Very simply - are there any printed or video interviews with Jethro still around? I had no luck with a Google search.
Thanks.
Very simply - are there any printed or video interviews with Jethro still around? I had no luck with a Google search.
Thanks.
There was a Mandolin World News magazine with a Jethro interview, but it's not listed as being available on Dix Bruce's website. Maybe if you contact him he could get you a photo copy version. https://www.musixnow.com/MWN.html
"it's not in bad taste, if it's funny" - john waters
Frets Magazine, April 1989
Mandolin Magazine Volume 11, Number 1 Summer 2009
Fretboard Journal Number 18 Summer 2010
GREAT, thank you - exactly what I was looking for!
Part of my curiosity is about some recordings that you and he did together, and maybe these will help.
the recordings we did together are currently available as Jethro Burns The Legacy Sessions on Acoustic Disc. They are 3 CD's worth: Swing Low Sweet Mandolin, Bye Bye Blues, and the newly discovered/released Tater Bug Rag. All have been re-mastered in Hi-Def, which really did make a difference. On the original CD release of Swing Low Sweet Mandolin there are portions of the Frets interview I think included...
Given the less-than-high-fidelity of those original recordings (I once 'remastered' them myself at a local radio station, for my own personal use), I always wondered if they were intended for release to the public, or if they were simply recorded for your and/or Jethro's personal archives? (It always sounded to me like they were made with two very inexpensive microphones, plugged into a two track recorder - one mic in the left channel and one in the right . . . with Jethro getting the worst of the two microphones.)
Thanks again for your help!
I have the original CDs, and I think that the re-release, which I bought as downloads, sound a lot better.
"it's not in bad taste, if it's funny" - john waters
the notes in the original and subsequent re-release explain the intent of the recordings
the mics were Neumann KM 84's, the recorder a Fostex multi-track( 8 tracks, 1/4 inch, 15 IPS I think). The mix was done at Dawg's studio in Mill Valley CA, with hard left and right seperation achieved by a George Massenburg EQ which also helped remove unwanted sounds. I would hazard the guess that the lo-fi you perceive could be blamed on the recorder, which was chosen for portability and affordability. The songs were tracked either in Jethro's basement or my living room. Jethro did not want to go to a studio, he had already done that enough times in his 55 year, 50 or so LP, Grammy Winning career...so these were "field" recordings, if you will, and we did the best we could...
If you're looking for some more interesting Jethro reading, find his "Jethro Speaks" columns from the old Mandolin World News magazines. Great fun.
As for the fidelity on the Jethro/Don sessions, frankly, I never paid much attention to it. Maybe that's from years of listening to early Blues & Jazz. I just listened to the superb Musicianship of the two gentlemen. I love Jethro's solos, of course, but I love the way he simply (simply??) states the melody, the head, the theme. The way he can dress it up & not stray to far away from the tune. I wish they had done a CD's worth of Christmas tunes. It would have been great.
One time I was sitting with a friend of mine, he was not a Mandolin player, but he was a Musician. We had a Jethro record on. At one point he said, "Jethro has so much personality in his playing."
That is a great compliment.
If I learned nothing else from my lessons with him, I hope I absorbed some of that.
So, Donnie, got any more lo-fi Jethro sessions hidden away?
Joe B
I'll bet all in this thread are familiar with these, but for those un-,these lessons with Jethro are gems.
Gee, what if the Cafe was sitting on an interview with Jethro from 1988 no one had ever read? Say, one so fresh it was sitting in our email in-basket, so new even we hadn't completely read it?
Wouldn't that be nice??? Yea, probably couldn't be possible.
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Transcripts or (even better) recording of that interview would be great!
Just published a 1988 interview with Jethro courtesy of one of our forum members that shared it with us.
https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/c...urns-Interview
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