Benj’s blog!

As promised here are two more great videos from YouTube.Well, actually, two videos, but one track (I’m not getting lazy, it’s split over two videos, so that counts!) Featured are: Ray Brown, Ulf Wakenius, Michael Brecker and others. The track is Secret Love, a jazz standard that I enjoy playing on the guitar. Enjoy
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As promised here are two more great videos from YouTube.

First up, Eric Clapton with Old Love. This is a video from “24 Nights” recording, which for those unfamilar, is a live recording of Clapton’s 24-night stint at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1990 (and again in 1991!). Enjoy (especially Ray Cooper on percussion ).
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Last week, I committed to a weekly post highlighting the wonders of YouTube, by way of sharing performances by my favourite artists.

First up this week is Bireli Lagrene, a French guitar virtuoso, comfortable playing Django-style gypsy jazz to up-beat bebop! This is a video of him playing Stevie Wonder’s Isn’t she Lovely, enjoy. (If you like this, he has a great acoustic version Sylvain Luc, who is a great guy.)

Second, Carlos Santana, Europa. Santana was one of the first groups I listened to solely for the guitar. The sound and groove they got was great. And whilst to a large extent my tastes have narrowed in on Jazz, I still enjoy Carlos’s playing, and that is almost certainly down to his feel.

Music is an important part of my life, initially just listening and for the past six years or so, playing. Sometimes I find myself just whiling away the hours on YouTube finding inspiring performances by some of my favourite artists.This is the first in what I hope will be a weekly post and features John McLaughlin and George Benson.
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This evening I had the pleasure of playing a Ramirez “1A” guitar made in 1962. The guitar is up for sale and I am tempted; the only thing that I am unsure about is the repair work that has been done on the fretboard.

I’ve checked in my “Things about the guitar” book by José Ramirez III and the maker was one of his original pupils. The guitar sounds great but it is a classical rather than a flamenco guitar, which affects the sound. It has a 660mm scale length (which makes a little harder to play).

Anyway, I dunno, the price is right, JC has checked it out if I want it, it’s mine. I’ll sleep on it and play the guitar again tomorrow evening!

Had a good evening at CentreParcs yesterday with John. There was a family from Liverpool who were really into guitar music. It’s always nice to have someone to play to!

The new strings I tried sounded OK, but they will improve with time (or so it says on the packet). D’Addario - Pro Arte Composites.

I’m waiting for Karl to give me a call now, to “check out” the Roland GR-33 (a synth unit for a guitar).