Texas State University MU 3316 (1)

Cat Clemons III

The Guitar Genius of George Barnes

Statement of Purpose

The electric guitar is an instrument that has become one of the most iconic and beloved musical tools in the entire world. It is used in music today by everyone from folky singer songwriters to neoclassical shredders. The early innovators of the guitar, though, were most often found in the blues and jazz music scenes. When asked about the most innovative and influential jazz guitarists, many people will mention Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery, or Joe Pass, but few will mention the name of one of the greatest musicians to ever pick up the guitar, George Barnes. George Barnes was one of the most inventive musicians to ever pick up the guitar and his unique style was far ahead of its time. The impact of his playing and recordings still resonates today in the fields of jazz, country, and popular music. This essay will focus on the life and innovations of George Barnes as well as analyzing his musical development from one of his earliest recordings, Its A Lowdown Dirty Shame with Big Bill Broonzy, to one of his legendary octet recordings, I Cant Give You Anything But Love. These recordings clearly showcase Barnes incredibly forward thinking style and this analysis will hopefully call some attention to an unsung hero of jazz and the electric guitar.

Review of Literature

Although there is certainly a deficit of research when it comes to George Barnes, there is some key literature that addresses his contributions to jazz and popular music. One of the most important sources for this paper was an interview with Barnes himself in the February, 1975 issue of Guitar Player magazine. This interview provides first hand information about Barnes life and views on music from Barnes himself, an invaluable resource.1 The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz helps to supply some outside background information about Barnes, including information about his early life and later association with Decca records. This reliable source contains references from other notable books about electric guitarists by E. Townley and J. Sallis.2 Another important source of background information was Charles Alexanders book, Masters of Jazz Guitar. This excellent book covers Barnes earliest recordings (including his recordings with Big Bill Broonzy, which will be analyzed in depth later in this paper.), his session work for NBC and ABC, and some of his most important musical collaborators: Ruby Braff, Carl Kress, and Joe Venuti. This book contains an incredibly large bibliography that contains sources from reputable authors Ian Carr and Michael Erlewine, as well as information from Martin Taylor, an incredibly knowledgeable jazz guitarist.3 An important source that helps to zoom out a bit is Adrian Ingrams A Concise History of the Electric Guitar, which provides information about a lot of Barnes contemporaries. It also mentions Barnes monumental octet recordings. The information found in this book is backed by an impressive bibliography, containing sources from various guitar gurus like George Gruhn and Steve Howe.4 The last two sources for this paper, Hans Mousts Guild Guitar Book and a Guitar Player article from 1999, discuss the various unique instruments that George Barnes helped create in association with the Guild Guitar Company. It talks about his signature Acousti-Lectric guitar and the special guitar in F that he designed to play in the alto saxophone register. The Moust book contains scant documentation aside from the original Guild ads found in the pages, but the information used in this essay comes primarily from those ads. The Guitar Player article is a direct interview with Barnes himself.56 The recordings analyzed in the last section of the paper are Its a Lowdown Dirty Shame by Big Bill Broonzy and I Cant Give You Anything But Love by George Barnes and his octet.78

1 2

Yelin, Bob . "George Barnes Interview." Guitar Player, Feb 1975, 25-27. Kernfeld, Barry, and Norman Mongan . The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. Oxford University Press, 1994. 3 Alexander, Charles. Masters of Jazz Guitar. London: Balafon, 1999. 4 Ingram, Adrian . A Concise History of the Electric Guitar. Pacific: Mel Bay, 2001. 5 Moust, Hans. Guild Guitar Book: The Company and the Instruments: 1952-1977. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, 1995. 6 Freeman, Miller. "George Barnes on Nontraditional Jazz Tunings." Guitar Player, Jan 1999, 127. 7 Broonzy, Bill. "It's A Lowdown Dirty Shame" May 19 2010. Web, http://youtu.be/yLxh27Hes8w.
8

Barnes, George. "I Can't Give You Anything But Love." Web, http://youtu.be/t0uIqACmLGI .

Focus Subject/Socio-Historical Context

George Barnes was born into a family of professional musicians in South Chicago Heights, Illinois, on July 17th, 1921.1 Barnes first exposure to music making came at the age of 6, when he began to learn on the family piano. As fate would have it, though, Barnes family lost the piano and their house during the Great Depression and the only thing left for him to play was a cheap Sears Roebuck Silvertone guitar.2 Barnes received heavy influence from the recordings of Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, and Jimmy Noone, as well as from his association with the great blues guitarist Lonnie Johnson, who taught Barnes how to play blues. A quick study, Barnes formed his own quartet at age 14 in addition to playing on many sessions by Chicago blues musicians. One of the most notable sessions was with Big Bill Broonzy, which produced some of the earliest electric guitar recordings.3 Barnes then became the youngest conductor and arranger for NBC at age 17 until he was drafted into the army. After serving his time in the army, Barnes joined the ABC music staff where his revolutionary Octet recordings were made.4 The Octet featured a very unusual instrumentation of electric guitar, bass, drums, and various woodwinds, including bass clarinet, flute, and English horn. The Octet allowed Barnes to flex his very qualified arranging muscles, performing his own challenging versions of popular and novelty tunes, along with his own original compositions.5 After his time at ABC, Barnes worked as a guitarist, composer, and arranger with Decca Records in New York. During this time, Barnes recorded with the great Louis Armstrong and also frequently performed opposite of jazz guitar giant Tal Farlow at the Embers. Barnes also formed a guitar duo with Carl Kress, a brilliant musical mind who would prove to be one of Barnes most important musical associates. The Barnes-Kress duo toured internationally until Kress died in 1965.6 Barnes played and recorded with many icons of jazz such as Joe Venuti, Ruby Braff, and Bucky Pizzarelli until his death in 1977.7 George Barnes was a total original when it came to playing the guitar. To start with, he utilized a highly unorthodox technique. While most guitarists hold the plectrum between the thumb and index finger, Barnes held the pick between the thumb and second finger, a technique also utilized by Eddie Van Halen, a much later guitar innovator.8 Despite this bizarre technique,
1 2

Kernfeld, The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz Yelin, Guitar Player, 25 3 Alexander, Masters of Jazz Guitar, 31 4 Kernfeld, The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz 5 Alexander, Masters of Jazz Guitar, 32 6 Kernfeld, The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz 7 Alexander, Masters of Jazz Guitar, 32 8 Yelin, Guitar Player, 26

Barnes facility on his instrument is unquestionable. Not only was he one of the first single string guitar soloists, he was one of the greatest. His fleet fingered single note lines at age 16 with Big Bill Broonzy were already far ahead of most of his older contemporaries. Barnes was also very different from many other jazz guitarists in that he preferred a bright, clear sound as opposed to the mellow, dark sound that most other jazz guitar players utilized. This sound was mostly delivered on a guitar known as a Guild Acousti-Lectric, designed by the Guild Guitar Company with lots of input by Barnes himself. This guitar was created to provide Barnes with the clear, beautiful sound he desired from a solid wood archtop guitar, but without the feedback that was inherent in those instruments. Another interesting aspect of this guitar was that the pickups, which provide the amplified sound, are mounted inside of the guitar on a wooden bar, instead of on the top of the guitar. In addition to the Acousti-Lectric guitar, Barnes also developed a smaller scale guitar in F, designed to play in the alto saxophone register.1 George Barnes was a musician unlike any other, and his influence on the worlds of jazz and the electric guitar will only continue to grow.

Focus Subject/Work Analysis

George Barnes has always been an innovator, even from a very young age. To examine his forward thinking style, I would like to take a look at two recordings from two different eras of his playing. The first is Its a Lowdown Dirty Shame by Big Bill Broonzy, which features a youthful Barnes at the age of 16; the second is his octet recording of I Cant Give You Anything But Love, recorded when he was 25. These two recordings showcase his early abilities and also his quick evolution into his mature style. Its a Lowdown Dirty Shame was recorded during Barnes time in Chicago when he was doing many sessions for local blues artists.2 The form is a 12 bar blues in Bb with a 4 bar piano introduction. This song features a typical call and response structure, where Broonzy will sing a line (the call) and one of the instrumentalists will play a line back (the response). Barnes first enters the scene at 0:41 in response to Broonzys cry of Its a lowdown dirty shame. His introduction is notable for his use of a bluesy bent note. String bending is a device that is somewhat uncommon in jazz today but is extremely common among blues players of all eras. Barnes use of string bending is a clear product of his time spent studying with blues guitar great Lonnie Johnson.3 Barnes solo at 1:58 showcases his incredibly developed technical facility and also his youthful immaturity. He immediately begins the solo with a fast double time phrase where a more mature player would perhaps wait a little longer to develop the solo and climax with the double time line. This fiery exuberance is part of the charm of this recording to me, though, and it helps to illustrate the extraordinarily fast musical maturation that he went through in later recordings. He incorporates another crying bend at 2:16 before his final phrase that ends on a slide up to F, the root of the V chord, signifying the end of his solo. The next recording, I Cant Give You Anything But Love, shows a George Barnes light years ahead of the one that appeared on the Big Bill Broonzy recording. This piece begins with a fast ascending line between the guitar and bass clarinet, but where the younger Barnes
1 2

Moust, The Guild Guitar Book, 8 Alexander, Masters of Jazz Guitar, 31 3 Alexander, Masters of Jazz Guitar, 31

faster lines where somewhat manic and hurried, the more mature Barnes lines are confident and controlled. The melody to the song begins at 0:04 between the guitar and woodwinds with syncopated hits by the rhythm section beginning at 0:06. The guitar solo begins at 0:34 with a modulation a half step up to Ab major from the original key of G major. One of the most impressive aspects of this recording is not only Barnes incredible guitar playing, but also his extraordinary arranging skills for this slightly odd ensemble that features a standard 4 piece rhythm section with four woodwinds utilizing unusual instruments like bass clarinet and oboe. Throughout this piece there are 4 different key centers and Barnes expertly navigates them all with clever and original writing. The first key center is G major, which is where the melody is originally introduced. The second key center is at 0:34 where Barnes begins his solo. The third key center, A major, beginning at 1:08, is where Barnes wonderful writing gets the chance to shine. This ensemble passage begins with a simple restating of the melody, but things begin to get interesting at 1:16 where Barnes begins to write contrapuntally. The oboe is playing the melody while the bass clarinet and clarinet are trading off 2 bar ascending figures. The melody then reenters until a break at 1:30 where Barnes solo lines take us into the final key of F major, breaking the ascending half step motion of the previous key centers. Barnes then solos until 1:49, where the ensemble plays a syncopated descending F major scale, ending with a flute flourish at 1:52. Thats quite a lot of information to fit into a minute and fifty two seconds! These two recordings that weve discussed show off the many sides of George Barnes. As a guitarist, arranger, and improviser he has few equals and he certainly deserves the kind of attention and praise that is given to other guitar innovators such as Charlie Christian and Joe Pass.
Works Cited 1. Yelin, Bob . "George Barnes Interview." Guitar Player, Feb 1975, 25-27. 2. Kernfeld, Barry, and Norman Mongan . The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. Oxford

University
3. Alexander, Charles. Masters of Jazz Guitar. London: Balafon, 1999. 4. Ingram, Adrian . A Concise History of the Electric Guitar. Pacific: Mel Bay, 2001.

5. Moust, Hans. Guild Guitar Book: The Company and the Instruments: 1952-1977. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, 1995. 6.Freeman, Miller. "George Barnes on Nontraditional Jazz Tunings." Guitar Player, Jan 1999, 127. 7. Broonzy, Bill. "It's A Lowdown Dirty Shame" May 19 2010. Web, http://youtu.be/yLxh27Hes8w. 8. Barnes, George. "I Can't Give You Anything But Love." Web, http://youtu.be/t0uIqACmLGI .