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Prologue
Legendary guitarist, teacher and author, Ted Greene
passed away at his home in Encino, CA on
July 25th. I didn’t hear about
it until I saw the quarter page obituary in
the Los Angeles Times on the morning of
August 10 while I was eating breakfast.
Although I didn’t know the man, it was a
shock. He profoundly touched my life as far
as my guitar playing goes.
Back in the early 80s when I was studying jazz guitar
at Loyola University in New Orleans, a
classmate of mine (who was also in my class
at De La Salle High School in New Orleans),
Bob Folse (www.bobfolse.com),
turned me on to Ted Greene’s book entitled,
“Chord Chemistry.” I believe this was Ted’s
first book. I hadn’t been playing for very
long. I bought my own copy and Ted’s
explanations immediately unlocked much of
the confusion that I was having with
learning to play the guitar.
I didn’t immediately pursue jazz guitar at the time,
per se, but “Chord Chemistry” really
contributed to my fundamental knowledge of
neck geography and chord logic, which really
helped me move on in and understand the many
different areas of music throughout which I
have explored through composition,
performance and study. And, naturally, the
book always had a place in my bookcase with
the rest of my music books and scores.
From time to time, over the years, I would wonder about
Ted Greene, about what he might have been up
to as far as perhaps a discography or
information about people and bands with whom
he might be performing or recording. I
wouldn’t consider this to be a particularly
uncommon expectation or unreasonable
assumption when considering the talent and
reputation of this man (ALL good guitar
players know of him!).
I don’t mean to say that I ever made finding him into a
project, or anything like that, but
sometimes I would Google his name on the
Internet, the way we all do with things
about which we are curious. I thought, for
sure, that he must have toured with or
recorded with some kind of band or
well-known artist. But nothing like that
ever came up.
Only his books came up, of which he wrote four: “Chord
Chemistry,” “Modern Jazz Progressions: Jazz
and Classical Voicings for Guitar,” and the
two volume “Jazz Guitar: Single Note
Soloing,” all of which are still recognized
as probably the most important instructional
books ever written on the subject of jazz
guitar, some 30 years after their original
publication. (It is amazing that a man then
in his twenties, if my math is correct,
could have the insight revealed in this body
of work). They are all very easy to find at
most music stores and on the Internet.
The Meeting
Anyway, in August 2003, I received an email invitation
to attend an art show opening at the
Constellation Salon and Art Gallery Studios,
in North Hollywood (www.constellationsalon.com).
I am afraid that I do not remember who the
showing artist was but the email said that
the music would be by guitarist, Ted
Greene. (Wow!). My son was familiar with
“Chord Chemistry,” too, because of the
cover: a photo of a man with a full beard
and long hair, playing the guitar. (My
yellowed copy of the book, at the time, was
almost 25 years old and the photo was taken
a few years before that upon original
publication). On the night of the show we
took the book with us and headed for the
gallery.
When we arrived we found, among the art spectators who
were drinking wine and chatting as they
looked at the paintings, a man in his
mid-fifties, clean-shaven and balding, who
was playing the Telecaster in the photo on
the first page of “Chord Chemistry!” We
walked up within a couple of feet of him. I
held the book up to Ted and he smiled. He
smiled hard. You see, it was apparent that
no one else present at the art show had any
idea who he was.
All I can tell you is that watching Ted Greene play was
amazing. He didn’t perform, per se, but
rather, he sat and did his thing, playing
through smooth chord solos, single note
solos and bass lines in incredible ways that
I had never seen before. I knew he would be
amazing because of the way that his books
had been written. Anyone with the wisdom
and knowledge of the guitar that I knew Ted
had to have been able to write his books,
would have to be a good player. But to be
there in person a few feet away, well, as I
said, was amazing.
From Bach to the Beatles and from jazz to blues to
arrangements of recognizable songs from
Broadway shows, he went in and out, playing
a non-stop mega-medley.
When Valerie Noble, one of the owners of the gallery,
came over to greet my son and I (I have had
a long standing relationship with the
Constellation Salon and Art Gallery Studios
both as a client and as a performer at
events there on dozens of occasions over the
years), Ted smiled (still playing, of
course) as he watched me tell her about him,
and showed her my yellowed book, which was
over twice the age of my son.
I didn’t expect her to know who he was because she was
not a guitar player. But after she saw the
book and understood who he was, I think she
felt like she wanted to do something to show
the man some respect, so she said to me,
“Let me get this man a fan!” (From playing
so long and so intensely, Ted was visibly
sweating buckets even though the temperature
of the room was very comfortable).
In seconds, she returned to the room with an electric
fan and commenced to set it up next to
him. She was working slowly and
respectfully, adjusting the stand, plugging
it in, aiming it, etc., as not to distract
Ted from his playing or detract too much
attention from him. But he stopped playing,
cold, right in the middle of an intricate
passage. He gently said to her, knowing she
meant well, “Please don’t turn on the fan!
It will alter the temperature of the room in
the area surrounding my guitar and cause it
to go out of tune.”
Valerie looked at him dead in the eye with a look of
bewilderment, looked at me, then looked back
at Ted and said, “What did you say?”
Before he could speak, I interrupted and
told Valerie to put the fan away. I nodded
to Ted, assuring him that he could resume
playing with the satisfaction that he could
continue to play, uninterrupted, without any
further explanation and without hurting
anybody’s feelings.
I didn’t leave my post in front of Ted for the rest of
the night. And, by the time I left the
gallery for the evening, I think I had shown
my old book and told what little I knew
about Ted to at least a couple of dozen
people.
I finally did get a chance to talk to Ted briefly and
tell him how much his book had helped me
when I first started playing and about my
music. He was courteous, kind and
respectful and a real gentleman.
As we talked, he also pointed to one of the guitars in
the photo in “Chord Chemistry” and told me
that he had been forced to sell it years ago
due to financial difficulty. He then bought
it back, years later, when his situation had
improved. Unfortunately, I don’t remember
which of the guitars it was.
He cheerfully signed my yellowed copy of “Chord
Chemistry” (he’s the only person from whom I
have ever asked an autograph) and wished me
well. I will never forget that night.
The Memorial
On Sunday, August 14, Ted’s family and friends held a
memorial gathering in his honor in the
Grand Ballroom of Beverly Garland’s Holiday
Inn Hotel (www.beverlygarland.com)
in North Hollywood. I had the good fortune
to be able to attend.
The room was packed with friends, students, former
students and some of the best-known guitar
players in the world. Folks took turns
getting up on the stage and telling great
stories about Ted. Most of them dealt with
how humble he was and how kind he was to
others.
At that memorial I was lucky enough to meet guitar
legend, Lee Ritenour (www.leeritenour.com),
who was really cool. He told me that he
used to know Ted years ago when he was about
19 or 20 years old.
Those at the memorial also talked quite a bit about
Ted’s favorite charity, “The Greene
Project,” which helps homeless people (http://www.cafepress.com/tedgreenetshirt
and
http://www.epath.org/index_01.php).
Evidently this was a cause about which he
was very passionate.
Epilogue
The week that I met Ted was an amazing week for me, as
a guitar player, because, you see, in
addition to meeting Ted Greene, I also met
guitar legend Steve Howe (www.stevehowe.com)
backstage at a YES (www.yesworld.com)
concert at the Gibson Amphitheater in
Universal City (formerly the Universal
Amphitheater).
I ran into Valerie the other night, at the Infusion
Gallery in downtown Los Angeles (I was
playing a gig with Dover Abrams (www.infusiongallery.com)
and told her of Ted’s passing. She
remembered the night he played at the
Constellation and smiled as we recalled the
“fan incident.”
The guitars Ted had with him that night (August 18,
2003) were the Telecaster, as mentioned
before, and the hollow body guitar that he
is playing on the cover of “Chord
Chemistry.” Although I don’t remember what
kind of amplifier he was playing through, I
distinctly recall that it was plugged into a
digital recorder. Hopefully that recording
will eventually surface.
I was told by a couple of people who knew Ted well,
whom I met at the memorial service, that the
performance described above, on August 18,
2003, may have been one of his last
performances.
There is only one recording that Ted Greene ever
released as a leader, entitled, “Ted Greene:
Solo Guitar.” Long out of print and
originally released in 1977 (Ted was only
about 30 years old), this studio album was
re-mastered in the fall of 2004 and released
on CD. It is an absolute solo guitar
masterpiece (there are no other instruments
and no overdubs). I just purchased a copy
from Art of Life Records (www.artofliferecords.com)
but you can find it through many other
venues on the Internet. (The album is
mind-blowing. I will be writing a review
of it very soon on the sites that publish my
reviews of CDs).
For more detailed biographical information about Ted
Greene, his charity and information on
upcoming benefit concerts that will be held
in his honor go to
http://www.tedgreene.blogspot.com.
©2005 Scott Detweiler. All Rights Reserved.
Scott is an accomplished musician in his own rite. For more
details, log on to
www.detweilermusic.com, or write
to scott@detweilermusic.com.
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