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Selected MP3s of guitar instrumentals, jazz, big band, and classic easy listening from the original vinyl.

Welcome to Guitars & All That Jazz

Welcome to Guitars & All That Jazz

Guitars & All That Jazz was a radio station that webcast via Live365 for 11 years, ending in June 2011. The playlist consisted of guitar instrumentals, jazz, big band, early rock 'n' roll, lounge music and classic easy listening.

I hope to share some of this music with you via this blog. Most of it will be taken from the original vinyl (LPs and 45s) , cassettes and the occasional commercially unavailable CD.

Here's hoping you'll find something to enjoy. Please note files are available only for a limited time.

I urge you to purchase the digital version of the albums featured, either on CD or via download, wherever possible.

Listen to the Music
There are now two music streams. Click the appropriate player to the right.
1. Guitars & All That Jazz: Five hours of the best in jazz, guitars and other instrumental gems. New songs are added weekly.
2. Tiki Shores: Music to sweep you away to a tropical isle, a South American dance floor or a bossa nova on the beach at Rio. About 4.5 hours of classic exotica music, Latin rhythms and bossa nova.
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Sunday, February 24, 2013

Billy Mure - Tough Strings



Guitarist Billy Mure (1915- ), like Buddy Merrill, was heavily influenced by Les Paul's multitrack recordings and his LPs, like Supersonics in Flight on RCA Victor and Supersonic Guitars on MGM, contained lots of pyrotechnic fretwork.

Alas, his albums didn't sell all that well and are now quite collectible.

Mure got his start during the big band era, joined the station orchestra at New York's WNEW in 1947 and did a lot of work in the recording studios. (For a biography of Mure, visit Space Age Pop Music.) His playing on the Ames Brothers' 1950 hit Rag Mop is sometimes cited as the first rock 'n' roll guitar solo. There's no question that Mure plays some hot licks on that record, but whether that constitutes rock 'n' roll is highly debatable.

Tough Strings, his only album for the Kapp label, came out in 1961 and consisted of cover versions of mainly instrumental hits by the likes of the Ventures, Floyd Cramer and Jorgen Ingmann. You can listen to what he does with the Ventures' Walk Don't Run from the link below.

Walk Don't Run

Tough Strings isn't available in a digital format, but there are several of Billy Mure's MGM albums available as on-demand CD-R's or downloads. These are almost certainly sourced from vinyl, so the usual listen-before-buying caution applies.

As for Mure himself, he's still playing frequently (as of Feb. 2013), at the age of 97, at Squid Lips Overwater Grill in Sebastian, FL.

To close, the Ames Brothers, with Billy Mure on guitar.


The Ames Brothers - Rag Mop-1950 by CASVI_Factory

3 comments:

  1. I bought "Tough Strings" in 1961 (and still have the vinyl). I have cleaned up the tracks and have converted them to digital mp3 format. Let me know if you want more information... regards, Rod

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  2. Still have the vinyl myself, although I bought it some years after its release and probably at a thrift store. Thanks for your comment.

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  3. would like to know and where can we contact by phone , for Johnny stiles and luther Randolph 20 16 , marva.lee sunn10023@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete