Fusion Guitar: Straight-Ahead and Contemporary Guitar Solos Based on Classic Jazz Progressions [Paperback]

Joe Diorio (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1997

Joe Diorio constructs 16 modern and ultra-modern jazz guitar solos over eight classic jazz chord progressions. Each solo is jammed full of inventive licks and patterns to use as building blocks and jumping-off points for creating dynamic jazz guitar solos. Comping patterns and chord voicings are included.

Product Details

• Paperback: 56 pages
• Publisher: Warner Bros Pubns (March 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157623536X
• ISBN-13: 978-1576235362
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 8.8 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,170,216 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An awesome 'Book for Life", November 1, 2010

By 

chester (concord, ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fusion Guitar: Straight-Ahead and Contemporary Guitar Solos Based on Classic Jazz Progressions (Paperback)

I found this book around 1979, after studying with the great N.Y. teacher, Howard Morgen. He had mentioned Joe Diorio to me, and when I saw this book and looked through it, the solos just 'looked different' than anything else I had been used to reading.
I must admit that I absorbed very little of it the first few attempts. Joe shows diagrammed chord changes and then two solos each over standard progressions (Wave, Blue Bossa, All the Things You Are, etc). The first solo is a more 'traditional' type be-bop solo, and the second is in Joe's style, which includes lots of lines with 4ths, 5ths, chromatics, etc. These lines take a lot of practice, and a lot of analyzation, if you really are going to absorb them and use them to their full potential.

With that said, a lot of this stuff has become part and parcel of my playing. They are some of the coolest sounding lines ever, and the newer editions include a cd, which makes the learning curve a lot easier. (Mine was supposed to include a cassette, which was missing).

I have spent time with this book regularly since I found it, and over the years have memorized quite a bit of it. A few years ago, I managed to contact Joe. We stayed in touch, and during a visit to L.A. I visited him and had the honor and pleasure of spending a long day with him. I have been a big fan of his, and I was not disappointed at all. He is a living history lesson of jazz...started GIT with Howard Roberts and Don Mock, was friends with Lenny Breau and Joe Pass, played with everyone you can name. He shared some great stories and insights with me. I played him some of the solos from the book from memory, and he got a real kick out of it. He wrote out, by hand, some new things he had been working on, and also gave me a manuscript of an unpublished blues book he wrote. He is just a wonderful man, and establishing a friendship with him was an absolute highlight of my musical life. I brought him my copy of this book, and he signed it for me, made some notes, and titled a few exercises from which I didn't know the source tune. I treasure this book, and believe me, you will never find another like it.

For players new to jazz, you might be better off with his "Jazz and Blues Styles". advanced players of any instrument wondering how to sound more modern will do well with this book, as well as "Giant Steps", "jazz Structues for the New Millenium" or "Intervallic Designs". I own them all, and work on them all at intervals, but this remains my favorite, because of its "standards" format.

By the way, in high school I listened to Pat Metheny's "Bright Size Life" a lot, and wondered how he got that style. When I first heard Joe Diorio, I went; "Ohhhhhhhhh".

As a plug for Joe, his recordings are sadly underappreciated. His style goes way beyond bebop, and some of his originals are more in the late Lenny Breau style, with open tunings, middle eastern influence, and odd times and structures.

4 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent text from one of fusions greats, March 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Fusion Guitar: Straight-Ahead and Contemporary Guitar Solos Based on Classic Jazz Progressions (Paperback)

joe diorio, is an early inspiration to lovers of great guitar fusion. you might say what kind of person listens to fusion, well such greats as reb beach of winger, and john petrucci of dream theater, and george lynch of dokken. i would love to get a copy of his earlier book intervallic designs. if you have any information please help.