Claudio Light Improvises on the Chick Corea Tune "Spain"

Speaking of the song “Spain,” written by Armando (Chick) Corea and which Armando (Boyet) Navajas played in the previous video, here’s Claudio Light, a 39-year-old guitar player from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, who improvises on the tune using a classical guitar.  I believe he also did the backing track.

I picked up a lot from Claudio’s playing on this video.  He’s improvising, he’s got a good jazz vocabulary, and he plays the lines so smoothly and fluidly.

It was actually Mr. Navajas who taught me how to play this tune (except the improvisation) after he studied and learned Larry Coryell’s acoustic version of the song note for note.  Pareng Boyet, mamulot ka na rin dito. 

Boyet Navajas in Australia

My good old friend Armando (Boyet) Navajas lives in Australia now, and here he is playing live with his band called Music Syndrome.  He told me that when Van Halen went to Sydney (if I remember right), he got a job tuning Eddie’s guitars.  He wasn’t alone though — there were other techs backstage.   I guess it’s not surprising that Mr. Van Halen brought along a truckload of guitars with him.

Wow, repapips, OK sa birada, pusyon.  Pusyon Bisaya.  Hehehe.  Seriously, man, you’ve come a long way.  I really like your sound, Bro.  Inggit ako.  Ganda ng tunog mo, men.  Parang Frank Gambola at Scott Tissue na pinagsama.  Hehehe.  Pero matindi talaga tunog mo, pare ko.

Medyo madugo mag-text sa iyo diyan sa Oz pero sige, magpapakarga ako mamaya.

By the way, check out Patrick Earl Danao’s videos on YouTube.  He reminds me a lot of Benjie Mendez, who used to play with Boyet and his brothers at some of the Shakey’s Pizza joints around the metropolis during the 1980s.  I deleted a post about the kid because I didn’t realize that I was getting off topic.

Axe Care: Avoid Rusty Screws

There are times when you simply hate it.  You want to remove your guitar’s backplate or some other part but you can’t because rust has eroded a screw or two — or more — and your screwdriver doesn’t have anything to latch on to.  You don’t want this to happen to your priceless guitar, do you?

Here’s a tip.  Head off to your nearest aluminum and glass shop and bring a sample screw along with you.  If your guitar uses more than one size, then bring one of each.  Go ask if they sell aluminum screws — which is very likely owing to the nature of their business — make sure you ask for a screw that has the same diameter and thread.  Buy more than enough for spare, just in case you might need more.  If you’re lucky, then you’ll go home with the right screws.  The screws are likely to be wood screws because they are often used to bind aluminum screen frames to wood; besides, if you end up with metal screws, you can use those for wood, but not the other way around.

The ones I got are round-head screws, which match the ones on my guitars.  It’s up to you if you prefer Phillips over slotted, but I guess it won’t really matter as long as you have the right sized screwdriver and you’re well aware that you’re not tightening screws or bolts of a motor engine or some metal or concrete installation that requires brute force.  Common sense will tell you that overtightening your guitar’s screws can damage the wood and you’ll end up ripping out your screw instead.

Remove your original, shiny screws and replace them with the aluminum ones that you just bought.  Now, if and when you ever decide to sell your guitar, put the original screws back to give your guitar a little more resale value.  Oh, and don’t replace those four large screws that hold your neck in place with aluminum ones.  I won’t even replace the ones that hold the tuning pegs because I believe the original ones do a better job of securing the pegs in place.  Obviously, the screws that usually catch your sweat are the ones that rust pretty quickly, so those are the ones that you’d want to replace.

Teddy Vaño on Boy Katindig’s "Don’t Ask My Neighbors"

I’m lucky to have seen Teddy Vaño play live.  If I remember right, it was at Tavern on the Square in Makati; Mr. Vaño played a Brecker Brothers tune that I can’t remember.  Man, his playing was really smokin’.  He was standing to my left, and someone told him, “Ang galing mo talaga.”  Teddy replied, “Chamba lang iyon.”  Hahaha.  You don’t become that good by luck alone.

Let me rewind further back by saying that I also caught Teddy play live on television with Gary Lising’s Music Making Company — or was it a band called Aerojets?  He played the guitar parts of the Sergio Mendes classic “Love City” in the exact same tempo, note for note.  I heard that there was a point in time he was into Robben Ford and Yellow Jackets, and a fellow musician way back then told me he saw Teddy playing the Larry Carlton classic “Room 335″ in some beerhouse in Cebu.

Based on what I’ve seen, Teddy had a preference for solid body electrics; that’s what I recall from the rather limited number of times I saw him play. 

I can’t help entertain the thought of playing in a band like the one in the Midnight Lady album — a quartet of drums, bass, guitar and keyboard — same format, same style, but maybe do more songs aside from the ones in the album.  Yeah, but it would be nice to have a female vocalist and a sax/trumpet/flute player; I wonder what the employment prospects of such a band are, given that the tunes will be a mix of OPM and songs from The Great American Songbook — you know what The Songbook is, right? 

Check out the song “Don’t Ask My Neighbors” on YouTube — it’s just the audio, but the audio is rather good.  Mr. Vaño solos near the end and, man, I wish I could play like that.  Idol talaga.  I didn’t hear that he’s now doing his gig somewhere up there; I just read the R.I.P. from a post by one teddysapostle1.  He can call me teddysapostle2.

I can’t help saying it.  I hear John Tropea.

Jam na Malupit

Here’s Rene Garcia, Nides Aranzamendez, and The Others (sorry, di ko nakuha info tungkol sa inyo) jamming in New Jersey (sarap nila at wala sila dito).  Awesome.