Robben Ford Discussion

leftyguitar · Member Joined: 07 Dec 2005 Posts: 15 Location: Michigan

Anyone ever notice it? In the Ohne Filter DVD "Robben Ford & The Blue Line in concert" (April 7, 1993 recording). In the second solo in "Worried Life Blues' Robben goes off into weird notes, starts laughing when he realizes what happened, looks over at the bass player who doesn't react to it. It happens to all of us at one time or another...I feel Robben's pain each time I watch it. Has this ever been mentioned or discussed before? I wonder what he was trying to do and how he got hung up...any ideas? Smile

FatTeleTom · Senior Member Joined: 12 May 2004 Posts: 191

JohnnyZ · Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 5:03 pm Post subject:

It's part of what makes this particular dvd "fun"!
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leftyguitar · Member Joined: 07 Dec 2005 Posts: 15 Location: Michigan

Yea, I love that DVD..watch it all the time..it's even on my laptop desktop:) Along the same lines...I don't know if you guys are into Diana Krall, but if so, you may have also noticed a strange key center change in her solo take on Joni Mitchell's 'A Case of You'. During her piano solo there is an area where she gets quite wacky with the changes..not sure if it was intentional or not...guess this will bug me for a long time. Either way, what she does there in no way fits the beauty and simplicity of the tune...guessing her jazz chops got in the way...but what do I know! Laughing

frank0936 · Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 8:36 am Post subject: Flubs

Years ago the Disney channel had a program called "Disney at Night". I was watching Clapton in concert and he totally lost it on the opening bars of the "Sunshine of Your Love" solo. He did the same as Robben, just laughed and went on to dazzle me the rest of the solo. On the "Unplugged" DVD he starts a song and has to stop because he still has his slide on and it's not a slide number! It's nice to see that even the pros mess up, and it's instructional to see how well they recover.
Frank

jconstant

sidneystreet · Member Joined: 29 Jan 2005 Posts: 29

Yep, I notice it every time. What it tells me is we are getting our money's worth. Robben is really trying to create new stuff everytime he plays these tunes, and not just painting by the numbers. I enjoy hearing artists reach so far that occasionally the idea kind of spontaneously combusts. But, being a true professional he just shrugs it off and continues to go for it. Too cool.

fingerlakes · Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2005 3:18 am Post subject:

On Robben's DVD I noticed the wrong note, but I'm never sure if it's just a mistake or something these guys are hearing that I can't.

As for Dianna's brilliant rendition of " A Case of You", I saw her perform that song live and the interesting key changes were part of the piano solo as well. That is such a great song and one could have heard a pin drop in the theater while she performed it. She played it as part of a tribute to Joni on TV, and i thought I saw a tear in Joni's eye.

leftyguitar · Member Joined: 07 Dec 2005 Posts: 15 Location: Michigan

jconstant..I think you hit the nail on the head...off a fret or two. I am familiar with altered chords and substitute scales, and what he did there wasn't any of it. Yea, it's great to see these guys are human and can accept it and shrug it off. It's true, if Robben didn't reach for something new once in a while, his playing would not be as exciting. When you think about all the great players with phenomenal technique and the ideas to go with it, it is amazing how accomplished a human being can become given the gift. I am always in awe of Cannonball Adderly's technique on the sax. You can name a few more I'm sure. I put Robben in the same category on guitar....love his chops!

leftyguitar · Member Joined: 07 Dec 2005 Posts: 15 Location: Michigan

gill · Member Joined: 07 Aug 2004 Posts: 31

SO WHAT HE MADE A MISTAKE......there is not player on the face of the planet that hasn;t screwed up. thats a lot of music to play and we all have those momments it just doesn't work. but the recovery is so good that it not even important he miss a note or phrase. i've seen the best players out there and it happens. laugh it off and keep going. the players in the audiemce always smile with them and have a great time with the music. music is fun not a competition or some sort of test. merry xmas gill

juspasinby2003 · Senior Member Joined: 18 Dec 2003 Posts: 255

jconstant

renico00 · Member Joined: 17 Jul 2003 Posts: 32

Maybe I'm listening to the wrong thing, but that wasn't a mistake. I think we're talking about the phrase at 17:10?

Jeff

Aeolian · Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 9:40 am Post subject:

I always thought it was pretty obvious that he put his hand in the wrong place. He's going for pretty standard licks for him and he'd just moved his hand up the neck. The way he instantly stops and grins says that he realized there wasn't any graceful way out of it. His hands were commited to the lick and it just wasn't going to work in the wrong key.

Like everyone says, the sheepish grin at Roscoe and diving right back into it shows what a class act Robben is, and how he's not afraid to put himself out there. I've seen lots more subtle mistakes live where he goes for something and doesn't quite make it. His incredible ears and amazing command of the fretboard usually lets him find a way out, but you can tell from the look on his face that he had something else in mind. It's all good, even those accidents end up being great music.

It's happened to all of us, although most don't have the ability to get out of trouble so gracefully. Some years ago, I found myself in way over my head, in between John Wedemeyer and Terry Hiatt trading fours over a ripping Gibson Creek Shuffle. Both guys were burning it up and at one point all I could come up with was running a fast 4 octave scale up the neck. But I started out a half fret off. Too late, by the time I heard it, I was into the second octave totally commited, and somewhere around the end I realized where I'd gone wrong. John's head whipped around with this look like: "that was either the coolest substitution or the biggest clam I've ever heard, did you do that on purpose?" I just grinned and he knew it was a clam. We laughed and kept going.
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