Mack the Knife Freddy Green style?

[Cecil6243]

Does anybody play Mack the Knife Freddy Green Jazz style with shell chords?

I'm in the process of playing Fly me to the Moon this way, and figured it would be a way to play and sing Mack the Knife also? Seems it should be simple process of converting the open chords I am finding on Musicnotes.com to jazzy shell chords higher up the fretboard as in Fly me to the Moon. The only thing that has me confused is the 2/2 time signature.

I'll be asking my guitar instructor, but that won't be until next Thursday.

Thanks in advance!

[JonPR]

2/2 is basically like 4/4, but fast enough that it feels like you want to count the half-notes instead of all the quarters.
I.e., there is more emphasis on the "1" and "3". Typically the bass is just playing half-notes, not walking 4 to the bar.
When strumming guitar, though, you would still strum 4 to the bar, with the backbeat on 2 and 4 (quarters). A kind of "oom-pah" vibe.

Listen to some recordings of Mack the Knife and you should get it.

E.g., this backing track is 4/4 @ 190, but feels more like 2/2 @ 95:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWKO_YHkHoI

It's a common trick in jazz at fast tempos (certainly when much faster than this) to start feeling the beat in half-time, because it makes you more relaxed. Playing 16ths at 120 feels less panicky than 8ths at 240!

[Brent Hahn]

If I play something like that solo I tend to add in a little upstroke swing. With a band, or even just one more player, 3 minutes of all downstrokes can work. But by myself it gets tedious.

[Cecil6243]

Thank you for your responses.

This father and son team do an outstanding job with the one, especially the farther's harp skills but I'm disappointed with the guitar portion. The singing voice and harp are impressive! You can skip to the actual performance by starting at the 0:51 second mark. Cheers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6vPun3tL2E