Jay Gordon is an American blues rock guitarist who recorded with Phillip Walker for his album Jaywalkin. [2] Gordon has also played at the 2004 Crossroads Guitar Festival, sharing the stage with Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Jeff Beck and Carlos Santana. [3]
Many journalists have praised Gordon for his instrument prowess, [2] [3] but there are also many critics who claim that despite his ability to play fast, he is too loud, his solos are too long and are performed in poor taste, one even saying "Gordon’s constant wailing solos that become long, self-indulgent and some of the most uneconomical guitar playing around and some poor lyrics that lack a sense of the blues." [4]
Although though there many mixed views regarding Gordon's playing style and music, he is still a visible musician who has made many recordings, shares the stage with notable musicians and plays in many well known venues and events like, B.B. King's, [2] Crossroads, [3] and Las Vegas Bike Fest. [5]
Gordon was born in Charlotte, North Carolina [6] and later raised in Chicago, Illinois, "where at an early age he was exposed to jazz and blues by his grandmother, who played the piano and organ." The young Gordon played various instruments but discovered the guitar at age 14 and played in Top 40 cover bands as a teenager. He met Albert Collins at a young age and cites him as an influence. [2]
Electricblues.com has expressed that the album Electric Redemption, "...is heavy-duty, highly animated, guitar-driven blues and heavy rock that will send most traditional blues fans running for cover. Only those interested in seeing just how far the blues can be stretched need dwell here". [7]
There are several positive reviews from critics, one saying, "This L.A. blues guitar player is a guy who has everyone else just trying to keep up as he pulls off endless incendiary guitar solos. This is Gordon's fourth album, with a fifth threatened for an early '99 release. Here's a guy who attracts guitar players who show up to watch and take notes. GRADE: A−" [8] Regarding Gordon's album, Extremely Dangerous Blues, another reviewer expressed, "Although these performances are mostly fairly brief, there is no shortage of inventive ideas within the context of rockish Chicago blues, or any loss of passion." [9] Other reviewers, view Gordon's larger-than-life playing to be ambitious, stating, "Gordon doesn't believe in understatement or simplicity. While his songs tell about overcoming heartache, being an outcast, partying all night long, and starting up a relationship, each one comes loaded with fire. The lyrics may be difficult to understand, but Gordon's powerhouse guitar leaves no doubt that he means business." [10]
*For non-Billboard charting acts, such as Jay Gordon, the Amazon sales rank may indicate relative online popularity and is subject to change at any time.
Year | Album Title | Credits and Personnel | Amazon Sales Rank as of March 12, 2016* |
---|---|---|---|
2015 | Woodchoppers Ball (as Jay and Blues Venom Gordon) | #98,419 [12] | |
2010 | White Rabbit (as Jay Gordon and the Penetrators) | Sharon Butcher Arranger, Guitar (Bass), Vocals Donnell Cameron Engineer, Mixing, Pro-Tools Jay Gordon Arranger, Composer, Guitar, Mixing, Producer, Vocals Jay Gordon & the Penetrators Primary Artist Michael Hawkins Photography Seth Hum Assistant Engineer, Pro-Tools Dave Longeuay Engineer, Mixing, Pro-Tools Abe Perez Drums, Percussion Joe Rock Artwork Grace Slick Composer | #1,513,506 [14] |
2010 | Immortal (as Jay Gordon and the Penetrators) | Sharon Butcher Arranger, Composer, Guitar (Bass), Lyricist, Mixing, Vocals Mark Farrace Composer, Lyricist Jay Gordon Arranger, Composer, Guitar, Lyricist, Mixing, Producer, Vocals Jay Gordon & the Penetrators Primary Artist Michael Hawkins Photography Dave Longeuay Engineer, Mixing, Pro-Tools Abe Perez Drums, Percussion Joe Rock Artwork | #729,110 [16] |
2009 | Gold Rings Silver Bullets | Ric Daly Drums, Member of Attributed Artist Lee Davis Drums, Member of Attributed Artist Jay Gordon Composer, Guitar, Member of Attributed Artist, Mixing, Primary Artist, Vocals Jay Gordon & the Penetrators Primary Artist David Longeway Audio Engineer, Mixing Joe Rock Graphic Design John Schayer Guitar (Bass), Member of Attributed Artist Johnny Walker Drums, Member of Attributed Artist | #615,809 [18] |
2007 | Rings Around the Sun | #484,617 [19] | |
2005 | Live On The Sunset Strip No Quarter Given | #422,252 [20] | |
2004 | 6 Strings Outlaw | Butch Black Drums, Main Personnel Bruno Boussard Graphic Design Lee Davis Drums, Main Personnel Patricia de Gorostarzu Photography DJ Johnny Walker Drums, Main Personnel Jay Gordon Audio Production, Composer, Guitar, Harmonica, Main Personnel, Primary Artist, Slide Guitar, Vocals Richard Greene & The Grass Is Greener Bass Russ Greene Bass Instrument, Main Personnel Elmore James Composer M. Levy Composer Clarence Lewis Composer David J. Longeuay Engineer, Mixing John Schayer Guitar (Bass), Main Personnel | #923,451 [22] |
2004 | Broadcasting The Blues | Butch Azevedo Drums Luther Dixon Composer Willie Dixon Composer Wil Donovan Drums Jay Gordon Composer, Drums, Guitar (Electric), Liner Notes, Primary Artist, Producer, Slide Guitar, Vocals Buddy Guy Composer Elmore James Composer Clarence Lewis Composer Dean Phelps Pre-Mastering Al Smith Composer Muddy Waters Composer Scott Yanow Liner Notes | #313,138 [24] |
2004 | White Haven Powdered Black | Jay Gordon Composer, Primary Artist David J. Longeuay Engineer, Mastering | #611,292 [26] |
2001 | Extremely Dangerous Blues | Jay Gordon Primary Artist | No Rank [28] |
2000 | Jaywalkin with Phillip Walker | Butch Azevedo Drums Donald Cameron Engineer Joey Covington Drums Jay Gordon Composer, Guitar, Guitar (Rhythm), Primary Artist, Producer, Slide Guitar, Vocals Phillip Walker Composer, Guitar, Guitar (Rhythm), Vocals | #835,564 [30] |
1998 | Electric Redemption | Butch Azevedo Drums Jay Gordon Arranger, Composer, Guitar, Guitar (Electric), Harmonica, Performer, Primary Artist, Producer, Slide Guitar, Vocals Russ Green Guitar (Bass) David J. Longeuay Engineer, Mastering | #628,008 [32] |
Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos that reflect characteristics of the human singing voice. It typically involves playing the guitar in the traditional position with the use of a slide fitted on one of the guitarist's fingers. The slide may be a metal or glass tube, such as the neck of a bottle, giving rise to the term bottleneck guitar to describe this type of playing. The strings are typically plucked while the slide is moved over the strings to change the pitch. The guitar may also be placed on the player's lap and played with a hand-held bar.
Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker was an American blues musician, composer, songwriter and bandleader, who was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues, West Coast blues, and electric blues sounds. In 2018 Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 67 on its list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
Electric blues is blues music distinguished by the use of electric amplification for musical instruments. The guitar was the first instrument to be popularly amplified and used by early pioneers T-Bone Walker in the late 1930s and John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters in the 1940s. Their styles developed into West Coast blues, Detroit blues, and post-World War II Chicago blues, which differed from earlier, predominantly acoustic-style blues. By the early 1950s, Little Walter was a featured soloist on blues harmonica using a small hand-held microphone fed into a guitar amplifier. Although it took a little longer, the electric bass guitar gradually replaced the stand-up bass by the early 1960s. Electric organs and especially keyboards later became widely used in electric blues.
British blues is a form of music derived from American blues that originated in the late 1950s, and reached its height of mainstream popularity in the 1960s. In Britain, blues developed a distinctive and influential style dominated by electric guitar, and made international stars of several proponents of the genre, including the Rolling Stones, the Animals, the Yardbirds, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin.
A guitar solo is a melodic passage, instrumental section, or entire piece of music, pre-written to be played on a classical, electric, or acoustic guitar. In 20th and 21st century traditional music and popular music such as blues, swing, jazz, jazz fusion, rock and heavy metal, guitar solos often contain virtuoso techniques and varying degrees of improvisation. Guitar solos on classical guitar, which are typically written in musical notation, are also used in classical music forms such as chamber music and concertos.
Eddie Jones, known as Guitar Slim, was an American guitarist in the 1940s and 1950s, best known for the million-selling song "The Things That I Used to Do", for Specialty Records. It is listed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. Slim had a major impact on rock and roll and experimented with distorted tones on the electric guitar a full decade before Jimi Hendrix.
Louis Joseph Walker Jr., known as Joe Louis Walker, is an American musician, best known as an electric blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer. His knowledge of blues history is revealed by his use of older material and playing styles.
Eddie Taylor was an American electric blues guitarist and singer.
Michael John "Duke" Robillard is an American guitarist and singer. He founded the band Roomful of Blues and was a member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Although Robillard is known as a rock and blues guitarist, he also plays jazz and swing.
MacHouston "Mickey" Baker was an American musician, best known for his work as a studio musician and as part of the recording duo Mickey & Sylvia.
Kenn Smith, birth name Kenneth LaMont Smith, is an American guitarist, bassist, composer, educator and journalist, born in Chicago, Illinois. Well versed in many styles of music, Ambient, Jazz, Classical, Rock, Progressive Rock.
Freddie Hubbard/Stanley Turrentine In Concert Volume One is a live album recorded in 1973 by jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine. It was recorded in Chicago and Detroit for Creed Taylor's CTI label and features performances by Hubbard, Turrentine, guitarist Eric Gale, bassist Ron Carter, drummer Jack DeJohnette and pianist Herbie Hancock.
David M. Bloom is an American guitarist, flautist, composer/arranger/producer, educator, author, and director. Bloom founded the Bloom School of Jazz in Chicago where he continues to teach. Notable musicians who have attended the Bloom School include Alex Wurman, Graham Maby, Steve Rodby, Jon Weber, Cliff Colnot, Rob Parton, Mark Colby, and Rob Mazurek, with workshops from John Scofield and Mike Stern. Bloom authors jazz instruction books under his own Bloom School of Jazz Publishing which is distributed by Hal Leonard. Along with composing, arranging, writing, and directing The Bloom School of Jazz, Bloom directs documentary films about essential human values. Bloom's father was the late educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom, who made major contributions to the classification of educational objectives and to the theory of mastery-learning. David Bloom's own applications of mastery-learning have made him one of the most sought after teachers in Jazz today.
Live at the Royal Festival Hall is an album by the John McLaughlin Trio, featuring percussionist Trilok Gurtu and bass guitarist Kai Eckhardt. It was recorded at the Royal Festival Hall in London on 27 November 1989 and was released on the JMT label in 1990. The album reached number 3 in the Billboard Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart.
Jim Hall & Pat Metheny is an album by jazz guitarists Jim Hall and Pat Metheny that was released by Telarc on April 27, 1999. The album contains eleven studio recording tracks and six live tracks.
Destroy All Nels Cline is an album by American guitarist Nels Cline which was released in April 2001 on the Atavistic label.
Arclight is the fourth solo album by American jazz guitarist Julian Lage. Two tracks were given a prerelease, "Nocturne" and "Harlem Blues".
Quartet Live is a 2009 live album by American jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton. The record features a revival of Burton’s quartet format of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the return of Burton veterans Pat Metheny on guitar and Steve Swallow on bass guitar along with young virtuoso Antonio Sanchez on drums. The album was recorded on June 10–11, 2007 at Yoshi's jazz club and released in 2009 via the Concord Jazz label.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)