Ever Meet George Thorogood?

[Michael Bishop]

Hey Johnny,
With all of the awesome musicians you’ve met, was curious if you/anyone you know ever met George Thorogood? That is one guy I would have loved to have met. Check out these licks/riffs that he and a friend of his are putting out live “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer”….the blues is where it’s at 🙂

[Mel]

Just saw Thorogood in July. Great show. Buddy Leach played Big and Loud on the Tenor. Back in 84 I believe Hurricane Carter was still with the band 🙂

[john]

yes, in 1986 during the Expo 86 exhibition in Vancouver. we (the Colin James Band) were invited to do the opening for him and his band in the Expo theatre.
I was on stage during soundcheck in the afternoon and was standing by Hank Carter who was next to his sax on a stand. I introduced myself and asked him about something and he totally ignored me. went down to the seats front of the stage where Colin was sitting to watch the band do their soundcheck and as I was telling him what an asshole the sax player was, Thorogood’s stage manager came up to us and said George didn’t want anyone sitting in the theatre during their soundcheck.
personally I can’t listen to his band. has a bit to do with that experience and that his whole sound and approach to music is by ripping off John Lee Hooker, who I love but from thorogood comes off as too stiff and lacking of a certain amount of soulfulness.
(sorry Michael, probably not the answer you were expecting!)

[Michael Bishop]

Oh wow!!! Sorry to hear about that Johnny…man. After having an experience like that, I don’t blame you for feeling that way. I certainly would! Wow, what a low! Sorry if I brought up any bad vibes or anything–that certainly wasn’t my intent, wouldn’t have asked if I had known. That type of attitude is exactly what has kept me from getting involved with the folks playing Jazz here–they have this attitude that they think they’re better than everyone. About 9 months ago after work (I told our member Jake about this experience through an e-mail) I was invited by a female co-worker (whose husband is a Sax player, his info is below–I was told he’s a professional) to check out a Jazz session going on in downtown Little Rock. They had their students playing on stage and had a booth set up near by where you could go and talk to them, their instructors, ask them questions, etc.. Talk about having an attitude of not giving you the time of day! The next day at work I was asked what I thought about everything and my co-worker said “wasn’t that great!?!” I told her it was ‘pretty cool’ and they looked at me with this look of like ‘you’re not impressed?’. I just left it at that.

https://www.michael-eubanks.com/

[jak Swift]

Johnny, what a tale !! Prima Donna butthole, by the sounds of it…..oh man. 😡

[jak Swift]

There’s a great Mark Twain quote. Along the line of, the ” little people will always be little you ”
” The truly great, will make you feel that you too can be truly great also ”
I’ve met a few ” faces “. Van the man,” was the nicest guy. Peter Green also.
The ” Zutons ” walked around Liverpool like they owned the city. Until they got dropped !!😅

[Michael Bishop]

Couldn’t have said it any better Jak! Besides the attitude, here locally with some of these folks who play Jazz it’s also a case where some of these guys are better in their own heads than what they really are if you get my meaning. I’ve seen Michael Eubanks play and I work with his wife–I shared his info above–and I actually feel that he’s a better singer than he is a Sax player. I’m not bashing his playing when I say that, I just mean I think he’s a better singer. You can check out the various videos/mp3s on his page and see what I mean. Putting all that aside, I will say he’s a very nice guy and having a great attitude is always the best thing to have.

[jak Swift]

Michael, hi man. Yeah, I’m no jazzer, but yeah; the audience are as bad as some of the players. They want to ” seen to be seen, on the scene “…
Pretty funny really …
I guess we can all agree, a calm, courteous attitude will get you a lot further than looking down on people. In saying that, I’m 6′ 4”….
Laters….

[jak Swift]

There a certain telepathy vibe going on !!
Last coupla days, I’ve looked at this pad within ten minutes of one of my amigos here, talking to me.
Pretty funky !!😉

[Michael Bishop]

There’s a lot of Jazz playing I love and the instructor I worked with here locally really got me hooked into playing it. When it comes to Improvising in Jazz, the approach we take is a ‘chord-by-chord’ approach. Just 1 example–The typical Blues scales is minor in nature because a Blues Scale is just a minor pentatonic scale with an added flat 5 note, but in Jazz we never use it over a dominant chord or a Major chord. In Jazz, the chord itself dictates the type of scale we use. In Jazz the Blues Scale can be used over a minor 7th chord, but in Jazz they never use it over a Major Chord or a Dominant chord v.s. blues where the 1-b3-4-b5-5-b7 of the Blues Scale can be used over any chord. In Blues you can do just about anything! 🙂 But jazz is a totally different kind of playing and there’s definately some Sax music in Jazz that I really love–but I don’t like to play it like most people do take I guess what you can call an ‘intellectual’ approach….maybe that’s where this ‘snobbery’ kind of attitude comes from? I prefer to use what I was taught and play the things I love to play it with more of a Bebop type of attitude because of the way we articulate in Bebop is with an ‘attitude’..but it’s a good attitude, a bluesy one 🙂 When the Sax instructor I worked with locally (before I had to have Oral Surgery because of tongue-tie, haven’t worked with him lately) he made me work work on the scales we use in Jazz…yes, it’s very important stuff to know & great fun to play 🙂 I told him I didn’t foresee myself becoming a die-hard Jazz player and he told me he didn’t expect me to, but rather he wants his students to take what he teaches them and use what’s useful to them in their own playing. It’s all part of the process of everyone finding their own ‘voice’ on the Sax. So yes, there’s lots of stuff I love in Jazz and it’s cool to have that extra bit of stuff in your Improvising arsenal…but what I detest is the attitude that many of the die-hard Jazz players have–at least locally here anyway.

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