New Stonewood mandolin case from Protec Music
We're always interested in reporting new and cost-effective ways to protect and mobilize mandolins, especially when a case is versatile to fit many different body Read more»
08.30.10
New Paul Glasse Videos
Video treats from one of the planet's most amazing jazz mandolinists, Austin Texas stalwart, Paul Glasse. The first is a rare opportunity to witness a Read more»
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"Good improvisation communicates harmonic progression melodically. Effective melodies manipulate harmonic content through the use of guide tones and preparatory gravity notes, masterfully woven in systematic tension, release, and transparent harmonic definition."
May 30, 2009 | O'Connor Inducted Into The National Fiddler Hall Of Fame In Tulsa
Special congratulations to violinist/multi-instrumentalist/composer, Mark O'Connor for his recent induction into the National Fiddler Hall Of Fame. His award observes his, "extraordinary career as a performer, collaborator and composer of many genres of music that features the fiddle and tantalizes audiences with your boundless creativity. Tulsa, Oklahoma, April 29, 2009."
From the bio read on stage at the ceremony, "Mark O'Connor was born in Seattle Washington on August 5, 1961. His childhood and teen years were filled with musical contests culminating in national championships not just on fiddle but on guitar and mandolin as well. His mentors and inspirations were the well-respected Texas fiddler, Benny Thomasson and jazz fiddler Stephane Grappelli. A survey of Mark's recordings, concerts and compositions shows that he has drawn from these two genres of music as well as classical and folk music.
"The list of Mark's accomplishments and accolades would fill up the rest of our time together...He recently released a new CD, AMERICANA SYMPHONY, that features his own uniquely original and personal style of music. Called American Classical, O'Connor's original music has an ability to recall many of the great composers and musicians of the past, yet it is distinctly his own.
Mark's time is filled with collaborations, master classes, creating educational books of the Mark O'Connor Method, concerts and composing. He is truly dedicated to preserving the art form of fiddling, and advancing it as well. A recent interview may capture it best. When asked what he would most like to be remembered for, he answered, 'Someone who helped bring the violin back in to prominence in America, and creating a style of music that fully utilizes the 400 years of American fiddling cultures, Blues music and 100 years of jazz and fully implementing these things to inform a new classical music.'"
We have raved about the non-traditional appeal of the work of Idaho builder Austin Clark in the creation of our signature series Clark JM Two-point mandolin (see review). What we haven't chronicled is his conventional F5 design. Austin is the detail guy, and you know when he builds something, it's pretty much perfect. We've been made aware of one of his F5 mandolins that's up for grabs, not a bad situation for someone wanting to avoid a 12-18 month wait. Heck, why not buy this one AND have him build one for you at the same time?
If you are interested, contact us and we'll forward the seller's information. Meantime, check out the pretty pictures and the specs!
Click for closeups: .
Sugar Maple sides/back
Red Spruce Top
Carbon Fiber neck reinforcement (non-adjustable truss rod)
Waverly Tuning Machines
James Tailpiece
Small MOP Dots Side bound ivroid binding
Varnish with French Polish Finish
Flowerpot Inlay
Eastman Silver Fiberglass Case
All above premium bells and whistles for the $5K ballpark. Available now.
JazzMando contact.
Well, let's just say a black, long-sleeve T was not the best merchandising idea we've come up with. Sales have been pretty miserable, and we're not even going to hide it. Going into summer with a supply of long-sleeves is not the greatest situation to be in so we're making an exclusive offer to our readers of the "What's New" column. How about a free T-shirt? All we request is that you promise to wear it in public.
UPDATE: All shirts have been sold. Thanks for your interest.
We're asking you to pay the $5.00 Priority Shipping cost, so all you have to do is Paypal $5.00 to mandohack AT aol.com (use the correct email format with @. (Sorry, all shirts now sold out.) These will all be first come/first serve, limited to what's left in the box. If you're spending any time in the mountains this summer, these will be good to have around, especially if you are participating in any festivals.
May 24, 2009 | Mandola: Standard Notation for the Tab-Addicted Mandolist
String Thing Music announces the alto clef edition of Standard Notation for the Tab-Addicted Mandolinist for mandola, featuring the same fun and focused tunes/exercises in alto clef. Note, author and clinician Debora Chen's approach is different than traditional viola methods, the tack is more pick-friendly than bow dependent, much more pattern-based than individual note. This allows the mandolist to arrive to musical literacy with more personal relevance and more fun.
From Scott Tichenor on the Mandolin Cafe: "It includes targeted, step-by-step examples, ranging from very easy to more advanced (cross-picking and chord melody), based on classic melodies like "Simple Gifts" (traditional), "Ode to Joy" (Beethoven), and "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" (Bach). It also includes several original jigs and reels composed specifically to simultaneously encourage good technique in both right and left hands while giving you the necessary skills to break away from tab and into the string quartet/orchestral literature. It's a well thought out book and moves along quickly enough to be rewarding and fun without being overwhelming."
For a better idea of what Debora's methods can do for your mandolinning, read our comprehensive and detailed review of the original mandolin version: Standard Notation for the Tab-Addicted Mandolinist. Maybe it's time you learned to read music, too!
The stars are big and bright at this summer's August 6-8 Dallas (Arlington, Texas) Acoustic Music Camp, featuring in the jazz mandolin department, our friend and mandolin clinician Paul Glasse.
Paul will be strutting his Bebop chops, imparting a healthy dose of his timeless wisdom, acquired through the personal mentoring of swing greats Jethro Burns, Tiny Moore, and Johnny Gimble. Want a piece of that history in your own playing? Get signed up now. The camp is a short 30 minute drive from Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport. We enjoyed meeting some folks at last year's event, and had the privilege of spending a little time introducing FFcP and some of the other "Getting Into Jazz Mandolin" concepts of our own in one of Paul's class.
Camp coordinator Gerald Jones tells us Butch Waller teaching Monroe style, too. Don't procrastinate! Get your airline tickets and get signed up now!
Other teachers:
Tony Trischka, Jens Kruger, Gerald Jones, Alan Tompkins - Banjo
Dave Walser - Harmony Vocals
Paul Glasse, Butch Waller - Mandolin
Jim "Texas Shorty" Chancellor - Fiddle
Brad Davis - Songwriting / Guitar
Uwe Kruger, Clay Powers - Guitar
Dan Levenson - Clawhammer Banjo
Joel Landsberg - Bass
Nate Lee - Fiddle / Mandolin
Kim Platko - Django Style Guitar
Dennis McBride - Dobro
Randy Collier - Guitar / Jam Facilitator
For those of you with an iPhone or iTouch, we've come across a nifty little ap, the "iReal Book." Created by developer and musician, Massimo Biolcatti, the application holds 500 song charts of the most popular jazz musician's "Real Book" arsenal. Each page contains chords only (no melody, no audio), but the list is first-class, let alone exhaustive. It also features a transposition switch for Eb and Bb horn users. You can also transpose the entire tune on the fly.
The graphics use the familiar jazz font for those of you who grew up with a Real Book, and you can change the look from back characters on a white page to the reverse white on black for reading in dark environments. An iPod screen might be a little small for the bifocal crowd to use in an actual playing environment (chord sheet fits on one screen, no need to scroll), but it's still a practical tool as a gig "crib note" for reference to songs not immediately familiar. You can edit the chords, or create a new bank of new charts for yourself, too.
Price is only $7.99 for a handful of tunes that can keep you playing literally for months.
We've been keeping track of Bend, Oregon builder, Andrew Mowry ever since our 2007 review of his amazing asymmetrical Two-point. What we find astounding about him is not only his attention to detail, but some of his super-clean, cutting edge cosmetics. In particular, we're pretty crazy about a recent batch of headstocks:
We mentioned last month, the beautiful scenery and incredible instruction; what we need to remind you about the June 12-14 River of the West Mandolin Camp event in Corbett, Oregon (12 miles east of Portland in the Columbia River Gorge) is today's date; we're less than a month away! (Check out the camp's promotional video below for a taste.) The event features clinicians Brian Oberlin and Don Stiernberg and is held at the Menucha Retreat Center overlooking the spectacular Columbia River Gorge.
According to website information, "The Columbia River (formerly known as "The River of the West") is the largest volume river flowing into the Pacific Ocean from North America. It travels an impressive 1,234 miles from its headwaters in British Columbia, cutting through the Gorge, before it empties into the Pacific. The Gorge, which is 4,000 feet deep in some places, stretches for 80 miles and contains some of the world's most beautiful scenery, as well as the greatest concentration of waterfalls in the Pacific Northwest--just right for playing mandolin. The Menucha Retreat Center offers a pool, tennis courts, and lovely walking trails."
Clinic details are on the website, and since the event is limted to 34 students, you'll want to get your registration in today!
We met young California picker Scott Gates at a Michael Lewis gathering a few years ago when Scott was just a pup. Just a heads up that the prodigy has been picked to play mandolin in an upcoming episode of The Ellen Degeneres Show. He will be backing up the legendary comedian/entertainer, Steve Martin who will be on the show promoting his new CD "The Crow."
The show will air on Memorial Day May the 25th; check your local listings for the time.
If you came to the mandolin fretboard through circumstances other than violin or formal classical instruction, the notion of "positions" might be completely foreign to you. There are merits to the centuries old traditional approach to the X/Y axis of the fingerboard, looking at the notes from one end of the string to the other, rather than across the strings from one to the next. We went into a little more detail about this in last week's Tips and Tricks column.
We've mentioned Tennessee builder, Jonathan McClanahan in a previous article (Sept 2007), including descriptions and pictures of his three unique signature mandolins, the the Trinity, the Via Dolorosa, and the Decending Dove. His 6 minute interview featured on the Tennessee Crossroads is now available to view on YouTube.
His work is an incredible testimony of deeply rooted personal conviction and faith, represented magnificently in his instruments and life. We hope to do a review this summer. Meantime, take some time to check out the video:
May 08, 2009 | The evolution of a rosette; the magic of JP Charles, Luthier
Sometimes when we see the final product, we ponder the steps it took to get it to the finished stage. Such is the case with a beautifully hand-crafted elliptic mosaic rosette, as the one going on our personal JP Charles BAC-10 10-course mandolin. Jean Paul has graced us with a sneak peek at ours in the works in his Salvador, Brazil shop, and in so doing, let us look behind the curtain at how this magnificent aesthetic is accomplished.
No prose about the process necessary. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words...
May 06, 2009 | New from Global Choro: Severino Araujo & Joaquim Callado
We announced last year's release of "Classics of the Brazilian Choro--You are the Soloist" series w/CD from publisher, Global Choro Music Corporation. (Read review in our Spotlight section). We were also delighted with the release of the subsequent follow up series from the compositions of Jacob do Bandolim, widely considered one of the greatest Brazilian instrumentalists of all time.
Global Choro is now pleased to announce theri two new play-along songbooks available in the USA, Severino Araujo 1, and Joaquim Callado 1. In addition, two new CDs available, The best of Ernesto Nazareth. From Wendy Hamor, of ChoroMusic.com, " Choro meets Ragtime-what is interesting about this CD is that it contains play-along tracks in MP3 and music scores in PDF for the flute, mandolin, sax, and clarinet. Anyone that has access to a computer and doesn't mind printing out the sheet music can play-along using the CD."
May 04, 2009 | A fresh shipment of JM10B sets for electric mandolin
For those of you with electric personalities, and sling a mandolin to match, we've just reloaded with a fresh batch of our ball-end flatwound JM Series sets. Like the JM11 Flatwound Mandolin sets, these give you maximum tone in the treble but facility and harmonic fundamental in the bass range with the slightly stouter 35 gauge G string. In the interest of tone and flexibility, the E course is a .010 for effective soloing. We've opted for the standard plain .014 A and 24 wound D. Chromatic music styles demand good closed finger control, and this combination helps the player avoid fatigue without sacrificing tone.
These make an Epiphone Mandobird play like butter, and we've had good success with many other popular builders of both 4- and 8-string electrics. Our prototype batch had some bugs we've since worked out. The E string loops have an extra winding for the high tension demands of mandolin, and the D-string cores now intonate properly. The premier batch has met with resounding acclaim; those who like the smooth feel and warmer sound will be happy to know we've got a fresh new supply.
Sets come 8 to a package, and if you have a 4-string, no problem; consider the extra four a back-up set.
Longevity? Okay, these are more expensive than roundwound, but the polished flatwound have a much closer, tighter wrap which resists destructive corrosion and wear from oxidation and player perspiration. You already knew strings will wear from playing. Skin oils, picking, and longterm vibration cause the string to decay and lose tone over time. What you may not be aware is oxidation in the package has the same residual effect! Also, other brands of strings hanging on a store shelf can be purchased new, but suffer the hidden effects of months, if not years of deteriorating right in the package. Labella's proprietary four-step process, including "Tarnish Proof Technology" means your strings are delivered factory-sealed, freshness second to none. JazzMando order procedure takes this a step farther, ordering in smaller case quantities to assure maximum string vitality.
Though initially designed for jazz, these will also work well for the progressive Rock and Blues musician.
Buy in TWOs and save! $28.75 for two sets of eight. Better to have a spare set anyway...$15.95 for single sets shipped domestically.
With barely five weeks to go before Django in June (June 9-14 this year), time for a brief update and another hearty invitation for you to attend. There are two ways, come for all of Django Camp or as a Weekend Drop-In. Camp administrator, Andrew Lawrence illucidates...
"Registration for Django Camp '09 is going very well, with about 50 registered participants on board so far from all over the US, Canada, Europe and Israel. Since 2007, Django in June's full-immersion Gypsy jazz music camp has held out an unparalleled opportunity to take both your understanding and enjoyment of this music to the next level. With all our activities (housing, food, instruction, djamming and concerts) centralized on the beautiful campus of Smith College in Northampton MA, we've got uninterrupted time and an accommodating space for sustained connection with other campers as well as all the artists on staff (including Jamie Masefield AND John McGann for mandolin). Please note that I am personally commited to making this event as accessible as possible to all. So if finances are particularly tight this year (as they are for so many) don't hesitate to check in about financial aid. Let's try to put together a package that works for you. For registration info, visit this page of Djangoinjune.com. "
Weekend Drop-In Option
If you can't or would rather not participate the whole week, drop in for a weekend of clinics, concerts and djamming. Everything on the weekend menu is a la carte; pick the precise mix of activities that appeals to you:
*Get a private room in the dorm if you need housing.
*Join everyone for meals on campus to stay connected throughout the day.
*Partake of the most integrated, comprehensive program of Gypsy jazz clinics offered anywhere in the U.S.
*On Friday and Saturday evenings, enjoy stellar performances by The Denis Chang Quartet (featuring French violinist Aurelien Trigo), The Gonzalo Bergara Quartet, The Kruno Spisic Trio and special guests from Holland, Pigalle 44 with Tim Kliphuis.
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May 30, 2009 | O'Connor Inducted Into The National Fiddler Hall Of Fame In Tulsa
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