In jazz improvisation discussions, it’s easy to get caught up in the small stuff. It seems particularly prevalent in piano and guitar instruction: what scale, what chord change, what scale over what chord change, what jazz lick here, what jazz lick there… Here a lick, there a lick, everywhere a jazz lick, E-A-D-G-B —E! To avoid this, in my last video and article I looked at subtler aspects of the Raney style, like asymmetry and sequence, and the part they played in his development of musical ideas, rather than hyper-focusing on the notes themselves. But as I reflected on this, was this still just another jazz mastery shell game? This…

If you’re an English stickler over the use of the word evolve in its typical context – over a long period of time – then perhaps not. However, if you’re a musician of Jimmy Raney’s caliber, that weaves profound musical stories within just a few choruses with such precise yet inexorable logic, then Yes, it’s really a thing. My coinage of this term took place in the 9th chapter in the section, “Evolving Sequence & Expansion” of the recently released, The Jimmy Raney Book. To a degree, describing how and what makes Jimmy Raney play the way he does in words is a bit of tall order, but I gave…

Last year, on my father’s birthday, I asked the question, “What would Jimmy Raney think of YouTube transcriptions”? I went into some detail to express a certain point of view, but I’m not sure I came away with a satisfying answer. You be the judge: Jimmy Raney Birthday 2023. This year, on Doug’s, I am posing a similar question, “What would Doug Raney think of YouTube Content Creators”? (Ok. The question’s wording doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but let’s go with it for now) To be blunt, if Doug were alive, he’d probably get a little snarky and protective about anything involving him or Dad presented by others. And,…

Those of you following me lately have heard about my recently published, The Jimmy Raney Book. Lyle Robinson and I talked about it in Part II of a podcast on his Jazz Guitar Life website, where we go into the details of the book, how it came to be and what’s in it. We also follow-up on some things we didn’t get to in Podcast 1. I’m thrilled all this is happening now after all of these years. MORE TO COME! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIMMY RANEY, 2024 Dad, we’re listening and learning from you now more that ever!

For those of you who know me, you probably know that my intent to digitally reproduce my father’s original unpublished melodic line book along with my extended content started roughly in 2006 when I came into possession of the my father’s handwritten manuscript pages. I had seen them as early as 1985 when I was stayed with him for 6 months. As was the blogging style those days, I decided to document this process on my original Blogspot blog, “Raney Day Thoughts”. At the time, I thought perhaps this public declaration would force me to get it done. As it turned out, that fateful decision would leave me and the…

On YouTube these days, you might notice an explosion of videos of musicians playing transcriptions of their favorite artists for others to watch. The quality varies widely, from seamless renditions with completed scores to pretty bad ones. And there’s an increasing number of Jimmy Raney solos out there as well. Doug’s too. On the one hand, this increased and deserved exposure of the Raney contribution to jazz is certainly welcome given the chronic lack of recognition. But on the other hand, I am not certain about the intentions of the people doing them. I know my brother was suspicious of the growing trend certainly, while he was alive. (Ofcourse that’s…

Doug Raney’s personality is a bit hard to describe. He had a sort of tough guy, school-of-hard-knocks persona which he hid his intellect under. Where we grew up in Briarwood was sort of a melting pot. There was some racial tension from time to time but for the most part we all got along. You just had to be cool enough to hang in the clique and act like you were willing to fight even if (for the most part) you didn’t have to. The local place to hang was the P.S. 117 schoolyard with an alternate hangout in Hoover Park near Archbishop Molloy High School. As in any social…

Recently at least a few people asked me if I was playing anymore. I said no, because well, it’s the truth. I don’t really know how it happened. It just happened. Some physical things, a lot of mental things and boom, C’est fini. People ask me to sit in but I usually refuse and the more I don’t do it … the more I don’t do it. Jerry Bergonzi, though I adore his playing, basically had to drag me onstage to sit in. I was in the front row at his gig and there was no piano player so there was zero excuse. It was a great experience but honestly…

So, I’ll be honest. I haven’t been handling reaching my own 60th birthday very well (2 days from now). I’ve been in a real funk about it. Those of you who know me intimately have gotten an earful of my various infirmities and laments over getting old and the change in my once youthful appearance. I honestly dread people with a camera phone and intentions. Where is my hair going all of the sudden and why does what little I have look like straw? Why won’t these aches and pains go away? Blood pressure, cholesterol, thyroid, tinnitus, an unbreakable weight barrier and unmovable gut? My nose? Since when do I…

At times, I get inspired to talk about two particular aspects of Jimmy Raney’s language often missed: rhythmic subtlety absorbed uniquely from Bird’s model, and the difference between “lick playing” and “non-lick playing”. I’ve blogged about it some but perhaps not enough. Part of the reason I don’t do talk about it more is that it’s a mental slog both for the reader and myself – an investment on both sides. It also might come across as overanalytical of that which, on it’s own terms, imparts the complexity directly without “libretto” so to speak. Nevertheless, not to talk about it, if the various forms of public commentary is at all…