The Bay Strikes Back 2022

Death Angel

Exodus

Testament

三隊係著名Thrash metal 「元祖」樂隊，其實亦同是來自三藩市小灣區，巡迴演唱會因此而命名，本來在2020年開波，撞正疫情（Testament成員都中了招）延期，21年在Oakland再開了一場，又到Omicron爆發，22年首場在college town San Luis Obispo, 離本人家三小時，掙扎了一會決定去看，皆因Testament固是至愛樂隊，其餘兩隊也是水準極高的；果然，當晚精彩的結他solo不絕於耳，氣氛亦極佳。（當中發生一件小插曲：一名穿小背心凸點女歌迷走過一位除了本人以外也是色迷迷的阿伯時發生爭執，啤酒一倒就開拖，男的被打到頭破血流。之後女的若無其事，還興奮得連小背心也脫去半裸上身，後來才穿上一件band tee) 雖然淩晨三時多才回到家也完全值回票價。

NAMM 2020

幾年前曾有過衝動去結他show看看，找到以下文章，始終沒有去，本年初卻因為朋友邀請有幸去了音樂界最著名的trade show NAMM! 一月份的NAMM在南加州Anaheim一連四天舉行，我只有空去一天，就選了星期五，之前一晚「熱身」節目是看了Women of Fingerstyle guitar這個音樂會，除了大名鼎鼎的Muriel Anderson, 名氣稍遜的表演者如Yasmin Williams, Amber Russell和Becky Langan也帶來極多驚喜！畢竟這是相當冷門的一種音樂風格，我以前也看得不多（最有印象是在Moraga看了只有三個觀眾的Adam Miller演出）。星期五早上向場館進發，發現車只能泊在Angel Stadium再坐免費Shuttle過去（其實也甚方便），入場後看看主場館地下管樂器部份，聽到不少高人示範展商產品，後來方知那位光頭有型Saxophone手就是Greg Osby！之後在Yamaha的專區看了Grace Kelly表演Saxophone及一展歌喉，又看了朋友音樂中心的得獎學生演出，當真後生可畏！下午是「貢獻」給各大結他品牌了：主場館二三樓都以結他為主，很明顯地，和其他樂器比較下，結他廠家是NAMM的台柱，兩大品牌Gibson和Fender各有自己的「大房」，連PRS和Takamine等沒有那麼出名的品牌也有big presence!
而我印象比較深刻的是Godin的房，因為我自己彈開Godin 5th Ave, 結他手Edi Rogue的示範相當出色；還有Taylor，在那裡又有緣欣賞以前看過多次的著名爵士結他手Mimi Fox的精彩演出。

Takamine Factory Tour

雖然接觸了結他幾十年，其實對其製作過程一知半解，今天看了這條介紹Takamine這個著名日本結他品牌工廠的片，實在增加了不少認識：

片尾展示那支Thinline是Takamine的新產品，有型又好聲，請看看此系列中的Archtop的demo：

HOWTO play like bands from the Florida Metal Scene

十幾年前曾經很想組一隊Death metal樂隊但結果不成事，那時如果組得成的話，此文就派上用場了，文中用八個練習介紹了佛羅里達州當年經典Death metal勁旅（包括Obituary, Morbid Angel, Death和Deicide）的結他部份彈奏技巧。

San Jose Jazz Summer Fest 2018

I went last year and was thinking I should go every year provided that I am in town but I almost missed the 2018 edition. Glad that I checked Jazz Datebook in the morning! I paid $45 on Saturday for the "All Stages" ticket that allowed me to go to not just the main stage but also the other indoor stages, like Cafe Stritch and Fairmont Hotel. I ended up listened to more than 7 hours of jazz. Great deal! This was the list of musicians I saw that day:

• Sylvia Cuenca Quartet (Cafe Stritch): The drummer led her group to perform at Cafe Stritch from time to time but this time featuring Bassoon virtuoso Paul Hanson. Hanson also plays another instrument from the other end of the range: Soprano sax! As a fan of modern jazz, I enjoyed their music very much.
• SJZ Collective (Fairmont Hotel): they played Thelonius Monk's music re-arranged for the group. Monk has a sound that is so unique that I think non-jazz fan could tell immediately he's different. I went there in the middle of a lengthy Hristo Vitchev guitar solo. He certainly rocked the house!
• Nick Panoutsos Quartet (San Jose Museum of Art): this is a free stage that I could have attended without ticket and it's promoting newer musicians. The members of this quartet certainly looked very young. On the other hand, the group sounded very experienced and the original compositions were mature. I could certainly hear influences by Coltrane. 
• Aaron Lington Plays the music of Astor Piazzolla (Fairmont Hotel): I bet most music fan have heard Piazzolla's Tango music one way or the other, especially Libertango, which was the first tune of this show. Of course they played a lot of less famous but not less interesting pieces by Piazzolla. Dr. Lington told us a bit of Piazzolla's story: when he was studying music, he struggled a bit with composing but then his mentor listened to him playing some tango from his home country of Argentina. His mentor asked him what was the music and encourage him to focus on tango. And the rest is history! As a member of the academics, of course Dr. Lington has great technique, demonstrated in his jazz improv as well as a classical (no improv) duet between his Baritone Sax and his wife's piano. The rest of the band was equally amazing with an unusual mix of instruments: accordion, violin (by Mads Tolling), guitar and drums. 
• Brian Charette Trio (El Taurino): This performance was part of the 10th anniversary of the Jazz Organ Hall of Fame. I still remember going to the first one! In addition to playing his own compositions, he also played some classics as well as a less well-known piece by a legend: 8 Counts for Rita on Jimmy Smith's Unfinished Business album.

I saw some of the acts briefly between stages but I was really impressed by the Cuban musician Yissy Garcia and her band Bandancha. They played some very dance-able fusion jazz.

Here is the link to the pictures from the festival.

Squier vs Fender

在2016年讀了一篇關於這兩個「兄弟」品牌的文章，一直想分享一下。其實玩開結他的朋友都知Fender眾多熱門型號均有在「細佬/廉價版」品牌Squier推出。Fender在1982年就已成立Squier, 我也曾是Squier用家：買過一支二手Jaguar, 相當好彈，改變了我對這個品牌的印象；那支玩了一年才賣出並「升級」到現在的「型仔」Fender Thinline Jaguar，其實沒有直接比較過，上述文章有一條片就由專家仔細比較兩個品牌的Telecaster，我和大部份網民的反應差不多：Fender Tele的聲音可能好一點點，但Squier實在平太多了，所以後者認真抵玩！

San Jose Jazz Summer Fest 2017

This is an annual event I try to attend if I am in town and free 'coz I'm all for supporting local artists and performances. I paid $40 on Sunday for the "2nd tier" ticket that allowed me to go to not just the main stage but also the other indoor stages, like Cafe Stritch and Hammer Theater. (The former has become my "home" club these days. ) This was the list of musicians I saw that day:

• SJZ Summer Camper (main stage): these were our next generation (high school students?) of jazz musicians! Gotta show some support (hey, the main stage was right next to the ticket booth!)
• Dmitri Matheny (Cafe Stritch): anyone that enjoy Art Farmer's flugelhorn playing would certainly like his performance. The theme of his latest project was about 70s 80s movie and show music. To be honest, I don't really care for too much. However, he also paid tribute to the late Chris Cornell by covering Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun"
• California Guitar Trio + Montreal Guitar Trio (Hammer theater): the two trio first play by themselves starting with the latter. And they began the show with some Spanish/Flamenco music, which I have always been a big fan of. Then they played a tune influenced by Indian music. I appreciated the complexity a lot. Compared to the other group, the California Guitar Trio certainly sounded more "West Coast" (actually, Pacific ocean) since one member came from Japan. In fact, their tune that I enjoyed the most was named "Komorebi" According to them, the Japanese word means the sun ray one sees when walking though a dark forest (or something more "poetic" than that!)  Then both trio joined force to play as a sextet. Their fusion of Tango and minimalism (think Philip Glass!) was certainly very interesting. Among all shows on Sunday this is the only one I listened from start to finish! (Even bought MG3's latest CD "Danzas - Spanish Guitar")
• Jazz by 5 (main stage): This super group features the biggest name of this festival with Javon Jackson (sax), Randy Brecker (trumpet), Eddie Gomez (bass), George Cable (piano) and Jimmy Cobb (drums)  Really an all-star lineup! Too bad the main stage was not the ideal venue: it's outdoor and many people were talking so there's lots of noise. I could barely hear Gomez's fantastic bass solo through the speakers. I think that was a Miles Davis modal tune. 
• Taimane (Jade Leaf): I gotta admit I went because of the picture of an attractive lady holding a ukulele. It turned out she and her guitarist were very talented musicians. What a dynamic duo! (Think Rodrigo y Gabriella) Their Michael Jackson cover was particularly impressive.    
• Anton Schwartz Sextet (Fairmont Hotel): Schwartz is a very active local sax player (both performing and teaching) and a regular of the festival. I enjoyed their cover of Pink Floyd's Money very much. 
• Kurt Ribak Quartet (Forager): this is one of the completely-free-admission stages. This group led by bassist Ribak played very diverse music. And that place is huge and seems to feature live music regularly! The bar serves craft beers, coffee and bar food. (This place used to be South First Billiards, I wanted to play there for a long time but never did and never will!)  
• San Francisco String Trio (Fairmont Hotel): I have been to concerts of 2/3 of this trio several times before: Mimi Fox (guitar) and Mads Tolling (violin) are two musicians that I respect a lot. They have technical chops and also not afraid to experiment. This format, with Jeff Denson on bass, is a prime example. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Beatle's Sgt. Pepper, they came up with refreshing arrangements of several tunes for their trio. 

That's probably the best way to spend a weekend afternoon!

Jazz Radio and Sco

This week's "Jazz Night in America", broadcasted on KCSM Jazz 91.1 8/1 9PM PDT, features John Scofield. Well, that's a time slot I usually not listening to the radio :( Even though Radio Free America hosts archives of the station's radio program up to 2 weeks back, this is not included because it's not KCSM's original. Fortunately, I am able to find it on NPR:

我的爵士雜記：Jazz tunes to learn (revisited)

Three years ago I posted this about my first tunes played at the Stanford Jazz Workshop Guided Jam. From simply improv with the blues, we moved on to modal, major ii-V-I, minor ii-v-i and finally rhythm changes. I recommend checking out this article on Guitar Player by one of my favorite online guitar teacher Matt Warnock about 5 tunes beginner should learn (with great video examples from YouTube too!):

• Summertime: improv with A minor pentatonic (yeah, every guitar player knows) 
• Maiden Voyage: with dorian mode
• Cantaloupe Island: dorian and mixolydian
• Autumn Leaves: major ii-V-I
• Sunny: minor ii-v-i

This set (and in this order) pretty much mirrors what we did at SJW (add your choice for a rhythm change tune: Oleo or Anthropology!) 

And if you check out this list from my other fav Jamie Holroyd, you would find similar tunes:

• Summertime: same as above
• So What: dorian
• Tune Up: This is actually my go-to tune for practicing ii-V-I changes

Yes, you really should learn to play Summertime: the melody, improv and comping. Matt Warnock taught several commonly seen jazz voicing for Summertime here.

Speaking of comping and voicing, I do have a counter example. Another online teacher put up this video and was promoted by GuitarPlayer: 3 Easy Jazz Songs - For People Who Don't Play Jazz! Don't get me wrong: I really appreciated his effort in getting more people to play jazz. However, jazz players simply don't play that! First of all, his video taught the chords of the songs (without the melody) so I'd say it's a bit misleading. Second, it's one thing to know and learn to play those chords (Drop-2 and Drop-3 chords in Berklee's terminology) In a real jazz jam situation you won't play those chords like that though. When you jam with a piano and/or bass, you won't play the low notes on your guitar since it would clash with them. Guitar players should stick with those "upper voicing" when comping.

我的爵士雜記：Play jazz like Jim Hall

差不多廿年前住在Manhattan的時候去jazz club識了一個朋友（一生人僅止一次！）Ken, 我們都是爵士結他發燒友，當然他的認識比我深得多（我才剛開始彈結他，對爵士樂理認識等於零）他告訴我他最欣賞的結他大師是Jim Hall（我一直最欣賞的則是Pat Martino），所以我不時會找些Jim Hall的唱片來聽聽；在雜誌Premier Guitar的newsletter介紹下讀了一篇關於Jim Hall的演奏手法的文章，十分值得推薦給各位爵士友。五個例子展示Jim Hall如何用chord tone來solo或comping，還有從一條弦到兩弦之外（略過中間一弦）的單音solo，以及chord melody soloing（想提一下：雖然flash player播放該頁的音樂有點問題，更方便的是下載該頁上連結的zip檔案，有齊tab及錄音）

我的結他雜記: 如何扮識彈藍調結他

Guitar Player雜誌介紹了一個相當有趣的教學視像:
有些美國人很喜歡用fake it 這個詞語,廣東俗語大概就是無料扮四條吧:) 以上短片教授最基本扮識彈藍調結他的技巧,說不定大家有朝一日也用得著!

Flamenco harmonies

I bet there are times you hear a guitar player playing something that reminds you of Flamenco and you asked yourself how did s/he do it? This is a good article that explains how some of the flamenco chords could be played and used. Even if you have studied authentic Flamenco guitar (like I did a few years ago), you should still find this useful for other styles.

Taylor Swift 1989 Tour

Yes, I went to her stop at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara last Sat, with my daughter of course. And this was the first time ever I have been to an American pop-star's concert. (Depeche Mode was close but they were not American :P) We bought the tix in the morning of the first day it went on sale and we could only get the "top-level" tix (which still costs $100+ each) We estimated she probably makes between 1-9mil that night. Well, according to this article, she made 2.5mil per stop on average recently. And this tour will push her 2015 earning over 100mil.

Enough about the business aspect, let's talk about the music! So, the format of a pop concert is actually similar to a rock concert: both started with some lesser opening acts (I mean, usually, once in a while you find the likes of Alice Cooper opening for the likes of Motley Crue) The openers for Swift were Shawn Mendes and Vance Joy. Mendes played all by himself with only his guitar (and his voice) which was tough (but also less people to share his money :P) Apparently he has lots of teen female fans and didn't mind. Personally I don't care too much of his songs (sounded like a lesser Ed Sheeren) The music of the Australian Vance Joy was more enjoyable to me as there were traces of influence by English bands like Oasis (according to Wikipedia, he's inspired by George Harrison, so that's in the ballpark)

The wait for TayTay's appearance was finally over ~9pm (oh yeah, that's a long wait. My daughter was a huge fan of Swift for several years. It peaked around the time of the release of "1989" last year though. You know a girl could only like the same artist with the same level of dedication for so long! She has already "moved on" to One Direction. I guess our constant reminding of how expensive the tickets were made her appreciate it a bit more. In fact, glad to see her enjoying the concert a lot that night) The setlist could be found on the Wikipedia. As expected, she started with several hits from 1989, which represented her transition from pop-country to "simply" pop. I was on the fence about this transition. I mean, I like to see musicians sticking with their roots. However, Swift has been more pop than country already so she might as well cross the line completely. Anyway, the new songs are kinda enjoyable. I just think the country elements made her more stand out from the other run-of-the-mill pop stars. I admire the efforts in rearranging her old and new songs to make them coherent in one concert though, for example, Trouble was rearranged and sounded more mysterious. The other highlights include her playing acoustic guitar/piano to accompany her singing, and she played a white Johnny Marr Fender Jaguar on the song We are never ever getting back together (You know how much I love Jaguar :) Last but not least, the production was top-notch: the sound system was loud and clear and the "run-way" stage that split, elevate and rotate was cool (and seemed safe for TayTay and the dancers) I wonder what concert I would go with my daughter next.

我的結他雜記:Youtube片

早幾年經常上論壇討論結他相關話題，其中一個最常出現的是可用甚麼結他彈甚麼風格，於是搜尋了一堆視像連結：

民謠結他（鋼線木結他） - 民謠

電結他 - 重金

電結他 - Hard rock

電結他- 藍調

民謠結他（鋼線木結他） - 藍調 這條片十分特別：已故藍調結他大師Stevie Ray Vaughan演出時大多彈電結他，這是少有的木結他錄像

古典結他（尼龍弦木結他） - 古典

古典結他（尼龍弦木結他） - 爵士樂

古典結他（尼龍弦木結他） - Flamenco

我的結他雜記: The 4 levels of the Blues

Guitarist and magazine columnist Carl Verheyen did a great job in classifying 4 different ways of blues improvisation, from the most basic (minor pentatonic) to the most sophisticated (jazz blues with altered scales and upper extensions.) You might consider these the secrets of blues guitar. :)

我的結他雜記: 3-9 arpeggios

I am reading this book "Why Jazz Happened?" which analyzed how historical (nonmusical) events affected the development of new styles of jazz. One chapter is about bebop and it said the usage of the 9th is a characteristic of this style. And I have learned long time ago that playing the minor arp (or dorian mode) on top of a major chord works (like Emin7 over Cmaj7 because the 7th (D) of Emin7 is the 9th of Cmaj7. Or Dmin7 over Cmaj7 because it starts on the 9th) Check out the explanations and examples on Jamie Holroyd's post. 

我的結他雜記: Acoustic Archtop

I came across this old Guitar Player magazine article from 2010 dedicated to this topic. I do own a Godin 5th Avenue acoustic archtop and was happy to learn more about the history and characteristics of this type of guitar. Also found an article about how to adjust the floating bridge on an archtop. Should be useful when I need to do so some day :)

我的結他雜記: effect pedal

我玩結他主要以Acoustic爵士為主，也玩Flamenco及古典，Rock則是偶一為之，所以對effect認識甚淺，用也是以distortion居多，不像老友玩chorus, flanger, delay玩到出神入化；當然，一個pedal價錢不是便宜，但原來自製也不算太困難，尤其是對讀過EE的朋友而言，Premier Guitar雜誌刊登了一個詳盡的指南，大家不妨參考參考。

另外，Guitar Player雜誌介紹五個multi-effect pedal，當中Vox的StompLab只賣$90樓下，值得慳儉的玩家留意。

我的結他雜記: Easy acoustic guitar love songs

I strongly believe any male guitarist should have an acoustic love song in his repertoire. Guitar World compiled a list of Top 10. Just pick one and start playing!

我的結他雜記: Martin Taylor/Julian Lage on improv and chord voicing

My mailbox has so many unread emails that I barely have time to catch up. I did subscribe to many music related newsletters. For example, I got emails from Artist Works, the online school where Martin Taylor teaches (Jimmy Bruno used to teach there) Mr. Taylor posted a free lesson demonstrating how to practice and use chord tones in improvisation over a common ii-V-I chord progression:
Coincidentally, from the Facebook page of Stanford Jazz Workshop (which I recently attended), there's a link to a video in which Martin Taylor and Julian Lage discussed chord voicing:


Speaking of Lage, his music keeps growing on me: I saw him performed with the Seasons Guitar Quartet and as a duo at Stanford Jazz last year. Lage and pianist Fred Hersch released a very impressive duet album: Free Flying. And things really came full circle when I listened to another link from SJW's FB page: a NPR interview of Fred Hersch!