Rturah Jazz

There were some good moments the other night at Django.  Before I played my solo set, a guest performer played a short set on his shamisen, which could be described as a Japanese banjo.  Earlier I mentioned that I feel an affinity with the “stringy” sounds of a lot of traditional music from around the world.  What I mean by “stringy” is music that highlights, on instruments ranging from the shamisen, to the citar, to the oud, exactly what strings have to offer: bends, slurs, hammers, and percussive rhythmic effects in the midst of melodic improvisation.  (Be mindful that these are effects very rarely recurred to in jazz guitar, but are part and parcel of blues guitar and flamenco guitar …)  Jimi Hendrix may be my favorite American practitioner of these effects.  The shamisen has only three strings (right?), and it is played with a very large flat pick.  I think the instrument has some sympathetic drone strings–I don’t know–because the player sometimes hit the instrument from a different angle to get some very high metallic notes.  I was so pleased to hear him play, in part because he was inspiring me to include in my set some of the riffs I often use that carry the inflection of these Asian or North African string improvisational musics.  (more…)