Top 5 R&B Guitar Solos
- Thread starter keith6
- Start date
That's what I was saying in my post. You can't do it. Its impossible. Too much ambiguity.
note NO ONE IS POSTING ANY R&B from the last 10 years...hell 20 years..
Featured Instrumentation in Black Music..did rap kill the guitar/bass solo?
YES!
damn man.... honestly, I'm a Niles fan from the Chick days and all of his production work from then through the 80's and now... and I never heard the mufucka doing lead vocals on a song until that clip (other than yowsza yowza yowza 
). I think his best shit, that nobody can top though, is his non-solo stuff, just that fast twangy shit that you hear and go "that shit is Niles!".
). I think his best shit, that nobody can top though, is his non-solo stuff, just that fast twangy shit that you hear and go "that shit is Niles!".
yall already took all of the good stuff 
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since nobody posted the actual link yet.... Maggot Brain.... Live!
This shit can't be beat.
This shit can't be beat.
damn man.... honestly, I'm a Niles fan from the Chick days and all of his production work from then through the 80's and now... and I never heard the mufucka doing lead vocals on a song until that clip (other than yowsza yowza yowza
Props. Man I was looking to drop a Chic song like "I Want Your Love" or something....with all of those beautiful guitar seasonings on some of those projects. I just learned that he did the guitar riffs on Betty Wright's "Clean Up Woman."
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We are all expressing what we consider the best solos in our minds and individual tastes. Cray does play the blues. You're right. I'd argue that song in the video was a bluesy R&B song. The only thing that separates this song stylistically from something similar that Bobby Womack might have done is the amount of guitar soloing. There is a good deal of overlap between modern blues (post 1970) and R&B. Rhythm & Blues isn't just one or two things. It has many shades.
Word?
Weaned at the Apollo
Professional success first came with acceptance into the house band of Harlem’s legendary Apollo Theater. Rodgers backed such notables as Aretha Franklin and Nancy Wilson and soon began to rise through the ranks of New York City’s session musicians. The repetitive but somehow irresistible guitar riffs he contributed to Betty Wright’s 1972 hit, “Clean Up Woman,”showcased Rodgers’s quintessential guitar style, soon to become Chic’s trademark.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3492600073.html
NiceWeaned at the Apollo
Professional success first came with acceptance into the house band of Harlem’s legendary Apollo Theater. Rodgers backed such notables as Aretha Franklin and Nancy Wilson and soon began to rise through the ranks of New York City’s session musicians. The repetitive but somehow irresistible guitar riffs he contributed to Betty Wright’s 1972 hit, “Clean Up Woman,”showcased Rodgers’s quintessential guitar style, soon to become Chic’s trademark.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3492600073.html
The Blues is the root, the rest is the fruit. Long before Sam and Ray there was the Blues, so I'd say you have it backwards. R&B is a shade of the Blues, not vice versa. I know people are expressing their own tastes. Not even sure why that had to be mentioned. If you can't tell the melodic structure of the Blues from R&B that's a different story altogether, but it's quite clear. That's why what Cray plays on his tele are blues licks. I'm not going to go into a whole explanation of music theory and song structure. Let everybody enjoy what they want to. That's one of the beauties of music, there is no right or wrong.
Some honorable mentions...
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"The Blues is the root, the rest is the fruit".
I like that and I think I'm gonna use it. I like the overall message of it even though it's slightly incomplete - in that it doesn't reference the influence of gospel and Negro Spirituals even before that - which are the roots of The Blues. I don't have it backwards. I just think you and I might view R&B differently. You are assuming a few things about me - namely that I am ignorant of melodic structure, song structure and music theory in general. That would be the part that YOU have backwards. You are correct that Cray's solos are blues licks in the blues scale (a pentatonic minor to be exact). However, I'm not basing the definition of the song on that alone. Even if it was a 12 bar blues in minor that does not necessitate that it is ONLY Blues and not also R&B. As well, a solo on the Blues scale doesn't make a song automatically be The Blues... Case in point, Paul Simon's song 'Ace in the Hole' from his, 'One Trick Pony' album (Eric Gale on lead and rhythm guitar).
B.B. King's song, 'The Thrill is Gone' is both Blues and R&B. The example I posted of Johnny Guitar Watson's song, "I Want to Ta Ta You Baby" is both Blues and R&B. It sounds like you may be more of a purist in the way you define either genre. Also for the record, Robert Cray wasn't playing a Tele in that vid, he has a Strat.
What you said in bold I wholeheartedly agree with. It is exactly the point I was trying to make in my previous post.
That saying has been around for decades. I never said you didn't know music theory, I said IF you can't tell. Read what I wrote, not what you read. I never assumed anything about you. I don't know you nor you me. Anybody can wiki music theory or the Blues (which come from Afrikan music BTW). I don't need to. I've been a musician for over 40 years. So outside of all this static, I say again, enjoy whatever you like. That's the beginning, middle and end of music.
Riiiiight we don't know each other, family. The knowledge of music theory, song structure, etc that you brought up wasn't really relevant as to whether or not what Robert Cray does can be considered R&B. However, you are exactly right. Yes indeed as you stated, Afrika is the musical genesis of all.
I'm the son of a music teacher, myself. Started singing on various stages when I was three. Playing guitar and writing songs for 33 years, piano/keyboards for 28 years. Learned to play the blues on my guitar from Brewer Phillips (lead guitar for Hounddog Taylor and the Houserockers) in his living room. In college, I was a music major (learned everything from theory, to composition to orchestration and arranging) then was a music ed major. I could say more but that's not the point. Point is, I've no need to google or wiki for anything music related...
...Sounds like you don't have to do that either. I'm sure you could relate a lot yourself about your own experiences over 40 years as a musician. Curious. What's your instrument and what's your preferred genre(s) of music to play?
