Freddie Green

Freddie Green (born Frederic William Green ; born March 31, 1911 in Charleston , South Carolina , USA ; † March 1, 1987 in Las Vegas ) was an American jazz guitarist . His characteristic was especially the refined rhythm work on the guitar in big bands , especially the Count Basie Orchestra , where he belonged to the "All-American Rhythm Section" with Basie on piano , Jo Jones on drums and Walter Pageon the bass .

Life

Freddie Green came into contact with music at an early age and learned the banjo before getting into the guitar as a teenager .

A friend of his father's, Sam Walker, taught young Freddie to read music and encouraged him to play guitar. Walker gave Freddie his first engagement, so to speak, by having him play in one of the bands at the local orphanage, which he directed and which performed nationally as the Jenkins Orphanage Band and were known nationwide. Interestingly, another member of this group was the young William "Cat" Anderson , who later became known as a trumpeter in Duke Ellington's band .

Unfortunately at that time, Green's parents died and he moved to New York City , where he lived with his aunt and continued his education. In New York, Freddie discovered a new musical world. Still a teenager, he began to play various clubs in town. At one of these appearances he caught John Hammond's eye , who saw the possibilities in Green's game and introduced him to Count Basie. Basie reluctantly went to a gig by Green (according to another version he listened to him in his dressing room) but immediately recognized his potential and offered him a place in his band, where he replaced Claude Williams , whose game Hammond did not like .

Green's technique on the unamplified acoustic guitar was to play only a few key notes on each chord. He muffled the notes that were not supposed to sound with the fingers of his left hand. This technique resulted in a “plucked” sounding “fat” rhythmic sound without pushing itself harmoniously into the foreground, which should not always have been compatible with the tones of other orchestra members. In his entire career, Green has rarely played melodic (single note) solos.

The rhythm section worked so that no instrument was louder than the other and Basie set the rhythm. As soon as that was established, the others took over and held it. Green monitored the rhythm in the later bands with not so reliable musicians. That and his precise rhythm work earned him the nickname Mr. Rhythm .

Green was a pioneer of guitar playing in the rhythm section of a big band. With a few exceptions (e.g. in The Elder / 1962), he usually did not play solos in the Basie Band .

After Basie's death, Green et al. a. in the Basie Band and with Manhattan Transfer .

Recordings with other musicians such as Benny Carter , Lionel Hampton , Kenny Burrell , Billie Holiday , Sonny Stitt , Big Joe Turner ( Boss of the Blues , 1956), Herb Ellis , and Lester Young were only sporadically made over the years .

Discographic notes

• Rhythm Willie with Herb Ellis, Ray Brown , Jake Hanna - Concord Records , 1975.

Trivia

When Basie had to break up his big band for financial reasons in the late 40s, he continued to work with a sextet - Clark Terry tp, Buddy DeFranco cl, Wardell Gray ts, Viktor Lewis b, Gus Johnson and Basie on the piano. But from the first concert on, Freddie Green was there unannounced, uninvited and unpaid - and so the Basie Sextet consisted of seven musicians until the big band was re-established.

swell

1. ^ ^{A b c d e} Ian Carr , Digby Fairweather , Brian Priestley : Rough Guide Jazz. The ultimate guide to jazz. 1800 bands and artists from the beginning until today. 2nd, expanded and updated edition. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-476-01892-X .
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon. Rowohlt, ISBN 3-499-16317-9 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Freddie Green in the catalog of the German National Library
• Freddie Green website