Ted Greene
| Ted Greene | |
|---|---|
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| Background information | |
| Born | September 26, 1946 |
| Died | July 23, 2005 (aged 58) |
| Genres | Rock, blues, jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Associated acts | Bluesberry Jam, Fito de la Parra, The Nomads, The Purple Gang |
Theodore "Ted" Greene (September 26, 1946 – July 23, 2005) was an American fingerstyle jazz guitarist, music columnist, session musician and music educator active in Encino, California.
Greene began his own guitar studies at the age of 11, and was an accomplished player while still in high school, occasionally collaborating with local R&B and Blues Rock groups. He briefly studied accounting at California State University, Northridge, but dropped out to devote all of his energies to music.
In the 1960s he was a member of the rock band Natural Selection and a blues rock group called Bluesberry Jam, whose ranks also included future Canned Heat drummer Fito de la Parra. He was a friend and collaborator with Joseph Byrd, on whose Columbia Masterworks album The American Metaphysical Circus he was featured (he also provided the whimsical name of the studio band who performed it, "The Field Hippies"). During the late 1960s and early 1970s he did commercial studio work with Byrd. He was again called on in 1977 to provide guitar tablature for three arrangements of Bix Beiderbecke's piano music for the Ry Cooder album Jazz, which Byrd arranged and produced.
While Greene is often regarded as a jazz musician, he played many musical styles. He was known to guitarists due to his role as a music educator, which included private teaching, seminars at the Guitar Institute of Technology, columns for Guitar Player magazine, and his series of instructional books on guitar harmony, chord melody and single-note soloing. A voracious reader of almost any book on music theory, especially from the common practice period (circa 1600–1900) he distilled very complex concepts regarding the structure of western music, and would write out more accessible versions for students to understand (handed out to students in the form of lesson "sheets"), often applying keyboard concepts to the guitar. For example, many transcriptions of the chorales of J. S. Bach would be re-written for guitar, along with useful analysis applicable to any musical setting, such as jazz and other styles.
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