“When you play music you discover a part of yourself that you never knew existed.”

“Actually, I’m not interested in Zen that much, as a philosophy, nor in joining any movements. I don’t pretend to understand it. I just find it comforting. And very similar to jazz. Like jazz, you can’t explain it to anyone without losing the experience. It’s got to be experienced, because it’s feeling, not words.”

“Words are the children of reason and, therefore, can’t explain it. They really can’t translate feeling because they’re not part of it. That’s why it bugs me when people try to analyze jazz as an intellectual theorem. It’s not. It’s feeling.”

“Sometimes it can happen that you see everything in terms of music. It’s like a fixation. You can’t help it. I get that way every time I’m trying to work something out. But it’s bad if you can’t pull out of it. Nothing should be that dominating. If it is, it is perverted.”

“I want to play as good as I can, not necessarily as different. I am not interested in consciously changing the essence of my music. I would rather have it reveal itself progressively as I play. Ultimately, what counts is its essential quality, anyway, and differences vanish in a short time.”

Bill Evans has always been my favorite jazz musician. Despite the fact that I play guitar, there has always been something about Bill Evans the man and the artist that fascinates me. His harmonic sense was legendary. His ability to swing – unparalleled. But the depth of this jazz artist and how he thought was to me, his most distinguishing and most valuable attribute.

Here are some of my favorite Bill Evans quotes. I find them realistic and inspiring. They have been a source of comfort to me throughout the development of my career in the creative world of jazz.

“In the long run, we must consider that what we do is an art.”

“I hope, through my music, to contribute to creating a better world.”

”I had to work harder at music than most cats, because you see, I don’t have much talent.”

“Everybody talks about my harmonic conception. I worked very hard at that because I don’t have very good ears.”

“Now in retrospect, I think it was a good thing I didn’t have a great aptitude for mimicry though it made it very difficult for me at the time because I had to work very hard to take things apart. I had to build my whole music style. I’d abstract principles from people I dug, and I’d take their feeling or technique to apply to things the way I’d built them. But because I had to build them so meticulously, I think, worked out better in the end, because it gave me a complete understanding of everything I was doing.”

“Jazz is not a what, it’s a how. If it were a what, it would be static, never growing. The how is that music comes from the moment, it is spontaneous, it exists at the time it is created. And anyone who makes music according to this method conveys to me an element that makes his music jazz.”

“Intuition has to lead knowledge, but it can’t be out there alone.”

“I went through a lot of mental pains and anguish about choosing between jazz and classical. I realized that where I functioned was where I should be, and where I functioned was in jazz, so that was it.”

“I think some young people want a deeper experience. Some people just wanna be hit over the head and, you know, if then they [get] hit hard enough maybe they’ll feel something. You know? But some people want to get inside of something and discover, maybe, more richness. And I think it will always be the same; they’re not going to be the great percentage of the people. A great percentage of the people don’t want a challenge. They want something to be done to them — they don’t want to participate. But there’ll always be maybe 15% maybe, 15%, that desire something more, and they’ll search it out — and maybe that’s where art is, I think.”

“To the person who uses music as a medium for the expression of ideas, feelings, images, or what have you; anything which facilitates this expression is properly his instrument.”

“Perhaps it is a peculiarity of mine that despite the fact that I am a professional performer, it is true that I have always preferred playing without an audience.”

“First of all, I never strive for identity. That’s something that just has happened automatically as a result, I think, of just putting things together, tearing things apart and putting it together my own way, and somehow I guess the individual comes through eventually.”

“My creed for art in general is that it should enrich the soul; it should teach spirituality by showing a person a portion of himself that he would not discover otherwise…a part of yourself you never knew existed.”

“I believe in things that are developed through hard work. I always like people who have developed long and hard, especially through introspection and a lot of dedication. I think what they arrive at is usually a much deeper and more beautiful thing than the person who seems to have that ability and fluidity from the beginning. I say this because it’s a good message to give to young talents who feel as I used to.”

“A guy is influenced by hundreds of people and things,” he said, “and all show up in his work.” To fasten on any one or two is ridiculous. I will say one thing, though. Lennie Tristano’s early records impressed me tremendously. Tunes like ‘Tautology,’ ‘Marshmallow,’ and ‘Fishin’ Around.’ I heard the fellows in his group building their lines with a design and general structure that was different from anything I’d ever heard in jazz.”

“Technique is the ability to translate your ideas into sound through your instrument. This is a comprehensive technique…a feeling for the keyboard that will allow you to transfer any emotional utterance into it. What has to happen is that you develop a comprehensive technique and then say, Forget that. I’m just going to be expressive through the piano.”

“When you begin to teach jazz, the most dangerous thing is that you tend to teach style…I had eleven piano students, and I would say eight of them didn’t even want to know about chords or anything – they didn’t’ even want to do anything that anybody had ever done, because they didn’t want to be imitators.

Well, of course, this is pretty naive, but nevertheless it does bring to light the fact that if you’re going to try to teach jazz…you must abstract the principles of music which have nothing to do with style, and this is exceedingly difficult. So there, the teaching of jazz is a very touchy point. It ends up where the jazz player, ultimately, if he’s going to be a serious jazz player, teaches himself.”

“It’s performing without any really set basis for the lines and the content as such emotionally or, specifically, musically. And if you sit down and contemplate what you’re going to do, and take five hours to write five minutes of music, then it’s composed music. Therefore I would put it in the classical or serious, whatever you want to call it, written-music category. So there’s composed music and there’s jazz. And to me anybody that makes music using the process that we are using in Jazz, is playing Jazz.”

“I’m using the insides of sounds to move around in a very subtle way which, I think, ends up being inevitable. I feel its the only solution to that particular problem that I presented myself.”

“Especially, I want my work – and the trios if possible – to sing.”

“It bugs me when people try to analyze jazz as an intellectual theorem. It’s not. It’s feeling.”

“Im…a rather simple person with a limited talent and perhaps a limited perspective.”

What is interesting about this production was Sonny Casella’s vision to contrast a rock – blues guitar player with a jazz guitar player. Whenever a lead guitar was featured, it would alternate between the rock sound and the jazz sound. As such, it may well be the first major release that fused jazz and rock together, pioneering the term fusion.

The song is a very hip jazz waltz type of pop – jazz tune with great vocals and funky, jazzy horns. I just recently came across this song and it brought me back to the beginnings of my career. Recording in New York at that early age was a bit intimidating – but I survived and went on with my career.

I hear in the jazz guitar solos and fills the seeds that developed into my current CD “Freefall” on the Dreambox Media label. I’ve included a Youtube link to this classic recording.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed recording the jazz guitar parts so long ago.

When the contest ends on April 17th, five winners will be chosen to receive my new CD “Freefall” with the Chuck Anderson Trio on the Dreambox Media label.

So don’t forget to enter and take advantage of everything that All About Jazz has to offer.

Jazz guitarists have never had a way to organize the subject of rhythm in a way that would systematically benefit their solos and their comping. Modular Phonetic Rhythm offers a solution.

The concept of rhythm is simple. It’s the duration of a note, a chord or a pattern. Rhythm is integrated into every facet of music. A melody is a sequence of pitches with rhythm. A chord progression is a sequence of chords with rhythm. Rhythm impacts Melody, Harmony and even Lyrics. It’s also a subject in and of itself. Rhythm is so intuitive, that it’s often overlooked as an independent topic of study.

The difficulty in the study of rhythm has always been its abstract nature – and its mathematical approach. Rhythm has traditionally been taught as a function of math, particularly fractions. Though accurate, this approach has missed one of the most fundamental facts of rhythm. Rhythm is a sonic language and is, as such, phonetic not mathematical in nature. The average student exposed to the math orientation of rhythm has rarely absorbed the essence of rhythm. He or she rarely becomes proficient at sight reading or using rhythm effectively. This often remains a lifetime barrier to the developing musician.

Though rhythm can be explained in mathematical terms, this approach does not give you a practical command of the sounds of the rhythms. Rhythm is a series of sounds! How can these sounds be organized?

“The Modular Phonetic Rhythm represents a fresh and innovative approach that helps bring the abstract into focus, examining the core of the real, linguistically aligned processes actually involved in reading, understanding, interpreting, and executing rhythm.”
- Arthur Bernstein, Head of Music Department, Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts

This approach to rhythm is based on the concept of Modular Phonetics. Modular refers to the interchangeability of rhythm syllables and Phonetics refers to the sound of the rhythm syllables. Phonics has always been the key to sound in language. Without phonics, we could not pronounce words. We could not hear the sound of the words. Without Modular Phonetics, we can not hear the sound of rhythm. Without the sound of rhythm, it is difficult to use.

There is a strong correlation between the ability to spell and strong fundamentals in phonics. Phonetic skills allow us to “sound out” words, even words that we’ve never seen before! We understand the principle of sound as it applies to phonetic combinations. The “sight” of the letter combination triggers a reflexive “sound” reaction. If rhythm could be broken down into a system of phonetic units similar to the syllables of language, then rhythm would become an easily recognized and applied aural language.

To illustrate, take the word umbrella. This word could be expressed as 8 letters or as 3 syllables. Treating the word as 8 letters is similar to traditional rhythm teaching. A rhythm pattern could  be described as a note lasting one half beat followed by a note lasting one beat followed by a note lasting one half beat. The “sound” of the rhythm is not part of this equation. But using the syllable parallel (umbrella has 3 syllables), the rhythm can be grouped into a phonetic syllable that does have a sound. Now, rhythm can be reproduced in the preferable “eye-ear-hand reflex” – the eye sees it – the ear hears it – the hands execute it!

Modular Phonetic Rhythm is based on 24 basic rhythm syllables. These rhythm syllables vary in length from 1 note to 6 notes and from 1 beat to 4 beats. The system is divided into 4 levels based on the subdivision of the beat. Level I does not subdivide the beat. This is the level in which all notes are struck only on the downbeat. Level II divides the beat into 2 parts. Level III divides the beat into 3 parts. Level IV divides the beat into 4 parts. The levels do not express progressive difficulty, just progressive subdivisions of the beat.

As you begin to use this material, you will find an expansive, new vocabulary which you can then apply directly to your jazz guitar improvisation, your composition and to your accompaniment.

The easiest way to begin is to describe what is not the jazz guitar style. Power 5 chords, simple open chords, steady strums, static chord progressions, a lack of key modulations, heavy bending and vibrato, slinky thin strings, distortion, excessive volume, huge amplifiers … these are a few characteristics that say that the music is probably not the jazz guitar style.

On the other hand, mellow tone, full body hollow electric guitars, great tone, the use of modality, a large repertoire of chords and voicings, more scales and arpeggios than you can imagine, shifting harmonic tonalities, fast hands, octaves, standards, soloing on complex chord progressions, the “swing” feel in rhythm, dynamic shading, the Bossa, the Samba, the Jazz Waltz, screaming tempos, flying arpeggios, rubato ballads.. These are some signs of this style.

The jazz guitar style today might be considered a performance blend of standards from the 30s and 40s, the modal influences of Miles Davis, the harmonic sophistication of the French Impressionistic period and the Blues.

Obviously, jazz is a wide idiom ranging from the Bebop to the Atonal to the Urban to the Free to the Progressive styles. In the long run, what works is what works for you and your audience.

In today’s internet mentality and ultra niche markets, it seems more important than ever to be able to categorize music. If no other reason than to know how to direct your marketing efforts, where to advertise, where to promote and where to perform. Jazz guitar is a category in and of itself.

The jazz guitar style is an art form. Is it a commercial style?  Well, that depends on how you define “commercial”. I believe it has a tremendous potential to develop a significant world wide audience.

Improvisation is at the heart soul of this style. The freedom of improvisation lives with the discipline of a very complex art form. The goal is however to allow people to see beyond the complexity and into the beauty of direct communication. Yes, too often jazz guitarists substitute meaningless flash for substance. But welcome to the world in general. Our society is not short on replacing substance with surface.

Listen to the jazz guitar. Find who and what you like. The guitar is the most popular instrument in the world, Its sound appeals to the masses. The jazz guitar with its unique sound and feel is well positioned to influence the listening standards of the world!

Let’s break down picking into its most basic components. There are only 2 pick strokes – a down pick and an up pick. This is a fact but it’s not too useful. What is useful however, is the fact that there are four picking pairs:

• 1) down – up
• 2) up – down
• 3) down – down
• 4) up – up.

The terms best suited to describe the function of these picking pairs are: Legato picking and Articulate picking.

The Legato style: down – down and up – up is used to smooth the transition from string to string and when you want a smooth, connected sound from note to note.

The Articulate style: down – up and up – down is used to create a distinct attack for each note. The effect of the Articulate style is to emphasize the individual strike of each note.

Players who use this style have a machine gun sounding attack. It is, as its name implies, a sharp edged sound. The Legato Style is more horn like and sounds more like breathing. Great players use both styles interchangeably.

Each style has advantages and disadvantages. The use of either style is dictated by style, personal taste and the efficiency required in each situation.

If you’re looking for more detailed information on how to use the picking pairs to improve your playing, check out the book “Master Picking“.

Chuck Anderson is part of an elite group: world-class jazz musicians who focused their careers not on performing, but on passing the baton to others. Like the late Dennis Sandole and Charlie Banacos before him, Chuck spent his career focused on educating and mentoring students, many of whom went onto illustrious careers.

Now at 62, Chuck Anderson has returned to his roots as a performer, and in his new CD Freefall, you can hear Chuck playing some of the best guitar of his life. Freefall contains 12 original compositions, 10 performed with the Chuck Anderson Trio. Music After 50 talked to Chuck about the new album, and why he was out of the public eye for so many years.

LRG: What makes this album different from anything you’ve done previously?

CA: This album represents the culmination of a long journey. The Vintage Tracks represented me as a young, over- the-top-jazz guitarist – lots of brash firepower. The next CD Angel Blue showed me more as a composer. It represented a more mature writer and player. After my long absence from the jazz guitar concert world, Freefall is an amalgam of young energy and passion as well as mature writing. It’s my favorite CD of the three.

LRG: Did you write all of the tunes or are there any covers?

CA: All 12 songs are original. Two are solo tracks and 10 are in the trio format.

LRG: You stopped performing for many years. What inspired you to return to performance?

CA: I had been suffering, unknowingly, from severe obstructive sleep apnea for many years. It drained my energy, stopped my metabolism, and caused me to gain an enormous amount of weight. I barely had the energy to teach. When the cause of my problem was discovered, I began sleep therapy with a CPAP machine. With the return of deep sleep, I was able to moderate my eating and begin an exercise regimen. The results of these changes has been a weight loss of 110 pounds. With this renewed energy, I felt that passion and drive that I remember feeling when I was 24 years old.

LRG: You prefer to play in concert settings over clubs. Talk about why.

CA: Clubs have many distractions that don’t serve an audience or the performers well. The wait staff, the bartenders and, the fact that so many people are not there to hear the music distracts the performers and those who have come to hear the music. A concert setting is exclusively intended to listen to music. This is a benefit to the performers and to the audience.

LRG: You call your music “audience friendly, progressive jazz guitar.” Talk about what makes it friendly.

CA: I think that it’s important to consider the audience when you perform jazz. This is not a compromise, but a balanced perspective concerning volume, repertoire, variety, and communication. The jazz world has developed a reputation for unfriendly and distant performers. The programming of the material and the spontaneity of the performance is what I believe makes it friendly. I am not a fusion player. The audience is the only thing that allows us to do what we do.

LRG: What type of guitar are you playing on the album?

CA: A custom Gibson L5. The “Green Hornet.”

LRG: The bass player and drummer both sound great on the album. Who are they?

CA: On bass, we have Eric Schreiber. Eric is relatively new to the jazz world but has excellent training, listens well, and works interactively and creatively with the trio. Ed Rick on drums brings a wide variety of experience to the band. His percussive work is solid and inspiring.

LRG: Although you’re a jazz guitar player, many of your students do not study jazz guitar. Is that correct?

CA: My students have a wide variety of interests and directions. I teach to the unique strengths of each student. I deal formally with guitar, bass, piano, and songwriting. The music business is another frequent topic of discussion in the lessons. I teach privately, as I believe in the power of one-on-one interaction.

LRG: Do you teach part time or full time?

CA: Very full time!

LRG: What does this album mean for you personally, and what do you hope it means for jazz guitar overall?

CA: For me, it’s a return, a rebirth. I hope that it will draw people all over the world to the jazz guitar.