The bass player is definitely not swiss! He's british, he's my dad! Alive and kicking and still playing today, Jim Richardson. Great player , thanks for posting the video.
vecernicek2 Maybe it’s because I’m too young (I’m 23), but I’ve just heard of Barney Kessel for the first time. But I mean I know Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery, Pat Martino, Pat Metheny, George Benson, Joe Pass, Russell Malone, Kurt Rosenwinkel... Barney Kessel is less famous than those guys, it seems to me.
Bass player? Jim Richardson. Barney was a great friend. I have letters from him that I was looking at yesterday. A lovely guy and a great talent. RIP Barney. xxx
I had the pleasure of seeing and hearing Barney up close at a club in DC many years ago. He stretched the swing and early bebop of Charlie Christian into new dimensions that led to fusion and other stuff. His use of extended chords and "outside" harmonies was brilliant. In this take, he comes out of the bass solo quoting "Fly Me To The Moon" and expanding on that phrase, one I've always liked to use in my own amateur approaches to Autumn Leaves. Viva Barney!
same here , once at a smaller subtle gig and again later in an auditorium front seat when Barney played with the great guitars , Herb Ellis and Charlie Byrd , that was a night to remember too
@@gregmccurry5619 in his genre maybe but I seriously doubt that even Buddy Guy would say he is a better guitar player than Barney Kessel. Not to mention that nobody that knows guitar would say it
@@Jazzboful you may be right Stan I,m not much of a jazz guy I did get in to the Berle school of music though.srv brought many players into jazz via grant green and Kenny burrel other then George benson, lee ritnour,larry Carlton or mike stern I do not any jazz guitarist has made up to 300 million dollers like George Harrison,tom petter Bruce Springsteen. I just know one chord melody song "Misty.
i had never even heard of this guy, i just happened on the the upload. he is easily one of the greatest jazz guitarists in history. amazing stuff. beautiful, deep chords.
this is the definitive guitar version of Autumn Leaves , you got lucky getting his best right off the start , he backed everybody from Billy Holiday to Charlie Parker and as one of the Wrecking Crew he played a lot of studio behind the scenes so you heard him a lot , just didn't know it , some of the greatest session guitar for the greatest hits and even jazz tracks on tv shows like Beverly Hillbillies
Barney had such wonderful phrasing on his solo lines. As if it wasn't enough to be a genius of chord solo and harmony, he pulls out the most naturally cool articulation on his rhythmic lines.
I used to correspond with Barney via snail mail back in the 80's when he lived on Bedford Drive in Oklahoma City. I was writing for some guitar magazines and other music publications. Jazz & Western Swing guitarist Benny Garcia lived there at the time and he gave me Barney's contact info. Barney was kind enough to write me and very helpful with my questions. Later he moved to San Diego and I heard he was going thru a lot of health problems. I lost contact with him but I knew his stepson Mickey Rooney Jr. :)
“ confession is good for the soul” so here goes everybody .... I’m 56. Been playing since 11. Always listened to Hendrix. Some Johnny winter, Albert Collins, Son Seals. Muddy Waters with Johnny Winter. Big blues fan. Saw SRV 4 times. Always played my tapes of Hendrix all the time around the house. Then (1980’s) my Mom would say “ why do you have to listen to that loud, ugly sounding Jimi Hendrix??!” “ Why can’t you play something NICE, like BARNEY KESSEL ??? !!!!!” Well, I couldn’t. “ it was too slow “ for me at the time. “ Too boring. Too slow to develop “ I also liked Ted Nugent, Judas Priest. Loved and still love’80’s hair metal. And Eddie Van Halen’s chord changes and fills knock me out. Still. But around 2006/ 2010 a buddy turned me on to Kenny Burrell. He was like Goldielocks and the 3 bears: not too hot and not too cold- just right. So time goes on. My Mom and Dad both pass. The dog I had passes. I break up with the girlfriend I had whom I thought we were going to get married. A lot of things happened to me. I started to like melodic solos more. I had more of an appreciation for them. So recently I’ve been working on “ Close to You “ ( Burt Bacharach) and was thinking of a chordal approach to the melody, instead of single notes. And I thought today “ Oh .....! Now I know what my Mom was talking about ! ( 1980’s. 35 years ago). Talking about Barney Kessel. Wow. All these years later. All that water under the bridge. And now I finally have an appreciation....
I've always loved Barney's playing ever since I first saw him on TV way back in 1974. As a fifteen yr old beginner on the guitar he really blew my mind (and still does). Truly one of the all-time great jazz guitarists. For my money no guitarist swings quite like Barney Kessel. Many thanks for posting.
I was fortunate to see Barney a few years before he passed at a restaurant near San Diego. He played solo and sounded great. Such a warm and soulful tone! Truly one of the great jazz guitarists. He was also a fine studio musician. I'm a fingerstyle player and it blows me away how well he can play solo with a pick!
So smooth and easy flow cruisin', goin' down like silky satin. Energized refreshment! Ridiculously complex! Healing to ears and soul. Thanks, Barney et al :)
I’ve just gotten back to guitar after not playing for 5 years (I just had my first lesson last week) and Barney Kessel is one of my musical heroes. One of my goals is to learn how to play jazz guitar just like him!
i remember as a kid, going to my guitar lesson at wallich's music city on sunset & vine, & i wonder who was going to drop in next. one saturday it was Barney & quickly taught me a simple 'jazz' redition of 'don't let the sun catch you crying', though i play uke now, i never forgot that arrangement. i'd see him come & go frequently. the best!
The bass player is Englishman Jim Richardson. I knew Barney's UK agent who around this time asked me to house Barney's UK amplifier in my B&B in Dover whilst Barney toured Continental Europe (which had an incompatible electrical system in those days). Barney came to collect it on his return to the UK and I had the pleasure of chatting with him and Jim Richardson over a cup of tea in the living room. I heard him play two nights later at the University of Kent in Canterbury. A very great player.
Everyone knows Barney Kessel provided jazz soundtracks to Perry Mason TV Show, and other spy shows. He was the hippest, smoothest bebop jazz guitarist around.
I was watching an episode of Mannix awhile back, and this particular episode had a jazz singer performing in a nightclub, and I'm pretty sure Barney was the guitarist in her backup band. I wasn't positive, but it certainly LOOKED like him. But if he was doing a lot of TV music at the time, it makes sense that someone would say "We need a guitarist on screen for this bit, let's get Barney", since he was doing a lot of work for them anyway.
As much as I like his instrumental work it's his skills accompanying Billie Holiday in their 1958 sessions that have left their greatest impression with me and his chordal oriented solo on 'I didn't know what time it was' epitomises the point I'm making:-simple, understated and yet somehow unspeakably beautiful. Man, I love Django, Wes, Charlie and all but I'm not sure that Barney isn't the guitarist I'd like to be reincarnated as. Such an incredible all-rounder!
@Steven Bernie Bernstein seems like all top musicians are in the jazz world always were. When I saw Dave Brubeck, he was dressed well and played even better. Shame I don't see many new Jazz greats emerging any time soon.
@@user-lg4zm5nj8t there's a history to that. Just imagine in the late 1800s and early 1900s the inventors of this music guys like WC handy Lewis Armstrong Scott Joplin Sidney bechet if they got out of line there could be some serious trouble and if they dress funny or sounded too educated the United States was not very tolerant back then not that they are now but you can see the reason why the whole dressing up thing came to be
Just fantastic! Barney was great. That's not NHOP (unless he lost his hair and then grew it back). Notice Barney does the now famous sweep picking that a lot of rockers think they invented. Barney has it all together--counterpoint, bass and changes, great voice leading, chops, etc. Just smashing--love it! Thanks for posting this.
Perhapps not the best ever but I AGREE for his work witth JULIE london § RAY LEATHERWOOD . Absolute PERFECTION for each song he arranged and the ultimate lesson about the ART of guitar accompaniement for singers and jazz standards . That was the BK starting point for me
Recuerdo cuando Barney Kessel estubo en Asuncion, Paraguay. en el año 1980, en el Centro Cultural Paraguayo Americano, y Carla Fabri Anunciaba por radio su presentacion. Que años y momentos maravillosos vivi.
Check out his video guitar course lessons. Look like they were from the '50's or early '60's. He teaches more in a couple of minutes than many teachers do in years.
True - Barney at the top of his game (Downbeat poll winner etc.) accepted then unknown Teenager Phil Spector as a guitar student and also suggested he should try music production because that's where the money was. A few years later a then rich and famous Phil Spector would routinely hire Barney to play guitar alongside 4 other guitarists in his legendary "Wall Of Sound" productions including on the recording of "Da Do Ron Ron".
This is one of the real giants of the Jazz Guitar, he never played anything, that I've ever heard, that didn't swing. There are several jazz guitarists who were real masters of the instrument
Susan462 asked who the bass player was - well it is Jim (Jimbo) Richardson who played in my trio in the 1980s - a fine player with a wicked sense of humour !
I think the bassist is Neils-Henning Orsted Pedersen (widely known as "NHOP"), who ultimately cemented his royalty status playing with Oscar Peterson. If I can figure out who's on the drums, I'll add it here later. Barney worked with Shelly Manne back in the day, but the drummer here looks too young to be Shelly.
Tony Mann is a wonderful drummer, maybe the best Britain ever has had. He played for many years in the great Humphrey Lyttelton Band. I think he was married to tenor sax virtuosa Kathy Stobart.
I think Mr Parker got him into his bands because of this. The real Miles came into shining in the end of the steady quintet, December 1948. Listen to the Royal Roost recordings.
