Tuck Andress

[amstrtatnut]

Speaking of the New Varsity in Palo Alto, when was the last time you were on that stretch of University?

It's weird seeing what's happened to it as a historic building used commercially but not as a theater.

Ive been back once in the past 18 years. It definitely isnt the same. It seems crazy crowded in Palo Alto now.

 

[A-Bone]

It seems crazy crowded in Palo Alto now.

Definitely. I worked on University in the late 90s, and it seems much more crowded now than it did 18 years ago.

 

[guitarjazz]

This the best (from Tuck picking page):
"Here are some examples of realities I have personally encountered which were not sufficiently addressed by this style of preparation:



Borrowed guitar, different string spacing, bridge or nut sliding during string bending or vibrato, wrong strap length or strap breaking during solo, unwound guitar string used as backup strap gradually cutting through shirt and shoulder, sleeve snagging on bridge suddenly locking up hand, wrong pick, dropped pick, broken pick, no pick, pick stuck between strings, finger caught between strings, wrong strings, dead strings, sticky strings, blood on strings, broken strings, no extra strings, jar of honey spilled all over strings, vintage L-5's gig bag shoulder strap breaking immediately before album release concert for 5,000 people causing guitar to fall on concrete and creating crack from tailpiece to neck which gradually splits apart during performance with action getting higher and higher, amp too far away, amp too close, amp broken so play through bass amp or P.A., tone all wrong, overdrive bypass switch broken, cymbal in ear, band too loud, audience too loud, band downstairs too loud, bad monitors, no monitors, in-ear monitors broken so Patti is heard acoustically but Tuck is heard only through house PA 50 yards away resulting in Tuck being unavoidably out of sync with Patti by 1/6 second for whole show, guitar buzz, RF from nearby transmitter louder than the music itself, brownouts making organ pitch fluctuate randomly over an octave range, power outage, equipment plugged into 230 volts immediately before show, earthquake during show in high-rise, outdoor desert performance at 131 degrees with sand-blasting winds, sub-freezing outdoor mountaintop performance with snow storms and 40 mph winds, high altitude dizziness, no sleep, no food, too much food, wrong food, food poisoning, fever, locked bathrooms, way too many liquids before long show, nagging suspicion that zipper is down, contact lens falling out during moment of peak concentration, compromised hand position due to repeatedly sliding full width of stage while trying to keep playing but not collide with Patti on yacht in rough Finnish Gulf of Bothnia, charts blown away by wind, charts on thermal fax paper, charts in wrong key, charts without bar lines, charts with bar lines all displaced by two beats, charts in bass clef or C clef, chord charts with do/re/mi instead of C/D/E and everything else in Portuguese, realization that Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Pass, George Benson, Chaka Khan, Bobby McFerrin or Steve Gadd just walked in, drunks falling on stage, drunks disrobing on stage, drunks grabbing instruments or band members, band members falling asleep during song, pigs frolicking in sawdust-covered frat house knocking over band equipment, thinly veiled animosity between bride's and groom's families erupting into violence during heartfelt version of My Romance, nightly juggling of playing and operating the lighting console/footswitches and talking to audience members and trying to reign in tempos and egos of various fellow top-40 band members, arrival at duo gig with unbelievably loud, aggressive fuzz-wah hard rock bass player to discover that assignment is to back up elderly white-haired and white-suited gentleman singing unfamiliar country songs to unforgiving patrons, crowded upscale happy hour dance floor unraveling into pandemonium as normal-looking customers all collapse to the floor and writhe around on each other while astonished saxophone-playing duo partner walks out leaving helpless solo guitarist playing The Hustle for 25 minutes, funk bass player imprisoned in lounge band insisting on popping strings throughout sensitive ballads, accidental imprisonment of Patti in wine cellar out of earshot during guitar instrumentals, onstage and on-instrument living creatures with varying numbers of legs, belligerent drunken bowling alley lounge customer demanding that funk band play Debussy's Clair de Lune while remainder of band looks expectantly at guitarist, drummer watching ball game on portable TV with headphones throughout performance, guest singer repeatedly changing keys at random moments, realization that the people who have just boldly picked up instruments and are unexpectedly sitting in are Herbie Hancock and Wah Wah Watson, guns drawn at rehearsals to settle disputes about form of song, marginally famous singer resorting to the dreaded "Do you know who I am" line, drummer and delusional would-be front man jumping off the drums in the middle of a song and mistakenly chanting "we don't need no drummer to keep that funky beat" to a dance floor packed with suddenly hostile former dancers, unstable band member deciding that it is his responsibility to educate the audience over the microphone, bass player playing random notes and rhythms because he is not a bass player at all but nonetheless booked the gig, drummer announcing that he killed somebody just before the show, swimming pool party turning into orgy with splashing on inexperienced solo electric guitarist sitting beside pool doing his first solo gig and fielding endless requests for the same song he had just played yet again, bride's and groom's special song evaporating from mortified solo musician's mind at the crucial moment, band member disappearing suddenly when his chair falls backwards off riser, unstable enormous man peaking on LSD brandishing artificial limb removed from his companion at audience and threatening band to "sing with this", mirrors on back wall of club causing introspective young guitarist to question meaning of his life at early stage in career."

 

[Fred Shredstone]

Me too. We have had this discussion before right? I spent my teenss thru 30s on the peninsula. Late 70s thru late 90s, before moving to the Chico area. How bout you?

me too. Used to go see Tuck & Patti at the New Varsity; as I recall it was free, they played in the courtyard for tips! Also remember seeing Michael Hedges play there when he was still under the radar. I went to a few guitar clinics with Tuck, but never got to take a private lesson with him. But I spent a lot of time trying to copy his style, until I realized he was just in another league altogether. ( I have a clip in the member clips forum, of me playing "Same Old Love" in that style with a pretty good singer, if you're interested ). There were a lot of good local music venues back in those days. I saw a lot of great bands at the Keystone Palo Alto on California street too; Todd Rundgren, Huey Lewis, Rick Wakeman, etc. - cover charge was usually like $5 - $10. sigh. I'm in half moon bay now - no music scene whatsoever.

 

[amstrtatnut]

Here's a real tone geek!
http://www.tuckandpatti.com/tuck_tone.html

Ya total fanatic. He loves the details and seems to have infinite patience.

I still have worksheets where he mapped out chord progression permutaions, scale fingerings etc.

 

[amstrtatnut]

me too. Used to go see Tuck & Patti at the New Varsity; as I recall it was free, they played in the courtyard for tips! Also remember seeing Michael Hedges play there when he was still under the radar. I went to a few guitar clinics with Tuck, but never got to take a private lesson with him. But I spent a lot of time trying to copy his style, until I realized he was just in another league altogether. ( I have a clip in the member clips forum, of me playing "Same Old Love" in that style with a pretty good singer, if you're interested ). There were a lot of good local music venues back in those days. I saw a lot of great bands at the Keystone Palo Alto on California street too; Todd Rundgren, Huey Lewis, Rick Wakeman, etc. - cover charge was usually like $5 - $10. sigh. I'm in half moon bay now - no music scene whatsoever.

Cool! Id see Hedges one weekend and Tuck and Patti the next. Also saw fantastic shows at Keystone. Dinosaurs, Jerry Garcia Band, The Byrds. A SF band called the Looters, I liked a lot. And more.

Garth Webber plays in Half Moon Bay sometimes. He is very very good. Toured with Miles Davis. I met Garth in Palo Alto too!

You should check out the DB Walker band sometime. He lives in San Jose and gigs around Bay Area. Ive lost touch with Dave Walker, but he is an inspiring guitarist ans a tone maestro.

 

[sfarnell]

Here's a real tone geek!
http://www.tuckandpatti.com/tuck_tone.html

Taku Sakashta was building Tuck a guitar at the time he was murdered. Tuck knows tone.

 

[paulg]

Tuck did a sound page in Guitar Player mag in the eighties. It was a flexible plastic disk of a song he put togeather just for GP. It contains five separate part played simultaneously. I think it came with TAB but I didn't bother. He's incredible!

 

[A-Bone]

I'm in half moon bay now - no music scene whatsoever.

But otherwise Half Moon Bay is so nice. I lived there in the late 90s (while working in Palo Alto).

 

[Jazzandmore]

OP,

Tuck has been around, and been rather amazing for a long time . He doesn't get written about in the guitar mags. Have had the pleasure of seeing him 5-6 times.

 

[msum]

I reckon Tuck Andress is amazing, but only know his Tuck and Patti stuff.

Shameless plug for local musicians, but Kristin Berardi and James Sherlock (originally from New Zealand) are doing some great duo stuff. Highly recommended.

 

[Little_Wing]

Tuck and Patti's albums first appeared mid-80's, on Windham Hill.

Ah, Windham Hill. I'm amazed I missed him, I've been into Windham Hill for years.

 

[RileyBoy]

It's nice to know I'm not alone.
I'll just have to memorize your avatars.

 

[ripgtr]

I took lessons from Tuck in the early eighties.

I tried to get ahold of him in that later 80s, and was never able to reach him. I guess he got too busy by that time. He came highly recommended by some people I worked with in San Jose. Ended up going to Bud Dimock instead, who was sort of a San Jose legend himself. Yea, known about him, mostly through the Tuck and Patti thing, for a long time.

 

[mondo500]

in the very late '80s, I had a duo going with the singer from the ashes of our high school band—she was (still is) a very good jazz singer, and we tried our hand at being Joe/Ella and Tuck/Patti. It was all I could do to attempt to learn Tuck's parts by ear and replicate them each time I played as close as I could get to note-for-note.. one missed fingering and I would be lost. Looking back, I did pretty well—no way I could do any of that now. Once we managed to see them perform at the Basement in Sydney, and just about every song I'd see what he was doing and think "so that's how it's done".. so many eureka moments in one show! Things like fretting notes with the left hand thumb in front of the fretboard rather than over the top (itself an unorthodox move for a jazz guy), so that all five left-hand fingers could be used with a massive reach. After the show, I stammered my appreciation somehow or other; they were very gracious performers. By now, he's put so much work into simulating the slight chaos of musicians playing multiple parts together that his playing can seem untidy to first-time listeners, but I can't think of anyone since George Van Eps who has worked harder at advancing the art of solo jazz guitar, and with so much success.

 

[ned7flat5]

Tuck did a sound page in Guitar Player mag in the eighties. It was a flexible plastic disk of a song he put togeather just for GP. It contains five separate part played simultaneously. I think it came with TAB but I didn't bother. He's incredible!

That issue was April 1988 (with Joe Walsh on the cover) - and when it hit the stands Down Under it heralded an amazing chain of events for me - I was reading the Tuck Andress article (naturally had never heard of him) at my work and showed the multi-part "Everything's Gonna Be All Right" to a guitarist colleague with a classical/jazz background who photocopied the article and, to my amazement and with a lot of effort on his part, worked it up to performance level (to show me) virtually overnight (he's worked out one of Martin Taylor's African things as well...). The following day another colleague walked past my desk and remarked "Did you happen to see that amazing guitar player on TV last night?". I said I hadn't. He threw a broad description at me that rang no bells at all (I figured I knew of everyone who was likely to be on a late night talk show). So, just as a joke I showed him the GP article - he said "that's the guy".

By way of further coincidence, Tuck & Patti had just arrived in Australia for their first tour and were scheduled to play a local jazz haunt. Tears of Joy had also hit the shelves. By that Friday, the three of us (me, my wife and my guitar buddy) were at the gig suffering through a local support act of relentless hyper-speed acoustic playing (of the "One Night in SF" variety that was in vogue at the time) and desperately looking forward to the main event. Tuck and Patti had arrived at the venue straight from the airport and were a bit jet lagged. Nevertheless, a very friendly Tuck walked around the tables "meeting and greeting" evidently with an acute radar for spotting the guitar guys. He was impressed that we appeared familiar with their act and that my buddy had worked out the guitar chart. It was a great show and an astounding introduction to a guitar player who a few days ago we'd never heard of. Now that was a week!!!

Just as a tip, check out Tuck's walking bass example "Yoghurt Blues" in that same GP article - it (and a similar Joe Pass example from the red covered "Joe Pass Guitar Method" book) has been a source of much undeserved praise from my peers for my playing over the years.

 

[mondo500]

^ so good! I didn't come across the article until some time after that Sydney show, but I, too have caned that walking bassline blues in G over the years to unwarranted acclaim. Every so often I think I should transpose it to other keys and maybe analyse what's going on, but then there's a lot I should do rather than noodle soulfully in whatever intervals I can snatch. Sometimes I sub at high school music classes and it's always a good one to play for guitarists or keyboard players to demonstrate rhythmic independence of parts.

 

[RileyBoy]

A friend and I arrived really early at a show at Humphreys in San Diego and were able to just walk right in during their sound check.
We just hung back, walked around a bit, and acted really cool like we were, you know... "with the band"..
Things were winding down and we just sort of walked closer and blended in.
We were able to talk with the both of them as they were getting last minuet set up and ready to go get ready to play.
They were so relaxed, real and honest...maybe they knew we were just fans who lucked out and got a look behind the curtain?
I don't care, I was there, and it was memorable.

 

[Falco]

I discovered Tuck & Patty in university at the end of the 80's. I was getting into jazz and T & P was a natural progression between Zeppelin and Charlie Parker.

Tuck Andress is such a good guitar player. Tuck kinda showed me how good you can actually be as an accompanist and as a player in general. Unlike other jazz players, I find, he is very melodic in a totally accessible way for casual listeners. It doesn't hurt that Patty can sing like a bird.

 

[Babaroo]

Here's a real tone geek!
http://www.tuckandpatti.com/tuck_tone.html

Whoa.... I think I understood about 1/4 of that!