Some jazz from a newbie

Jan Jonsson · Post by **Jan Jonsson** » 16 Jan 2005 3:58 pm

Hi,

I guess it's about time to present myself after being registered at this excellent forum for five months or so. Last September I bought my first pedal steel guitar -- a reddish-brown Sho-Bud Pro II Custom -- from Al Brisco in Canada (see picture in my signature below). To endow it with a little special mojo I sent the guitar to Ricky Davis in Austin for some refurbishing and setup, and then I picked it up last September and brought it home to Sweden for the big challenge.

So, after some serious woodshedding the last four months, I feel ready to let you hear one of my first achievements on the pedal steel guitar: my rendition of the jazz standard "Round Midnight" as played on the C6 neck. Comments are welcome!

My version of 'Round Midnight'

My progress on the E9 neck is so much slower so I thought I'd keep that for myself a while longer.

With this post, I'd also like to extend my deepest thanks to Ricky Davis and his musician friends (Redd & Billy) for helping me get started on the right track.

-- Jan

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Sho-Bud Pro II Custom 8/4, Fender Stringmaster S-8, Fender CS Nocaster
[This message was edited by Jan Jonsson on 16 January 2005 at 04:07 PM.]

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 16 Jan 2005 4:52 pm

great tune..great job..
great Steel future ahead of you..

thanks for posting

t[This message was edited by Tony Prior on 16 January 2005 at 04:53 PM.]

Rick Schmidt · Post by **Rick Schmidt** » 16 Jan 2005 5:22 pm

Jan....dang dude! Round Midnight was gonna be my next attempt at a forum clip, but since it's taken me over a year since my last one, I guess I deserve it. How long you say you been playin'????? Wow!!!!

You did a great job man! Love that tune! It's always been in my top 5 jazz standards. I'm sure we'll be hearing great things from you in the future...keep it up!

Rick

Bob Markison · Post by **Bob Markison** » 16 Jan 2005 6:28 pm

Jan - Nice! Keep up the good work. - Bob

Henry Nagle · Post by **Henry Nagle** » 16 Jan 2005 9:54 pm

Sounds great! You must have been a pretty reasonable lap player before going to pedal? That's very quick progress.

Ricky Davis · Post by **Ricky Davis** » 16 Jan 2005 10:22 pm

Thanks Jan for the kind words and the great friendship.
Folks I gotta tell you. Jan has of course been playing C13 hawaiian steel(non-pedal steel) for sometime and just a MONSTER guitar player too. His skill on the fender deluxe-8 steel is superb to say the least and he also uses the flatpick and two finger metal pick technique Jr. Brown plays with and it's killer. But this Pro II Custom is Jan's introduction to pedals and of course he picked up what all the pedals do to invert the C6th tuning dang quick(what a brilliant musical mind Jan has) and I'm teaching him E9th pedal steel(the techniques involved with that style) via the internet now; and LOOK OUT for this Man, he is the fastest learner I've ever seen> EVER.
Great job Jan(pronouced yawn)ha...
Ricky

Stephen Gambrell · Post by **Stephen Gambrell** » 16 Jan 2005 10:40 pm

Good stuff! After six months, most of us couldn't even FIND the C6 neck---and we get to hear THIS???
Ain't the Forum wonderful!!!!!

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 17 Jan 2005 12:58 am

FIne job, nice to see someone else really digging the C6 neck 1st.
It is most always the other way round, with 30 years in between.

But it's also nice that your working on the other neck that came with your C6 neck too.[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 17 January 2005 at 12:59 AM.]

Rick Schmidt · Post by **Rick Schmidt** » 17 Jan 2005 1:00 am

Let me take this moment to to talk about a secret weapon that alot of the greatest musicians know about...

Regardless of your musical orientation, learning to truly appreciate JAZZ is a valuable key that opens alot of doors for anyone who dares to investigate. Needless to say, every kind of music holds great pearls of wisdom for the aspiring player...classical, country, bluegrass, celtic, blues, rock, avant guard, ambient, etc etc, but jazz is unique in it's ability to teach you to improvise over ANYTHING that comes up harmonically and rhythmically. Just ask Buddy, Paul, Reece, Doug et all. (not to mention everybody else in the non-PSG world. I've seen it over and over again here on the forum. We're so mystified by how so many of these great steelers bring so many fresh ideas to country pickin, when it's really very simple. They love and aspire to play jazz too.

I think Jan already has a pretty good idea about this.

CrowBear Schmitt · Post by **CrowBear Schmitt** » 17 Jan 2005 1:32 am

Excellent Jan

only 4 months eh ?
quite an achievement
keep it up and you'll knock a bunch more of hats in the creek

Jan Jonsson · Post by **Jan Jonsson** » 17 Jan 2005 4:25 am

Thanks for all the nice words! I really appreciate it.

Just like Ricky says, I've been fooling around with the lap steel for some years before I bought this pedal steel. I've mainly been playing blues/jumpblues on the lapsteel for the last ten years, and it wasn't until two summers ago that I got thrown into the world of C&W and western swing. I say 'thrown' because it was basically by sheer coincidence that I was invited to play with a Swedish country band on two outdoors C&W shows in Denmark. So there was a very intense period where I was learning to play pedal steel stuff on the lapsteel using slants and behind-the-bar bends á la Junior Brown (who I had seen playing live a few years earlier).

They didn't kick me out after those gigs so I guess it turned out quite OK. But just a couple of weeks later came a new challenge, throwing me out on very deep water: this band was going to be backing up Billy F Dee on a Swedish C&W festival. So this time I not only had to try to emulate Ricky's excellent PSG playing on the lapsteel but also learn to play some Redd Volkaert stuff on my Nocaster. Pheew! Even more practice!

Then when I thought it would finally calm down, I got news that this band would play several dates in Sweden with Redd Volkaert himself, including two short shows at a guitar convention. This was really exciting, because there were several western swing songs mixed into the repertoire. Also, many of Redd's songs were supposed to be played in fast tempos ... much faster than on his records too. Thus: practice, practice and more practice.

So there you have it: my presence here on this forum can basically be "blamed" on these Austin guys.

Funny how much progress one can make on an instrument when faced with seemingly impossible tasks. I guess the years with C13 lapsteel has given me valuable insight to the C6-neck and its ways. The E9 neck, on the other hand, I have found surprisingly difficult to learn. But, with the aid of Ricky the excellent mentor/teacher/Sho-Bud-technician and this great discussion forum I hope to someday also make some progress on that neck.

-- Jan

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Sho-Bud Pro II Custom 8/4, Fender Stringmaster S-8, Fender CS Nocaster
[This message was edited by Jan Jonsson on 17 January 2005 at 04:38 AM.]

Ad Kersten · Post by **Ad Kersten** » 18 Jan 2005 2:24 pm

Very tasteful Jan!
Sounds good, I like it

Ad

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Zumsteel S12U

Yo, Man! homepage

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 18 Jan 2005 5:04 pm

To endow it with a little special mojo I sent the guitar to Ricky Davis in Austin for some refurbishing

and well endowed, it indeed is......

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 19 Jan 2005 10:06 am

Very nice playing Jan...
Here's a couple more for you to try..

http://www.waikiki-islanders.com/assets/multimedia/mp3/bazjazzmp3/wave.mp3

http://www.waikiki-islanders.com/assets/multimedia/mp3/bazjazzmp3/take5.mp3
http://www.waikiki-islanders.com/assets/multimedia/mp3/bazjazzmp3/11%20Track%2011.mp3
http://www.waikiki-islanders.com/assets/multimedia/mp3/bazjazzmp3/13%20Track%2013.mp3

http://www.waikiki-islanders.com/assets/multimedia/mp3/bazjazzmp3/16%20Track%2016.mp3

http://www.waikiki-islanders.com/assets/multimedia/mp3/bazjazzmp3/08%20Track%2008.mp3

Baz

[This message was edited by basilh on 19 January 2005 at 10:29 AM.]

Stephen LeBlanc · Post by **Stephen LeBlanc** » 19 Jan 2005 8:15 pm

wow, great![This message was edited by Stephen LeBlanc on 19 January 2005 at 08:15 PM.]

John McGann · Post by **John McGann** » 20 Jan 2005 7:50 am

"Serious woodshedding"- I hope so! Does the fact that it gets dark earlier in Sweden have something to do with it? That's what we in teh US would like to think (or use as an excuse)...To pull that tune off with less than a year under your belt is, um, too humbling for me...but inspiring, too.

Very nice, man!

Rick- excellent post on the value of jazz.

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http://www.johnmcgann.com
Info for musicians, transcribers, technique tips and fun stuff. Joaquin Murphey transcription book, Rhythm Tuneup DVD and more...

[This message was edited by John McGann on 20 January 2005 at 07:52 AM.][This message was edited by John McGann on 20 January 2005 at 07:52 AM.]

Charles Curtis · Post by **Charles Curtis** » 20 Jan 2005 8:23 am

I think that is most impressive; I'm sure we'll be hearing more from you. I hope so.

Jan Jonsson · Post by **Jan Jonsson** » 23 Jan 2005 4:37 pm

"Does the fact that it gets dark earlier in Sweden have something to do with it? That's what we in teh US would like to think (or use as an excuse)..."

That, the cold weather, and those dangerous polar bears keeps us off the street to instead spend serious time on hockey, computer games and steel guitars.

No, it's actually not that bad ... at least not here in south of Sweden. We get to see the sun quite a few hours per day during winter time. But I am a "climate refugee" from the northmost part of our country and do not particularly like being outside in the snow. So the winter season is typically a very productive one.

-- Jan

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Sho-Bud Pro II Custom 8/4, Fender Stringmaster S-8, Fender CS Nocaster

John McGann · Post by **John McGann** » 23 Jan 2005 5:01 pm

I had the great experience of playing in Sweden back in 1992 with group called The American Cafe Orchestra- I played dobro and mandolin in that band. We were based in Leksand for about 2 weeks at the home of Pelle Lindstrom, a great harmonica player and very funny guy. Sweden is a wonderful country, especially in June when I was there!!!

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http://www.johnmcgann.com
Info for musicians, transcribers, technique tips and fun stuff. Joaquin Murphey transcription book, Rhythm Tuneup DVD and more...