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Today's Birthday
John Etheridge and Loads of Grappelli Anecdotes
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John Etheridge is quite a raconteur: I heard him recount some of these tales at a guitar weekend in Wales years ago so I'm really pleased to be able to download the podcast version.
I particularly enjoyed Etheridge’s take on traditional electric jazz guitar and its dull, depressing tone... “music to get a headache by” I call it...
Edgar Degas: "Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.... To draw, you must close your eyes and sing."
Georges Braque: "In art there is only one thing that counts: the bit that can’t be explained."
I have attached John's interview about the post Django players in GJ from the BBC's website below, for the benefit of those not in the UK, enjoy.
I have been trying to locate John's interview on Django at the BBC website. It should be here but a simple filing error has replaced the correct file for one on Django Bates, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008jf9w . A few years ago I sent and email to Alan Shipton asking if the original file could be located and apparently it's noones job to correct the error. Today I got excited about the fact that the library has been reorganised but ...alas... the same incorrect file is still doing the rounds.
If anyone else has the time to complain to the BBC then perhaps we might get to listen to John's take on Django.
D.
Funny thing about revivals, happens in Flamenco and other world musics, people get the idea that the way things were recorded in the fifties is the way things have always been as if evolution started with the first LP and before then everything had an imaginary essentialist purity. This becomes the blueprint for orhtodoxy in the style and that can be great. Often though we end up with people trying to sound 'right' instead of like themselves and so we hear who the soloist likes but not who they are.
Before you know it buying the right kind of guitar and plectrum is more important than what you play and, aside from technical prowess, a I have a real hard time identifying who the soloist is on most recordings because they are all chasing the same aesthetic.
It could be worse though, we could be rewriting musical vocabulary out of thin air like bad fusion or serialism or prog metal.
D.
That is why revivals seem to be short-lived or die. Because they refuse to breathe or evolve. They get stuck in their own assumed orthodoxy and thus become stale. Your summary of revivals reminds me of this old classic episode of Star Trek where they base a whole civilization and way of life around an old book on Chicago Gangster Mobs. Here's a clip:
As for the BBC podcast. Any chance that the page for the Django Bates episode might be linked to the Django Reinhardt file? Just a thought.
Someone would probably need to find the original recording and possibly redigitise it (assuming that the original error included the deletion) , probably a bit of work or it would have been done already, Shipton (or whoever is answering his BBC account Email) told me that they were aware of the issue and that was some years ago.
I love that episode of Star Trek, I think it is a parody on the old Imperial assertion that the ancients Greeks and Romans had the answers to all questions. To be honest I loathe discussing anything with anyone when all they ever do is lean on the presumed expertise of an absent authority figure.
And that means some kind of god really.
'Have you tried this ?'
'No it's wrong.'
'But have you tried ?'
'No, it won't work.'
'How do you know ?'
'God knows....'
There is quite the attack on musicians and artists here in the UK. I personally find the provision of pianos in public places offensive. The public are being given the message that musicians should be glad to play for free in front of people who no longer value or relate to their accomplishments.
Meanwhile if anyone is going out to jam make sure to bring your own snacks, the days of playing for peanuts are by now a fond memory.
D.
I just checked acouple of things, it's the same programme under Django Bates as that labelled Django. I got my hopes up when I saw the the file was a different size but alas no, it's not our Django.
Still, here is John Etheridge talking about his own career for overseas surfers who don't have access to BBC.
(attachment on bottom left of this post)
No account, no friends.
I wouldn't trouble him, he is unlikely to have the masters. I did drop him a line at his website thanking him and asked to be put on his mailing list.
D.