8/31/2023 0 Comments Barney kessel![]() In the examples, the single line melody is always the highest sounding voice in each chord. use repeatedly, figures which are part of his unique improvisatory lexicon. To illustrate this chord conception, I have included some examples that I have heard B.K. Essentially these were improvised melody lines with chordal harmony underneath. In the manner of a pianist, Barney was capable of playing riff figures, blues figures, shout chorus figures, and whole improvised choruses, using chords. His chordal solos and single line solos reflect this depth of understanding. This was all ground-breaking work – Barney believed that mastery of the instrument meant one had an in-depth understanding of harmony as applied to the fretboard, in a pianistic approach. In this development, Barney may have been the earliest guitarist to believe that the guitar was capable of executing the same primary harmonic role as the piano, and starting in the early ‘50s, began organizing combos without the presence of the piano. ![]() While “finding himself” meant discovering his own style, for Barney it also meant movement towards a much more pianistic approach to the guitar. I knew I had to find myself.” After that initial developmental period based on imitation, Barney had realized the importance of finding his own unique voice: something that comes from inside. There were two guys playing like Charlie Christian. Charlie Christian brought the electric guitar into the spotlight, “playing hornlike single lines”, but the next logical step in the guitar’s evolution was brought about by Kessel, whose interest was also the instrument’s harmonic capability, or chords! Barney had started off learning the guitar by copying Christian’s ideas, and later commented, “I had been methodically lifting his ideas from records, (and) all I knew was his stuff. The possibility of the guitar replacing the harmonic role of the piano in a jazz trio did not occur until the guitar was first electrified. As we proceed, readers unfamiliar with BK might want to visit YouTube and search for “Barney Kessel.” Today, let’s look at a topic of far greater importance: his formidable musical contributions to jazz. Last month I presented a bit of history on the Gibson artist model that was named for Barney (produced between 19). The number of recordings he made as the front man in a trio is staggering, and becomes more impressive by the many awards he won in the jazz mag polls of the ‘50s. No one brought more fame to this idiom, and no one exuded more confidence in it, than Barney. It’s been nearly 60 years since the guitar-bass-drums trio came into existence as a legitimate jazz combo format – a format launched almost single-handedly by Barney Kessel.
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