simoncoil wrote:

Just to be clear: I actually like Bill Frisell quite a bit, I just thought that "Guitars in the Space Age" could have been far more interesting, if he had taken a more adventurous approach.

I agree. Live he did alot more with the tunes and played them more up tempo as well... The pedal steel really works...be interesting to know if there is any pedal steel surf out there?
I was meaning alot of guys I know into guitar don't like him but he is someone I have gotten to really like by listening to him. He doesn't grab you by the throat...

philjudd wrote:

simoncoil wrote:

Just to be clear: I actually like Bill Frisell quite a bit, I just thought that "Guitars in the Space Age" could have been far more interesting, if he had taken a more adventurous approach.

I agree. Live he did alot more with the tunes and played them more up tempo as well... The pedal steel really works...be interesting to know if there is any pedal steel surf out there?
I was meaning alot of guys I know into guitar don't like him but he is someone I have gotten to really like by listening to him. He doesn't grab you by the throat...

Phil & Simon,
Frisell is very refreshing, humane and intimate in his paying and it's great to see how despite that he pisses off squares like my brother-in-law... but jazzbos would consider me totally square.
I like what you said about the surf spirit always being a FUN one, punky, juvenile. I will add to the list: NOT ELITIST!
I keep going back to the mid XX-century setting, the urheimat of surf instro. A lot of those guys were jazz players. There were no boundaries as we understand them now, only differing audiences. I recall Buddy Holly had said that, "trad jazz is strictly for stay-at-homes," meaning it was listened to on the hi-fis of the cocktail set while teenyboppers went to dance halls and rocked out. The introduction of the cranked Fender Showman may be the event that broke the link with jazz by virtue of sheer volume. No 'serious' person then would put up with the noise and the hall was filled with very young kids anyway. Maybe the Monterey Pop Festival half a decade later began to seduce self-serious people back into the youth scene's music, and under the influence of short skirts and mild psychedelics, take themselves a little less seriously. Like in a "What's New, Pussycat" kind of way.
I kind of just wish the current jazz scene would do that. I mean, Wynton Marsalis? Please.

Squink Out!

great thread, guys.

Areas where surf and Western music stretch a bit further or wider is really interesting to me. There is an English guitarist called Stuart Hall who always played a very surfy style, but there's bugger all on youtube. I've actually been meaning to upload some of his stuff with drummer Steve Arguelles from the '90s.

I'll second Manuel Galban. That collab album with Cooder is a monster. Can't find the tune I want so I'll post this.

Last edited: Jan 24, 2017 17:51:03

Thanks for the heads up on the Mattson 2, they sound great! Here is another one, which even features a short glissando!

Los Apollos - cinematic surf music trio (Berlin)
"Postcards from the Scrapyard" Vol. 1, 2 & 3 NOW available on various platforms!
"Chaos at the Lobster Lounge" available as LP and download on Surf Cookie Records!

JObeast wrote:

What I was getting at above, which no one seems to think is interesting, is that nowadays serious players known for jazz ensemble playing are open to a whole other songbook that includes what we call surf, etc. They are
freed up from the old Tin Pan Alley / Show Tunes standards and are open to stuff those guys who play only on the neck pickup sneer at. Ribot, Frisell and Cooder are playing with overdrive and reverb without apology. I'm just glad they have been able to dissolve this whole oppressive highbrow/lowbrow dichotomy. The origins of jazz are in some pretty low places. Teenage culture, trash and movie themes are perhaps more relevant to contemporary listeners than Hoagie Carmichael, great as he is.

All good points and I agree with movements from generation to generation with what relevent.

As a jazz player I always wondered why pop and contemporary music from the 60's onwards haven't been used like the old stuff that fills that standards book? That really intrigues me. It could be done while still retaining the essence of jazz.
There must be a reason. I think it's good to be schooled and imbedded in the roots and history of a musical style but just repeating it,even to a high level, becomes a museum...

Since I'm a jazz fan as well as surf music fan, I was quite interested in this thread. After poking around Soundcloud and band websites, I ordered the Expressway Sketches Love Surf Music CD. All in all, the CD effort is quite good. However, since this is surf music done by free jazz musicians, a few of the tunes are quite challenging. Other tunes are pretty much straight ahead surf, with a little more improvisation during solos.

On the web, there was a suggestion that the bass player, Lukas Kranzelbinder, had done a surf opera. I ordered this CD as well. While there is one surf style tune as part of the opera, it is more jazz/rock in Spanish. Thankfully I really enjoy it for what it is.

I hope these guys continue to do surf music releases as well as their jazz.

Rev.

www.revwillis.com
www.willisclow.com
www.slajo.com

Great that uou guys got turned onto some new stuff. Any new stuff blending jazz or blues with surf?

Just found my old copy of Soul Surfin' by Kai Winding. Features Kenny Burrell on guitar. Several surf tunes including their version of Pipeline.

Rev.

www.revwillis.com
www.willisclow.com
www.slajo.com

Very cool. Thanks for sharing
simoncoil wrote:

There is band here in Germany called Expressway Sketches, which consists of jazz players dan takes inspiration from surf music. I have heard mixed things about their record though and have yet to see them live. But it puts me off a little, that in their PR stuff they say things like "bringing surf music in the 21st century". Other people have done that long before them.

If you don't mind a little Cuban influences in your jazz surf mix, I would recommend:
Manuel Galban & Ry Cooder - Mambo Sinnuendo
Marc Ribot - Los Cubanos Poalstizos

My latest LP Unknown Creatures by Otitis Media Records is available now on all digital platforms and colored vinyl. Listen and buy here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/sysmalakian/unknown-creatures
Lessons, tabs and tutorials send an email to sysmalakian@gmail.com

Can it be the other way around? A jazzband that fuses surf with their own sound?

Last weekend I saw Bruut play at a local jazz cafe. It is a young jazztrio from the Netherlands with only drums, hammond and saxophone. So no guitar! But it was one of the best gigs I saw this year!

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