Barney Kessel - Autumn Leaves (1979)

[chizets]

I think Barney Kessel should make a record with Bernie Dresel.

[123must]

Dear MrOrdinacos, I never wrote such a thing: but if I did it was an invertion of names !

Thanks

[loombaron]

Can anybody tell please what scale he is using, thanx!!

[guitartrombone6]

@loombaron He's using the notes in the key of E minor. The notes he plays follow the chord progression (The beginning of the the song is like am7 d7 gM7 cM7 f#m7flat5 bm7 em........) I don't think Kessel is really looking at like an Ionian Dorian Phrygin etc... scale per-say. He sees the notes in the key on the fret board, knows what they are, and know's their interval in the scale. If you can play the notes of the key rather than a scale, you can make something amazing like this.

[trex3457]

I thing the bass player is Kenny Napper and John Marshall on drums.

[2grouchy1]

This is one of the real giants of the Jazz Guitar, he never played anything, that I've ever heard, that didn't swing.  There are several jazz guitarists who were real masters of the instrument

[roundhead63]

Its Jim Richardson on bass and Tony Mann on drums

[123must]

I always remember the great Jimmy Smith be sure !

Thanks

[kavellaneda]

Ruooo

[BaggerTheVance]

This is not Niels Henning Pedersen, who was Danish by the way

[2grouchy1]

@BaggerTheVance You are correct it is not Niels Henning Pedersen, and a good way to differentiate between a Dane and a Swede is that last vowel, the Swede will mostly be s"o"n the Danish folks use s"e"n

[FenderJaguarmaster]

WOW; this is an AMAZING example of 'real' guitar playing!

Technique, tone, touch, feel and expression overload!

Old school Jazzers by BK RULE!

Shame many 'modern' guitar players forget or overolook these peeps.

[gabri3l367]

Un grande maestro della chitarra jazz mondiale. Barney Kessel nel mio cuore !!!!

[setsunameis]

The chords King!!!

[manabozho]

Barney had some very wry / sarcastic stage patter, including making fun of his own stage attire. Once heard him refer to his suit as "a much better use for the fabric than the original seat covers it was made from." Bruce Forman is a good buddy of many years, whom Barney called "my heir." Bruce is a very confident assertive guy, but on this subject, all Bruce would say was, "Well, we do sound a lot alike, and Barney did it first." Bruce finished the Japan tour after BK's stroke.

[jazzgirl232]

heavenly - perfect

[A7Xification]

Is this the song who was wrote by French Jacques Prévert (lyrics) and Joseph Kosma ?

[MrDirtdevil91]

Kev Brown sampled this for a Cy Young joint but I can't think of what it was, holla if yall know it would be greatly appreciated and Barney Kessel is a beast

[Sandemose]

Oh gosh! How fat is that g-string? Like .042 or something? Best, Sandemose

[GrizCC]

@Sandemose

YO MOMA GOTA FAT G-STRING LOLOL \/o\o/\o/\o/o\/o\/

[elortibamal]

ON BASS: PEDERSEN (NHOP) HE DIED IN 2005

[leosax88]

Oh and drummer is Tony Mann...

[leosax88]

Oh and drummer is Tony Mann...

[leosax88]

The bass player is definitely not swiss! He's british, he's my dad! Alive and kicking and still playing today, Jim Richardson. Great player , thanks for posting the video.

[bonejure]

manabozho

Pedersen was Danish..........but I don't think it was him in this vid. He never had that kind of thinning hair and the face doesn't match. The player is good though.....

[Nikolaj40Brandt]

It is not NHOP, and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen was not Swedish, but Danish ;-)

[dsadvies]

The bassplayer is Chuck Domanico, drummer is unknown to me.

[SimulacronX]

Man, this guy recorded "Cry me a river" with Julie London... so amazingly beautiful...

[SimulacronX]

@taildragger53 Very interesting, thanks

[HiImJerry8]

holy shit, thats an amazin combination of linear licks and chordal licks! unbelievable this guy is a monster!

[BebsiForever]

C'est une chanson, qui nous ressemble

Toi tu m'aimais et je t'aimais =)

[mjazzguitar]

Awesome!

And you actually get to see some of his fingering.

Thanks for putting this up.

[jaimepaullamb]

i'm in the 'it is NOT NHOP' camp. they showed quite a bit of this guy's right hand - NHOP's pizzacato was WAY more advanced than this guy (who is a more than adequate bassist himself). there would have been 3-finger plucking and rapid arpeggios somewhere in his solo. NHOP sat lower and angled the bass more (people don't just change their technique for one performance...generally). and NHOP had more hair.

[Biggus63]

As much as I like his instrumental work it's his skills accompanying Billie Holiday in their 1958 sessions that have left their greatest impression with me and his chordal oriented solo on 'I didn't know what time it was' epitomises the point I'm making:-simple, understated and yet somehow unspeakably beautiful. Man, I love Django, Wes, Charlie and all but I'm not sure that Barney isn't the guitarist I'd like to be reincarnated as. Such an incredible all-rounder!

[ColJedburgh]

@manabozho..: Please! Niels-Henning was a DANISH bass player, not Swedish..not that it matters, really. The World will miss him. Oh, and for the record..: the guystreating the bass with Barney here....is NOT Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen. (And Copenhagen is not the capital of Sweden, either. ;-) ) Peace.

[geoffmenzer]

If you PLAY guitar rather than BUY AND SELL guitar,do whatever it might take to get it to feel like an extension of yourself.Dont worry about resale value 'cos you're not selling it,it is a'tool of your trade' and should be so comfortable that you forget its even there when on a good night.Nowadays you could get one custom made,as people often do.George Van Eps knewq what he wanted in a 7 string(the first),so he first tried it on any old guitar body,Epiphone then put neck on his precious one.

[bobdeeguitar]

Just fantastic! Barney was great. That's not NHOP (unless he lost his hair and then grew it back). Notice Barney does the now famous sweep picking that a lot of rockers think they invented. Barney has it all together--counterpoint, bass and changes, great voice leading, chops, etc. Just smashing--love it! Thanks for posting this.

[gabri3l367]

Grande Barney !!!! Gli accordi tuoi sono unici e rimmarrai sempre nel mio cuore. Grande swing !!!!!!!! Oh............

[BeatBay]

I must say, that this is my favorite version of autumn! the miles version is awesome too, but this is.. i cant even put it in words :)

[ASeasonedWitch]

Big fat bass notes right in the pocket. Sweet.

[oblivionfr3ak]

that looooks like a fretless just sayin rofl

[slippolis]

Grande Barney!

[BattyCuss]

Don't know who the Bassist is, but he played with Barney in UK in the 70's on a tour, 'cos I remember him. Mainly 'cos he kinda sobs, now and then we he gets off the ground!

Great!

[habib861006]

niceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[BeatBay]

@henrychinaski7 yes i agree my friend! this is ver yepic. damn its perfect. and its not important for music lovers if he is swedish, american, danish, german, african, asian or what ever! we are all the same with a musicinstrument in our hands ..and without an instrument too :)

[Mobyman690]

again this is so sick i cant even see!

[guitarmbar]

NHOP is/was Danish. May he rest in peace.

[Jazzboful]

I saw Mr. Kessel play in the early 70's and he swung like crazy. His command of the guitar is unsurpassed.

[NetramIII]

NHOP was not Swedish, but Danish. This is certaintly not him.

[54spiritedwill54]

Very nice and relaxing video

[axiluss]

ah, Mezzo tv rip. anyone having that channel is lucky. it's i guess french, not swiss, and widely available in Europe, i live in Poland and my cable has it. it plays mostly classical music, but jazz as well - and sometimes they really put some great gigs. like this piece f.e.

[DjangoVanGogh]

I'm gonna try and get the guitar part down.......with the empahasis on 'try'.

[McMinnManiac]

What's the drummer doing... stiring gravey? Lol

[DjangoVanGogh]

He's using brushes. And I wish the drummer one of the bands I play with would make more use of them. I'm getting tinnitus off his suposedly top-of-the-line zildjans. He just make shitty sounding white noise.

[smokinowned]

its called brushing, something that requires great talent

[amusiathread]

I still prefer Joe Pass' solo version, but this take on Autumn Leaves is pretty amazing.

[123must]

Thank for postin' this video : Barney Kessel was the father of all modern guitarists, together with Charlie Chrisian.

[McMinnManiac]

Kessel was a side man who played mostly rhythm with all the greats

[carvetop01]

@123must

Don't forget Johnny Smith.

[ponti76]

@123must simply not true

[MrOdinakos]

@123must nopeeeee. Charlie Christian was born in 1916 and barney kessel in 1923. How can Barney be the father ? lol

[charmister]

Gotta love the old-school jazz bends that Barney pulled off and got away with xD

Thanks for the vid!

[mickhutchinson]

Great tone ,Great phrasing .One of the best EVER Barney Kessel .He played from the heart !!!

[djangoph1le]

That's not a Gibson......more like an Ibanez knock off with a venetian cutaway.

[rjinterr]

no such thing as an Ibanez knock off in those days this is an old guitar

[djangoph1le]

go look online......ebay has a couple of "lawsuit" guitars. I had one from '76, the year before they were sued by Norlin (Gibson). This video was shot in '79

Not only that, but if you watch the videos of this series you can see the headstock and the "Ibanez" logo. Just look at the shape of it.....it's not a Gibson.

[rjinterr]

your right i though he was usig his old unknown name guitar

[HopePoisoned]

@rjinterr are you kidding? the 70s were the times of ibanez lawsuits

[awesomewelles90]

the best Ibanez's eva!

[arp1978]

Love listening to this! Thanks for posting.

I just whish it didn't break up in the bass solo. He's playing some great stuff.

Still 5 stars!

[bernieholland775]

Susan462 asked who the bass player was - well it is Jim (Jimbo) Richardson who played in my trio in the 1980s - a fine player with a wicked sense of humour !

[susan462]

Very nice and relaxing video i did not recognize the bass player or drummer though?..

[profeso07]

5 stars

[rockgeezer43]

Feb 11, 1976 I went to a Restaurant/Lounge outside DisneyWorld,where he was playing,took my copy of "The Guitar" and timidly approached Mr. Kessel during a break, he autographed it and gave me advise on continuing my guitar studies..I knew I was in the presence of a genius, he ignored everyone who approached and lectured me on the methodology of studying the guitar..a defining moment in my life.RIP.

[BlueRoseRocketBand2]

Yes genius! great little story.

[48MotoX]

thanks for that man... made my day

[burucumpa]

an amazing lesson of music

[CTrane88]

geez barney take your coat off, stay awhile. lol thanks for posting

[manabozho]

Hey, thanks for straightening out NHOP's country of origin. Glad to have it right.

[hiroinus1revival]

Absolutely love this version. I like it much better than 1968 version. Is there a CD that contains this version?

[AaronWallace]

Fantastic, one of the best versions of the song I've ever heard. The only thing I dislike about jazz is that the standards get boring for some artists, so they tweak them and make them so abstract you can barely recognize the song. This was done perfectly, great blues influence in Barney's improvising as well.

[srvkaifu]

Is that a Gibson ES 165 Barney is playing?

[AaronWallace]

I believe it is so.

[aronkarmusic]

isnt that the guitar with the 193* microphone-pickup? if so its custom.. he changed so much on it.

[manabozho]

Very diligent, bobjazz, thanks! Guess a lot of those guys wore scruffy beards & had thinning hair. NHOP left us at only age 58 or so, so I couldn't make the dates quite work out either. Crossover from UK & Euro players to here seems less than the other direction, so those guys are hard to ID on spots like this

[bobjazz11]

Agreed! I'll let you know if I find out who it is though

Bob

[k5vg]

Naa, that's NHOP. The guy in the picture could easily be 33 years old, which is what NHOP would have turned in 1979. Also, if you listen to his comping, you can hear NHOP licks. Granted, the solo is quite a contrast from the blistering stuff he did a couple years before with Peterson, but I hear him in there.

[ghairraigh]

@manabozho That is not NHOP- guy is too bald, hair too straight

[manabozho]

Niels Henning Orsted-Pederson (sometimes abbreviated NHOP) is the best known Swedish jazz bassist, and this look a little like him. Not a slam-dunk, it's old video & people change.

[bobjazz11]

No I'm pretty sure it isn't - I worked with NHOP a couple of times just a few years before he died and although there is a similarity in looks, it doesn't sound like him at all to me.

I'm pretty sure the drummer is British drummer Tony Mann from the Tony Mann trio of the 70's by the way.

i've got a feeling the bass player might be Swiss actually

Bob

[johnbresnik]

@bobjazz11 - I think the bass player is Jim Richardson -- that's Mann on drums.

[number1guitarplayer]

@bobjazz11 The bass player isn't a younger Joe Byrd, is it??? Sounds like his idiosyncratic style, and looks like him. Hard to tell though from this vid.

[revdolaf]

Nay friend, the great Niels Henning Orsted Pedersen was Danish, not Swedish.

[MarcusExcalibur]

@manabozho : thought NHOP was Danish...

[gertcarl]

@manabozho NHØP was Danish bassplayer, not Swedish. He was one of the best.

[fredmax3]

@manabozho Actually Niels was from denmark ;)

[MrJazzmate]

@manabozho NHOP is Danish, by te way mate :)

[kron42]

NHOP was Danish, not Swedish.

[KVD1993]

@manabozho He's a Danish jazz bassist not Swedish :)

[mindaflame7]

The stage and set up is SO seventies but the music is ABSOLUTELY TIMELESS!!

[barcia475]

Simply, best Autumn Leaves ever

[tomvband]

Smooth.

[Rotitomato]

There is Barney and what a band!

[kasponya]

Phil Spector's teacher and mentor

[bobjazz11]

Yes indeed! - And you can hear Barney's influence very clearly in 'Da Do Ron Ron'.

[kasponya]

True - Barney at the top of his game (Downbeat poll winner etc.) accepted then unknown Teenager Phil Spector as a guitar student and also suggested he should try music production because that's where the money was. A few years later a then rich and famous Phil Spector would routinely hire Barney to play guitar alongside 4 other guitarists in his legendary "Wall Of Sound" productions including on the recording of "Da Do Ron Ron".

[bobjazz11]

The things you learn!

[geoffreyefloyd]

good thing barney never go to see what happened to good ole phil later!

[Danidch33]

Thanks for sharing, Dan. He is great I agree with you I love it! Thanks for posting this nice jazz song as well..

~ D

[FB1801]

Excellent! The master at his best. One of my favs with Kenny Burrell.

[eternalhawk]

Best player, love all his music

[nagymark]

2:21

blues & jazz in perfect harmonie, nice !!!

[JimboUSofA]

Barney Kessel couldn't make a bad record if he tried. Thank you!

[santaclaus21st]

great version of "les feuilles mortes"

[VampolkaXL]

Excellent, You can sort of hear how Steve Howe was influenced by this dude

[bluejazzcat]

Thanks for posting. One of my favourite jazz guitar players.

[roymusic251]

Jim Richardson,Bass,Tony Mann,Drums

[bobjazz11]

Thanx - Should have known Tony Mann by the way

Bob

[orlandoCF1]

One true master of his craft. RIP Barney....

[ankoslitoflower]

i cant remember. but he names the bassist and drummer on this dvd you can get off of amazon. itll be like barney kessel 1953-1990 or something like that. id tell you but i have it lent out.

[bobjazz11]

I know the DVD - It's has got material on it from the same concert as this clip - but not this number!!

[woodlist]

I can't recall names but I saw Barney with these two gents playing in Wolverhampton UK in the early 70's. A blast!

[chuck81085]

master of the guitar trio.

[viniguitarjazz]

wow ! bélissimo

[mishaguitar]

Wonderful, thanks for posting

[marez71]

a superb and articulated musician

[Preventer2]

excellent!

What a fantastic accord play 2.55-3.15...

Barney is my favorite among jazz guitarists...

[jazznoises]

I agree. You can see how Kessel's playing influenced a lot of what Howard Alden plays.

[mans0805]

Barney at his best. Melodic, bluesy, great sound.

[jcayer2]

Thank you for posting this video !!!

[Hb35Jazz]

Love it...! ☻ ☻ ☻ ☻ ☻