[.ca] Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 3

From Amazon.com:
If you asked Bob Wills what kind of music he and his Texas Playboys played, he sure as hell wouldn't have said "country." He resented any association with "rural music," and once the western part of the term country & western somehow vanished, he felt even less (if possible) kinship with that genre. This Tiffany volume focuses exclusively on the jazz and blues staples that Wills adored, and it brilliantly highlights the band's improvisational sophistication. Most of the material here was popularized by jazz and blues legends of the 1920s and 1930s including Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Bessie Smith, and Memphis Minnie. As with all of the Tiffany radio transcriptions, recorded at the Playboys' late-1940s peak, Wills's crew would have at these tunes without a shred of rehearsal, giving them each that spark of spontaneity. --Marc Greilsamer

Timeless Texas Perfection:
I can't play this cd without dancing. Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys show their chops, in this masterpiece. Bad to the bone guitar, pedal steel, violin. Bob is all over it, even singing scat! This recording is a must have for any fan of Real Texas music.

These guys are cookin':
When folks talk about styles of jazz and swing, they mention Kansas City, Memphis, Chicago, New Orleans, New York City, et al. Bob Wills and his Boys prove they are "The Hot Club of Tulsa". It is too bad that many of these cuts were "previously unreleased". The Playboy's version of "Take the 'A' Train" is hot enough to singe the Duke's fingers.

The best of the Tiffany Transcriptions:
An almost perfect album, unmarred by the "commercial" cowboy schmaltz of many of the Playboys' recordings. Some incredible guitar and violin solos.

Listen to Junior and this is the real playboy sound!:
A tribute to Junior Barnard get the tiffanies for him June 16, 2003 One of the most important legacies of the Tiffany transcriptions is the work of Lester Barnard Junior, the great guitarist who played with Wills between 1945 and 1947. His tenure with the band is largely missing its Columbia recordings of the Day. Barnard was like Spade Cooley's steel Guitarist Joacquim Murphy: he would simply disappear for weeks, and months at a whim or an intuition, but would always return to the band. Unfortunately, he died in an automobile accident in 1947. Barnard was the real precursor of modern rock and rockabilly guitar playing. He set up his guitar in his own way with a DeArmond pickup and a pickup from a steel guitar, wired out of phase. He was one of the first to use a volume pedal. His though he had modified acoustic jazz guitars to electrify them, Junior's guitar almost always sounded like a solid body electric, not like an electric jazz guitar. Thankfully, lots of Junior's work was recorded on the Tiffany recordings--in fact they ought to put out a best of Junior Barnard. On this CD listen in astonishment to the original version of the The Barnard Blues which snarls and twists and bites and cuts like something the Allman brothers would not be ashamed of. In fact this tract has been selected for several CDs offering the best of "country" guitar. I also love the Frankie Jean recitation by Tommy Duncan on this tune, and the guitar, mandolin, and steel trio work of Eldon Shamblin, Tiny Moore, and Herbie Remimngton on Crazy Rhythm and A-Train. The selections here indicate that this is jazz oriented-music as another reviewer has pointed out. Even four or five times which sounds like a traditional country bag is really out of the Lionel Hampton book! Just writing about it makes it sounds so good, I almost started to buy it, even though I have had this stuff since it first came out years ago.

I am confused:
I am really confused. Looking at the playlist for Tiffany Transcriptions Vol. 10 and then reading the reviews has me wondering what is going on. The music mentioned in the reviews has nothing in common with the titles on the playlist. What happened?

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