I once attended a local music symposium eons ago in my youth in the early 1970's, and oddly enough rockabilly guitar was one of the topics to be discussed The speaker / instructor's rockabilly solos had a full on maturity / fullness / coolness to them that the local rockabilly guitarists could only dream of. They were totally blown away by what they were seeing and hearing. The speaker / instructor told us that was because his real "jazz" in life was jazz guitar, and that he used that to his full advantage in his rockabilly solos. I know that there are many flavors of rockabilly, but what I saw and heard on that one day will always stand out as the high-water mark for rockabilly guitar solos. Truly mind blowing.
Tommy
So...listening to KCSM on my morning drive today, they're celebrating Blue Note records.
The tune was "Tiny's Exercise" (as in
Tiny Grimes) with the Ike Quebec Quintet, and I'm thinking to myself: that sounds like something that might have inspired Bill Haley, and sure enough the DJ cited it as 1947, the beginning of bop succeeding big band swing. (I LOVE bop).
Now I knew Grimes by name but that was the first time I ever heard any of his stuff that I knew of, and you can't convince me that rock-a-billy wasn't influenced by guys like him, now.
It foreshadowed Kenton's "Invention for Guitar and Trumpet" tune I mentioned earlier featuring Sal Salvador, recorded in '53, and given mass exposure in '55 in "Blackboard Jungle".
Anyway as it turns out
Hailey and Grimes were
both rising stars in '52.
(From Haley's Wiki page):
"Haley began his rock and roll career with what is now recognized as a rockabilly style in a cover of "Rocket 88" recorded for the Philadelphia-based Holiday Records label in 1951. It sold well and was followed in 1952 by a cover of a 1940s rhythm and blues song called "Rock the Joint" (this time for Holiday's sister company, Essex Records)."
(From Grimes' Wiki page):
"With Paul Williams, he co-headlined the first Moondog Coronation Ball, promoted by Alan Freed in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 21, 1952, often claimed as the first rock and roll concert."
So there's yet more evidence to me that "real" players (professional performers) listened to other players and borrowed at will and made something their own, and that's how we got rock-a-billy:
from country-western/western swing guys rubbing shoulders with bop guitarists.
Just another one of my "pet hypotheses" though, I'm open to other views.
