Barney Kessel & Herb Ellis - Flintstones Theme

[@gumass4534]

The guy on the right is my Grand Dad! So proud :)

[@SirCommoner]

+William Rines Thank you for this comment

[@yungboy4216]

+William Rines G R A N D D A D

[@ninjashroom2486]

F L E E N T S T O N E S ? ? ?

[@GeoffreyDruyts]

YOUR GRAND DAD IS DONALD TRUMP?

[@petershin3858]

that's my grandad too...?

[@Lord_Vinheteiro]

Very good!! A beautiful song!

[@a.thiago3842]

Hey Lord vinheteiro, so you thought you could escape from the brazilian comments? hummm But here i'm 11 years later.

[@moviegurrl707]

I like that a guy named "Barney" is doing the Flintstones theme song :-)

[@longde]

Wow... distorsionless jazz guitar shredding!! These guys should get a ticket for going so fast! :)

[@im_tk_mn]

I saw these two (with Charlie Byrd) play this at the Armadillo in Austin

[@phyllis1753]

Yabba-dabba-do! A perfomance like this ensures they will NEVER be forgotten. RIP.

[@CharlesBeauregard]

Good rhythm section too

[@dreadnought45]

Herb Ellis is smokin' on this tune. I had the pleasure of seeing Herb Ellis twice at the Royal York Hotel and Barney Kessel once at Burbon Street restaurant in the eighties, both in Toronto. Both extraordinary musicians. I guess that goes without saying. Ken, Toronto

[@GeorgiaBoy1961]

Not many musicians got invited up to play with Wes Montgomery and his brothers when they were touring together, but Barney Kessel did! He was very widely-respected amongst the cats, and the same with Herb Ellis. Two jazz guitar giants.....

[@charlietompkey2024]

I had the pleasure of booking these gentlemen and also Charlie Byrd when they were part of PHL associates in Silver Spring, Maryland. Drove them to solo gigs and duo gigs. What great conversations and music stories. Perhaps my greatest music memory is them playing this song since one of them would say this is for that gentleman in the back and that was me. All 3 were true gentlemen who got the most out of their love for what they did.

[@namcat53]

I saw all three Great Guitars do this at The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. They went around and around and around trading solos. It blew the roof off the place; we went nuts.

[@tonmisty]

Why are all these idiots slagging off Kessel and Ellis and saying Pass was better or martino, ect, just appreciate the fact that all these great jazz guitarists were fantastic players in their own way and stop trying to compare them because they were all great!

[@lincolnfish4021]

Very true and even though I myself love Pass and Martino's playing, Barney and Herb are both monster guitar players

[@mrprogjazzgto]

RIP Herb..!! Now you and Barney can jamm again...! These 2 influenced me to play and I bet thousands of other musicians

[@sprucetree49]

Boy am I impressed. I had forgotten how great these old jazz guys were. How many rock guitarists could keep up? I like the tone too. Sitting in a chair is key...

[@Byrdmanguitar]

This looks like it was shot during a Great Guitars concert - notice the empty third chair; that would be Charlie Byrd's. The concerts usually featured Barney & Herb playing duets, Charlie playing solo, then all three would play together in the second half. I think the bassist might be Joe Byrd (I can't see face clearly), but I've never seen Joe play solid-body bass; he usually play upright or a very cool Ovation semi-hollow body. You might want to also check out Tal Farlow; a very FAST cat.

[@peterharrison5833]

After all these years, it's still great to hear these two and the three of them, with Charlie Byrd, in the Great Guitars. Many, many moons ago, when I was 22, I got to see them at Potsdam State U. They needed a lift to the Syracuse airport the next morning early, so I got a chance to drive Herb and Barney there. Normally, it takes about 3 hours to do the trip but it took five that day due to the fact that we had to drive thru a blizzard. They were great guys and told me a lot of great stories about music, and life, and I will always remember that trip.

[@prez58]

Herb and Barney are 2 of my favourites. Reading some of the comments here I shake my head at the mentality that could analyse the fun out of a bowl of ice-cream.

[@ETBRAIN]

After this event, Bedrock will never be the same!! Wonderful rendition of Jazz from "The Stone Age" era !!! Killer vid. Killer guitar players !!!

[@daveclou4089]

I was blessed to see these two greats perform this together in a night club in Vancouver. A long time ago now, I'm guessing it was somewhere between 1977 and 1980. The whole show was just as good.

[@Coderickfoxx]

I saw these Great Artists play this song around 1977 at the Lighthouse in Redondo Beach CA. and it was insane! Thanks for the Memories!

[@oriraykai3610]

I remember I saw Buddy Rich's band play the Bullwinkle Theme. Awesome!

[@MrMarquee]

Wonderful! Two guitar greats having fun!

[@burtsbass1]

Love it!

[@FrisellFan01]

2 of my heros.......it is always great to watch them play........

[@rayd.3805]

Incredible.

[@lazur1]

@lexo30 It's the Flintstones' theme.. light-hearted fun..thus just playing licks is the way to go..the only thing that might've been better would be to insert a bagful of quotes from other, equally lightweight pieces.

[@mikeg888]

Even MY fingers burn right now! Two of the all time greats!

[@TM-jo4wz]

Kessel has a great style. That’s why he’s one of the greats! His solo is fine with me.

[@luthiersunite]

RIP Herb, this video is among my favourites of all time.

[@taildragger53]

@ArkRed1 Yes, Charlie Christian & Django Reinhardt used just one p'up...plus Django's guitar neck, on his original guitar, was warped and held together with matchsticks and sellotape. I recall viewing it back in the 1960s. So much for all the switches & pedals.

[@rumorhasittunes]

Crushing ❤

[@colonelcorn56]

Wilmaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!Bam Bam Bam BamBam!!!!!!! Loved it . Thanks Dan

[@specializedconst]

Saw these two a few times in the late 70's at the old lighthouse in Hermosa Bech Ca. Best I ever saw. And yes I understand the "I quit " Guy. said the same thing hen I saw them. LOL. But I diden't. Some of the best Ax victoms out there no one has ever heard of. Best I ever saw? Hands down a man by the name of Michel Grange. Can't really find much on him. But the man could shred the tastiest licks ever. Hope yall can se something like that someday.

[@mrprogjazzgto]

Two Smokin Legends..!! They know how to shred...!! RIP Barney..! The Wrecking Crew was awesome..!! I would love to see Paco or Dimeola jam with these cats....

[@simonbyrd6518]

Wow, I thought I had 2X on at first.. Fantastic skills.

[@alworkedup]

They're both fabulous. And don't forget the bass and drums :)

[@dennisp3314]

Herb Ellis - ALWAYS on of my favs - from age 16-17 on up to ancient. I once had part of a great chordal book he did. Wish I still had it. Kessel is, of course, no slouch either

[@FenceThis]

actually .. he is a bit of a slouch sometimes

[@10CentHead]

Love it... nothing like watching some masters tearing it up.

[@LUCKYDUCKIES]

Nice and more nice! 5 stars!

[@Perico14ful]

Por Dios, que ejecucion mas dulce. Gracias por compartir !!!!!!!!!!!!!..........

[@18neurodoc]

I always loved this Herb Ellis tune :)

[@fleetfingers]

Herb's take on soloing is that if you can't sing along with it, the audience probably won't feel it - so he's singing along (inaudibly to the audience).

[@tonmisty]

two all time greats.

[@taildragger53]

@TallSomeone Kessels string action was quite high. Very heavy gauge strings as well ( 0.15's as i recall him say )

[@DjembeSauce]

@colonelcorn56 actually if you consider sweep picking a "speed trick" he's doing some of that after 1:50

[@68blues]

Yep.....Barney, Herb and myself, we all play the guitar right handed.

[@PHJimY]

Willlllllmmmaaaaaa!!!

[@taildragger53]

@univibe23 Plus with FEEL, which is the thing missing in metal licks. As Jeff Beck once said." it's like listening to guys practise scales not create spontaneous musical thoughts".

[@chronophagia]

AWESOME!

[@babinm]

What's to say. Two of the greatest guitarists of all time playing fast together. They performed this song all over the world at festivals and with Joe Pass also. I wonder if they had to pay Hanna Barbara

[@lazur1]

@DjembeSauce These guys invented all the tricks. There was no purist attitude from them, just from their fans. They used whatever trick it took to get the job done, from keeping up with Oscar Peterson, to playing on 1,000s of Hollywood sessions of every style.

[@neilhaverstick1446]

Sync it up and it'll be killer. Lotsa fun.

[@gabri3l367]

Fantastici , un gran bel anatole.

[@johnkotches8320]

This is based on "Rhythm Changes", ie I got Rhythm. Many standards in jazz are based on these changes. Nothing wrong with a fun melody as a vehicle for smoking hot improvisation.

[@Holms]

nice!!! thanks for pointing this out, now i'll use some theme from flinstones when we're performing flinstones

[@mikeg888]

Two hot players. Both masters!

[@BobPattersonJazzGuitar]

Herb. My first jazz guitar hero.

[@slippolis]

Really great these two giants of the jazz guitar! Thanks a lot for posting it! Could you fix the small delay between the video and the audio that can be noticed in the finger movement (the audio is earlier than the video)?

[@burnedoutgolfer]

I just pooped my pants... Too good! Thank You :-)

[@fightersanime]

Wow this is really amazing. :D

[@brunods4560]

Magic

[@fanqueen]

wow!! cool!

[@TeezyThaKidd]

Ahh yes. I absolutely LOVE guitar solos like this. Not too fond of the tone of Kessel's axe though, but his solo was insane. My favorite! I totally agree with @Alembic77Series1 as well!

[@ErickEverthGonzalezTrujillo]

just for these song I've subscribe!

[@antiartista]

Fantástico!

[@Jazzwayze]

The only shredder I trust is the one in my office! Wowee! That's jazz.

[@getuliosilvapaiva]

Mais um tema jazzistico para lembrar a infância!

[@brynttr]

The audio is out of sync with the video, but this is still killer stuff.

[@enzohernandez8282]

Na, just them playing faster than light speed...

[@vesnakaludjerovic84]

faster than a video :)

[@v2vroth]

Yaba Daba Great!!

[@shanecammell]

Any suggestions on who the bassist is? would love to get a clearer recording to transcribe the bassline

[@ThePmfan]

Maybe Joe Byrd, Charlie Byrd's brother?

[@shanecammell]

Thanks Joe!!!

[@jaimepaullamb]

i guess i forgot that the flintstones theme is just rhythm changes. weird. i guess, then, it doesn't surprise me much that these guys are killing on it - they play these changes all the time. all they had to do was learn the head (kind of a no-brainer, if you've seen the tv show a million times).

[@TM-jo4wz]

Bassist and drummer held it down! Not easy to do. Guitarist guys. Are great.

[@woodygould]

Isn't "Flintstones" basically "I've Got Rhythm"?

[@peterpinter7999]

Yes. It's a Rhytmn Change.

[@FabMontemusic]

Yes essentially the chord progression for Gershwin's "I GOT RHYTHM"

[@sagatuppercut2960]

They looked like they had a yabba dabba good ol' time.

[@550Guitarman]

If Barney were a painter, he would be a lot like Bob Ross, always creating and changing on the spot. Those are not sloppy mistakes, but well-intended sparks of fire. A perfect solo is one where the melody can just barely be followed in the fire, but is there. To easily follow a melody within a solo would show that it was not very inventive. However, I do not think that those posters who criticized should be lambasted. Let's just have fun.- Charles Bevell

[@clarkewi]

Mind boggling.

[@tuxguys]

"Rhythm" Changes... Next to Blues Changes, the single most important set of chord changes in this music. (Thank you, George Gershwin.) Many, MANY melodies (or heads) have been written to these chords... It's entirely possible that the theme from "The Flintstones" may be the most famous melody of all, even eclipsing the original melody, "I Got Rhythm." Kessel and Ellis certainly chew it up and spit it out, don't they?

[@lazur1]

@lex Sure, it's subjective, but I'm sure it's intended as I hear it: I mean, really: The tastiest chord-melody ballad players 'going ape' on "The Flintstones" ? Perhaps in a more serious situation, they'd filigree the straight melody w/a few riffs on the 1st chorus, weave the melody into bop lines on the 2nd, re-harmonize it into stacked fourths on the 3rd, add counterpoint on the 4th, etc.: But it was just for fun, even if they aren't as much fun as Spike jones.

[@lazur1]

Sara: Yes, it's a joke, a -good- joke: Telling musical jokes is a part of jazz. The 20 secs they play theme is the entire tune. If they weren't going to improvise from that point on, the song would be over. If you meant the licks should've been embellishments around a repeated melody, I can relate to that, but even that concept is finished after one chorus. Hardly a free for all, they were strictly within the chord progression, the tempo, & the lighthearted mood of the piece.

[@MarkSeibold]

Regardless of the score keeping by the few commenters here, and I appreciate some of the interesting comments; this video is simply one of the most stunning playing by both of these masters. I heard later that Larry Coryell toured with these two through Portland Oregon in the late 70's ~ early 80's . . I missed it!? *Thanks for posting this excellent performance by Kessel and Ellis.

[@obgyno]

well yeah, it's a "rhythm change" which is the basic jazz standard form AABA A = I-VI-II-V repeated 8 times B = V/V until you reach the original I

[@dank2265]

Wow the only way to make this any better is if Joe Pass suddenly just dropped in with them.

[@TallSomeone]

Mr. Ellis' movement economy provides a smoother attach and more consistent stream of notes than Mr. Kessel's whole-wrist technique. Barney's tone gets rough as he tries to fly like this, with lots of noise and over-strum. Fantastic stuff, though. Enough to make me quit guitar!

[@joebeeber8693]

Wow this cats can play !!!!

[@lazur1]

@Tweekerhead I don't know about coke, but if I were making big bucks sitting in a studio playing guitar all day, why not? You get paid for 3hrs per session, but if you nail your part on tape right away, you wait around for the next session for 2hrs. (Tho I'm sure there was no such free time at Phil Spector or Brian Wilson sessions.)

[@rockGA12]

rest in peace Herb Ellis, Great forever !

[@alworkedup]

Barney sounds blusier to me and Herb sounds more open. That's perfectly fine with me, we get 2 styles in 1 viewing :)

[@yomotoro]

fast,clean & musical.

[@stratojetb47]

I like Kessel, but not when he improvises. Sounds blurry. He always sounds the same when he does single notes solo. He is a master at chord melody.

[@cmccallumc]

Nice! Contrafact of Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm"

[@Rockaliser]

@HiImJerry8 to be fair though good rhythm playing is just as or infact harder than lead playing, specially in jazz and the proper blues styles

[@houseofcharm]

Herb's PAF sounds lovely but Barney's CC, oh my, still the best.

[@peterpinter7999]

Here begins the jazz.. Sound, Arrange, and improvization..

[@junka22]

uhh, why not? The melody is right there, in your face in the beginning before they take the solos. Also I'm not sure which gentleman you're referring to?

[@ray123ification]

@Alembic77Series1 let kids be kids, they will have plenty of time to discover this music. It will be around for years.

[@misterarthur]

Great players. And a fun video. Too bad the audio is out of sync with the video.

[@SheltonHull]

Two hall-of-famers.

[@kingofskateop]

thanks for this wonderful video, but there is an audio sync. problem...

[@frycopy2746]

Wow grand dad blues

[@138arl]

@OscarPetersonFan Oscar is fucking awesome. Check out the Stan Getz album with Oscar and Herb. So sweet. Oscar's solo on "I want to be happy" is epic.

[@nogansos]

Pardon the silly comment.... "who's fastest?"...Barney , Herb or Tal ...is fast music better music ? This video is fast,clean & cool. I've been studying "sweep picking".. goal...100 notes at 140 bpm.