Swoosh, flick.

rimm

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=j6flB0Xv ... 6flB0XvmTo
Here's it in action..it's actually way harder to play strict pompe at this tempo

rimm

Sorry wrong video!
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G3ZJoJH_3oU

Passacaglia

rimm wrote:

Sorry wrong video!
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G3ZJoJH_3oU

Hey Rimm - nice to put you together with your video - thanks, man, really generous and helpful clip! I'm also playing around with Them There Eyes, and your choices are really clear - playing with yours, and some straight chords, m7ths that Nous'che does, tune is new to my repertoire, so doubly, thanks.

I like Mathieu Chatelain quite a bit - the Chez Fernand vids with Romane and Angelo DeBarre, among some of my favorite clips. I do hear you on the clean sound, in a mix with others. And like Anthony (it sounds like, anyway), I know a downstroke style is something I will have to master. For whatever reason, maybe it's because I started this way, I feel really stiff doing the downstroke style, like a complete goof; the upstroke is just easier for me to swing by, get the "trampoline" bounce.

The other thing I've been thinking on, having spent so much time listening to the Rosenbergs, is how cool a trio lineup can be - I lead a weekly jam, been very fortunate to have so many weekly players (guitars, violins, mandolins, clarinet, upright bass(es) ), but I do have to admit the kind of freedom a single rhythm player can have, in a trio, is appealing.

Thanks again, man, nice to meet you. Look forward to more.

Paul

(BTW - not sure if it's my FF or not, but I can't open your second link above...FF says it "doesn't understand the address.")

rimm

Lovely to make new friends! Samois next year we can share a good bottle of something and chat about pick width and favourite solos. 8) Stick a clip up here if you want some help with anything, there's some great players on the forum

14fdandyf

I was just cruising some threads and came across this, I know it's a couple of months old, but felt compelled to comment.
To me, it's not so much about to upstroke or not to upstroke, as someone mentioned above, but playing rhythm guitar, jazz rhythm guitar, is about getting the feel right.
What we, and all other gypsy jazz players, right back to Django himself, are playing is Jazz. And Jazz has a particular feel, and swing about it. And when it's right you know it, and when it's wrong you know it too. We have to get the feel and swing right, or it's not right. (it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing - sorry I had to throw that one in).
Jazz bands for decades have had a rhythm section chugging along underneath that all the other instruments lay over the top of. The rhythm section sets the foundation for the whole swing and feel of the band. Great jazz rhythm is a thing you feel, rather than hear. Great jazz rhythm is light, and bouncy and makes you want to move, and dance, it grabs you, and won't let you keep still.
Over-emphasizing the 1 and 3, and dumbing down the 2 and 4 is not right, and the result is a rhythm that feels clumpy, heavy, and simply isn't jazz.
Playing the upstroke before 1 and 3 isn't a gypsy jazz guitar thing, it's the basis of jazz rhythm, and is the pattern which sets the foundation for jazz drumming. The rhythm guitars in the hot club band were emulating what drummers do, ie the high hat and ride symbol pattern played by a drummer, ie the the ride cymbal plays - a 1, 2, a 3, 4 (where the 'a' is the swung quaver of the 4 and the 2 before the 1 and the 3), and the high hat plays - rest, 2, rest, 4. When play them together you get the characteristic da-dah, chick, da-dah, chick, that is jazz rhythm. And when you listen to those Hot club recordings that's what you hear.
Playing what I hear on some of the example above as a heavy grind of the strings on 1 and 3, and only a light swipe on 2 and 4, is to me getting the emphasis wrong, and therefore getting the rhythm wrong. And if the rhythm is wrong, it's wrong.

I got the Hypermedia download of Stochelo Rosenberg called Jazz Manouche in the style of Stochelo Rosenberg. He talks about the basics of rhythm playing, and in demonstrating how to do it, he also shows how not to do it. It's a real inspiration. His final words in the section on rhythm are that the correct technique produces a rhythm that is "very soft, yet powerful, and it swings, that's very important" - music to my ears.

Food for thought I hope.