Cheek to Cheek

[NSM]

It's been far too long since I last posted here - I'll rectify that omission now if I may! This is a take on Irving Berlin's great tune 'Cheek to Cheek' - this version is strongly influenced by Chet although it is not in any way a direct 'cover' as such - I'd say that Django and maybe even Joe Pass had some influence on my arrangement too

Thanks for listening/watching (in all honesty there's not really a lot to look at!) - and I promise I won't leave it so long before I post again!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O83uQwg9SbI

[Norm]

Excellent!!

[Roger Pratt]

Mighty Fine!!!!

[MrAstro]

I really enjoyed that - really great playing!

[Chuck]

Nice playing and tone. Great work, thanks for posting!

[LMark]

I thought that the second half was especially creative. Made me want to go pick up my guitar. Chet's arrangements had the same effect on me years ago. LMark

[NSM]

Thanks for the kind comments folks I'll post another one shortly.

[Richard Hudson]

Good job, Neil.

[DagerRande]

Neil, that was nice! You've given me a little more courage to continue working on trying to post here. My goal is to do original arrangements, influenced by Chet and/or Jerry, but not trying to reproduce what they did because we have so many great guitarists here who do quite well with that. It's not a put-down to tell you that you don't sound like Chet, but that doesn't seem to be your goal anyway. Thanks for sharing here!

[NSM]

Thanks Richard and Dager

Neil, that was nice! You've given me a little more courage to continue working on trying to post here. My goal is to do original arrangements, influenced by Chet and/or Jerry, but not trying to reproduce what they did because we have so many great guitarists here who do quite well with that. It's not a put-down to tell you that you don't sound like Chet, but that doesn't seem to be your goal anyway. Thanks for sharing here!

I like what you said there Dager. I went through a phase of copying arrangements by Chet a number of years ago - I see that as study, rather than a goal in itself. I enjoyed it - I had a great sense of achievement from finally being able to play 'Blue Angel' and 'Cascade' to name but two that I struggled with for some time! There is nothing wrong in copying another player, it's a valuable learning experience and when it's done well, it's great to listen to and to watch. For me though, Chet is a major influence on my playing and always will be but so are a number of others - Django, Charlie Christian, Jimmy Bryant, Richard Harding, Joe Pass, Brent Mason, Tim Walker, John Renbourn, Ollie Halsall, Roy Lanham and more recently Julian Lage are also players who 'float my boat', and whose arrangements I have, in the past, sought to copy for educational purposes.

For myself, I'd sooner keep Chet's music alive by taking influence from him rather than copying him directly - I love his playing so much that there is no way I could stop being influenced by him even if I tried. I hope folks here are OK with that - my goal is to sound like me - 'you can't out-Chet Chet' as a very wise man once said to me on another forum.

None of what I'm saying is intended to be in any way whatsoever controversial, or critical of people who enjoy playing Chet's arrangements - I can take as much pleasure as anyone else from watching someone like, say, Matt Cowe - Matt plays Chet's arrangements with musicality and fluent technique and he obviously understands and 'feels' that style, I love watching his videos.

I guess that what I'm really saying is that if we ALL did the same things, it would be a boring ol' world - later on, (today if I get the chance), I'll post another one of my 'Chet influenced' tracks.