J-Ro Sweet Georgia Brown Tag lick

Lucius371

Jimmy plays this lick, or some variation thereof quite often, it's most notably found on the latest you tube vid of sweet georgia brown and he play's it unsion w/Andreas on Indiana from the album Django's Tiger. He generally plays it as a tag over I VI7 ii V7. I'll presume most of you know the lick, it's scalding hot. Anyway, I have some questions about the fingering/stroke. It doesn't seem like exclusive rest strokes. Anyone have an analysis?
ps... I'm on my work computer so I can't access the vid to link it
Thanks,
Ryan

Bones

Ryan,

Is it the live video where he is wearing a white suit?

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1199799/j ... gia_brown/

PS- get back to work! :-)

Lucius371

Affirmative Bones,
The white suit w/purple shirt. That line is so killer. It's hard to discern his method of executing the line. Whether he sweeps or straight rest picks. I was hoping someone could provide some insight.
Thanks,
Ryan

Ando

Is this the descending lick that goes over the progression just before the final 2-5-1? I think that's a line from Lionel Hampton, the vibes player with Benny Goodman. I've been trying to figure out how to pull that one off myself -- Jimmy makes it look easy!

Lucius371

He first plays the line at second 35 on the above metacafe vid.

steven_eire

the thing where it descends chromatically? think it's something like this


10-7----------6-9-8-5---------4-7-8-5--5-7-----------
------8------7-----------6-----5---------5----7-8-------
--------7-6----------------5-4---------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------

EDIT: actually i was wrong, the ending of the lick is a bit different than that

BluesBop Harry

Steven almost had it.
It's a Django idea, he used a similar phrase in Improvisation #1.
Here is the one Jimmy plays on that vid, I think Denis included it on one of his DVDs.

D=Downstrokes, U= Upstrokes, S= slide

D-U-D-D-S-D-D-U-D-U-D-D-S-D-D-U-D-U-D-D-S-D-D-U-D
10-7-----------6-9-8-5-------------4-7-6-3-------------2-5-3---
------8------7------------6-------5-------------4-------3-----------
--------7-6------------------5-4-------------------3-2--------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------

( a little weird to read but follow the picking with the notes and you'll be fine)

It's all done with gypsy picking (rest strokes too!) with slides to help speed.
You can hear the slides at slow speed and watch his hand sweeping down in the video.

Lucius371

Man this is much appreciated. You contribute alot to these forums. Much Obliged,
Ryan

BluesBop Harry

Glad to help!

Fingers

Okay beauty I absolutely love it.....but I want to ask the same question I asked at another lick. As a guitarist learning GJ...do I have to play it like that?

How about like this?


[size=75]E-|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B-|--15--12------------------11--14--13--10----------------9--12--11--8--------------7--10--8-----
G-|----------12----------11------------------10---------9----------------8--------7---------------
D-|--------------12s11--------------------------10s9----------------------8s7------------------
A-|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[/size]

The main difference as I see it is it is less percussive if done this way unless one really concentrates on not sliding the notes too legato style. But if picked clean and hard it can sound close. It also does not look as impressive while playing it.

I am just curious if it is cool to economize and tailor licks to suit one's own ability or if the idea is to struggle through and do it exactly how the other guy does it.

BluesBop Harry

That looks totally fine to me, but it might be harder to keep the notes from bleeding into each other with that barre form.
Also in loud jam settings I've found that licks in the first three strings cut more... but the alternative you propose works well too.

I believe it's better to know both ways so you can play it in any key and in any part of the neck you happen to be at any one time.
The more ways you know how to play something the more chances you have of it materializing in an improvisation.

Now, to quote Denis Chang, I think the next step would be to figure out ways to lead in and out of the phrase and work out some variations.

A lot of GJ licks, though unfamiliar or awkward at first, are more easily played the way the gypsies do, that's why they all do it the same way and pull 'em off right everytime, even the little kids! So it's a good idea to try their way first.

They say the worst vice is advice but here it goes (...again ):
If you want to learn more about the typical positions gypsy jazz vocabulary phrases are played in, you might want to check out Denis Chang's "Technique and improvisation" DVDs, Michael Horowitz's "Unaccompanied Django", Andreas Oberg "Gypsy fire" and also try transcribing some stuff from videos.