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Re: For G-bashers
>as far as i'm concerned, pat metheny might just be the baddest guitarist
>playing right now. as a huge straight-ahead jazz fan, he blows away the
competition and i'm not just talking technically, but creatively.
I just caught Pat's show in Austin a couple weeks back, and it
occurred to me, after having seen him live about five times now since
the late 1970s, that he's got one of the most recognizable voices
among contemporary jazz guitarists out there. His show lasted three
hours, and it seemed like only half that long!! It's also his
compositional style. . .the complexities of harmonic structures, the
chord progressions that keep cycling into new areas. . . .that make
him so damned relevant.
On the other hand. . . it's futile to try to compare jazz guitarists
who are quite different. For example, Terje Rypdal is also jazz as
is Ahmad Mansour as is Derek Bailey as is Leni Stern, etc., etc.. So
many excellent, unique players out there not getting the recognition
they deserve in the corporate world of music production and
distribution.
As a bassist, what annoys me (oh God, y'all please don't attack me
too badly!) is that so many electric bassists sound undistinguishable
these days, no matter the idiom. I play mostly fretless P-bass (for
a few years now) and a bit of electric upright (a recent thing), but
for the most part the more interesting/influential bassists to me are
those that play acoustic. I'm not saying there are no interesting
elec. bassists; just comparatively few. Sorry for temporarily
changing the subject.
Michael
--
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Michael S. Yoder, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Geography and Urban Studies
Texas A&M International University
Department of Social Sciences
5201 University Blvd.
Laredo, TX 78041
(956) 326-2634 FAX (956) 326-2459
http://www.tamiu.edu/~myoder/
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