Pribek

During the 80s, there were a couple of different times when I spent some time out in Monterey, California where my mother, brother and sister were living (Mom still lives there). Whenever I was in town, I would go see this guy that had a little guitar store. I wish I could remember his name because he was a great guy. He was a stone cold jazz player and he was really good at chord melody stuff which, is something that defies most hot shot guitar players in this world.

Anyway, he wrote a few things out for me; notation. But, he would say stuff like; “I can write this stuff down all you want but, you really need to listen to this stuff instead and figure out how to do it your own way. Nobody can show you how to do it your own way.” So, one day I went in there and this guy hands me a stack of tapes that he recorded from his album collection! There was Johnny Smith, Wes, Joe Pass, Jim Hall, early Benson when he was with Jimmy Smith, all that stuff. It was a treasure chest. And, this guy took time out of his life to record this stuff for me!

These were all mix tapes I’m talking about; various artists. But then, he held up one tape and said something like; “If you only listen to one of these tapes, it should be this one right here. You can’t find this record (before cd re-issue). Everything you need to know about jazz guitar is on this right here.” It was the complete “Jazz Winds From A New Direction” album by Hank Garland. Now, I’d heard of Hank Garland but, I thought of him as a country guitar player, like most people did. And the thing was, this guy had a real disdain for country music. So, I was a little surprised, you know? But, he was adamant about Hank Garland’s jazz chops and he filled me in on a bit of the story about him as well. So, for a long time after that, I was busy wearing that tape slick. It’s still one of my favorite records.

I know there’s a lot of renewed interest in Hank because of the movie “Crazy” that’s out now but, I haven’t seen it so, I can’t comment on that. Maybe, I need to figure out how to put together a Joe Bald Road Film Festival so I can see that one and the Wrecking Crew movie.

This first video is of Floyd Tillman singing “Slippin’ Around” and features a solo by Hank. You know, I don’t know that I’ve ever heard anybody site Floyd Tillman as a vocal influence on Bob Dylan but, it seems pretty obvious hearing him sing here. Floyd was a great songwriter, “This Cold War With You” is one that kills me.

Check out Hank on the solo, he starts out with a pretty straightforward Billy Byrd approach, sticking close to the melody. On the second half, he slips some harmonically involved blues/bop stuff in there effortlessly. So slick that a hillbilly wouldn’t notice he just got jazzed. It’s kind of like one of those deals where Picasso had to learn to paint fruit before he could take it somewhere else. You have to know in, in order to be able to take it out.

As always, look both ways, then press pause on the music player located in the side bar before playing the YouTube.

This next one is Hank doing “Sugarfoot Rag”. This is one of those songs that was a real landmark. Danny Gatton used to play it a lot and I think it’s because he made a complete study of it. I have a Gatton instructional thing where he’s talking about using Major7 substitutions, that he learned from Thumbs Carllile and, he uses “Sugarfoot Rag” to demonstrate them. Anyway if you are a Gatton fan you’ll hear some familiar stuff here.

And..don’t forget to snag your free download of “Market Street” simply by clicking where it says “Download” in tiny little letters next to the tiny little picture of me in the RverbNation music player located in the side bar.