong chord tones.
this song and he remembers wanting to play
something in the last bridge, but in his words
“I chickened out!” I told him that if it was
any consolation, the space that he left sounded good as well. I remember that same idea
from the recording “Two Lines For Barney.”
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Jimmy Wyble lessons
and transcriptions.
“Benny Goodman probably fired more
musicians than any other bandleader in
the history of big band. He was notori-
ous for firing people for making mis-
takes. Jimmy Wyble never got fired from
him. As a matter of fact, when Benny
Goodman was getting close to the end of
his life, one of the people he wanted to
call and speak with again was Jimmy.”
Film scores and television soundtracks
also vied for Wyble’s attention in this time
period. His discography included work on
1958’s Kings Go Forth, 1960’s Ocean’s Eleven,
and 1969’s Wild Bunch, among others.
Wyble ultimately left Norvo and
Goodman’s groups to settle in Los Angeles
and concentrate on session work, teaching, and exploring new directions in his
guitar playing. It is perhaps this period
of his career that is most influential and
important. Counted amongst his students
are the aforementioned Koonse, Lukather,
and Jacobs, as well as Howard Alden,
Howard Roberts, and many others. They
recall Wyble as being generous, patient,
and inviting to his pupils while also stressing the importance of fundamentals.
“He was so humble from the very first
moment I met him when I was 14 years
old,” recalls Lukather. “I couldn’t read a
note and he was like, ‘Okay.’ Here I was
this kid who could play all this stuff because
I was pretty good for my age, but I couldn’t
read at all. Jimmy was incredibly patient. I
played for him and he saw I could play all
the rock ’n’ roll stuff and I had some sort
of natural ability. He goes, ‘But you know,
you’re going to have to break it down to
nothing. You’re going to be very frustrated
trying to learn how to read music and play
‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ because that’s
about the speed you’re reading at.’ I was
very raw and he molded me and turned me
onto a lot of stuff I wasn’t aware of.”
