Jesse Van Ruller. Inspiring

[Philco]

How great does Jesse sound on this clip…
That's how great an arch top can sound.

Such a beautiful recording of a live performance.
Sounds like we are in his guitar and sitting in front of the drummer at the same time.
IMHO one of the greatest players of all time and one of my favourites.

I know that's subjective. He makes me feel something most players don't.
I hope you enjoy….

[Jehu]

Man, good stuff.

JVR is probably my favourite newer player. Maybe because he seems to retain a traditional, old-school sensibility while still sounding fresh and interesting.

Edit: I just listened to this clip seven times in a row. It's that good.

[Philco]

He is a player with some unique approaches.
His groove chord thing with his thumb (the tune "Circles" on his ES-150).
His use of those beautiful 3 note tight harmony chords.
The way he holds his pick (actually I think he might be a second finger pick holder)
And for me the 2 big ones, his sense of time and his touch.

I was having trouble figuring out the timing of Circles so I wrote to him. He replied with the explanation.
Very cool.

I'm sounding like a fanboy but every now and then a musician comes along and they do that "thing" that great artists do.
Call it "choice of notes" or "timing"……whatever it is, it transcends and becomes something else.
And that's when you hit replay.

[David B]

Always great to see a Jesse van Ruller thread on here!

If I was forced to choose, I would have to go with Jesse as my favourite player on the scene today (the rest of my top 5 being Bailey, Bernstein, Cohn and Kreisberg).

I love his ability to play pure, classic bop guitar at the highest level, then plug in a Tele and some pedals and cut it in more fusion and "modern jazz" settings.

I'm such a fan that last year I changed my whole picking hand technique to mimic Jesse's - I posted some photos in a thread about floating/anchored picking.

I'll try to resist the urge to post a bunch of JvR YouTube videos as I won't get any work done this morning if I start listening!

[disco~juice]

Best tone ever

[3625]

Wow, that was phenomenal.

For his 8ths/16ths is he using a combination of picking with hammer ons & pull offs? So fluid yet right in the pocket with great articulation. Comping was great - what a complete player.

[Philco]

Hey 3625, Jesse has a great picking technique…..also a unique grip. He can cross strings with ease, so some of what you hear is quite fast one note per string phrases…..but not so much sweeping, which is a different sound.
That's how it appears to me anyway.
There is also some legato but not that much I don't think.

He plants the tip of the little finger of his picking hand on the pick guard and picks in the middle of the 2 pups and sometimes more toward the bridge.

There is a clip of him playing the same song live and there is a close up of his right hand, he seems to be gripping the pick with his second finger not his index.

If you watch the "Circles" clip you will also see how fast he palms the pick.
Also a great writer. Check out "Secret Champ" and "Circles"
To my mind "Secret Champ" is a modern classic as is "Circles".

There is also a clip called Street Noise with a very young Jesse showing that he already had his chops together.
I actually worked this out a couple of years ago. The chords are incredibly difficult to play because he thumbs so many of them. Something I have always done but I found these shapes very difficult play cleanly and in truth never got it to a comfortable level.
With some players you can work out the notes but you'll never get the essence. Jesse and Benson come to mind.

Oh here's that clip...

[David B]

Lunchtime here so time for a guitar break.

Just took a couple of snaps of my picking hand technique, modelled on Jesse's.

[David B]

[David B]

Other favourite clips include -

(excellent close up of picking hand from the 6 minute mark)

[David B]

I'm getting better at it Phil! When I began to try this approach, I was curling my middle and ring fingers right back into the palm of the hand. This meant that a lot of the picking motion was coming from the index finger, thumb and wrist - a recipe for sore hands. It was also difficult to cross to the higher strings. Opening out and relaxing the middle and ring fingers a la Jesse has relaxed the hand and I pick more from the elbow. I find this gives more meat to the attack. I'm playing flat wounds right now but really should go back to round wounds to check the sound.

[disco~juice]

What pick are you using Dave?

[David B]

What pick are you using Dave?

D'Andrea Pro Plec (shape 351)

[David B]

Here's a great, if hard to find Jesse van Ruller recording. I got my copy as an expensive Japanese import.

[PMB]

Some more incredible clips:

A great HD (1440p) version of Circles with the Chambertones trio:

JVR at his burning best with Jussi Lehtonen:

BTW, I posted the version of Jesse playing his own composition 'Have a Heart' on Youtube about 6 years ago so I'm a long time fan.

As David B mentioned, some of JVR's releases can be hard to find. It's worth checking out CDJapan for the non-Criss Cross releases. Live at Murphy's Law is a must!:
CDJapan : Complete Listings | Keywords: jesse van ruller

[Komodo]

Yea, this guy sounds great. Thanks for bringing my attention to a focus.

[Dutchbopper]

I have been following Jesse van Ruller and Martijn van Iterson for at least 19 years now ... I am really surprised they are not known by some yet. They should be. Both are world class. Pretty much the top of the top.

Regards,

DB

[Little Jay]

Cool, in one of those clips you can see he has a HB-sized single coil neck pickup in his ES-150. I didn't know that!

[David B]

Cool, in one of those clips you can see he has a HB-sized single coil neck pickup in his ES-150. I didn't know that!

I believe that's a Gibson P94 pickup. A student of Jesse's posted online once that he is a fan of that pickup.

[David B]

This second-hand rarity arrived this morning to complete my Jesse van Ruller collection (at least, everything with JvR as leader).

[IbanezAS100]

Here's another video to keep everyone inspired....

[David B]

Look who I got to meet a fortnight ago during one of his rare visits to the UK!

[PMB]

Caught Jesse last month in Amsterdam. Incredible!

[AleikhBaba]

one of my fav players currently, just impeccable musicianship.

[Klatu]

I agree with the high praise directed at Jesse Van Ruller. There seems to be a golden age of jazz guitar going on right now in the Netherlands because Mr. Van Ruller has company in the world of jazz guitar greats. Another Dutch player who I discovered not too long ago is Martijn Van Iterson. He plays with a lot of the creative fire of Jesse and adds his beautiful vintage Gibson 125 tone to the equation.