Chet Atkins' legacy by way of Ted Greene's Solo Guitar album

[rickpeckham]

There's a great website that serves as a living, thriving tribute the player and master teacher Ted Greene (1946-2005) here http://tedgreene.com/.
Having just checked it this morning, there's a link to a 1996 Vintage Guitar article, giving annotations to Greene's masterpiece recording Solo Guitar. It's very interesting to read, and the link on this particular page brings you to a scan of the article with corrections/additions written in the margins by Greene himself. Lots of details regarding tunings (all strings down 1.5 steps, drop D, etc.), adding to any guitarist's understanding/enjoyment of this great set of recordings.

Also, Chet Atkins is cited as an influence five times in the article, with Lenny Breau brought up three. Ted Greene was famously a student of George Van Eps, another player/teacher/master, but I haven't heard of a Greene/Atkins connection nearly as much. After going back to listen to Solo Guitar again following several years of extensive listening to Chet in recent years, I definitely hear how much Greene must have loved Chet's work. I thought that the Chetboarders might be interested in the stylistic connections between Chet Atkins and Ted Greene. The site also features tons of free material, in additional testimonials, posted by Ted's former students.

[Johnpat1]

You could say that Chet Atkins is one of the founding fathers of the
style of guitar termed 'fingerstyle jazz'. Lenny Breau was obviously his
most famous protege in that respect, but guitarists like Tommy Crook
,Jim Nichols & Martin Taylor have all acknowledged his influence. One of
my favourite Chet pieces is his version of 'In the Mood' on the Fingerstyle Guitar
album.It has a great bouncy feel to it & very nifty,precise picking. As Jim Nichols
says - recording that album in a single day was some achievement.
Edgar Cruz & Steven King both do good versions of this tune as well.

[RandeDager]

I've lost all track of Steven King. I watched him ad-lib for 2 hours taking requests at the CAAS convention in the mid 90's. I've also lost track of Tim Sparks who recorded an entire album of the Nutcracker played on the guitar. They were both at the convention the same year.

Another one is Craig Wagner, who played a lot of counterpoint and did a seminar with the title "Two Braining It", showing how to have 2 or more lines going at once.

[George Beasley]

Ted Greene is beyond my comprehension. I've read his books, watched his videos, and listened to his music, and he was freakishly brilliant.....like Rainman. Chet said that Lenny was the greatest player in the world. I can't argue with him....but I wonder if he ever really got to hear Ted play.......

[gmoseley]

George, I'm sorta in your corner on that. I love Lenny's playing, he was so great....but as he progresses thru the song, he gets so far "out there" at times that its way over my head. I always thought that Ted Greene was a more melodic jazz player, he never wears out my ear and I seem to enjoy his playing a little more than I do Lenny's. He's more "understandable" to me from start to finish,,,,boy I'd give anything to play like that! I too have all his books, they are a joy to go through, I always learn something new - - there's several lifetimes of study contained therein.

Gayle Moseley

[RandeDager]

I realize that my post never mentioned Ted Greene, which was the intended focus. I've seen Ted's books way back in the early 80's and maybe even the late 70's but I'm not an "academic" guitarist so I knew they wouldn't do me much good. I've relied on my ear, including what Ted played in his album which I purchased through "Bell Meade Records" back in 1980. Once you train your ear for those subtleties and complexities, it's amazing how far you can push yourself but you have to continually subject yourself to those kinds of harmonies.

Anyway, when I lived and worked in Southern California, I tutored a couple of Ted's guitar students in their math. They talked about him and how wonderful he was. Their folks were quite wealthy and they hired Ted to come and do a private birthday party for them and selected friends . I was invited but was unfortunately going out of town that weekend. I realize that I had missed out and felt even worse when I learned of his death not that long afterwards.

My final comment is about a blues guitarist that I met in Hollywood the night that Chet & Jerry came to town to do a small concert together. He fell in love with fingerstyle but wanted to focus more on jazz, so he was led to Ted Greene.
He gave me weekly updates about his lessons with Ted. After only one month he told me he was so overwhelmed with the sheer volume of material to be mastered between lessons that he finally had to stop. He told me that he had enough material to absorb and work on to last for the rest of his life. Ted was a music encyclopedia, so I'm told.

[Dave]

I love Ted Greene. You can watch many video clips from that website and watching him play is a treat. Also very interesting to hear him talk about music, players and guitars. Highly reccomended!