Kenny Burrell needs a thread

I have this Concord Jazz Guitar comp, and there's a sick KB jazz-funk track version of "La Petite Mambo," which is from an album called Tin Tin Deo, which I've never heard. I also have a KB LP called Sky Street -- it hasn't been reissued. It's sort of cheesy 70s stuff, but the first track is a pretty sweet CTI-style mellow groove number.

Mother-in-Law off Soulero is a god damn mind-blower.

this is one of the tunes I mentioned upthread
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICS-FhGeWtU

An anecdote that probably only Ken L will give a shit about, but when I was studying with an unnamed guitar teacher who was not Ted Dunbar, the teacher was trying to change my picking technique in a way that I thought produced a really poor sound, and I asked him "well how does Kenny Burrell pick?" and he said "Kenny Burrell's technique suffers a lot from the way he picks." I was so pissed at that, like "who the fuck are you again?"

i don't have much to say except kenny rules

guy is nothing if not consistent -- pretty much everything I've heard by him I've enjoyed. just bought a cheap 2LP reissue of All Day Long/All Night Long and have been playing it constantly.

Wonder who man alive could be talking about. I am the mailing lists of certain guitar players and some of them might have some gigs this week, even tonight.

i feel like serious jazz guitarists (or maybe just serious musicians in general) listen pretty differently -- a pro guitar friend of mine can't stand grant green because "he's always repeating himself." which might be true, but ... he's good?

Saxophonists used to gripe about "Coltrane, man, he's just running scales" in the early 60s. I think part of it is, when you're familiar with the instrument, you know what naturally/easily falls under your fingers, and said familiarity can shape your listening.

Ken: I think we've talked about him before, he replaced ted for a while and may or may not have the same initials...

In re Grant Green: I have also always found him a little boring. He has one of the best sounds of any guitar player, but then he just sort of doesn't go anywhere imo, like his solos feel kind of static, and yeah, repetitive. Of course there are lots of musicians I like who are limited and/or repetitive, so it's hard to put into words exactly why Grant Green doesn't do it for me. He still has his moments though -- I like him best in jazz funk settings, e.g. on Alive. He works really well with Idris Muhammad.

Re Coltrane: some of his late 50's/early 60's material does sound a little techy compared to other working tenor players, although it's not like bebop hadn't already happened at that point. I don't think he ever was really just "running scales" but he did have this harder-edged, more angular way of playing lines that maybe didn't "swing" to some people's ears at the time. I really like his playing from that era though, because you can hear him obsessively working through harmonic ideas in an almost Bach-like way.

And honestly there aren't many other late 50s/early 60s tenor players are there other than Coltrane that I really enjoy listening to, other than people who were still around from an earlier era (e.g. Coleman Hawkins) or some of the out guys. Sonny Rollins and Stan Getz are pretty much the only ones that come to mind, maybe Hank Mobley. Not a big Dexter Gordon fan fwiw.

BTW I mentioned upthread but everyone should listen to the John Coltrane and Kenny Burrell record.

Midnight Blue and the Coltrane album are the only ones I have. But I'm seriously looking at the two Seven Classic Albums boxes now.

Yeah the JC one is brilliant, it is another prime '58 vintage of which I have developed an addiction to recently.

man alive, I believe I was in on that earlier conversation and was well aware of who you were talking about, although perhaps I hinted too subtly. I can forward you the latest email he sent out if that would help, but it might just irritate you.

haha no thank you

this live trio record is great
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d4/A_Night_at_the_Vanguard.jpg

haha no thank you

he just sort of doesn't go anywhere imo, like his solos feel kind of static, and yeah, repetitive.
yeah, this is what my friend says! i don't know, he might just get by on vibe for me (though it's true, some of his records are totally boring).

I don't think he ever was really just "running scales" but he did have this harder-edged, more angular way of playing lines that maybe didn't "swing" to some people's ears at the time.

Oh, absolutely. I think the "just running scales" thing was coming from older and/or slightly embittered players who were reacting to the praise being justifiably heaped on Trane, and whose technical facility enabled them to take a "Pfft! I could do that!" attitude. Of course, they couldn't do that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ww4I2-D408

http://www.birkajazz.com/graphics2/jonesAfterHours.jpg
I love this one without knowing anything about Thad Jones, awesome band here including Burrell.

Can't remember if I mentioned this before, but once I heard some old timers talking about a nightclub he had owned called The Guitar. Very hard to google obv.

Only reference I can find:
https://books.google.com/books?id=7-ICAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA69&dq=%22Fred+hayes%22+%22the+guitar%22+%2210th+avenue%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAGoVChMI5ZLP0ounyAIVw1Y-Ch1Q1gga#v=onepage&q=%22Fred%20hayes%22%20%22the%20guitar%22%20%2210th%20avenue%22&f=false

which is an old New York magazine listing,

The Guitar, a cozy box situated in an unlikely neighborhood (10th Avenue at 51st Street), is the new baby of Fred Hayes, a friend of Kenny Burrell from Detroit. Part of the club's raison d'etre is that the top guitarist will spend many of his playing hours there when he is not touring. Burrell will return later in May. Meanwhile, the Ron Carter Duo, featuring guitarist Gene Bertoncini, will be in until April 26, and Jim Hall takes over on the 29th through May 3. Soul food is served.

Midnight Blue is just so chill, he makes being great sound so effortless.

seems like this is legit — the USA, where living legends in their 80s need a gofundme page to pay medical bills.
https://www.gofundme.com/support-kenny-burrell

man, tyler. that's a sad link you posted there, friend. guess it's good to see that it's been a success thusfar.

as for me, i've recently gone back to his two early 70s classics: `round midnight on fantasy and god bless the child on cti (this one has surprisingly tasteful and good don sebesky arrangements). both are super mellow and find kb hitting that soul jazz groove like a complete master. i especially dig `round midnight; that west coast vibe is a perfect fit for him. joe sample on rhodes on the title track, too!

ha, well the plot thickened: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/a-jazz-legend-said-he-was-in-desperate-need-of-money-his-friends-had-questions/2019/07/10/440e76ec-99b6-11e9-830a-21b9b36b64ad_story.html

not sure where it all ended up.

Goodrich also stated in the court documents that Burrell has kidney cancer.

oof

Oh man, turned the radio on in my car while driving slowly through this leafy alley and “lotus land” was playing. One of those perfect music experiences.

Been on a semi-deep dive into listening to some jazz guitarists like Jim Hall, John Scofield and Kenny Burrell. Looking up reading material on Kenny Burrell, I found this pretty interesting.

Kind of the birth of the 'power trio' in a way perhaps. I love Burrell's trio records that I have heard like Round Midnight and this kind of obscure release called 'Listen to the Dawn' (recorded in '80, released in '83).

https://www.vintageguitar.com/18443/kenny-burrell-4/

You are credited with developing the guitar/bass/drums trio that led to the working band on A Night at the Vanguard. How did it come about?
It started with an experiment in the early ’50s at a small club in Detroit with a tiny space that only allowed for that size trio. I wanted to try the format again in New York in ’59. Max Gordon, who ran the Village Vanguard, didn’t like the idea of working without a piano at first. He always had a great piano there. But we were friends and I’d played there many times so I asked him to give it a chance. He gave me one night – a Monday night or something. I wanted it to be as good as possible, so I got two of the best guys, Roy Haynes and Richard Davis. Max liked it and gave us two weeks – a pretty long time by today’s standards. The second week we recorded live for Cadet.

That was a dream fulfilled because it had been in my mind for a long time and felt I could do it well. In a guitar trio, the focus is to think about the possibilities, not what’s missing. If you do, things will flow. I’m not doing a lot of it now – no particular reason, I’m just trying different things. But I do love that format. In retrospect, it not only affected jazz players but also rock players.

Still going through checking out Kenny Burrell's many records and have come across "Weaver of Dreams" which features Burrell on vocals along with guitar and was produced by John Hammond on Columbia.

KB has a nice singing voice on the record and as far as I can tell, this is pretty much the only record where he sings. I'm guessing he might have done some in his night club shows at some point I would figure, but was surprised to never see it mentioned before.

Guitar Forms with the sublime Gil Evans production seems like a very slept on KB album, as usual you can chuck Greensleeves in the bin, but there is some lovely stuff on here.

Especially Lotus Land

Pretty much anything by Gil Evans is worth hearing. I've given that one a couple listens but there was not a track that caught me like some of Evans other stuff. It sounded good.

Another more 'symphonic' soundtrack record that I checked out last week by Kenny Burrell that is in that same style is "Asphalt Canyon Suite" from 1969. That one definitely has the studio/incidental/soundtrack sound of the era down pat. Johnny Pate did the orchestration on this one. I liked this one quite a bit.

Burrell also did a couple more LPs in that style with Don Sebesky- 'Blues- The Common Ground' for Verve and 'God Bless the Child' for CTI.

I liked them all and intend to listen to them again.

i love guitar forms and god bless the child is definitely worthwhile but. . . i always thought blues was kind of boring. but i also think that's because i've —more often than not— never really liked don sebesky. a couple good songs, but mostly just not that interesting.

i'm gonna check out weaver of dreams. don't know it at all and it sounds quite unique!

This track is groovy. Makes me feel like I am a private dick on a tail, ducking back and forth keeping an eye on my mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjEGemtENmo

I love that end of the 60s/early 70s thing style with strings on top of a contemporary band...don't matter whether it is Charlie Rich, Dirty Harry sound track or something like BB King or Bobby Blue Bland.