Jazz

Vassar Clements was “The Father of Hillbilly Jazz”

Vassar Clements has been featured on The Daily Music Break previously. He has a great solo in the John Hartford song “Steam Powered Aereo Plane.” It’s highly recommended.

It is not surprising that the list of country and rock musicians with Clements played is long and impressive. It’s noteworthy that Clements was an accomplished jazz violinist. He recorded, for instance, with Miles Davis’ group. The Wikipedia bio says that he was dubbed “The Father of Hillbilly Jazz” and that he merged swing and hot jazz with country and bluegrass.

Clements, who was born in 1928 in Florida, started at the top. When he was 21, he auditioned to replace Bill Monroe’s fiddler, Chubby Wise. He got the job — after Monroe loaned him money for overnight lodgings. Clements remained with The Blue Grass Boys for seven years.

The profiles say that Clements’ ability to meld genres made him a popular session musician. He gained notoriety both through his participation with Jerry Garcia and others in Old and In the Way–which was more a project than a long-standing band–and by his participation in The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s influential “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” album.

Music Marauders notes that Clements was known as a great guy. It’s interesting to learn that even a musician with a high profile had to be careful: During stretches the post says that Clements held jobs in a paper mill, as a switchman on the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and as a plumber at The Kennedy Space Center.

Above is “Lonesome Fiddle Blues” with The Del McCoury Band and below is “House of the Rising Son” with Mark O’Connor.

Wikipedia, AllMusic, Music Marauders and VassarClements.com were used to prepare this post.

Our New Things: Links to Music Sites and Info on Analog Tech and Vinyl

TDMB has focused on music and musicians. We will continue to do that, of course. We're also expanding our coverage to include vinyl and analog equipment.

More specifically, we'll look at this huge and interesting world from the perspective of music lovers who want a better experience, not committed non-audiophiles.

Check out is some of what we've written so far:

-- Assessing the Value of Vinyl Records: An Overview

-- 7 Quick Tips on Optimizing Your Turntable Cartridge

-- Why Vinyl Records Continue to Thrive

-- Finding the Best Amplifier

-- Finding the Best Phono Preamp

-- What Speakers Do I Need for My Turntable?

Check out more articles on analog equipment and vinyl.

The site also is home to The Internet Music Mapping Project, an effort to list and describe as many music-related sites as possible.

Our Music

--A Tribe Called Quest to The Dick Hyman Trio (In other words, A to H)

--Indigo Girls to Queen Ida (I to Q)

--Radiohead to ZZ Top (R to Z)

Reading Music

The stories of the great bands and musicians are fascinating. Musicians as a group are brilliant, but often troubled. The combination of creativity and drama makes for great reading.

Here are some books to check out.

Duke Ellington brought class, sophistication and style to jazz which, until that point, was proudly unpolished and raucous. His story is profound. The author, Terry Teachout, also wrote "Pops," the acclaimed bio of Louis Armstrong. Click here or on the image.

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What else is there to say? Here is the story behind every song written by The Beatles. Click here or on the image.

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The Grateful Dead don't get enough credit for the profound nature of its lyrics. Many of the band's songs are driven by a deep and literate Americana ("I'm Uncle Sam/That's who I am/Been hidin' out/In a rock and roll band" and "Majordomo Billy Bojangles/Sit down and have a drink with me/What's this about Alabama/Keeps comin' back to me?").

David Dodd's exhaustive study tells the story, song by song. Click here or on the image.

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