Tele Jazz

Another sunny “Autumn” day in the Ozarks.

Here’s a nice YouTube of Ted Greene doing an improvisation on “Autumn Leaves”. It matches up with the day here.

Ted is so cool. For some reason, I run into people who are surprised whenever I play something remotely jazz-like on the Telecaster. I think that thinking is, the Tele is meant for bright and twangy. The Tele does have more of a twang factor than any other guitar but, you get a pure rich note out of a good one. You can always roll off the highs. With other guitars, you sometimes feel the need to add highs in some rooms. That’s where you run into trouble. Adding highs with EQ is playing with fire.

Ted Greene, Mike Stern, Danny Gatton, Ed Bickert; all guys who play great jazz stuff on the Telecaster. I know there are many more; those guys come to mind quickly though. Ed Bickert, by the way, is one a lot of people don’t know. My old guitar teacher, Ron Roskowske, turned me on to Ed Bickert. Ron said that Bickert’s tone and voicings reminded him of a Fender Rhodes piano and I think that’s a pretty good description.

Our regular drummer, Gary Hodges couldn’t make it to the gig at the Double E in Highlandville last night. Gary had a gig in Branson that was booked earlier so, we asked Ron (Rongo) Gremp to sit in. Rongo’s regular gig is with Brian Capps and he is also a member of the infamous band The Morells. It’s quite a task for a drummer to walk in cold and play with a bunch of guys he’s never worked with before and a bunch of songs he’s never played before. Rongo pulled it off for sure. He is solid, solid. It was a lot of fun for me because I am improvising 99% of the solos and fills and with Ron back there I was coming up with different kinds of things. It’s like this, Gary is real good and Ron is real good but they are different and thus, a different musical conversation occurs. Ron said that trick is to “just stop thinking”. Zen Master Rongo.

Tonight, I will be at the Bearded Clam in Kimberling City playing an acoustic duo show with Mark Anthony. Stop by if you get a notion.

Next weekend, Back at the Double E.