bluegrass bands; banjo styles aesthetics
Jul. 1st, 2003 11:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
guslMatt Glaser on Playing Jazz on Strings
Crooked Still: Greg Liszt, ("the Chick Corea of the banjo" -Béla Fleck); Rushad Eggleston (cello groove-styler who plays amazing solos). I was hoping for some traditional bluegrass, but their site is mostly jazzish renditions of traditional songs.
Southeast Expressway
It occurred to me that the much of the Alison Brown / Béla Fleck banjo aesthetic (especially their jazz) is filling in spaces with a bunch of equally-spaced notes. This is in contrast to the arpeggio-melody banjo aesthetic, which dominates in bluegrass. The former is pure melody, often going up and down scales (played over a harmony, naturally) while the latter has more of a harmonic function (while at the same time making the impression of a melody).
Since the sound of the banjo dies quickly (due to the "soft" skin which the strings vibrate), the notes have to be played quickly in order to fill in the silence.
Crooked Still: Greg Liszt, ("the Chick Corea of the banjo" -Béla Fleck); Rushad Eggleston (cello groove-styler who plays amazing solos). I was hoping for some traditional bluegrass, but their site is mostly jazzish renditions of traditional songs.
Southeast Expressway
It occurred to me that the much of the Alison Brown / Béla Fleck banjo aesthetic (especially their jazz) is filling in spaces with a bunch of equally-spaced notes. This is in contrast to the arpeggio-melody banjo aesthetic, which dominates in bluegrass. The former is pure melody, often going up and down scales (played over a harmony, naturally) while the latter has more of a harmonic function (while at the same time making the impression of a melody).
Since the sound of the banjo dies quickly (due to the "soft" skin which the strings vibrate), the notes have to be played quickly in order to fill in the silence.