Condon

[dcav]

I love Jazz, and I can tell that Condon was a player by his motions alone.....but I can't hear him at all in this clip. I can't hear one note of his tenor guitar playing. His band is amazing....amazing musicians. Do any of you know of any audible clips of Eddie Condon playing his tenor guitar?

[Charles E.]

Dcav, my Father was a huge jazz fan of the twenty's through the forty's and had a large record collection of all the greats. When I took up playing tenor guitar, he gave me his thoughts on Eddie Condon. " He never took a solo that I know of. His genius was the ability to assemble talented jazz musicians into a session, whether it was a recording session or a live performance."

He knew how to bring out the best in his players and stuck to the role of rhythm.

[dcav]

I can understand that Charles, rhythm is everything, but I can't hear it! Do you have any audio of Condon?

[Charles E.]

The only film I could find where you can actually hear Eddie playing is an early one, playing "China Boy" with Red Nichols. The only problem is, he is playing banjo. In all the other videos that I found, his guitar is drowned out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL-m...AtveQcYfULQmlA

[dcav]

That was great! I've not heard it before......now I can hear him on TG in my mind from that clip. I would give anything to hear him in a duo situation with TG. Way cool...Thanks Charles

[Don Stiernberg]

Having grown up listening to Condon recordings, still listening to this day, I'd like to say you have to look high and low, like a detective, to locate those few tracks where Eddie's rhythm guitar is actually audible or standing clear in a mix for brief moments. There are some tracks like that, but they are very few. I'm going to pick through my collection to attempt to locate them and will post findings. His work was entirely as part of an acoustic rhythm section, thus blending with the hi-hat cymbal rhythmically and piano pitch-wise. His reputation was more as a bandleader/arranger, club-owner, raconteur and bon vivant. You'll hear verbal comments from him on the records more often than guitar sounds. People who played with him or saw him play have said he actually could play and in fact set a standard of sorts for jazz rhythm guitar, supplying a secure swinging groove. Pretty sure he played in plectrum(banjo) tuning(not C-G-D-A 'tenor' or 'standard guitar..) which may have contributed also to being hard to detect in a recorded mix. Analogous somewhat to the great Freddie Greene in big band music--felt more than heard, still an essential component of the music and style. Recommended favorite Condon records of mine include Bixieland, Treasury of Jazz, Jammin' at Condon's..all on Columbia.

[Charles E.]

Here is a video shot in his club, that has a nice close up of him playing chords, about thirty seconds in........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTmRg5qh_r0

Also a real good look at that Gibson TGL-7.

[dcav]

Thanks Don, I'd love to hear those cuts if you find them.

[Don Stiernberg]

at the library the other day I spotted a re-issue double CD entitled Dixieland Jazz:The Real Thing. four Classic Albums plus
listened on the way to gig in the car
one of the "classic albums" is George Wettling's Jazz Band. It's essentially a Condon record under drummer Wettling's leadership.
Not sure if it was due to Wettling's supervision of the mix, or from sitting close to the speakers in my small car, but I'll be darned I could hear Condon's guitar! Synchronized beautifully with Wettling's cymbals, and every so often playing a "kick", or rhythmic figure other than steady stuff.
So that might be a good recording to seek out. It also has great playing, and some of the other cats are in the video that this thread started with-Wild Bill Davison(c), Edmond Hall(cl), Cutty Cutshall(tb)..hard swingers all!

[dcav]

Thanks Don, that was a great find. They are hard swingers for sure! The Indiana intro is quite audible with Mr. Condon

[AlanN]

In the stack, I found this

062-06-Elmer Schoebel And His Friars Society Orchestra -Frank Teschemacher , Eddie Condon- Prince Of Wails.

At ~ 0:50 mark, there's a distinct 12-bar chordal solo, have to think it's Condon

[dcav]

Wow Alan....that's Awesome!

[Ryk Loske]

Don is right that Condon played a tenor guitar tuned plectrum C G B D. He did end up having a plectrum guitar from Gibson, an L-5, but i've never seen a picture of him playing it. A great read is his autobiography "We Called it Music". When asked about the difference between Early Jazz players and the Boppers, Eddie would say that the Boppers flat their 5ths ... we drink them.

From a post by Eddie Davis over on the BanjoHangout:
"He definitely played Plectrum tuning. CGBD -- I use to live on the floor above he and Phyllis at 27 Washington Square North. After he died she gave me his last plectrum guitar to keep for her and she would ask me to come down and play it for her every once in a while. He originally came from Goodland, Indiana. ( I came from Greenhill, Indiana) His first banjo was a tenor which he played in tenor tuning CGDA. Then he saw a plectrum banjo and traded his tenor for it. When he switched to tenor lute and tenor guitar, because he wanted a guitar sound it was much easier to find tenors, since it was very difficult to find plectrum guitars. The last one he had was a Gibson plectrum, which he got from the company, but most of the other guitars he had were tenors. BUT always played in plectrum tuning. There are pictures of me with the guitar on my website. Somewhere I have some tapes of me playing it for Phyllis. I tuned it it Viola tuning, but pitched down to F as the fundamental FCGD. Eddy Davis"

Eddie is right in that plectrum guitars are nearly impossible to find. I finally found an old Grimshaw (England) guitar that needed work. It's a delight to play and great for a rhythm instrument if there's a bass to hold up the bottom end.

Ryk

[catmandu2]

This early stuff is a gas - for not least of which, Pee Wee Russell on clarinet. https://youtu.be/b2f5RIROY68

[Bad Monkey]

legend has it that the band would hide Eddie's amp, or cut the cord off, or whatever they thought they could get away with to keep him from soloing. Not that he couldn't, he could play like an angel. Problem was that whenever Eddie stopped comping, the band didn't swing so hip. So the band sacrificed guitar solos for groove. Eventually Eddie got mad when he saw the amp out of commision yet again and swore "fine, you apes. I won't play any damned solos. You'll have to carry the whole load" and the band swung hard forever more.

[dcav]

Ryk.......I Love that phrase...."boppers flat their 5ths....we drink them".