Smooth Jazz Artists Can’t Play Straight-Ahead Jazz?

I always find it amusing when I hear people bashing smooth jazz artists about how they can’t play “real” jazz.  Most of these artists are masterful on their instruments plain and simple. They choose to play smooth jazz for a number of reasons.  The number one reason being that they like it.  Certainly make sense to […]

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How High the Moon with George Benson and Lage Lund

Here’s an excellent video that i’ve been listening to a lot lately. George Benson playing with Lage Lund, winner of the 2005 Thelonius Monk Jazz Competition for jazz guitar. Notice the contrasting styles. Lage is playing in more of a traditional straight ahead jazz style and George is just playing….well….like himself.  Funny…Lage just shakes his

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Pay Attention to This Every Time You Play

As jazz guitarists, it’s often a good practice to remember your roots and to stay grounded in the fundamentals.  The most important fundamental in jazz is it’s rhythm and the concept of swing.  If the way you’re playing doesn’t swing, then that’s a major problem.  This applies to every type of jazz player regardless of the

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How to Improve Your Smooth Jazz Improv Skills

Anyone who’s followed my site for awhile knows that I emphasize building your jazz vocabulary by listening to the players you like and working with good transcriptions of solos.   The idea being that the more you work those licks and phrases into your own playing, you’ll eventually create your own voice when improvising.  This is

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