Modern Classical Guitar from Andrew McKenna Lee

There may not be quite as many active classical guitar composer-performers getting exposure to the listening public today as one might wish. Andrew McKenna Lee and his release Gravity and Air (New Amsterdam) marks the presence and convincing performance of one of the very best.

He makes it clear from the start that he is preceding out of a long, evolved tradition of sound and technique by opening with Bach's rather iconic "Prelude for Lute in D Minor." He follows this with his own compositions, three to be exact. The first, "Five Refractions of A Prelude By Bach" uses thematic material from the Bach Prelude and freely extends and adapts, then goes beyond, refracting and resituating motives into contemporary vessels of expression, commenting in the light of where music has gone, utilizing the full range of modern classical guitar technique with skill, taste and intelligence. It is an impressive performance of a captivating composition.

Then follows Lee's lovely chamber work "The Dark Out of the Nighttime," a movingly luminous modernity that features Lee's vivid guitar work plus a tightly conceived sonority that involves perceptively precient part writing for guitar, flute, viola and harp. There is a natural luminescence to the sound quality, an impressionistic play of extracted light in darkness. . . wondrously evocative yet idiomatically musical poetry. Fifteen minutes of joy, mystery and contemplation are what you get.

We return to Lee's solo guitar pieces with the final "Scordatura Suite." As implied by the title Lee seems to adopt non-standard tuning. The three movements provide a convincing sort of portrait of the artist as a near-perfect vehicle of inventive brilliance and technical mastery.

Gravity and Air vies with the very best of performance-composition outings by a modern classical guitarist. Lee belongs in the ranks of the most skilled and most creative of those practicing today. The music soars.

Guitarist Gary Lucas: His 2001 Chinese Pop Album Re-Released

There are some artists out there who not only transcend category, they transcend themselves on a regular basis. Guitarist Gary Lucas is a great example. From his early days with Captain Beefheart through to today, one never knows what Mr. Lucas will do next, what musical traditions he will tap into and rework to his own needs and aesthetic. As with the best of those we should consider our consummate artists, the entire WORLD of music is the raw material with which he works.

The Edge of Heaven (Knitting Factory) shows this worthy trait in microcosm. Gary took a group of 1930s Chinese pop songs and rearranged them in a number of ways.

The album has just been reissued. It came out on an obscure label in 2001 and it is very good to have it with us again.

Gary shows both his guitar and arranging prowess in good light through the set (which includes some extra cuts not originally on the initial release). He gets into a little of his cascades of sound approach on the electric, plays a regular acoustic or resonator in finger picking or chordal styles, wields a slide guitar with raw bluesyness or in a more straightforwardly melodic way, sometimes sounds more like a Chinese Pipa in solo and duet with a Chinese instrumentalist, and plays as part of an ensemble that performs with a traditional Chinese vocalist. Western harmonies and sensibilities join with Chinese musical form in ways that keep the ears delighted.

Gary's guitar playing is out front through the entire proceedings and it is amazing and unique. He has developed a sound. . . a number of sounds that are unmistakably his at the same time as they up the bar on the expressive potentials of the instrument.

Gary Lucus turns in some moving performances and arrangements here. The music deftly combines impressive Lucas guitar stylings with some wonderful songs. It is like nothing you've heard before, I imagine. You do not want to miss it. It's available at Amazon (download or disk) as well as, I am sure, i tunes and other outlets.

Pavement Resurfaces with New "Best of" Compilation

The US alt-indie rock group Pavement reigned in the underground of the '90s. They maintained a loyal following for their magnetically loose slacker-grunge lead vocals and garage guitar band ethos. They broke up in 1999 in a state of exhaustion and have been silent for ten years, much to the disappointment of their fans.

They plan to regroup and begin playing live again this coming September. To commemorate that and celebrate the more-or-less ten year anniversary of their demise, Matador released this month Quarantine the Past, a generous 23 track compilation of their best. That includes the singles, select album tracks, and a few of the early songs, altogether covering the 1989-1999 period.

I've been listening to the comp and it most certainly puts them in a good light. It's unpretentious guitar band music, making the most out of the elemental chord progressions, lyrics that show a bit of despair and disgust, alt drum throbbing. There's good-bad and bad-bad in this genre. Pavement is good-bad. The primitive charm of their delivery does not sound dated.

Big Bill Broonzy and Country Blues

Originally posted on January 9, 2009

Big Bill Broonzy was one of the last of the folk-county bluesmen, one of the original players to follow in the wake of Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson and the others. He recorded through the thirties and forties, gradually going to a more electric style until the early fifties, when he reverted to the acoustic roots of his music, becoming a part of the folk revival movement. He enjoyed genuine success in his remaining years before leaving this world in 1958. Sometime in that later period he recorded an album for Folkways Records, Broonzy Sings Country Blues. I believe I was in 7th grade when I stumbled upon a copy of the disk, rather badly warped, for something like ten cents at a local junk shop. I had learned by that point that guys who had nicknames like “Little,” “Blind,” “Big,” “Fats,” etc., were bound to be cool, so based on such a slim bit of guidance I picked the record up. Only half of the disk would play, the other skipping relentlessly in response to the warp, but what was playable got my attention!

Years went by, I had sold off my original record collection to help pay for school, Folkways' director Moses Asch had passed away, and the record went out of my memory. The Smithsonian acquired the Folkways catalog a number of years ago and began reissuing everything—as a regular CD issue, a CD-Rom dub, or a download. I remembered that old Broonzy record and sure enough, it was again available. So here I hear it all once more after so many years, this time without the skips, and hey, it still makes for great listening. Bill plays some very nice picking guitar, is in strong voice and covers a repertory of gems. He was in full flower, despite the years of scuffling that were behind him. So it’s something to check out if you have the interest. Set your search engine to “Folkways,” get to the Smithsonian site and you’ll find that and a zillion other recordings of folk, world, and generally wonderful things.

[Update: Since I originally wrote this review, the album mentioned seems to have gone out of print. However, the Folkways anthology Trouble in Mind appears to cover virtually that entire album and some other cuts as well.]

Vocalist Peggy Duquesnel has Taste and Artistry

Jazz vocalists can make me grumpy. I get sent a fair number of new releases by such artists, and I must say it is the one category where the misses outweigh the hits by a good margin. Sometimes I can tell within about 30 seconds whether or not this person has any business getting behind a microphone; sometimes it takes a longer time. If they make it through the first listen, I usually keep on going.

Ms. Peggy Duquesnel made it through the first listen and four more. That is, her Summertime Lullaby album did, which will be out April 5th on Joyspring Music.

Why is Peggy D. worth your earful? She has a pretty, well developed set of vocal pipes, for one thing. Pitch control and phrasing are right where they should be. She writes some nice tunes, like the title cut. And her choice of standards suite her own vocal style. There are quite good versions of "The Days of Wine and Roses," and "Stay as Sweet as You Are," for example. Another thing: she plays a very decent piano, sometimes striding along, sometimes in a neo-swing style. She performs a few numbers for piano alone and they offer very pleasant going. And then there's Peggy's small band and her arrangements. They are fully integrated into the presentation and it all hits home. Guitarists Grant Geissman and Mike Higgins add some very good work, in solos, comping and in ensemble.

Peggy Duquesnel comes up with a winner in Summertime Lullaby. It has all the makings of a full throttle kicker for you, the listener. There's enough for the sophisticated listener to maintain interest, and yet it should be well received by the general pool of folks who want something enjoyable to hear in the course of their leisure and relaxation.

The Fine Art of Hawaiian Slack-Key Guitar

Originally posted on January 8, 2009

Hawaiian slack-key guitar is simple in conception. Pick up a steel-stringed acoustic guitar with standard tuning, tune down (slacken) various strings until you get a chord, then the fun starts. It’s a Hawaiian style that came out of the steel guitar efforts that were so influential to country music in the early to mid-20th century. You can put Hawaiian music into a number of phases: 1. The original chants (vocals and percussion, mostly) that were a part of pre-contact times and reflect an ancient Polynesian component found on many islands in the area. 2. The guitar music that came about as indigenous elements fused with the music of Spanish-speaking Gaucho cowboys who rustled cattle in Hawaii from the mid-to-late 19th century onwards. This also includes the ukulele music that spread as a craze in the United States in the early 1900s. 3. Choral music that developed when missionaries tried to teach sacred songs but it all ended up with a Hawaiian twist, a similar development to what happened on other Polynesian islands; 4. Steel pedal guitar styles that have been a trademark of much of the music associated with Hawaii, became huge in the US in the ‘50s and were reinforced on the islands through things like the long-running radio show “Hawaii Calls” as well as ever increasing influxes of tourists with their demands to hear such music. 5. The slack key tradition which is an outgrowth of #s 2 and 4 especially.

So we have a CD called Hawaiian Slack Key Masters Collection, Volume 2 (Dancing Cat). It’s a generous sampling of the music—16 tracks of the slack key in various combinations: guitar alone, with or without vocals, and/or in tandem with the ukulele, a second guitar, and/or an acoustic steel guitar. Now I am not sure why this should be so, but some of this reminds me alternatingly of Leo Kottke or Ry Cooder. And some of it just sounds Hawaiian to me. There is nothing by Gabby Pahinui, one of the more famous adepts in the music. But what IS here has a laid-back feel and will satisfy the casual listener who wants to mellow out as well as the acoustic enthusiast who will find the various picking and playing routines revelatory and instructive as well as quite enjoyable.

Kate Gaffney Steps Forward with "The Coachman"

Originally posted on January 7, 2009

I don’t know a great deal about singer-songwriter Kate Gaffney, save what I know from listening to her last album The Coachman (Dig). She has a nice voice, a little reminiscent of Edie Brickell but only a touch. Most of the songs are quite good, in the style of a slightly country-influenced songwriter rock.

She is joined by a sympatheic supporting cast, notably guitarist Steve Kimock of jamband fame. The final, title cut goes for nearly 20 minutes and has a jam component. It’s good to hear people stretching out like that. I hope for her success. The album gives you a most decent listen.