https://benjamingeer.eu/en/topics/jazz/ Recent content in Jazz on Benjamin Geer Hugo en-GB Sun, 11 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://benjamingeer.eu/en/post/jazz-guitarist/ Sun, 11 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://benjamingeer.eu/en/post/jazz-guitarist/ <p>I started playing jazz guitar around the time I went to university. I wanted to combine the improvisational tradition of jazz with non-tonal harmony and large-scale structures. But I thought I should start with bebop.</p> <p>In 1995–96, while working as an English language teaching assistant in France, I had the opportunity to play in an amateur big band as well as a quintet:</p> <iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/459924804&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true" width="100%" height="166" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe> <p>Here are some earlier recordings, from 1991:</p> <iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/459910407&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true" width="100%" height="166" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe> <iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/459916443&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true" width="100%" height="166" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe> <p>When I was about 30 I stopped playing, mainly out of frustration from my own slow progress and from the difficulty of trying to be a musician while needing to earn a living in some other way. I wish I had kept at it.</p>