Geoff: 0:02

Hello podcats, Geoff Gascoyne here, hope you're doing well. Today I'm going to the Guildhall School of Music, which is a place I've been a teacher at for quite a few years, and I'm going to meet a fellow teacher, professor, if you like. His name is Chris Allard and he's a terrific guitar player, and we're going to have a little chat about various things, his doctorate in jazz guitar, his love of Pat Metheny, and I hope you enjoy it. Here it comes.

Announcement: 0:49

The Quartet Jazz Standards podcast is brought to you by the Quartet app for iOS, taking your jazz play along to another level.

Geoff: 0:58

It's Chris Allard, hello.

Chris: 0:59

Hello

Geoff: 1:00

, ow are you?

Chris: 1:01

I'm very well thank you.

Geoff: 1:02

We're here in the Guildhall. Opera singers and violins.

Chris: 1:06

In different rooms. What a racket. Well, it's Charles Ives' new piece. You've been teaching, yes, I've been teaching, yeah. Straight after this, going to the Vortex where I'm playing with my very fine Guildhall combo for one of their exam performances.

Geoff: 1:23

So hear here here you just had a one to zero.

Chris: 1:25

I have just had a one to zero, sadly, yes, and I was amused by the term because I hadn't come across

Geoff: 1:31

That, that's when a student doesn't turn up

Chris: 1:34

.

Geoff: 1:36

Can we start by just letting me know how you got started? You're into jazz, and how do you start playing guitar?

Chris: 1:42

My family are really musical on both sides. They had small baroque groups Not professional but good, and also my great uncle. He was a professional musician. He was a professor at the Juilliard in New York, amongst other places. Wow, and so I grew up surrounded by stories about him and how he was, sort of, he taught Michael Brecker.

Chris: 2:03

you know people like that who speak very highly of him and I had classical piano lessons as a kid. I was actually never tremendously good, but I always wanted to improvise actually, and it was just that classic thing of piano teacher not picking up on that at all, and so eventually I gave up and it was when I heard Hendrix really, and Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd when I was in my early teens. That's what drew me to the guitar and I immediately just got really into it and started playing in local rock bands, blues bands, and then when I heard Pat Metheny Letter From Home when I was about 16 or something like that, I could hear in the improvising that it was. it was everything, the the sort of freedom and expressiveness of rock guitar improvising, but just with all kinds of more stuff that I found really fascinating.

Geoff: 2:50

So you didn't start on classical guitar.

Chris: 2:51

It was actually when I finally went to Guildhall to study jazz, and in those days you had to study classical as well.

Geoff: 2:57

So what standard would you have got to your classical guitar?

Chris: 3:01

I can't believe it now and I wish I'd recorded it at the time. But I played some Bach in a couple of exams. That was really hard thinking back on it and I remember it feeling quite comfortable by the end. Basically I had to practice it all the time for those two years, to the massive detriment of my jazz playing at the time. But in retrospect quite a lot of work that I've done since has hinged on being able to play classical. So I've done quite a lot of tours with the crossover classical kind of world.

Geoff: 3:27

So what made you decide to come to the Guildhall

Chris: 3:29

Around that time I started playing with some people who were studying here. I'd just never really heard of the conservatoire world. In fact, my dad pretty much tried to put me off becoming a musician. Joe Allard senior, who was the professor, and musician in New York as I mentioned, he had actually tried to put my dad off it, and this would have been in the 1960s. He said, Joe, my dad was named after him too. Really, really good, conservatoire trained classical pianist who are a dime a dozen, and most of them can't earn a living. My dad ended up becoming a literature professor and just playing on the side, and so my dad tried to put me off in the same way, but I actually, um, I just rebelled against it and very, very, uh, committedly went down that road.

Geoff: 4:13

The roots were too deep, weren't they?

Geoff: 4:16

yeah, exactly, or by just stubbornness, yeah so do you remember how you first started? Did you transcribe things?

Chris: 4:23

prior to even going to the Guitar Institute and all of that I used to. Although I couldn't really read, I would transcribe things, just learn them by ear. I got into Django Reinhardt transcribed some of that I wrote it out in tab in those days.

Chris: 4:36

Actually Also things by Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, which obviously are really incredibly difficult, but I really spent hours and hours trying to get that together. Very technical stuff, that isn't it Very, very, very hard? You know, you know all kinds of stuff really. George Benson, Metheny, I remember learning all kinds of lines that I was really drawn to this altered sort of language, altered scale from the melodic, minor and diminished language, and I didn't understand what they were doing at all but I would work out the lines and then try and apply language.

Geoff: 5:05

And I didn't understand what they were doing at all, but I would work out the lines and then try and apply them. You say you weren't a great reader. Your reading must have improved, surely? Well, I've worked on that a lot, because guitar players are notoriously bad readers, aren't they?

Chris: 5:15

They? are absolutely. Yeah, and I forget who it was initially, but someone suggested that I practice reading Bach violin music, which is still, I think, about the best thing you can do as a guitarist. So all single note, yeah, that's right, although some of the partitas also have some double stops and chords in them as well, but generally it's physically quite reasonable for the guitar not necessarily to do it well, but in terms of the range, in terms of the fingerings and that kind of thing. So I worked through books of that. I've done a couple of small kind of show related type things and session things where I did have to read, but I was pretty, pretty bad at it. I then started practicing, uh, classical flute music and things like that where it's really, really awkward and difficult, really high, and all of the moments when you might get totally roasted and look really bad and possibly not get hired again. Yeah, as a guitarist, those moments in big band charts or whatever where it's a really high bit, and that's the only bit that really anyone hears, you know? so I wanted just to improve my percentage chance of getting that right, you know,

Geoff: 6:17

yeah, yeah so how much

Geoff: 6:19

is speaking of reading

Geoff: 6:20

I mean to now, how much is reading a part of what you do as, a as a working guitar player and a guitar teacher?

Chris: 6:28

Um, a huge part, definitely so you're involved with notation quite a lot all the time all the time at Guildhall

Chris: 6:35

, but also in almost every group that I play in.

Chris: 6:38

I used to do a lot more, and hopefully will again more, in the kind of studio realm, but I've done bits, bits and pieces of that and obviously that requires reading for the most part, yeah. So I've really worked at it a lot, and the rhythms too. I worked through the whole of the Louis Bellson odd meter rhythm text, whatever it's called, but that was invaluable.

Geoff: 6:57

And what about composing, Because I know you're quite a prolific composer aren't you?

Chris: 7:01

I remember when I was here, when I prolific composer, aren't you? I remember when I was here, when I was having lessons with John Paricelli and he said write a tune called Vertigo, yeah, which I then ended up going on to play a lot and recorded it. Right, I've done a lot of it in recent years and of course I I was very pleased to be part of your songwriting club in the early days of lockdown

Geoff: 7:18

that's right, which is still going.

Geoff: 7:20

You know, in a few months we'll be week 100. Wow, so in fact the meeting is tonight. Really, this week the subject is luck, really, oh, that's good. So you're more than welcome to come back any time you want,

Chris: 7:31

When I've got some time.

Chris: 7:32

I absolutely will, because in fact I got a lot out of that and in fact, the six sessions that I did, I got six tunes out of that, five of which I've actually used for things.

Geoff: 7:46

Fantastic, I recorded it. What? Four of them? I think, wow, that's. That's really good to hear. It's funny because there's been a couple of albums come out of it. Jackie Hicks has made an album. Dominic Ashworth has made an album. Jackie Hicks album will be out and she's called it Song Club oh, fantastic.

Chris: 7:57

Well it was. It was really great as I constantly am saying to students as well, having a deadline, whether self-imposed or not, and I think that's such a valuable lesson in just signing off on it, whatever you've done, and allowing it to be finished, and it's the same, I think or for me, even worse, with um recording a solo, because now, with technology, you could keep perfecting it indefinitely, to the point where you've changed everything about it yeah, and then come back and never be satisfied with it.

Chris: 8:25

Yeah, yeah. So this just means you have to finish it, and I always try when I'm recording solos these days, if I'm recording a take of a guitar solo or whatever, it is just to try and be you let it go let it go yeah and not, you know, the the absolute minimum of repairs and edits. Yeah, because I can never feel good about it afterwards if I hear it back, knowing that it's been fixed.

Geoff: 8:48

Don't you find it's like it's a statement in time? Your?

Chris: 8:51

solo is.

Geoff: 8:52

This is where I am now. Absolutely you know, then we'll move on. So let's just go through some of the things that you've done. I see on your from your CV. You worked with Russell Watson.

Chris: 9:05

I did about 100 gigs with Russell Watson in 2015 and that was a big classical guitar technique and reading thing because it was really difficult a lot of it and there was quite a lot of very exposed classical guitar and electric and bass and mandolin. I learned to play mandolin for that as well.

Geoff: 9:21

And, of course, Jackie Dankworth, who we both worked together . Absolutely. Are you continuing to work with her.

Chris: 9:27

Well, I saw Jackie a couple of weeks ago because I played at the Stables with the BBC Big Band and Jackie and Charlie Wood, her husband, who's himself also a fantastic musician, they're around the corner and I played on three of Jackie's albums and and this the very occasional uh gig these days with with guitar, but at the moment she's not really using a guitar but but she's great.

Geoff: 10:00

So let's talk about the apps, the Quartet apps. Have you used them? What's your experience?

Chris: 10:05

Yeah, well, I was certainly struck by the fact that they're so much more musical to play along with than any of the other similar things that I'd ever come across, like, like the player in iReal of, of course, that's the one that's very popularly used and it sounds very clunky, you know, although it's functional, whereas this is much more pleasing, and also the general interface on your apps and all of the little details, like there's the sort of album cover to go with each piece.

Geoff: 10:36

That was me, yeah.

Geoff: 10:38

That was my art school days.

Chris: 10:40

Oh, that's right of course.

Geoff: 10:41

Coming back yeah, so we asked you to pick a tune. Have you got a tune in mind that you'd like to play on? Well, I thought I mean maybe.

Chris: 10:49

How Deep Is the Ocean? How Deep Is the Ocean? Okay?

Geoff: 10:52

How about that? Now? Where is that? Let me find where that is. How Deep Is the Ocean is on Quartet, Volume 1. So you've got two choruses. Second chorus, the bass will probably go into four.

Chris: 11:03

Well, that's quite a good detail, isn't it?

Geoff: 11:05

Yeah, so are you ready? Yep, In the words of Martin Hathaway, no mistakes. So do, do, do do do. Thank you, yeah, yeah, fantastic. So, while you've got your guitar in your hand, can we talk about licks? Do you ever use licks? Are there any particular licks that you'll fall back on if you're stuck for an idea? How does it work in your improvisation,

Chris: 13:19

As we've've discussed before.

Chris: 13:20

I've spent a lot of time listening to Pat Metheny and I spent ages working on his, his little arpeggiated things, like when he'll go, that kind of thing and he'll sort of do three, these kind of three or four things, nice, and that one is. I completely stopped doing that. A couple of people suggested that I should probably not listen to Pat Metheny for a while. That's hilarious, and in fact, at the moment I've been working quite consciously to try and develop new kinds of language that sound more, hopefully, more distinctive.

Geoff: 14:01

That must be a hard one to get away from, mustn't it? Because it's such a strong influence, isn't?

Chris: 14:04

it Absolutely Well. If yeah, given that he, you know, I mean, how can anybody have ownership of something like that? But to me that just immediately sounds like Pat Metheny.

Geoff: 14:14

What you mean, the soulful kind of squiggly.

Chris: 14:22

Yeah, All of those kinds of little yeah. Yeah, you know there isn't really much language there at all, but it still sounds like Pat Metheny, yeah,

Geoff: 14:28

so

Geoff: 14:29

how are you getting away from that then?

Geoff: 14:30

That's the question.

Chris: 14:33

Well, I intentionally don't listen to Pat Metheny most of the time, even though I really want to, and in fact there have been a couple of times when I've been driving late at night on the way back from a gig or something and have been really you know, I don't know not in the best frame of mind.

Geoff: 14:44

It's like a drug that you can't have, isn't it

Chris: 14:46

Exactly Well, I will listen to it. If I'm feeling particularly terrible. I might listen to Slip Away from Letter From Home or anything from the Road To You Live in Europe and it inevitably, like immediately, makes me feel happy. But I do it very sparingly because it's like life is short for the amount of there's a lot of music to listen to.

Geoff: 15:08

Of course there is, but did you not study? You did a master's, didn't you, or something? Well, I'm still doing a doctorate, a doctorate At the moment.

Geoff: 15:14

Yeah, I'm doing a doctorate A doctorate At the moment, yeah.

Chris: 15:16

Wow, I'm hopefully nearing the end of it now, in which I have studied four different guitarists Lionel Loueke, Jesse van Ruller, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Nelson Veras in order to try and learn from their language.

Geoff: 15:34

Wow, what a great choice of people.

Chris: 15:37

Well, that's good to hear. Well, thank you. Yeah, I mean, I obviously find them all very inspirational and they're all remarkable and also they're all very contrasting.

Geoff: 15:45

How are you going about analysing these players? Are you transcribing them and picking apart how they actually improvise? Is that what?

Geoff: 15:53

you're doing?

Chris: 15:53

Yeah, well, what I've done is I've taken four complete tunes and transcribed all of it, one by each of them which was quite a mammoth task in itself because they were really hard and contrasting ones to address specific, different sorts of things about their playing and then I've analysed them, then selected a number of short, interesting, contrasting, complementary points from each of them and then taken, like, for example, a three-bar phrase that's got something interesting about it or something challenging, right, and then use that to develop my own language through this quite specific system, practice method.

Geoff: 16:32

Can you give us any examples of each one of them? Is there any one thing that you could play for us?

Chris: 16:37

I'm not sure I'd play it very well now. Just a there was a Lionel Loueke thing, for example very sort of West African yeah over the top of that, he does this pentatonic thing.

Chris: 17:04

I've been doing this for five years now

Geoff: 17:06

You've transcribed the tunes, have you transcribed what they do on solos, the whole thing?

Chris: 17:10

It was a real education in itself doing that. For example, the Nelson Veras one which is called Promessa, from his trio album called Rouge Sur Blanc. It's quite rhythmically free.

Geoff: 17:20

He's incredible. I don't know what planet that guy comes from. That's why I chose.

Chris: 17:24

I mean we spoke about this before. It is. It's incredible.

Geoff: 17:27

Yeah, he's absolutely, he's totally with with fingers, with nails, from a classical perspective. But his arpeggios and groups of notes and stuff are just yeah yeah, well, I'll say anything else I'll send you the transcription that I've done, if you like.

Chris: 17:41

Well, that took ages because it's so rhythmically sophisticated and also the way they're playing on. That recording is quite free.

Geoff: 17:52

For someone who's playing with his nails and so he's using three fingers, but you're playing with a pick, though, aren't you?

Chris: 18:01

Yeah, a pick and fingers, or sometimes with fingers, so that's a challenge just in that respect. Oh yeah, definitely Well that was part of the reason I chose him as well In order to be able to notate it and also just to figure out what he was doing. I ended up putting it in Logic and using the metronome in Logic, lining it up, just to try and figure out where I should put the one beat spending just hours and hours doing that, which was really good for my own musicianship.

Geoff: 18:26

It's in some odd modes, some Messian mode and those kind of things, isn't it?

Chris: 18:31

Yeah, there's quite a lot of that the augmented scale.

Geoff: 18:40

That's lovely. So, speaking of guitars, let's just short. I mean, this is quite geeky and just for my own personal interest. But you're left-handed, yes, and you play a lovely, beautiful Gibson 335. Yeah, in flame red, yes indeed. Other guitars. This is your go-to guitar, is it?

Chris: 19:00

This is kind of my go-to electric guitar. I do have a Strat as well, which I've never really felt that comfortable with Fenders actually, but I use it when you know, when required. And I've got a couple of other Gibsons as well. I've got a Les Paul Jr and an SG and I've got an Epiphone like arch top.

Geoff: 19:22

You never. You never wanted to go over to an arch top sort of well, full jazz

Chris: 19:26

I did.

Chris: 19:27

I did do. I did with the Epiphone archtop. I used that for some time. But the thing is, you see, I like, I like, I like bending strings, you know, and you just can't do that.

Geoff: 19:36

You really can't, you know. So you're using sort of medium gauge strings.

Chris: 19:41

Using 11s which are heavy enough really to bend. This is terribly interesting.

Geoff: 19:45

I'm interested can edit this one.

Chris: 19:48

I'm interested, I'm totally interested, I'm totally geeked out and I use a Martin acoustic, steel string acoustic, and I've got a classical guitar. Of course, a baguette.

Geoff: 20:00

And what about amplifiers and effects? Are you particularly fussy about that? Today you're using, which is one of the college's small cubes?

Chris: 20:12

yeah, just straight in right?

Geoff: 20:13

so yeah, it's not, and they're nice. A little bit of reverb and that's Peavey Mark.

Chris: 20:16

It's nice, um, I use a um generally for electric. I use a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, and even though they're really, really heavy and are prone to break down, but when they do work, I like them so much that I still carry it around. Yeah, um, and I also I do have a Polytone I haven't used it in a while and an AER for but that's better for acoustic guitar reading. Yeah, um, and I use, uh, I've got like a pedal board with a load of different things on it. Yeah, and I use Kemper Talent boosters as a talent boosters, talent boosters, and I use a Kemper for kinds of gigs where you, where you don't, wouldn't have an amp which I find great for that and for some and for recording too,

Geoff: 20:57

Excellent I've got some questions.

Geoff: 21:00

Oh, would you say you have a favorite album. Oh, I kind of get going to guess what it might be.

Chris: 21:05

But an album that would be my favourite album at this moment is a Tigran Hamasyan album called Ancient Observer. I really like that. Ooh. Ok, it's just piano and his own voice and some electronics, but I also I love Nelson Veras' Rouge Sur Blanc, Pat Metheny Road To You Live in Europe. Yeah and quite oh, Charlie Hayden and Pat Metheny Road To You. Live in Europe. Yeah and quite oh, Charlie Hayden and Pat Metheny. Beyond the Missouri Sky. Excellent choice.

Geoff: 21:35

There you go. That's the all-time one. There you go, I think so too. I saw that.

Chris: 21:39

Did you see them?

Geoff: 21:40

do that live.

Chris: 21:41

In London, in Barbican. In about 1999 or something. Yes, I did. Me and Trudy were in the front row. Really, that concert was one of the most moving concerts I've ever seen. I think Me too.

Geoff: 21:52

Really.

Chris: 21:53

Oh, that's good to hear.

Geoff: 21:54

Next question is is there a favourite musician, alive or dead, you'd love to play with?

Chris: 21:58

I guess the thing is most of the musicians I really admire the most. I'd probably just be too scared to play with them because they're too good. I suppose it would be great to get to play with Bill Frisell or Pat Metheny. Have you done many duos with other guitar players? Something that was a real learning experience for me in about 2008 or something like that, was doing a number of tours and one-off gigs with Jackie Dankworth, but with two guitars, with Mike Walker, obviously a great, great guitarist. There were a number that were just with bass and drums and two guitars, but then we did a tour of Scotland with just two guitars and voice.

Geoff: 22:37

So when you're playing with two guitars, are you using different parts of the neck? Are you deliberately kind of not treading on each other's toes? How does it work?

Chris: 22:46

Well, we very consciously use different types of guitars to change the sort of uh, you know, the sort of timbre, etc. I don't think that's so much of a problem with two guitars. That is a. That can be a problem with guitar and piano. Yeah, notoriously, um, and I've listened to there are. There are some notable uh recordings where that's sort of transcended very beautifully, like with Jim Holland, Bill Evans, of course, and Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau played. I guess there are quite a few examples. But I play with piano players a lot and it really depends on the chemistry of the people. But essentially, if one of you is doing something very mid-range, then the other should probably stay out of the way.

Chris: 23:28

That kind of thing obvious thing, taking turns to comp, and all that sort of stuff, although, yes, it is possible to comp it together. It's just a question of it not being very delicately done

Geoff: 23:40

Ok, excellent.

Geoff: 23:42

Do you think you have a highlight of your career or a memorable gig that you've done?

Chris: 23:47

There was a gig with the Palestinian singer, Omar Kamal at the Pyramid in of your career or a memorable gig that you've done. There was a gig with the Palestinian singer, Omar Kamal at the Pyramid in 2018, which was just for the awesomeness of the spectacle of playing in front of the pyramids. That was. That was quite amazing in Cairo.

Geoff: 23:59

Yeah, the actual thing, the actual pyramid.

Chris: 24:01

You don't mean the pyramid stage at Glastonbury, not the pyramid stage of Glastonbury though I'd like to do that and I never had, so that was pretty awesome. Also playing I've played um stage of Glastonbury though I'd like to do that and I never have, so that was pretty awesome. Also playing I've played um uh, a number of times with my own band at the Pizza Express and at Ronnie's, which is always that always feels like a highlight.

Geoff: 24:17

Yeah, do you enjoy being a band leader?

Chris: 24:21

Yes and no. I find it a bit. I find it it's vastly more stressful than not being a band leader.

Geoff: 24:26

It can be incredibly rewarding yeah, what was the last concert you went to?

Chris: 24:30

Well, I went to see one last night, actually just round the corner, but it's just my local gig. You know Stefan Redtenbacker's Funkestra. No, it was the Joni Mitchell thing. With Jana Varga, Pete Billington and I forget the name of the drummer, but it was very nice. The last sort of gig that I went out of my way to go and see was Tigran Hamasyan, actually at Cadogan Hall a few months ago playing solo piano, which was incredible.

Geoff: 24:56

What would you say was your musical weakness?

Chris: 24:59

Well, I've spent my whole adult life trying to address quite a number of musical weaknesses, which I guess is the way to improve, isn't it Probably memory musical weaknesses, which I guess is the way to improve, isn't it, you know, probably um memory I I struggle to. I struggle to memorize things, some things I can memorize and they just sort of stay, but like that's, that's a that's an issue.

Geoff: 25:19

Is that because you're so used to reading music and it's always in front of you and you don't have to memorize it?

Chris: 25:24

I guess there are some things that I've never, that I've learned that there never has been music for. I've never looked at it and I know. But then I guess it depends if the music's really complicated and there are loads of slash chords and changing time signatures and things like that. It's more information, isn't it? Learning Little Wing is easier than you know.

Geoff: 25:44

Do you ever get nervous on stage?

Chris: 25:46

Yes

Chris: 25:46

, Half the time it can be quite stressful and half the time it's just fine. And there doesn't seem to be any kind of correlation in terms of external sort of stuff going on as to why that is, as far as I can tell.

Geoff: 26:00

What do you think is causing that? Lack of preparation or too many people in the audience?

Chris: 26:06

No, I honestly think that and I've had this conversation with many people. Actually, I don't know what the correlation is. Obviously, if you are unprepared or something's really really difficult about it, then it's going to be stressful anyway. But there are times when, you know, the situation is quite exposed and quite intense and there have been gigs where is quite exposed and quite intense and there have been gigs where it's being televised or and or there's something that's solo guitar. For ages I did a um a number of tours with a great singer, Lea Salonga, and there's always a solo acoustic guitar or classical guitar thing and voice with, and there was the. It's always somehow really really stressful and intense. You know, yeah, yeah, doing that at the Albert Hall, yeah, it was quite sort of intense. You know, it's always somehow really really stressful and intense. Yeah, yeah, Doing that at the Albert Hall was quite sort of intense,

Geoff: 26:51

that's always an occasion isn't it

Chris: 26:53

yeah.

Geoff: 26:54

A couple of silly questions. What's your favourite sandwich?

Chris: 26:58

Oh sandwich. Well, I quite like a hummus and falafel wrap. It's not really a sandwich, is it Probably sandwich? Tuna melt maybe.

Geoff: 27:05

Tuna melt Very good.

Chris: 27:09

I think you were eating some hummus.

Geoff: 27:10

As we came in, I was eating hummus. Yeah, what about a favorite movie?

Chris: 27:12

Many years ago I would have probably said Star Wars. I watched a movie the other day that was very interesting actually, called Mirror Mask, British made movie and I believe did the soundtrack, which is fantastic actually

Geoff: 27:24

I also read on your cv that you've you've actually made some music for movies

Chris: 27:28

Oh yeah, relatively small capacity but I'd love to do more of it.

Chris: 27:32

But yeah, I um played quite a bit of tango music over the last number of years, not actually, not so much lately, but in a couple of, in a couple of groups. I then got asked, because I was involved in tango stuff, to write some music for this sort of tango scene in this film called Crowhurst.

Geoff: 27:50

Great. Is there a favourite venue you like to play in?

Chris: 27:53

One that's not quite so well known and that I'm very fond of is, in fact, in Colchester, near where I live, Colchester Arts Centre, because I'm very fond of the place. And it's very close to where you live, of course, and it's very close to where I live, but it also has a really great sound and it has a really good piano.

Geoff: 28:07

Excellent, excellent.

Geoff: 28:11

What about a favourite country or city that you like to visit?

Chris: 28:13

Well, I love going to Spain. I love going to South America. I've been to South America quite a bit. But, cities. I like San Francisco actually.

Geoff: 28:22

And finally, what's your favourite chord? I'm sure you're going to play it for us. Maybe this one? What about that Whoa, that record? I'm sure you're gonna play it for us.

Chris: 28:38

It's beautiful. Tell me what a good one Play all the notes from the from the bottom up. So it's going. It's like E minor, nine, major seven, sharp 11. I only said that because there was a thing a while ago, in lockdown a Guildhall guitar hang, a regular guitar hang, just to keep everyone from going insane, and there was a thing called the Cod or Chord of the Day, or Cow Chord of the Week, and so everyone would try and come up with the most awkward chords they could think of to try.

Chris: 29:07

And you know, yeah, that's very similar, but with a different voicing. That's quite a good Metheny one, you could call that like.

Geoff: 29:18

Well, there's again play all those notes from the bottom up.

Chris: 29:25

So it's like D flat major seven 7, sharp 9 sharp 11. Or you could call it. I remember Malcolm Edmonstone when he was the head of jazz at Guildhall, who's very good with chords. He described this as Fm Maj 9 Sus2 over Db. So he had a good reason for it.

Geoff: 29:49

So there's another one last question. Would you prefer C9 sus or B flat over C?

Chris: 29:56

Oh, well, that's a good question. That well I think I would prefer. I prefer C 13 sus four. Yeah, I reckon that's one of those chords that play on the guitar. That's one of those chords that's easy to play on the guitar, or you can play it like that. That's one of those chords with about 400 names.

Geoff: 30:16

It's interesting. You speak to piano players, don't you about? Do they prefer the slash version or do?

Chris: 30:20

they do. The Piano players tend to be more slashy, don't they? I think it's easier to see it all on the piano. No, I don't mind slash chords. That's um depending, yeah, but I think if it's easy, if it's easy to write it out without a slash chord, I'd rather, I'd rather it were just, you know, straightforward, more straightforward um, if it was soul music or something, then quite often you'd see b flat over c.

Geoff: 30:41

Yeah, yeah, that's true yeah, g minor nine, b flat c rather than c sus. Yeah, you know exactly what you're going to get, I suppose.

Chris: 30:49

Yeah, yeah, it's a sort of genre thing. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Geoff: 30:55

Well, there we go. I think that'll do it. Thank you very much for your time. It's been fascinating. Thank you

Chris: 31:00

Well, it's been a pleasure.

Chris: 31:02

Yeah, I'll look forward to checking out the new apps as they appear.

Geoff: 31:04

Qu to checking out the new apps as they appear, Quartet 3 and 4 has Pat Metheny on it. Has it really? Yeah, wow, Always and Forever, Better Days Ahead, Bright Size Life.

Chris: 31:17

Oh, fantastic First song It's.

Geoff: 31:18

Just Talk. oh, you've got loads, james. Oh, question and answer. And he recorded Old Folks as well, didn't he Old Folks? He was on Question and Answer.

Chris: 31:26

And he recorded Old Folks as well, didn't he Old Folks? He was on Question and Answer.

Geoff: 31:29

Yeah, So May It Secretly Begin, Waltz for Ruth.

Chris: 31:33

From the first tune from yeah, from the Missouri Sky, yeah, so they're all there. Oh amazing, a whole Metheny section.

Geoff: 31:41

It's there, yeah, incredible. So we've done Stella by Starlight, of course, in the first, but now we're getting to Kenny Wheeler and Pat Metheny and Herbie Hancock and all that stuff. Yeah, right, there we go. That's brilliant. Have a great day, well, thank you. Thanks, it's good to be in the back in the Guildhall. Yeah, thanks, mate.

Chris: 32:00

Thanks, Geoff brilliant.

Announcement: 32:02

Thank you for making it to the end of them as they land. The Quartet Jazz Standards Podcast is a UK Music Apps production. Quartet for iOS, taking your jazz play along to another level. Search for Quartet on the App Store or find out more at quartetappdotcom.