Portal:Jazz/Did you know/38

A seven-string guitar with the open strings annotated with the notes D-G-B-D-G-B-D

Baseball player Van Lingle Mungo

• ... that the Russian guitar's D-G-B-D-G-B-D tuning (illustrated) approximates the major-thirds tuning D#-G-B-D#-G-B-D#?
• ... that poet Ishmael Reed learned to play jazz piano at the Jazzschool beginning when he was 60?
• ... that the music of Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, and Arnold Schoenberg inspired jazz-guitarist Ralph Patt to invent major-thirds tuning?
• ... that Dave Frishberg wrote the lyrics to "Van Lingle Mungo" while reading a baseball encyclopedia? (Van Lingle Mungo pictured)

September 2012