Insufferable Hubris

Published: Mon, 04/25/22

"Frankie And Johnny" has never been one of my favorite blues tunes, despite having spent my share of time around versions by Taj Mahal and Mississippi John Hurt (both of whom recorded it as "Frankie and Albert"). I was dimly aware that "Frankie" was one of those tunes played by jazz musicians, but only dimly, and associated it, if I thought about it at all, with the kind of rooty-toot Dixieland revivalism that gives New Orleans jazz a bad name. So, being somewhat consumed lately with Sonny Stitt's ferociously dazzling bebop skills, I spent a recent morning walk watching the family hound snoofle every other neighbors' flowerbed and listening to the entirely of the saxophonist's 1959 album Sonny Stitt Blows The Blues. And I was more than a little surprised when "Frankie And Johnny" popped up about halfway through an LP so unrelentingly of its own moment.

I gotta say, despite – or maybe because of – hearing it played by a modernist of Stitt's caliber, I still thought "Frankie And Johnny," as a tune, sounded kind of corny. But then a few days later, driving to work, I found the same song kicking off That's The Way It Is, a live Milt Jackson album from exactly ten years later. I suppose I have some algorithm to thank for that, but this time, the melody was played by bassist Ray Brown, backed by a young Monty Alexander's infectious piano vamp. Even the melody felt swinging, and the deep pocket of the walking groove was so persuasive that by the time I got to the studio the first thing I did was grab a guitar and try to find a key for the melody that would also allow me to lay down a similar kind of groove on the low strings.

Granted, presuming to do the work of two world-class jazz musicians, all by oneself, in the space of five frets no less, is an act of insufferable hubris at best. But I wouldn't have even noticed quite what I was attempting if I hadn't just tried to articulate that very process in last Friday's Youtube video (How To Get Good At Fingerstyle Blues, Part I – Learn To Play Tunes). Whether it's combining the chord changes from one version with the phrasing of another, or finding inspiration for a guitar groove in a completely different instrument or ensemble, cross-pollination is the key to making a song your own, even one that's already been recorded by hundreds of other musicians. And in last Friday's lesson, I focused on using that cross-pollination to work out the phrasing of a tune's melody, the chord choices spelled out in the bass, and the groove that results from putting those two things together.

But once you've got the basic tune down – the melody, chords and groove – how do you turn those eight or twelve bars into something that sounds like a complete song? That's what we'll look at in today's lesson, part two of my three-part series on How To Get Good At Fingerstyle Blues. You can find it at the link below:

How To Get Good, Part II – Play Complete Songs

As a subscriber, you can download the PDF for the entire series at the link below:

Download the Tab

More soon,

David