The Steel Guitar Forum

Larry.

Joe and I did a similar tape swap as late as 1980, after I got out of the Service in MD, back to Portland and away from Lessons at Oxon Hill.

That guy was/(is?) amazing. So unassuming, and non self important. Like I said, he walked in from a cab with his cardboard boxed and twine wrapped S12, and just blew us away. I don't think BC thought much about his "non emmons" style, and didn't comment either way, but it really had an impact on me. Perhaps, if for nothing else, the genuine size of Joe's spirit.

Out of the blue, he got my addy out here in Portland from the Kellars, and sent me a couple tapes. Free, if I remember right, along with a book.

What really killed me was the background noise on the cassettes. (Perhaps you can name it.) Really made the whole effect. You could just about smell the Jambalaya boiling in a pot.

Always wanted to visit "MunRoe".

Prince of a man. Large as they come.

Small world indeed.

Few know how REALLY small it is..

EJL

Well, I'm once again blown away Jeff. You used quite a bit of compression on that recording, which adds to its overall effect. Great work.

Tery

Jeff--I enjoyed your chord sequences. One of my pet devices is re-harmonization of an old song, like the Tin Pan Alley type. I have an album by the great Memphis pianist, Phineas Newborn on Danny Boy; his progressions are somewhat like yours. Your eMail mentioned C6. According to your website, your tunning is C116/9 (Cmaj with F,A,&D extensions). I don't use the C6, but my book, Sight Reading for Steel Guitarists makes use of it. I used it because I was of the opinion most steelers were familiar with it. Keep up the good work....Hugh

hey jeff,
real cool take on the song!
Thanks for all the help and knowledge you share with us players.

Rick>
Right click your mouse on the title of the song; than choose "Save as"...and a box will come up to save it on your desktop or you can change that to your music folder, don't matter...than click save...and your good to go.
Ricky

Jeff,
You outdid yourself on this one. That should be incentive for us all to practice.
Nice job Jeff
Steve

Wow! "very Chalker!" I don't think Buddy did it thatta way! I guess this is what happens when theory meets application! Very impressive!

HEY Jeff! or should I say Mr. Lampert! What an awesome arrangement! I will have to admit, being an E9 player almost exclusively, a lot of it went over my head. WOW! I love it. Thanks for sharing with us steeler friends and keep 'em coming!
Reggie Duncan

Jeff:

You convinced me that you can indeed play at a level with your knowledge of theory. I recall asking you or John Steele if you were able to do that. Seems that I'm not the only one that wants it tabbed out...we could learn a lot from just that one piece of music.

I'm not against E9..I have 12 strings of that also. I still believe that if the "greats" were forced by law to give up a tuning, it would not be C6 or a similar tuning. Paul Franklin, on one of his very early tapes, stated that C6 was much more melodic than E9. I assume he meant it was capable of more difficult progressions, etc.

I do have Jernigan's book of E9 chord progressions and there is much more there also than what is normally played.

Really nice, Jeff.
Great playing on many levels.
I hope to see you play at a convention sometime.
Pete B.

Thanks friends for all the wonderful comments on your posts and e-mails to me. It means a lot and inspires me to keep doing these things. I'm already thinking about my next one! Take care and please post or e-mail anytime you have a question and I'll do my best to answer them either personally or on the "Jeff's Jazz" web-page. .. Jeff
http://www.mightyfinemusic.com/jeff's_jazz.htm

Jeff: What can I say that hasn't already been said so well by these musical friends of yours and mine ?? I surely have to echo what Carl Dixon said about Curly and Julian and I sadly recall once questioning Julian about a certain rendition of his being wrong: he replied: There is no wrong !!!
I learned that lesson well.....

If beauty is in the eye of the beholder then surely music is in the hands of the player.

Danny Boy has always been a story about a Grandfather and his beloved Grandson going off to war; for me. I now find myself a Grandfather and helping to raise a Lil' Leprechaun of my own. I am exposing him to every genre of steel guitar I have but he really likes Jeff Newman best of all.

If DB is a part of your foundation, you will hear it in any interpetation as I have with your rendition. I like the extentions of chords and resolutions you utilize so well.
It is an exciting listen to by any means of measurement. I too would be interested in a tab of this version as well.

Best Regards, Paul

I seriously wish Joe Pass and Ella could be there to take solos with you, incredible. You are a Curly & Julian reincarnation my boy.

Don't anyone send me a nastygram, but I think the musical content is beyond Curley and Julian.

Someone had to do it eventually.

Ah, AH, AH, Ah! AH!

Where is my jaw??? My hands are too busy picking up all the notes dropping out of Jeff's totally full fists full of notes to worry about my jaw!!

WHAT A BANQUET! JOE PASS OF THE STEEL GUITAR. WITH BUCKY PIZZARELLI THROWN IN, WHILE Doug Jernigan, Curly Chalker and Julian Tharp sit in ....

JEFF LAMPERT - Truly a MASTER of HARMONY, and MASTER OF C6 Pedal Steel Guitar.

Blown away, dessimated, wiped out, floored, stoked, gassed, rippin' out of this world.

my 2 cents.

Really, Jeff... Thank you so much for sharing that with us. and for the notice to come listen to it here. I am directing many friends to this link!!!

I may be moving up to Wilmington, DE later this year... hope so. I will check in with you if I do.

------------------
Bill Fulbright
Mullen D-10 8x7; Gibson ES-165; Peavey Vegas 400;
ICQ# 2251620 My Music Site

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Bill Fulbright on 15 March 2003 at 06:29 PM.]</p></FONT>

WOW!! Jeff, those are fantastic recordings. The Chalker influence is very evident and boy, what an accomplishment. Your playing is absolutely great and outragously aggressive. I will never argue with you again about anything! I hope you keep recording.
Even though I never found the melody line in Danny Boy at all the first time through, I still loved it. Sometimes I really enjoy, as a listener, having to search for a melody line being played amoung a flurry of passing chords that becomes more interesting than the melody itself. Jazz is sometimes a challange for the listener too. Wonderful! Don McClellan

Melody...Like they say about a good ragu tomato sauce... "It's in there"
But it's the spicing that makes the difference between throwing tomatos in a pan and a culinary work of art.
He started with a strong melody, and took it, with embelishments and changes of tempo of course, to a greatly expanded harmoniziation. But not "OUT" as the jazz cats would say. The melody is there clearly.
One comment, I heard was "it don't swing"...
(This was not from a forumite by the way, but a disinterested party.)

Well swing's not the only jazz to play in this day and age. By that I mean resting exclusively on 1 or 2 static grooves in certain parts of a song.
Where is the rule that says you can't have 5 different tempos, meters and syncopations in a piece of music. (Anybody ever play Puccini?)

Transistioned by various tempi gradiations and improvised or composed codas between sections.

Part of the fun I have with Danny Boy is figuring exactly how it was being / is constructed.
There is some improvisation there, it IS jazz after all, but it is based on an over all logic for the piece.
As a whole he clearly has to have a total grasp of the song to get even close to those improvisations.
And he seems to have done a deconstruction / reconstruction of the songs components and grasps each of them as subjects individualy, then moving on to the next element.
So maybe it's the "Danny Boy Suite for PSG"

Jeff is a master Chef de Cuisine!
<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 16 March 2003 at 05:20 PM.]</p></FONT>

David,
I follow the concepts of root motion in determining my harmonies. I look at starting places and ending places in the song and then establish the root movement (cycles of 5th's, chromatic runs, etc.). I then determine the melody and voice/leading I want to do. Then I fill in the middle harmony with 7th chords, extensions, and alterations. I determine where I want to create energy in the song (usually a faster tempo and flurries of notes and chords) and where I want to emphasize the emotionalism (usually a slower tempo and long decays of chords). And of course, tensions and resolution, using combinations of all these things. There are times when I played a single measure of Danny Boy with 2 chord changes, other times 6 or more chord changes, other times I added measures that the song doesn't normally have. It was intended to have ebbs and flows driven out of my emotional state as I played it and "felt" the song, as you perceptively saw. One of the advantages of doing a solo piece is that it gives me the liberty to interpret the melody, harmony, and tempo. Certain musicians and listeners have a more flexible musical mindset and can transcend what they are used to and get into what the player has done. Others are more set and need to hear things a certain way. And there is everything in between. There is no wrong or right. I can understand a musician or listener who might not accept a changed melody, I can understand a musician or listener who might not accept unusual harmonies, and I can understand a musician or listener who might not accept a variable tempo. You can never please everyone nor should you try. Thanks again for your wonderful comments, and to everyone for listening and posting. .. Jeff<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Jeff Lampert on 16 March 2003 at 02:46 PM.]</p></FONT>

Don McClellan: Good to see your post ! It's been a while !! Are you still tuned to B6th ?? Somethings never leave me......

Regards, Paul

Well, Geffeltefishsnot!! I guess I'm the only Jeff Lambert fan who hasn't been able to open his mp3 file! I'll keep trying!
Thanks for your continued contributions to the Forum, Jeff.
~~W.C.~~

Wayne, try to download it to disk, saved as a source file, and not asume your browser will pick the right helper app automaticly. Then you can try several different players with out it being save to any one format other than mp3. Good luck.

Well!

I guess that I'm in the minority. I don't
see anything there but a bunch of noise. not
trying to be critical but I just don't get it.

Billy P.

Jeff, I think you get it!!! Your sense of improvisation is something I would love to develop. You have a great sense of harmony and chord construction plus the chops and imagination to pull an arrangement like this off. I think you understand that you are playing music and not steel guitar. THE STEEL GUITAR IS ONLY A TOOL TO DELIVER MUSICAL IDEAS!!! You can use a hammer and chisel to knock a hole into a wall... or you can use it to sculpt a masterpiece! You understand what playing music is all about. YOU GET IT!!!<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Jerry Hedge on 19 March 2003 at 07:13 PM.]</p></FONT>

Hi Paul, Yes. I'm still using a B6th, eleven string tuning and enjoying it. How's every little thing with you? Don