“All modern guitarists sound the same.” That blanket assertion comes from plectrist Bill Jennings who made a name for himself in the soul jazz bands of Willis Jackson and Jack McDuff. As a provable thesis his theory accumulates veracity much like a sieve holds water, but Jennings argument does ring true on some levels and in some instances. Take guitarist René Thomas for example. On the surface his sound is very much like that of contemporaries like Jimmy Raney and Tal Farlow. Versed in swing and bebop he quickly came under the spell of Django Reinhardt, adapting some of the gypsy’s fingerings to amplified hollow body and moving to Paris with the hopes of breaking the big time with his extrapolations. The aspirations never fully reached fruition, but he did find the time and means to cut a handful of records. The pair of sessions on this Jazz in Paris collection dates from ’54 and ’56. Originally released on the Parisian Barclay imprint, they visit the transplanted Belgian in the company of two small French combos. Both units are stocked with serviceable, if unmemorable players like pianist René Urtreger and drummer José Bourguignon, the latter a minor ace with the whisk brushes on tracks like the mellow “Someone to Watch Over Me.” The Lestorian tenor saxophones of either André Ross or Serge “Bib” Monville join the leader’s limpid single-note picking on ten out of sixteen numbers.
The songbook is mostly standard bop with pieces like “A Night in Tunisia” and “Lover Man” receiving earnest, ultimately debonair readings (on the latter tune a weird and fascinating moment arises where Thomas’ normally tractable phrasing frays and self-destructs). All are terse and sweet in execution, the longest clocking at a mere 4:48. Monville’s presence on the second date creates something of a poor-man’s facsimile of the far more influential concert sides Stan Getz and Johnny Smith cut for Roost a few years earlier. Thomas taped what was easily his finest session for Riverside a few years later with modernists JR Monterose and Hod O’Brien on the payroll. It’s a better record on almost pretty much every count, but this Continental compilation still possesses ample charms. The snapshot on the back of the digipack channels Thomas’ academic inclinations in humorous fashion looking as he does like the starch-suited love child of Woody Allen and Morton Feldman. He may have moved relatively little beyond the sway of his influences, but his chops were sufficient enough to save face on a regular basis as an improviser with something significant to say.
Posted by derek on September 18, 2005 7:08 AMThere s so much still to be heard from Rene Thomas, whether from his last album with Han Bennink, & Jacques Pelzer "TPL"
or with Stan Getz quartet ( Eddy Louiss, bernard Lubat ) and other mostly not reissued yet or simply unreleased ---Eddy Louiss trio reissued on Dreyfus with Kenny Clarke is really good too
plus unfortunately he s never been someone who was very regular so that not every album finds him at his best
but with as much passion as i can have for Jim Hall, Farlow, Raney and others
he s always been my Favourite ever
best
n
A special "bootlegy" MUSICA JAZZ ( Italian magazine ) special CD of Lee Konitz as tracks with Mengleberg, Thomas, Bennink, de Joode (i think) absolutely fantastic and there s more unfoffical superb laying around
Great fan site from a very young man in nantes
Posted by: Akchote Noel at July 24, 2006 2:41 AMNoel:
I agree with you about Thomas. He was a huge influence on me. He is one of the top guitarists ever. I believe Sonny Rollins called Thomas the best guitarist he'd ever played with. .He's been overlooked for a long time. I've seen the website too. Very good and complete.
Thanks for writing about him Derek
Posted by: Joe Morris at July 24, 2006 2:12 PMJoe
i m really glad you know him
his own influences were Django and Raney
but he s so unpredictable and always leading his phrases so far ... his daughter has approached Universal Jazz France ( "Jazz in Paris" serie oe the "America" reissues , Daniel Richard ) and i really hope some of these tapes will come out ... i mean he was a real "Jazz , old style" mess so ... not all the best is here for us available
i guess "Chet is Back" is one of his great records available , but so much more is around like that "Jazz Workshop" from German Radio ( Joachim-Ernsdt Berendt ) leades by Toshiko Akiyoshi were every single solo of Thomas is above anything expectable ...
so much freedom and so much poetry
so dense and so lyrical ...
best
n
Joe
if you re into Rene Thomas
you should really try ( in case you dont know )
Christian Escoude (guitarist ) and Eddy Louiss (hammond )
there s a strong link altough like Rene
the doscographies are not always easy ( between what s still available and their own playing on records available )
do you know that album of George Freeman
under his name ( with Von, and organ ) ?
n
I don't know Eddy Louiss but I am a big fan of Christian Escoude. I met him when I heard him play at a little cave club in Paris 1989. He's fantastic. I heard Jimmy Gorley perform in Paris then too at radio France.
I don't know the name of the album but George Freeman is tremendous and so is that album.
Are you into Barry Galbraith and Sal Salvador? I love those guys.
Thanks, Joe. I only know Rene from a few records (making my claim above that his Riverside date is his best all the more dubious). Sonny put him ahead of Jim Hall? Wow!
Hey, have you ever considered writing a guitar primer briefly breaking down your favorites and the reasons why? I’d love to read it. You too, Noel. There’s space here at Bags if either of you are game…
That Freeman record is Birth Sign on Delmark, Kalaparush is on there too. So nice to read some love for guys like Sal Salvador and Barry Galbraith.
Posted by: derek at July 24, 2006 4:39 PMBernard Addison, Rene Thomas, Freddie Green, Irving Ahsby, Slim Gaillard, Elek Bacsik, Danny Barker, Everett Barksdale, George Barnes, Billy Bauer, Ed Bickert, Skeeter Best, Lenny Breau, Denis Budimir, Teddy Bunn, Billy Butler, Johnny Guitar Watson, Al Casey, Joe Diorio, Atilla Zoller, Szabo, Floyd Smith, Les Spann, Pierre Cullaz,
Sal Salvador, Arv Garirison, Herb Ellis, Bruce Forman, Buky Pizzarelli, Mary Osborne, Oscar Moore, Dick Mc Donough, ...... Sabicas, Bola Stete, Baden Powell, Boulou Ferre, Jack Wilkins,
etc ...
best
n
Are you into Barry Galbraith and Sal Salvador? I love those guys.
I think Joe when you start into that world of guitarists you soon want to hear all of them somehow ... Yes for Both above,
and just shortly but i started with Gourley and later met Tal Farlow and Escoude and all others and later Ducret too , in France there s a strong guitar familly and especially if you d go to Samois ( the little village where Django spend his last years and where they have that festival ) you d be surprise how much these people care for all that american guitar history
another thing is that in france , accordion music VALSE MUSETTE has always been very Swing and that brought many players too later into Jazz
i mentionned Addison earlier cause i think he s been totally underrated, but they are many people we dont hear of much ...
Eddy Louiss is a sort of gigted genius who s father was the most known band leader of Biguine music in Antilles ( where is originally from ) and he took up any instruments until he concentrated on Hammond ( but you can hear him singing with LES DOUBLE SIX, for example he was part of that vocal group )
he s done so much things and records
but like some of these strong minds he s never wanted to leave France ( you can hear him too with Getz and Cobham for soundtracks or a great trio with early Jean-Luc Ponty and Humair, or another one more open with Surman and Humair )
but really if you want to try something easy get a copy ( there s cheap) of his own BOHEMIA AFTER DARK in the Jazz in Paris serie
total amazing , with Gourley, Kenny Clarke and Guy Pedersen ( the bassisit on most Baden Powell records in paris on Festival )
best
n
Eddy Louiss
http://www.dreyfusrecords.com/discs_ns.php?a=11&l=1
Bohemia After Dark
http://www.dustygroove.com/prip/5/8/37485i.htm
Samois sur Seine
http://django.samois.free.fr/
Gus Viseur ( Musette )
http://www.musicologie.org/Biographies/gus_viseur.html
Henri Crolla
http://www.about-django.com/contemporain/henri_crolla/henri_crolla.php
best
n
Dear Derek
"Hey, have you ever considered writing a guitar primer briefly breaking down your favorites and the reasons why? I’d love to read it. You too, Noel. There’s space here at Bags if either of you are game…"
Thanks ...i dont know how to do that but i ll think about ...you know sometime it s easier to tell you stories just like that ... like RENE THOMAS was selling American Cars as a job and himself had one without any seats inside ...
he was legendary for driving seated on wooden cagettes used for Vegetebales ...
or doing things like these : he d have a gig in Rome and for him that was all ITALY ...so he d take a train and stop first station IN italy and take a cab from there down the festival ...and hours later when got there call the promoter and ask him to come down clear the Cab bill ....
you know as a teenager i was almost raised with people like Barney Wilen, Jacques Thollot, Rene Urtreger, then Chet Baker or Tal Farlow, Philip Catherine ( spend loads of time with followed tours etc ) and Thomas was always central to them ...
Rene got into Ornette in the late 60 s he s even recorded some of the early tunes and played often "when Will the Blues Leave?"
there s another one rarely mentionned probably cause he died early and not many records around ( Archie Shepp on BYG is a findable one ) JOSEPH DEJEAN ... a real free pionneer who also was a great chanson accompanist and amazing straight ahead too
best
n
i also really dont mind mid 70 s Pat Martino with Willis Jacckson, Houston Preston or Jimmy Heath
or Nathan Page if you know ...
or the Early Peterson trio with Irving Ashby
also early Jazz sessions of Ernst Ranglin for example ( or later mid 70 s too with Monty Alexander )
or Motian group with Paul Metzke and Sam Brown for example
or the only one blue note album of Jimmy Smith with Grant Green is a favourite
do you know for example Milt Buckner with Billy Mackel ( with Lionel Hampton too ) or Everett Barksdale or Skeeter best ?
or George Shearing with Chuck Wayne ?
or all the sessions were Toots Thielmans plays unisson solos on Guitar and Whistling ?
or Chico Hamilton with Jim Hall, Joe Puma or Szabo
or Mundell Lowe with Carmen Mc Rae ?
or the duet Pizzarelli / Slam Stewart
what about Les Paul trios ?
or John Pisano, Remo Palmier, Cal Collins, Louis Stewart, Johnny Smith, etc etc
Carl Kress with Mc Donough guitar duets ( sorry to confess Eddie Lang s always been too much for me ) de Arango and of course all the Herb Ellis, Kessel, ( last duet Red Mitchell with Kessel on sonet is great ), Joe Pass,
anyone heard these appartment duets with Billy Bean and Pisano ?
but talking earlier most of the Banjo / Guitar 4/4 players have interestd me ... Addison, Green, Saint Cyr, Bud Scott, than Durham, Christian, etc etc Oscar Aleman, Matelot Ferre,
Jimmy Wibble, Floyd Smith, Bus Etri etc
Georges Barnes Octet is fantastic
http://www.classicjazzguitar.com/albums/artist_album.jsp?album=1
you see it s like a disease ...cause i ve even forgot so many ...
just found last week a live Dizzy with Rodney Jones, Will Lee and Mickey Roker ,
what about Sonny Greenwich , Monette Suddler, Eric Gale, Cornell Dupree, Steve Khan, Joe Beck, Roger Smith, Bruce Forman,
kevin Eubanks with Blakey , ...
maybe someone know the Lee Konitz, Martial Solal, NHOP, John Scofield album ?
i should really stop here
best
n
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