BRYANT'S BOUNCE (1953) by Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West

This is one of many tracks recorded during the fifties by country jazz guitarist Jimmy Bryant and pedal steel guitarist Speedy West. Jimmy was quite an innovative electric guitarist and has influenced many guitarists such as Albert Lee, Danny Gatton and numerous others. This song mainly features Jimmy, although Speedy does a short solo in the middle. It also features Billy Strange on rhythm guitar and Cliffie Stone on bass.

The following background was obtained from Wikipedia. Ivy J. Bryant, Jr. was born in Moultrie, Georgia, the oldest of 12 children. During the Great Depression he played the fiddle on street corners to help the family buy food, pushed to do so by his father. After being wounded in World War II, he began working seriously on his guitar playing, influenced heavily by Django Reinhardt. After the war, he returned to Moultrie then moved to Los Angeles county where he worked in Western films and played music in bars around L.A.'s Skid Row, where he met pioneering pedal steel guitarist Speedy West. West, who joined Cliffie Stone's popular Hometown Jamboree local radio and TV show, suggested Bryant be hired when the show's original guitarist departed. That gave Bryant access to Capitol Records since Stone was a Capitol artist and talent scout.

In 1950 Tex Williams heard Bryant's dizzying jazz/country style and used him on his recording of "Wild Card". In addition, Bryant and West played on the Tennessee Ernie Ford-Kay Starr hit "I'll Never Be Free", leading to both men being signed to Capitol as instrumentalists. Bryant and West became a team, working extensively with each other. Bryant's Bounce was one of Jimmy's jazz influenced instrumentals and was recorded on November 25, 1952.

Bryant was a difficult musician to work with. By 1955 he left Hometown Jamboree (retaining his friendship with West) and after various clashes with his Capitol producer Ken Nelson, the label dropped him in 1956. He continued working in Los Angeles and in the early 1960s he and his trio made an appearance in the Coleman Francis film The Skydivers.

During the 1960s he shifted into music production. Waylon Jennings made a hit of his song "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line". He can also be heard playing fiddle on the Monkees' "Sweet Young Thing".[1] In the early 1970s Bryant ran a recording studio in Las Vegas, but finally relocated to Georgia before settling in Nashville in 1975, the same year he reunited with Speedy West for a reunion album produced by Nashville steel guitarist Pete Drake. Bryant played in Nashville bars and did some recording work but his personality did not mesh well with Nashville's highly political music and recording industry. In 1978, in declining health, Bryant learned that his heavy smoking had resulted in lung cancer. He died in Moultrie in September 1980 at the age of 55.

I have done a slideshow video for this tune using as many images as I could find of Jimmy and Speedy. Comments are invited.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Jimmy Bryant
• Speedy West
• steel guitar
• fender
• telecaster
• albert lee
• danny gatton

[LiveCFL]

Do you know who did the rhythm part on this track?

[wilsonmcphert]

@LiveCFL

Not sure, but I think it was probably Billy Strange on rhythm guitar and Cliffie Stone on bass. Maybe others might know more details?

[robbourassaguitarist]

When you see a guy play like that, you have to be impressed, but when you consider that Jimmy wrote all of these great tunes, he really has to be considered among the best of all time. There was nobody with his chops either. Listen to his standards.

[BlueMoonGuitar]

Thanks for posting this gem and for including some bio info on Jimmy Bryant. In my book, he's an iconic figure, Unfortunately, there's a lot of folks who have never even heard of him.

[Easygoingfellow]

Personally I think he was the greatest...what a pity he didn´t record late fifties, it would be interesting hear what he could do with r´n r pieces (I know there´s few over superb Sammy Masters rockabilly tunes exists)