[tcsned]

I was trying to add some piano to Must've Been the Roses tonight and my guitar synth was making some shitty noise. Wife was out of town, mother-in-law was watching the kids so I started playing with Douce Ambience probably my all time favorite Django tune to play. It has a really cool chord progression and it's way fun to play over. I've always thought that the Mutron III was a great effect for that Django swing sound so I mashed it all together. I used the amp simulator in Logic Pro 7, I used a Bassman sound w/a little crunch since I couldn't find a cleaner sound I liked. I used my Del'Arte Hommage for the acoustic lead and doubled the rhythm part with my Taylor 810 and the Del'Arte.The electric is my WGD with Barden pickups -->Mutron III -->Logic. The bass is my '73 P-Bass run direct. The drums are just a kick and snare loop (if I do anything else with this I'll get someone who can actually play drums to do it). Not a polished tune by any stretch, but that's the story of my life - start a buh-zillion things finish only a few. It's been fun getting back into doing some recording again. I hope you enjoy!

http://www.vtcli.com/media/tom/douce1.mp3

[WilliamC]

Sweet indeed!

[ronster]

That's not polished? That totally kicks. I'm putting that I on my Ipod. What is the chord progression and scale(s) you are using?

[tcsned]

thanks ronster!
the chords for the intro are:
D7 - Ebmaj7 -E7 - F6 - Bb6 - Ebmaj7 - D7sus4 - D7
part A:
Gm7 / Am7 D9 | Gm7 / Am7 | Bbdim7 / Bm6 / | Cm6 / Eb9 / | Ab7 / D9 / |
Gm7 / Am7 D9 | Gm7 / Am7 | Bbdim7 / Bm6 / | Cm6 / Eb9 / | A7 D9 Gm7 / |
Abm6 / / / | Abm6 / / / | Am6 / / / | turnaround [F9 E9 Eb9 Db9 D9]
Gm7 / Am7 D9 | Gm7 / Am7 | Bbdim7 / Bm6 / | Cm6 / Eb9 / | A7 D9 Gm7 / |

Song structure:
intro / A / A / B / A

I basically use a G harmonic minor scale

I love those early Django tunes. The are less "outside" than jazz got in the late 50s and 60s. Not that I don't dig Miles and Coltrane but that stuff is a lot more challenging for a rock/bluegrass player like me to get a good handle on playing. I took jazz improv at VT from Joe Kennedy - the jazz violinist, not the politician he used to play with Benny Carter. Always told me I was too close to the melody for bebop and I should stick to swing . . . or better yet rock-n-roll I wish I had a few more years of experience before taking that class, I was only a sophomore and not that far removed from only playing pentatonic scales. Joe Kennedy was a badass.

[WilliamC]

In case anyone's interested, Django's earlier version is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4uZx4aukKw

Again, nice work tcsned

[tcsned]

Jimmy Rosenberg and Angelo DeBarre do sick versions of this tune to, those gypsy jazz guys have some great technique - I could never get use to the mostly all downstrokes that those guys play with. If anyone is interested I've got a bunch of rhythm tracks I found on a French site that has rhythm guitar tracks to a bunch of his tunes to practice to. I probably have 30 or so.

[tcsned]

oops! I gave you a wrong chord progession, here's the way I was playing it:
the chords for the intro are:
D7 - Ebmaj7 -E7 - F6 - Bb6 - Ebmaj7 - D7sus4 - D7
part A:
Gm7 / Am7 D9 | Gm7 / Am7 | Bbdim7 / Bm6 / | Cm6 / Gm7/Bb / | Ab7 / D9 / |
Gm7 / Am7 D9 | Gm7 / Am7 | Bbdim7 / Bm6 / | Cm6 / Gm7/Bb / | A7 D9 Gm7 / |
Abm6 / / / | Abm6 / / / | Am6 / / / | turnaround [F9 E9 Eb9 Db9 D9]
Gm7 / Am7 D9 | Gm7 / Am7 | Bbdim7 / Bm6 / | Cm6 / Gm7/Bb / | A7 D9 Gm7 / |

I can't think without a guitar in my hands

[ronster]

I'd would be interested in getting tracks to Douce, Minor swing, and Sweet Georgia Brown. Is the site still up?
These are just great tunes to come in and out of jam from.

[WilliamC]

Not sure if this is the site tcsned meant but:
http://nuagesdeswing.free.fr/jouer/jouer_index2b.html

Stephane Wremble is re-organizing his site so some things have been mislaid:
http://www.stephanewrembel.com/

Also be sure to check out the fora at http://www.djangobooks.com/forum/

There's TONS of Django stuff out there once you start looking for it!

[tcsned]

WillaimC - that's the one. Looks like it is still up and working. I like the way the gypsy-jazz guys chart out chords (the "grilles") - with the boxes for measures and dividing the box into 4 for each beat etc.

gypsyjazz.net is a good resource for videos, books, picks, gypsy-jazz strings (which can be hard to find), and cool guitars (I got my Del'Arte from Alain when John Kinnard was still associated with the site).

[tcsned]

if there is anyone out there that uses the AXE-FX or the Eleven unit for computer recording? do they work like a plugin for recording software like Logic or ProTools? I believe there is one out there called Amplitube that does that but not positive. Do you run the analog output into the computer or does the computer call up the unit and apply it to the track when mixing? If that makes sense. The amp simulator in logic is reasonable but some of the sounds I've heard from Vic's Axe-FX sound a lot better. The cool thing about using the Logic amp simulator is that the signal is recorded w/o the effect so I can just call up a different amp or change settings and I've got a new amp. I'm sure ProTools works the same though I haven't really messed with anything but Logic.

[milobender]

Totally sweet man!



Thanks, it's really great.

[tcsned]

Totally sweet man!



Thanks, it's really great.

Thanks milobender! It's been fun to do some recording for fun again - I do a lot of little video background music thingies for work but it's been years since I've done something for myself.

[JonnyBoy]

I always enjoy listening in on your projects. You've got some cool thoughts running through the creative side of your brain.
The transition from the acoustic lead to the mutron was a bit, i dunno volume?, but still fantastic. You're right about the mutron fitting right in there. Flawless on all other instruments too. Wish you lived a little more to the south and I would be begging to work with ya. Keep posting, I enjoy listening to other peoples work around here a lot, especially yours!! -Jboy

[tcsned]

I always enjoy listening in on your projects. You've got some cool thoughts running through the creative side of your brain.
The transition from the acoustic lead to the mutron was a bit, i dunno volume?, but still fantastic. You're right about the mutron fitting right in there. Flawless on all other instruments too. Wish you lived a little more to the south and I would be begging to work with ya. Keep posting, I enjoy listening to other peoples work around here a lot, especially yours!! -Jboy

jonnyboy - agreed I was just listening to it and was thinking the same thing. I'll play with the volume level a bit to see. It seems to me it was just the beginning that sounded quieter than the acoustic part but it could just be my ears readjusting.

If you ever make it up to the beautiful Blue Ridge Mts look me up. Are you close to Clarksdale? I've always wanted to visit the home of the real king of R&R - Muddy Waters - I read a really cool book getting my history MA on the great migration and wrote a paper about how the invention of the mechanical cotton picker helped create rock-n-roll.