Henry Johnson plays his sig model live

[rjsanders]

yeahman

 

[smurph1]

yeahman

 

Awesome, RJ..Thanks for posting..the smile on the guitar players face was worth the price of admission..

[Gitfiddler]

Wow! Henry is really on top of his game. He and his signature Heritage archtop sound incredible. If anyone wants to know how HRW's sound in an archtop, show them that video.

 

Notice the clear tape over the f-holes to suppress feedback?

 

Wonderful chops.

 

Thanks for sharing that linky.

[rjsanders]

...

 

Notice the clear tape over the f-holes to suppress feedback?

...

 

no! what is it & how's it applied?...thanks for pointing that out,

[smurph1]

Wow! Henry is really on top of his game. He and his signature Heritage archtop sound incredible. If anyone wants to know how HRW's sound in an archtop, show them that video.

 

Notice the clear tape over the f-holes to suppress feedback?

 

Wonderful chops.

 

Thanks for sharing that linky.

Yeah they REALLY are awesome sounding pickups!! Having chops like that doesn't suck either..

[Spectrum13]

Does that look like a 17 inch to you? Sure looks more like an 18 being how small the HRW's look and it has the H tail.

[Gitfiddler]

Does that look like a 17 inch to you? Sure looks more like an 18 being how small the HRW's look and it has the H tail.

 

 

 

The spec sheet says it is 17"...but Mr. Johnson isn't a big guy.

 

HeHenry Johnson Signature specsnry Johnson Specifications :

 

25 1/2” scale

20 fret bound ebony board, Mother of Pearl

Block inlays, 5 piece curly maple neck joins the body at the 14th fret, Mother of pearl “ The Heritage” on headstock

17” body with 3-1/4” rim, 20-1/4 length solid carved white multi-bound spruce top

solid carved multi-bound curly maple back and rim, single bound “F” holes

Roller bridge

Gold hardware

[FredZepp]

Love that tune.. I liked it on the Chester and Lester album..

 

great vid and nice tone.

 

[bolero]

wow, that was awesome!!

 

first time I ever heard that was Les Paul playing it way back, who wrote it?

[bebove64]

Great vid!

And here's another one:Henry Johnson meets Wolf Marshall....Heritage meets Heritage!

 

[Patrick]

Great vid!

And here's another one:Henry Johnson meets Wolf Marshall....Heritage meets Heritage!

 

 

That was so great!! Unfortunately, purists accused Henry Johnson of "selling out" when he recorded two smooth jazz albums, just as they did George Benson when he crossed over to popular. Henry was always a great traditional jazz artist. Just could never get any real acclaim or make any real money in the traditional jazz genre. His comping behind Wolf was tremendous. Comping is an art form in and of itself. Probably the single most difficult discipline in jazz guitar. His comping followed the melody beautifully without conflicting with the bass lines. I never knew, until I listened to this "Flintstones" how similar Henry's pick attack is to George Benson's. I always knew his many of his lines were paraphrases of things that George did years ago. That was one of the reasons he was sold short in traditional and bebop jazz. He was perceived by the critics as a George Benson wanna-be. The guy is just a great jazz player. I hope to see Henry do more of this type playing real soon. Not selling Wolf short either . . his playing was tremendous also . . . but, that's not at all unusual for Wolf. Buy the way . . . I LOVED Wolf's Super Eagle . . . (except for the tail piece)

[Bulldog]

Thanks for this excellent posting. I've not heard of Henry Johnson but his version of Caravan was just great. I remember having the pleasure of both seeing live and meeting Duke Ellington in the early 1970's - and yes they did play Caravan. Actually, as a punk kid in a substance induced walking coma I spent about an hour hanging out with the band's singer - who was in the same state of cognitive compromise as I. It's wonderful how life changes and we survive the past.

[rjsanders]

wow, that was awesome!!

 

first time I ever heard that was Les Paul playing it way back, who wrote it?

 

Juan Tizol, ca. 1936 or '37, the trombone player here

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4XKHkzDggk

[NoNameBand]

Love that tune.. I liked it on the Chester and Lester album..

 

great vid and nice tone.

 

+1. I of course like the drums on the original.

[Flat]

An H tailpiece is extra cool if your name is Henry, ain't it? Some guys have all the luck. ;-)

 

-Flat

(oh well, at least I get f holes ;-)

[Spectrum13]

That was so great!! Unfortunately, purists accused Henry Johnson of "selling out" when he recorded two smooth jazz albums, just as they did George Benson when he crossed over to popular. Henry was always a great traditional jazz artist. Just could never get any real acclaim or make any real money in the traditional jazz genre. His comping behind Wolf was tremendous. Comping is an art form in and of itself. Probably the single most difficult discipline in jazz guitar. His comping followed the melody beautifully without conflicting with the bass lines. I never knew, until I listened to this "Flintstones" how similar Henry's pick attack is to George Benson's. I always knew his many of his lines were paraphrases of things that George did years ago. That was one of the reasons he was sold short in traditional and bebop jazz. He was perceived by the critics as a George Benson wanna-be. The guy is just a great jazz player. I hope to see Henry do more of this type playing real soon. Not selling Wolf short either . . his playing was tremendous also . . . but, that's not at all unusual for Wolf. Buy the way . . . I LOVED Wolf's Super Eagle . . . (except for the tail piece)

 

 

Patrick,

 

What is it about that tail piece you don't like?

 

 

 

 

 

[Patrick]

Patrick,

 

What is it about that tail piece you don't like?

 

It's just a personal taste thing for me. The finger tail piece is kind of "art deco" appearing. I'm a die hard traditionalist when it comes to arch tops. I made up my mind that I didn't like it way back when Gibson introduced it on the Le Grand, post Johnny Smith. I'm sure it's a great and very functional tail piece. I just don't like the way it looks.

[bebove64]

That was so great!! Unfortunately, purists accused Henry Johnson of "selling out" when he recorded two smooth jazz albums, just as they did George Benson when he crossed over to popular. Henry was always a great traditional jazz artist. Just could never get any real acclaim or make any real money in the traditional jazz genre. His comping behind Wolf was tremendous. Comping is an art form in and of itself. Probably the single most difficult discipline in jazz guitar. His comping followed the melody beautifully without conflicting with the bass lines. I never knew, until I listened to this "Flintstones" how similar Henry's pick attack is to George Benson's. I always knew his many of his lines were paraphrases of things that George did years ago. That was one of the reasons he was sold short in traditional and bebop jazz. He was perceived by the critics as a George Benson wanna-be. The guy is just a great jazz player. I hope to see Henry do more of this type playing real soon. Not selling Wolf short either . . his playing was tremendous also . . . but, that's not at all unusual for Wolf. Buy the way . . . I LOVED Wolf's Super Eagle . . . (except for the tail piece)

 

Ok Patrick,here are some other vids:

 

http://www.sfguitarschool.org/video.html

This music is culture,passion,hard work,this music is art!!!!!!!!

[Kuz]

That was so great!! Unfortunately, purists accused Henry Johnson of "selling out" when he recorded two smooth jazz albums, just as they did George Benson when he crossed over to popular. Henry was always a great traditional jazz artist. Just could never get any real acclaim or make any real money in the traditional jazz genre. His comping behind Wolf was tremendous. Comping is an art form in and of itself. Probably the single most difficult discipline in jazz guitar. His comping followed the melody beautifully without conflicting with the bass lines. I never knew, until I listened to this "Flintstones" how similar Henry's pick attack is to George Benson's. I always knew his many of his lines were paraphrases of things that George did years ago. That was one of the reasons he was sold short in traditional and bebop jazz. He was perceived by the critics as a George Benson wanna-be. The guy is just a great jazz player. I hope to see Henry do more of this type playing real soon. Not selling Wolf short either . . his playing was tremendous also . . . but, that's not at all unusual for Wolf. Buy the way . . . I LOVED Wolf's Super Eagle . . . (except for the tail piece)

 

I agree that some of his other offerings were smooth jazz oriented, but anyone who likes bebop jazz guitar and doesn't have "Henry Johnson: An evening At Sea" is really missing something. He certainly didn't "sell out" on this album. Quite honestly, it is my favorite guitar jazz CD, short of George Benson classics.

 

I really think Henry Johnson is my favorite Jazz Guitarist since I discovered him some 4 or 5 year ago. BUY THIS ALBUM, PERIOD!!!

 

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000507Y9/qid%3D1118877747/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr_11_1/104-9071647-8258357

[Patrick]

I agree that some of his other offerings were smooth jazz oriented, but anyone who likes bebop jazz guitar and doesn't have "Henry Johnson: An evening At Sea" is really missing something. He certainly didn't "sell out" on this album. Quite honestly, it is my favorite guitar jazz CD, short of George Benson classics.

 

I really think Henry Johnson is my favorite Jazz Guitarist since I discovered him some 4 or 5 year ago. BUY THIS ALBUM, PERIOD!!!

 

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000507Y9/qid%3D1118877747/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr_11_1/104-9071647-8258357

 

Thanks for the heads up on the album. I'm going to order it today. I have one of his smooth jazz albums, but I can't bring myself to listen to it for any length of time. It's so commercial and pop. Drums are sampled and it's way over produced.

 

I'm thinking that "An Evening At Sea" was recorder live when he did the Jazz Cruise with other jazz artists? He's a great player with traditional bop roots. Now that he has experienced the magic associated with earning real money, by crossing over into pop . . . I doubt he will be making too many more real jazz albums. Similar is true with Norman Brown. I saw him live at B. Smith's in Manhattan with a quartet. He did mostly bebop and I was floored. But, I can't listen to his commercial/smooth stuff.

[Kuz]

Thanks for the heads up on the album. I'm going to order it today. I have one of his smooth jazz albums, but I can't bring myself to listen to it for any length of time. It's so commercial and pop. Drums are sampled and it's way over produced.

 

I'm thinking that "An Evening At Sea" was recorder live when he did the Jazz Cruise with other jazz artists? He's a great player with traditional bop roots. Now that he has experienced the magic associated with earning real money, by crossing over into pop . . . I doubt he will be making too many more real jazz albums. Similar is true with Norman Brown. I saw him live at B. Smith's in Manhattan with a quartet. He did mostly bebop and I was floored. But, I can't listen to his commercial/smooth stuff.

 

Hey Patrick,

 

Did you listen to the samples of the tracks?

 

If you don't like it, I will buy it from you. I can only stream the album from my Rhapsady account and I was thinking about getting a "real" CD copy anyway. My feeling is you won't want to sell it to me!

[Patrick]

Hey Patrick,

 

Did you listen to the samples of the tracks?

 

If you don't like it, I will buy it from you. I can only stream the album from my Rhapsady account and I was thinking about getting a "real" CD copy anyway. My feeling is you won't want to sell it to me!

 

I did listen to the samples. It sounds great. When I was ordering it, there were 2 available . . . then one of them suddenly disappeared. I was going to buy them both and send you one. I had to alter my order quantity. Did you order it? I also listened to another of his CDs while on the Amazon site. I was going to buy it just for "Lush Life." It's an old Billy Strayhorn tune and one of my favorites. (Not too many people know that Billy Strayhorn wrote Duke Ellington's "Take The A Train".) But all of the other tunes on the CD sucked. Wimpy Smooth Jazz stuff.

[Kuz]

I did listen to the samples. It sounds great. When I was ordering it, there were 2 available . . . then one of them suddenly disappeared. I was going to buy them both and send you one. I had to alter my order quantity. Did you order it? I also listened to another of his CDs while on the Amazon site. I was going to buy it just for "Lush Life." It's an old Billy Strayhorn tune and one of my favorites. (Not too many people know that Billy Strayhorn wrote Duke Ellington's "Take The A Train".) But all of the other tunes on the CD sucked. Wimpy Smooth Jazz stuff.

 

Well, for thinking of me, but I didn't order a copy. Like I said, I have the CD on my Rhapsady account and on my MP3 player, so basically I can listen to it whenever I want.

 

Very Nice gesture though, thanks.

[smurph1]

Thanks for this excellent posting. I've not heard of Henry Johnson but his version of Caravan was just great. I remember having the pleasure of both seeing live and meeting Duke Ellington in the early 1970's - and yes they did play Caravan. Actually, as a punk kid in a substance induced walking coma I spent about an hour hanging out with the band's singer - who was in the same state of cognitive compromise as I. It's wonderful how life changes and we survive the past.

LOL..ain't that the truth!!

[koula901]

Great tone out of these jazz boxes, nice looking, too. Wish I had those chops!