Here's a post with some music appropriate for April Fool's Day. It's a video of Herb Ellis (on the right) and Barney Kessel (left) jamming on one of the greatest cartoon show theme songs of all time, the Flintstones Theme. Ellis plays so fast on this video that he's ahead of the video! (Seriously, it's a mis-synch. I hate when videos have that problem, but this one's not too bad.)
Herb Ellis died on Sunday at the age of 88. He was among the last of his generation of jazz guitar players. If you scour YouTube for videos of Ellis playing, you see that many of the people he jammed with on those videos have passed away: Charlie Byrd, Tal Farlow, Joe Pass, and the other player on this video, Barney Kessel. Others innovators of Ellis's generation are gone, too, among them Les Paul and George Van Eps. It's a blessing that Toots Thielemanns (who is even better known for his whistling and harmonica playing) and Bucky Pizzarelli, both in their 80s, are still active. If you can catch one of their shows, do it. You'll be listening to a legend.
That was fun.
Ellis looks a little like Barney Rubble.
Posted by: Chris | April 01, 2010 at 09:41 AM
My God, he does!
Posted by: Marty | April 01, 2010 at 09:55 AM