Artists

Hendrix

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Obviously, in the world of guitar legend one man stands alone, head and shoulders above his peers; distorting time and space whilst achieving transcendental oneness with his guitar in a zen like reverie of Amerindian shamanism, Free love, sex, politics, feedback, fire and death.

If there was ever a sacrifice made to the guitar gods it was Hendrix himself…exploding into flame at Monterey Hendrix burnt away in a three year vapour trail of drugs, touring, alcohol, invention, and innovation – notwithstanding the management, money and mafia troubles that followed in his wake.

For those of you who are baffled by the countless re-iterations and compilations floating endlessly around, the remixes and terrible bastardisations such as “Midnight Lightning”, or “Loose Ends” (which showcase an industries shallow greed in selling the out-takes from the cutting room floor and even using hired modern musicians to remake tracks), the blatent misbranding of Hendrix’ work with Curtis Knight – to help you in avoiding these shark infested pools of the Hendrix legacy here are 6 albums that I can wholeheartedly recommend.

Doc Watson Deep River Blues

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To continue with the fingerpicking theme of the last week’s posts here`s a great video of Doc Watson playing Deep River Blues in `91. If you enjoy fingerpicking and Piedmont styles of guitar there are some great close angle camera shots here that might help you with both right and left hands. Look out for some of the string damping, the bass runs and how Doc here uses his left hand pinkie (little) finger to hammer on and pull off (around 1.25 to 1.30). It goes to show that seomtimes simplicity is the key to great playing.

Bill Frisell – glacial effects

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In a recent post featuring Adrian Legg I slyly suggested that Bill Frisell was definitely another idiosycratic guitarist to look for in your listening research. Bill has always been an exponent of an healthy array of effects – most notably delay, reverb, chorus and more rarely pitch shifters to create unique tones and sounds; a uniquity exaggerated by his jazz leanings combined with clean sustain and an emotionally oblique sense of melody.

He does however ensure that his use of processing, or effects, don`t colour his sound in a way that might obscure the emotional intent or message. and seems incapable of descending into gratuitous, meaningless affectation. Bill often sounds as if his notes are shards of ice slowly melting as they descend through warmer water and the overall impression is of a glacial and ambivalently jazz-blues fusion. It`s a novel approach to sound, feel and melody that conjures up a sense of constant ideation. Use it…

17th Century Schizoid Man II – updated

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In the previous post I took a rather circuitous journey from the lute through to the Chapman stick – a lute-like modern fret based instrument that occupies a unique space in between the guitar , the lute and the piano. If you have ever wondered why the mathematical complexities of a 6 string guitar account for the 3rd string anomaly then here’s Bob Chapman’s illumination upon the matter – it`s all about playing in keys…

17th Century Schizoid Man I

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The lute’s strings are arranged in courses of two strings each with the highest-pitched course usually consists of only a single string. An 8-course Renaissance lute will usually have 15 strings, and a 13-course Baroque lute will have 24.
If you listen carefully to the lesser known songs on albums by Cream you will hear the classical training of maestro Jack Bruce evident in passages redolent of the Bream Consort above.

Nile Rodgers, Hip Hop, Electro

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Aggregators, connectors , samplers, grooves, licks and threads! What does it all mean. Well, here at last its the post we`ve all been waiting for. It`s the behemoth of influential guitar-production genius that is Nile Rodgers!
I`ve previously mentioned the sheer genius of the Sesame Street Band! Well NIle started off there when he was a teenager, moving to the house band at the Apollo theatre – he was always destined for great things. IN the mid 70`s being black meant Nile struggled to get a deal playing rock but in 1977 he put together the band Chic. The songs “Everybody Dance,” “Le Freak,” and “Good Times” are some of the most sampled records EVER and have formed the scratching backbone of a limitless number of electro, breakdance and hip-hop records. If you`re hearing a DJ scratching and the hook sounds familiar it`s most likely something from Nile`s band Chic.
Yeah! The original Hip Hop opus “Rapper’s Delight” by Grand Master Flash and “Another One Bites the Dust” by rock megalith Queen are built on samples lifted from Nile`s Good Times. To say that Rodger’s guitar prowess & playing was understatedly, groovy, tight, and precise would be down playing it somewhat and to say that his production skills were`nt astronomical would be madness.

Son House Blues Legend

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Yessiree, here`s the mighty Son House. I`m not going to say much except this man is 100% the real deal and spent the first half of his life in the Steam Age and the later half working on the New York Central Rail line. If this man`s music doesn’t move you – nothing will. You must be dead. In my humble opinion Son House is the greatest blues player of all time…

House was born in 1886 (officially) 1902 in Clarksdale, Mississippi and in his mid twenties, inspired by Willie Wilson, he bought a guitar and played alongside Charley Patton and Robert Johnson. Son House even spent time on Parchman Farm for killing a man in self defence.

Dylan, Bloomfield, Son House and the Highway 61 Blues

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SO if you dont know who Mike Bloomfield is here`s a chance to catch up. Bloomfield was one of the first popular music stars of the 60s to earn his reputation entirely on his instrumental prowess and his early supporters were Buddy Guy, B.B.King, Muddy Waters and Dylan. Bloomfield got together with Elvin Bishop and Paul Butterfield and formed the Butterfield Blues Band who were in part responsible for bringing that whole Chicago sound from a black to a white audience. Butterfiled was famous for his cross-harp inverted harmonica style. You can hear them both hear prior to Bloomfield`s departure to form Electric Flag.

Michael Jacksons Guitarists

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Michael Jackson`s legacy has left and interesting aftertaste for the guitar afficionado.

Jackson`s first album began with the luminescent touch of Larry Carlton and Beat It from Thriller features both Eddie Van Halen and Steve Lukather as well as Jeff Porcaro and, as usual, Quincy Jones` inimitable production. The following album, Bad, featured Billy Idol`s guitarist Steve Stevens and on tour the fiery Jennifer Batten (later to work with Jeff Beck).