Ted Greene medley

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Ted Greene medley

Postby George Beasley » Tue Feb 22, 2011 12:51 am

I am sure that this has been posted before on the old board, but it is good enough to post again. Ted Greene is a legend of fingerstyle...sort of on the same wavelength as Lenny, though different. At any rate, he is a beautiful player.

Ted Greene playing a wedding in 1989:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXb4UY6T6dQ&sns=em
Thanks,
George
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Re: Ted Greene medley

Postby Phil Owens » Tue Feb 22, 2011 2:48 am

Wow. Love those harmonies.

Thanks for posting,
Phil
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Re: Ted Greene medley

Postby Billy Anderson » Tue Feb 22, 2011 6:34 am

Thanks for posting this video of a great player. Wish I could play like that! Billy
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Re: Ted Greene medley

Postby BillB » Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:44 am

Every time I hear him, I can't help but notice that amazing tone that he gets with that Tele. What a great guitarist.

Bill B.
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Re: Ted Greene medley

Postby RandeDager » Tue Feb 22, 2011 9:16 am

George, I'm glad you're attracted to things like this. I know that many "die-hard" Chet fans are either unaware of or
are at least not attracted to complex jazz harmonies. I personally love Chet as much as a fan could love him but I found
myself having to "step out" of his recordings to expand my repertoire of harmony, which is "my trademark" when it comes
to arranging familiar tunes. Ted has been one of my heroes for years. I've looked at some of his books such as "Chord Chemistry" and realize what I don't know formally and what a "music encyclopedia" he was.

I'll tell you an interesting story. One evening in the early 90's while living in Southern California I was standing in line for one of Chet's concerts at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena. I met a Hollywood blues guitarist who was standing behind me and we became good friends. He told me that he once took lessons from Ted Greene.........for a month.
He had wanted to expand his formal knowledge and was told that Ted was the best and that he only charged $20 for an hour lesson! He said that it was like "drinking through a fire hose". After about 4 of those 1 hour sessions he told me that he had enough material to work on for years and he had to stop because he couldn't keep up with Ted's weekly expectations.

In 2003 I also spent a few months tutoring another one of Ted's students in math. He told me a similar story of his experience, with the exception that he was at least keeping up.



Then I tutored a couple of kids of a doctor who lived next door to the musician/actor "Meatloaf" and this doctor was going to have Ted Greene perform at his daughter's birthday party. The doctor was a fan and the daughter never heard of him....lol.

I'm aware of only one of Ted's recordings. It was on the "Bell Meade" label, I believe. His arrangements are beautiful.

We lost a guitar giant when we lost Ted. Thanks for posting this.

Don't worry, my biggest hero is still Chet! I've just crossed a lot of other paths.
Rande
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Re: Ted Greene medley

Postby RandyBuckner » Tue Feb 22, 2011 1:35 pm

Thanks for posting this video, George. Ted was a phenomenal talent. I've been rereading his interview in Just Jazz, and it's interesting to read his philosophy concerning music, and guitars themselves. He even explained why he preferred Telecasters and old Guild archtop guitars to other makes.

Great post -

Randy
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Re: Ted Greene medley

Postby Dave » Wed Feb 23, 2011 12:04 pm

You guys might want to check out tedgreene.com. It's a great website! There are more videos to watch there, pdf files of Ted's lessons, forums and more.
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Re: Ted Greene medley

Postby rhirvine » Thu Feb 24, 2011 10:12 pm

I just love the way he presented a nice chord. He kind of shook his head from side to side. I feel that he came up with the chords as he played. One of those guys that's so advanced harmonically that he could make it up as he went along.
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Re: Ted Greene medley

Postby Randy Finney » Fri Feb 25, 2011 1:16 am

When I was at music college - late 1980's - we used to pass around a bootlegged cassette of Ted's 1977 solo album (which was out of print by this time). By the time it got to me there was virtually no fidelity left but, I loved it anyway. (This is now available on CD.)

If you love that warm, dark, velvety Telecaster tone, one of the players that Ted loved and learned from was Ed Bickert. (Ted has a dedication to him in "Modern Chord Progressions".)

While in Toronto, Lenny Breau would have learned a great deal about chords from listening to Ed's "grips". (Ed referred to chords as "grips.) Jim Hall is another big fan of Ed's.

At any rate, I thought there might be a chance some of you may not be familiar with Ed as he rarely ever left Toronto. And, if you are into lush tone and an over-the-top mastery of applied guitar harmony, Ed's the guy to listen to.

Essential Ed listening (some of these may now be hard to find):

"Ed Bickert" (PM Records PMR-010}
"Ed Bickert 5 At Toronto's Bourbon Street" (Concord Jazz CJ-216)
"Bye Bye Baby" (Concord Jazz CJ-232)
"I Wished on the Moon" (Concord Jazz 4284)
"Third Floor Richard" (Concord Jazz 4380)
"This Is New" (Concord Jazz 4414)
"Mutual Street" (Innovation JCCD 0009)
"The Guitar Mastery Of" (DSM 2-3004)
"Concord Duo Series Vol. 7" (Concord Jazz 4626) - I just picked this one up a few months ago. Ed with pianist Bill Mays. Incredible.

Also, Ed was a sideman on a lot of records. Some important ones are:

Paul Desmond's "Quartet Live", "Pure Desmond', "Like Someone In Love", and "Paul Desmond"
Benny Carter's "A Gentleman and His Music"
Oscar Peterson's "The Personal Touch";
and, pretty much everything Rosemary Clooney did.

One has to think that Chet must of heard Ed's playing. I would think at least on the Paul Desmond records? Or, maybe Lenny turned Chet on to some of Ed's stuff? It would be interesting to know. Do any of you who knew Chet have any knowledge of this? Did Chet keep his listening habits private?

Randy
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Re: Ted Greene medley

Postby RandeDager » Fri Feb 25, 2011 9:36 am

Hi Randy,

Back in the 90's at CAAS Bill Piburn brought in a student/colleague of Ed Bickert's. His name was Lorne Lofsky. He was Oscar Peterson's guitarist. I sat with Lorne and Bill in the hotel restaurant and listened to a lot of fascinating stories.
I wasn't aware of Ed Bickert until then. When I got back home I made it a point to find a few of his recordings and listened to them. I know what you mean. He was very mellow and I loved his harmonies. Lorne played the same way. He started out his set with his version of "All Blues" by Miles Davis. I'll never forget that.

I wasn't told positively, but I'm guessing that throughout all of Chet's current network at that time, he was aware of Ed.
Paul would probably know for sure. Paul knew who Chet talked about.

Rande
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