The Way You Look Tonight : B.K.P Stormy Mondays Archtop .

[Fourth Feline]

Just one last one ...

Another B.K.P Stormy Monday II /roundwound string / Ibanez AF75 clip - as the file hosting did not let me load the comparative B.K.P. Manhattans / Flatwound strings version ; which was the original idea. :?   I must get round to moving the files to another host - although that can wait a bit - as after this little ditty , I have run out of stuff to post - until I absorb some new ideas and start applying them  to new arrangements, and improving my previous attempt at " My Funny Valentine " .

http://www.box.net/shared/ofn8z296uq

" Thank you ; you've been a great audience " ...

( Runs for fire exit ) -

'No refunds' .  :lol:

[gordiji]

Very soothing ff , lovely tone.

[choucas09]

I've always loved that song or at least since seeing Fred sing it to Ginger with her hair full of suds. Once again stirling stuff FF. There's so much sensitivity in your playing. You mentioned somewhere about your morphing into Jazz, when was this?

[Fourth Feline]

Thank you Gordiji and Choucas .  :D

Soothing is indeed what I aim for . As for when I morphed into Jazz , it was about a year(ish) ago.

I had seen and chatted to a very friendly and tasteful local player ( Jez Franks ) back in about 1997, who's example made me promise my self  that ( when I stopped gigging with a local 'Commitments / Blues Brothers type covers band )  - I would start what I perceived to be this formidable task.  Not only did that not happen , but worsening mental health issues meant that I did not play anything for a few years after that.  since about 2005/6 (ish) - I started enjoying the guitar again, with the idea of learning some Larry Carlton style. But, it was still ( in many ways ) only an extension of the old stuff - and by now I had lost contact with the performing / gigging community ; and more to the point, had lost my nerve for performing in front of anybody . As such  I needed an absorbing solo project - that perhaps one day , I could eventually build up material / ability / confidence - to try 'after dinner'  / intimate presentations to friends and such, or even accompanying an amateur Jazz singer.  From hereon in, it was going to be all about enjoying the music in my own quiet way - and not about gigging.

 Ongoing concentration problems really do slow the learning process down a lot ;  but at least the therapeutic /   personal gratification value of this gentle style - means that there is no real rush, as I am (re )building an avenue of expression for my remaining years - already being over 50.

I forget exactly how the resolve to learn and love 'Gentle Jazz' finally got the starting pistol ;  but I remember seeing  Joe Pass doing his 'Solo Piece' whilst mooching round on you tube . I subsequently bought the " Evening with Joe Pass' DVD - which surprisingly  also contained a documentary style informal interview / insights into his rehearsal / part of a 'masterclass' at the Guitar institute - and finally a handful of numbers from that night's performance.

The pivotal thing, was that Joe's interview showed me that you don't have to be clever at the outset, but willing to try and explore / build on songs you liked. Now that I felt was less intimidating than what I had long thought learning Jazz was going to be about.

It relaxed me - and helped me fight back against the 'head health' issues ; and then , about 2- 3 months ago, I tried my first  three or four attempts on a handful of 'Music College chaps' I knew , who seemed to like what they heard. The idea that I should ever post clips on this forum was not even thought of, until I ended up with the first 'tunes' stored on my computer - as a side issue from testing my Tracktion software, and thought 'oh what the heck' and posted those first four Manhattan clips.

In summary, I love a sweet and sentimental song ;  and I have NEVER had this much enjoyment with any other ( attempted ) styles - plus it means that any eventual 'gigs' could be a sharing of relaxed vibes instead of an adrenaline pumping sequence of insufficiently rehearsed and emotionally detached cover versions in noisy pubs and clubs. Horses for courses and all that.

Well that was a long story ; but in the case of my B.K.P. forum and other 'musical bretheren' - who I like to consult, I feel it somehow helps future correspondence and 'note sharing' if the back story and intended direction of the music is understood.

That's why I so like this forum, it's such a nice place .  :)

[choucas09]

FF me old china I'm feeling ever closer to you. I'm a raving type one bipolar lunatic. My whole life has been a catalogue of disasters. I go so effing wild you just wouldn't believe it. The obverse to my character is collosal depression. When I'm down I can't and don't play. Last summer I came out of an 18 month downer where I calculate I only played for a total of 3 weeks. In 1979 on a rabid evening when I was living in Newquay I wilded it clean out of a 2nd floor window and broke my back, amongst other things and was told I'd never walk again. Well I did walk again, but now I have to stick a tube in to have a piss and my colon is increasingly fu**ed and I have "trouser accidents". But yeah at the end of the day so what, I spend about 2/3 of my time like a frightened lamb and the rest watch out. It ain't much, but it's home.

[Fourth Feline]

FF me old china I'm feeling ever closer to you. I'm a raving type one bipolar lunatic. My whole life has been a catalogue of disasters. I go so effing wild you just wouldn't believe it. The obverse to my character is collosal depression. When I'm down I can't and don't play. Last summer I came out of an 18 month downer where I calculate I only played for a total of 3 weeks. In 1979 on a rabid evening when I was living in Newquay I wilded it clean out of a 2nd floor window and broke my back, amongst other things and was told I'd never walk again. Well I did walk again, but now I have to stick a tube in to have a piss and my colon is increasingly fu**ed and I have "trouser accidents". But yeah at the end of the day so what, I spend about 2/3 of my time like a frightened lamb and the rest watch out. It ain't much, but it's home.

Yet again you have surpassed me dear friend ;as  I could only 'manage'  Bi-Polar type II.  :mrgreen:

It does leave rather a 'Motorway pile up ' doesn't it ?   My own ( relatively ) modest yet entrenched situation being made worse in the fact that It now transpires I was so from childhood, yet only got a correct diagnosis at about about age 48.  By then the old ' output transformer ' was fried - and of course they don't make spare parts .  You will know first hand  how there is no 'stable' state between the potential extremes, only a few days / weeks when the opposing two mindsets get 'liquidised' together, in what is somewhat euphamistically referred to as a 'Mixed state'.

The medication(s) certainly seem to have a grudge against the body - and as such changed my weight and waist size pretty quickly. At least that focused my motivation to resume weightlifting ,  as I thought - well, if I am going to put on an extra 20 kg fast - I might as well try and make some of it useful...  :lol:

So ; single - and early retired by a panel from the B.M.I .  I just love it ( not ) when casual aquaintences say " Ooo how lovely, retired young - you lucky Devil " - or worse,  " Well I can't see anything wrong ".  Obviously oblivious to the fact that if they are talking to you in the local shopping centre, this was one of the days you felt able to attempt the shopping centre .  I would love to inject them with something that induces the Bi-Polar pathology in them for several months, then ask them to reconsider their assumptions, that they would like to have it for life, in exchange for the day job. However, it has revealed some great friends to me - and of course being 'reverse wired' can sometimes have it's creative moments ; albeit the assumed creativity of mania is illusory - and only when I began to be medicated out of existence, did my garble of thoughts occasionally allow any sort of focus.

That being one of the embarrassing reasons that my forum posts ( however sincerely considered ) tend to be either  five words, or five pages - AND I have to edit each post about eighteen times, to correct all the mistakes...  :lol:

Still ;  it makes you appreciate the good things when you can doesn't it ?  Our lives being a 'microwaved' experience of everybody else's slow cooker.  If asked now about why I'm not wearing the smart suit of yesteryear and in 'gainful employment' , I just say " My name is Legion, for we are many " ...  as that is not only accurate - but also frightens the tits off them. :lol:

I used to be the moderator and occasional 'Agony Aunt' on the "Secret Life Of The Manic Depressive " subsection of Stephen Fry's website ; but decided to leave all that behind - and only go to 'hobby' and entertainment sites. As much as they were a nice set of people ; I didn't need the association with B.P re-enforcing every time I logged in. Not to escape in denial - of who and what I was, but rather in order that I might attempt to balance the illness with an equal and opposite 'real life' outside the trenches.

There Choucas ;  we've 'outed' ourselves on this great forum - what a relief.  :)


All the very best with your own ( more severe ) situation mate ;  for when I think of a young lady I occasionally see - who was in Hospital with me in 2003 who is also Type I ; what she ( and by implication you ) has to contend with is even a quantum leap beyond my 'challenges'.

" Shine on you crazy diamond " ...  8)
 

[choucas09]

Ah but it keeps us off the streets.

[Fourth Feline]

Ah but it keeps us off the streets.

 :lol:

Nice one  Choucas   :lol: ; a very quotable retort indeed.   :)

By the way ;  did you  find any of your lost plectrums whilst crouching behind the furniture ?  I was in two minds as to whether I should ask.

Now ;  Ginger Rogers being serenaded with her hair in suds - there's a lovely thought to contemplate.  :)

[choucas09]

Isn't it though. God she was so delectable in her day and with women like that it's not just about looks. You could see her empathy and humour shining out intermingled with that drop dead gorgeous face. And we haven't even mentioned her talent yet. What a gal.

[Fourth Feline]

Isn't it though. God she was so delectable in her day and with women like that it's not just about looks. You could see her empathy and humour shining out intermingled with that drop dead gorgeous face. And we haven't even mentioned her talent yet. What a gal.

Absolutely.  :) Whilst I loved the look of Viviene Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor - there seemed to be an air of self absorbtion.  It was Ladies like Ginger Rogers and Audrey Hepburn that proved an inner beauty, even more radiant than the outer. I love that ( rather well worn ) quote about her talent :

" Ginger could do everything that Fred Astaire did, backwards - and in high heels " .  :lol: