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Dan Forte
Check This Action: George Bowen
Luthier George Bowen passed away August 19 from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He was 69. In March of 2023, a tribute concert billed as the George Bowen Master Guitar Summit was held in Livermore, California. Featuring Arlen Roth, Bill Kirchen, Redd Volkaert, and Jim Soldi, it raised $75,000 for the ALS Research Project. Unable to…
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Dan Forte
Faces
At the BBC: Complete BBC Concert & Session Recordings, 1970-1973
Rod Stewart & Faces were sloppy and raucous enough to make the Rolling Stones look like Air Supply. Okay, not really, but Stewart himself called them, “Five drunks who got away with murder under the guise of music.” Of course, Faces were also great rock and rollers, so it’s no coincidence the Stones hired Ian…
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Dan Forte
Check This Action: Real Gone for a Change
“Hold it, fellas.” After languidly singing the first line of “Milk Cow Blues,” Elvis Presley halted the proceedings. “That don’t move me,” he exhorted his sidemen. “Let’s get real, real gone for a change.” And get real gone he did. Elvis strumming his ’42 D-18, Scotty Moore on an ES-295, and upright bassist Bill Black…
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Dan Forte
Art Tatum
Jewels In The Treasure Box: The 1953 Chicago Blue Note Jazz Club Recordings
It’s a wonder how never-released recordings continue to emerge – in this case, an engagement led by jazz piano virtuoso Art Tatum. Upon seeing the pianist enter a club he was playing, the great Fats Waller once announced, “God is in the house” – so prodigious were Tatum’s technical skills and musicality. Having fronted a…
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Dan Forte
Canned Heat
Finyl Vinyl
In the mid/late ’60s, the top American groups of the Blues Revival were Chicago’s Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Los Angeles’ Canned Heat. The latter’s original incarnation featured Bob Hite, Henry Vestine, and Alan Wilson – record collectors and blues scholars turned rock stars. Drummer Fito de la Parra joined for the 1968 sophomore release,…
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Dan Forte
Check This Action: Feeling Jazzy
Jazz guitar is one of my main loves, whether it’s Eddie Lang’s work with Bing Crosby in the early ’30s or Rick McRae playing at an Austin restaurant next week. But to be honest, much of what I hear these days bores me. Too much is an empty display of chops or arrangements that lack…
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Dan Forte
Happy Traum
Folk Guru: 1936-2024
On July 17, folk music lost one of its guiding lights with the death of Happy Traum at age 86. A major player in the Greenwich Village and Woodstock scenes, he was best known for his catalog of Homespun instructional videos, boasting an eclectic roster of artists on a variety of instruments. “He was one…
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Dan Forte
João Erbetta and Pete Curry
Los Angeles
Guitarist Erbetta has composed and produced film scores in his native Brazil, while Angelino Pete Curry plays bass with Los Straitjackets and was the surf-rock Halibuts’ lead guitarist. The two previously spearheaded the group Panamericans. Curry’s first instrument was drums, which he handles expertly on 10 instrumentals written by Erbetta, who plays guitar, banjo, keyboards,…
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Dan Forte
The Blues Will Set You Free
We’ve all heard of blues in bars, but what about blues behind bars? That’s what Paul Oscher had in mind in the late ’80s, when he brought a world-class blues band to play for inmates at the Manhattan House of Detention. Oscher, who was 74 when he died of complications from Covid in 2021, began…
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Dan Forte
Nat King Cole
Live at the Blue Note Chicago
Many Nat Cole fans, even diehards, are unaware that, in addition to his beautiful singing voice, he was among the greatest jazz pianists. Fewer still are aware of the world-class guitarists who played in his small combos. First was the great Oscar Moore, followed by Irving Ashby. But from 1951 until Cole’s death in ’65,…
