MP3 Bob Burford - Twin Guitars

This album is music arranged for two guitars playing chordally in unison as one, chords that are impossible for only one guitarist to reach.

12 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Smooth Jazz, EASY LISTENING: Lounge



Details:
(Note: In anticipation of more emails, it's entirely possible that someone may want to record one of my original tunes found on this album. The copyright/publisher information needed is "Suzi Bob Music, ASCAP".)

ABOUT THE ALBUM

This album is music arranged for two guitars playing chordally in unison as one, chords that are impossible for only one guitarist to reach. While the first guitarist is playing 2, 3 or 4 voices, the second guitar is playing 2, 3 or 4 other voices in unison.
(Total time: 52:20)

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Bob Burford is a self-taught finger-style jazz guitarist who grew up with a guitar in the house. He was surrounded by uncles on both sides of the family who played Texas Swing and Hillbilly (that was before the term "Country & Western" was coined). He started playing in clubs at the age of 15 in the resort area of southwestern Michigan in the early 1950s. At age 17 he began working with show bands playing rhythm and blues and jazz. Later, he studied privately with renowned guitarist Charlie Byrd who, with tenor saxophonist Stan Getz, introduced bossa nova to North America with their âJazz Sambaâ album in the early 1960s. Byrd introduced him to John Marlow at American University in Washington, D.C., with whom he studied classical guitar. From there he went to Las Vegas where he worked for Al Ramsey who contracted a stable of musicians who backed all of the casino headliners. Ramsey later became director of entertainment at Caesarâs Palace. Burford's claim to fame comes more from who he did not work with rather than who he has worked with. He got the call from Ramsey's office to work the Sinatra show but he missed that date because his answering service failed to give him the message until 26 hours later. He is most proud of his two-year association with legendary guitarist George Barnes (Chet Atkins' favorite guitarist) at Concord Jazz in California. That collaboration produced what came to be known as âthe Concord Sound.â Burford is semi-retired now but still owns a private investigative agency in Nashville where he is actively involved in the music scene.

ABOUT THE TUNES

1. THAT'S FUN - I had the singular honor of spending the last two years of his life with George Barnes at Concord Jazz. George and his lovely wife, Evelyn, went down to Los Angeles for the weekend. Sunday evening, as Evelyn was driving back up to the Bay area, George was writing an arrangement. They stopped for the night in the Big Sur area. Monday morning at 5:30 my phone rang. It was George. In his unmistakable and inimitable voice he said, âBob! Meet me at the studio, 7:30!â The tune he had written and arranged for two guitars is âConcord Sound,â the fourth track on this CD. That was the beginning of the Concord Sound â multiple voices played on two guitars, basically two guitars playing in unison as one guitar but playing interwoven notes that are impossible for only one person to reach on a guitar. âThat's Funâ is a tune I wrote, eight voices on two guitars. It was the last arrangement we were working on at the time of George's untimely death. The hardest part of writing an instrumental tune is coming up with a title for it. We had been sitting in the studio working on this untitled arrangement for about two hours when George kinda pushed himself up off his chair and, as he stood up, he sighed and said, âAhhhh, that's fun!â Thus, the title.

2. CARAVAN - Think of a jazz player. He, or she, played and/or recorded this tune. The list goes on forever.

3. I FOUND LOVE - I was thinking a flowering horn arrangement when I wrote this. You don't have to be too creative to hear how that would work.

4. CONCORD SOUND - See the narrative for track 1, âThat's Funâ.

5. JOY SPRING - Clifford Brown's jazz classic. Clifford and pianist Richie Powell were riding in a car driven by Powell's wife. For unknown reasons, the car left the roadway and crashed, resulting in the premature and untimely deaths of all three. They were driving through Pennsylvania on their way to Chicago to hook up with Max Roach for a date. Brown was only 25 years old.

6. THIS TIME THE DREAM'S ON ME - Harold Arlen oozed great music. Among his voluminous credits is the music for âThe Wizard of Ozâ including âSomewhere Over the Rainbow.â

7. PERPETUAL MOTION - No, this tune has nothing to do with Johann Strauss' tune of the same name. George wrote this as an exercise, actually. He had his own unique method of using a guitar pick. He held it between his thumb and forefinger and middle finger. He created dynamics not by picking a string harder; instead, he would apply pressure to the pick with his thumb and literally bend the pick to make it stiffer. Consequently, he had to use a down stroke for every note he played. So he was kidded greatly, good-naturedly, of course, by other players about not being able to double-pick. This is George's musical tongue-in-cheek way of sticking his tongue out at his critics.

8. MORNING SAMBA - The title may seem innocuous enough, but the word âmorningâ is significant. Creative juices don't flow in the morning. (So why is it recording sessions are always scheduled for 9:00 a.m.?) This tune was conceived and roughed out midmorning before the day's first pot of coffee was finished.

9. SUMMERTIME - From âPorgy and Bessâ (1935). Any comment on the tune or the Gershwins would be superfluous.

10. BLUES IN A BOX - This is simply a 12-bar, three-chord blues. The truth is, I didn't write this, actually. I was playing a show and was backstage waiting to go on while the house band played a couple of tunes, one of which was Bobby Troupe's âRoute 66.â This head was an arranged improv line for the sax section. And further, in the spirit of full disclosure, I copped one of my improv lines in this tune from the keyboard player. In other words, the whole of this tune is hot, as in âstolen.â Unlike Nixon, I am a crook.

11. STUMBLIN' - I have no idea when I first heard this tune, but it had to have been when I was very young. And I'm probably wrong on this, but I'd bet that the first time I heard it, it was done by Les Elgart. In my mind's ear, that's what I hear when I think of the tune.

12. WILLOW WEEP FOR ME - I think I'm pretty safe in saying that this arrangement's concept is a first. I don't think it's ever been done this way before. It's another unique way of putting two guitars to work in concert with each other. While one guitar plays the head, the second guitar is playing the part of a horn section.