Very true. When he starts with a quote from "Sweet Georgia Brown", you know your not in a traditonal country mindset. He did a 2 lp album in 1974 called Hillbilly Jazz which lived up to its name.
Thank the gods I got to see him play several times. First at "Stompin' 76, a 3-day Bluegrass Festival in Galax, VA. He went from straight-up bluegrass music, to jamming with Jerry Garcia in "Old and in the Way," to "Hillbilly Jazz," ...to eternity. What an incredible musician.
Jeffrey Siegel he was. He is my great great uncle and I remember him and granddad always playing at our family reunions. I got uncle vassars fiddle but I play guitar unfortunately
The Best, Vassar Clements. Most creative fiddle player, ever. His playing, especially from 1966 until the mid-80's. To bad this music is out of fashion now. Vassar's violin, which he always claimed was a 16th century French violin, he played almost his entire career. Another well known fiddler described playing it "like playing a wet cardboard box". Maybe they had to use a fire hose to cool it off after a concert. Anyway, V.C. made it sing, and he made it swing. To paraphrase Bill Monroe, this is where fiddling begins.
He could also play traditional bluegrass very good. During the last 10 years of his life he was recognized by most of the pros as the best country fiddler alive.
I saw vassar with this same band,at the Lone Star nyc. never ceases to amaze. saw him umteen times and 90 per cent of them were with different musicians.
He pays the fiddle like Clapton or SRV play the guitar. So much emotion and heart. So crazy. Easily the best fiddle player ever. Act like he ain’t...I will fight you
I love how just about every time he is about to play something fast and complex, the camera cuts away and doesn't show his left hand. Plenty of shots of the bow and everyone's backsides! LOL. Clements is famous for his economy of motion, only lifting his fingers just as much as needed and no more. Incredible discipline and technique.
I guess I like it. I have never heard it started out like that on the fiddle before. He adds alot of his own expressionism in there. That's not to say that's bad, it isn't. It's just not a pure version of OBS. Just my opinion. He's good, and so are the other players.
Yeah - I'm with you. This doesn't really do anything for me. As the saying goes - "just cuz ya can, doesn't mean you should." There is really nothing in here that sounds like Orange Blossom Special. Reckon I'm just too dumb...
Great to see this but the sound mix is so dry and you can hardly hear the backup band making Vassar sound too on top .Vassars fiddle is too loud in the mix at least here on RU-vid resulting in a bad mix. His higher volume level is way louder then the backup band. Im sure the mix was better in person . Playing live you get these scenarios now and then it use to happen to me. Anyway great unique one of a kind fiddle player for sure. I seen him live a year before this concert in Tulsa at Cains Ballroom and he was fantastic ...GP
Well... I find he didn't get better with the years. His "Orange Blossom Special" with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was SOOOO much better. When I heard it I really put Clements in the same class as the québécois fiddler Jean Carignan. Just compare with the original via the first link below. Yep : it is Clements playing. In this one you can almost actually see the train , the connecting rods go up and down, and hear the whistle blowing... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--MsJAtN0AFg.html Now here is Jean Carignan I was telling you about. (Note : Carignan never studied music...) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BjlkRH2wl7Q.html
