A nice, Jazzy rendition of Home on the Range. Also, a great story about Jack playing and singing Home on the Range for president Roosevelt.

I'm better than he is. I can play that song with only four chords.

Now, that dude knows some passing chords! Talk about overkill!

I LOVE IT!

Russ

Ironically, when I first got married in 1962, I nearly purchased the Roosevelt motor yachts, which was pretty much a derelict sitting in Curtis Creek, near Baltimore Harbor. At the time, they marina was asking $10,000 for the yacht, which was in deplorable condition and required a huge amount of maintenance and repairs to make it livable. I passed on the deal, mainly because I just didn't have that much money and the time to make all the necessary repairs.

The boat was sold, and later moved to Cambridge, Maryland, where it served as a Tidewater Fisheries Commission vessel to enforce oyster and clamming laws, until it was again sold, totally restored and moved to California where it became a museum boat.

From what I was able to find, the restoration cost was nearly a half million dollars. Probably a good thing I didn't but that boat. Carol thought the same!

Gary

Haha. I know what you mean. Actually, three chords would be enough without a secondary dominant. I just thought that some of us would like a little break from all the hardware/software talk.

Chris

Chris, thanks for posting that ... I didn't know you could put that many chords in one song ...

Hi Tony, you mean that many chords in a measure? Once a retired local music store owner, a pretty guitar player himself, "complained" to me about our mutual friend a B3 player, "I don't know how many chords he squeezes into a single measure."

Here's my idea of tasty chording behind a vocal. Magic, with just 2 hands, and 2 vocal cords.

Talk about massive chord overkill!


I LOVE IT!

Was in California in the 60's when Joe cleaned up. He would come into a venue and try to do interventions.

Everyone ran in the other direction.

How lucky was I to have met him?

Russ

I enjoyed his playing and singing. I don’t think his chords were overkill, he’s just playing the wrong song for his type of playing.

It’s not good when the chords take away from the singing.
John C.

In my early days Joe Pass was my favorite. Bought all his books, studied his method. I went to see him in the Village, a restaurant bar type of place. The place was noisy, I thought no one would be able to hear him. He played his first chord and the place became silent. I’m betting most of them were guitar players.

I am not sure what guitar he was using, maybe an L5 Gibson??? The next time I went to see hm he was playing a thin-hollow body made by Jimmy D’Aquisto. Jimmy D’Aquesto made me the exact same guitar. To my surprise, I didn’t play any batter. (smile)

John C.

Dave, what’s Joe Pass got to do with this post? There no comparing. Grrrr!

Just another way of doing the same thing - guitar/vocal, but I like Joes choice of chording ... it shows another way of accompanying a vocal using interesting changes, and passing tones. I'd be very uncomfortable trying to sing over Jack's changes.

In some sense I'd say that the song is a good choice to show how one can reharmonize and jazz things up. I think it's a good way to make Jazz more accessible to those who are not familiar with Jazz. We can see that Jack wasn't really “performing” but casually playing and accompanying himself on the well-known tune, which by the way is the official anthem of the state of Kansas. When president Roosevelt requested “Home On the Range,” Jack said, “I deliberately played my guitar accompaniment with a cowboy twang...and sang it like I was still on my horse. When I finished his song...he seemed emotionally touched. With a big smile he said, "Thank you, thank you, Mr. Skiles." I bet he didn’t play more than four chords then. Here’s a rendition of another old tune written in 1852 My Old Kentucky Home by Lois Armstrong.


New Orleans style Jazz version