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Liner notes: Disc One
by JOHN SCHAEFER, WNYC RADIO, NEW YORK
A
LEX DE GRASSI kicks off the compilation with a tribute to one of the most distinctive guitarists ever. “Jimi Hendrix’s brief but brilliant career left a body of music that has influenced a truly eclectic array of musicians,” de Grassi says. “In addition to being a ‘guitar god’ to aspiring electric guitarists, his music has been arranged and recorded by big bands, string quartets, and chamber groups. The piece “Angel” could be considered a ballad with a blues ‘shuffle’ underpinning.” De Grassi, one of the guitarists responsible for the so-called “Windham Hill sound” in the late 1970s and 80s, has become a major influence himself. Here, he plays a Fred Carlson “sympitar,” which he describes as an acoustic steel string guitar with twelve additional sympathetic strings running beneath the soundboard and through hollow graphite channels in the neck. By use of a damper, a “sitar-like” effect can be used during appropriate passages.
RALPH TOWNER is a guitarist’s guitarist. A longtime member of the renowned world/chamber/jazz ensemble Oregon, Towner’s best-known work is probably the song “Icarus,” written for the Paul Winter Consort over 30 years ago and now a certifiable classic. But he is also a pianist, a classical composer, a sought-after jazz player, and a soloist with a long and distinguished discography. His classical roots include studying classical guitar in Vienna, and his contribution to Guitar Harvest is a “Sarabande for Two Guitars” which he recorded at his home in Seattle for this project. He describes it as “a homage to Sylvius Leopold Weiss,” one of the great masters of the Baroque lute. Towner plays both guitar parts himself.
BENJAMIN VERDERY has made several criticallyacclaimed solo CDs and another album with his chamber ensemble Ufonia. He is a fine guitarist and composer; but let’s face it, there are a lot of fine guitarists and composers out there. Ben is different. He’s the “man about town” in Guitarville — the character that everyone else seems to know. His notes for the “Prelude and Wedding Dance” give just a hint of his high-octane, crank-it-up-to-eleven persona. “It was written and dedicated to my wife, flutist Rie Schmidt. I realized that the person who for the past twenty years has put up with my ‘behavior’ had no piece written for her... Like many, I am a fool for 5/8 meter and should you go into 7/8 (the piece does for a brief period), then I go crazy with ecstasy! Towards the end when the melody returns, I decided to add little ornaments that were completely inspired (stolen?) from some of the music I recorded of Lou Harrison.” The great American composer Lou Harrison, who died as this album was being completed, used a bewitching blend of medieval European, East Asian, and contemporary sounds in his music, often employing unusual tunings. This piece, while in the standard Western equal temperament, nonetheless uses a slightly altered tuning of the guitar strings.
ARLEN ROTH wrote the “Upstate Rag” back in 1970 up at his parent’s bungalow in White Lake, NY, home of Yasgur’s Farm and the original Woodstock festival of 1969. “At that time,” he says, “I’d formed an upstate NY band named Steel that lived with me while going to school in Philadelphia. This tune was our trademark number, and would sometimes last up to 45 minutes! We performed this at the FIRST Woodstock anniversary concert in 1970, where we were the only band, and played for 8 hours for over 10,000 people!” During the subsequent three decades, Roth has remained a distinctive voice on the American music scene, and while “Upstate Rag” is usually played as a full-band electric tune, this acoustic version, he says, “has always comfortably co-existed with the band version.” The electric version will be on his next solo album.
TONY MCMANUS also recorded his contribution to Guitar Harvest specifically for this collection. His solo guitar arrangement of “A Shepherd’s Dream” and “Onga Bucharesti” reflects his interest in the music of the Irish group De Dannan, who in turn learned these tunes from New York klezmer clarinetist Andy Statman. McManus says this version “represents to me a wonderful coming together of different cultures... something De Dannan has been doing for years. (Their next album featured a Gospel Choir.) These are originally from Eastern Europe and the music of that part of the world has been an interest of mine for years.”
PIERRE BENSUSAN, the renowned Algerian-born French guitarist, is also the author of several publications of guitar music and a longtime fan of Celtic music. Bensusan’s early recordings, dating from the mid 1970s, are full of arrangements of Celtic folk music; later CDs increasingly feature Bensusan’s own compositions, reflecting his interests in jazz, North African, and chamber music styles. This arrangement of the traditional Irish air “Sui Sios fa mo Dhidean” was inspired, he says, “by the harpsichord playing of Micheal O Suilleabhain, a very independently-minded, innovative keyboardist, teacher and composer, who currently conducts the Irish Music Centre at the University of Limerick (Ireland).” The tune was originally associated with Charles Byrne, the Irish harper, in 1799.
THE NEWMAN & OLTMAN GUITAR DUO consists of Michael Newman and Laura Oltman. Based in rural New Jersey, they are Ensemble-in—Residence at New York’s Mannes College of Music, and have made numerous recordings of duo guitar works and several pieces for guitar duo and string quartet — a repertoire that has developed almost exclusively for them. “Cuba” (from the Suite Española) was composed by Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909), and evokes a Spaniard’s imaginary view of the perfumed exoticism of a tropical night. “We are fortunate to have been influenced by two Cuban-born maestros,” they write. “Michael studied at The Mannes College of Music in New York with Alberto Valdes Blain, and Laura’s first teacher in South Florida was Luisa Sanchez de Fuentes. We offer this recording as a tribute to their years of encouragement and guidance.” This is a Newman & Oltman arrangement, and for those keeping score at home, Laura is heard in the left channel, Michael in the right.
FRANK VIGNOLA sounds older than he is. And that’s a compliment. Steeped in the tradition of the legendary Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt, Vignola has recorded and performed as a soloist and in collaboration with such jazz greats as Bucky Pizzarelli and the American fiddler Mark O’Connor. “Micro,” he says, “was a piece Django composed for the microphone. Django compositions still sound fresh and I enjoy playing them.” Vignola credits his father with introducing him to Django Reinhardt’s music when Frank was just five years old.
BILL FRISELL & DALE BRUNING offer one of the clearest examples of the Guitar Harvest theme. Frisell, one of the most distinctive, atmospheric, uncategorizable guitarists in the world, recorded “Seven Come Eleven” with his teacher, Dale Bruning. Their choice of work salutes a common influence, and a musical grandfather to almost any guitarist who’s ever played jazz—Charlie Christian. The sound-world is fairly straightahead jazz, but as Frisell’s many fans surely know, his own recordings span a wide spectrum from ambient jazz to alt-country to spacey rock, often all on the same record. His influences include Gary Larson’s cartoon series The Far Side, the films of Buster Keaton, and West African guitarist Boubacar Traore, among many others.
DAVID CULLEN is a Pennsylania-based guitarist and composer. In addition to writing his own works, like “Go Ahead and Play,” he has also recorded some of the classical guitar works of Ralph Towner, an important influence. The inspiration for this tune, though, was, in Cullen’s words, “my early days of playing guitar in the downtown jazz clubs. The audience was sometimes just as demanding as the players on the bandstand. They let you know if you were cutting it by calling out ëgo ahead and play!’”
LAURENCE JUBER also used a club experience as the inspiration for his piece “Catch!” — although it was an experience somewhat different from Cullen’s. “I moved to New York,” Juber writes, “shortly after Wings folded in 1981. Most evenings I was hanging out at Catch A Rising Star!, a comedy club on the Upper East Side, watching the comedians and getting an education in what it takes to be a solo performer. One night I met, and fell in love with, a red-headed writer from Hollywood named Hope.” Hence the title of the piece. (And the exclamation mark.) Juber also takes inspiration from the idea of music education, and donates a portion of his royalties to the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, which provides musical instruments and resources for schools.
DAVID RUSSELL, from Scotland, is another guitarist who presents the music of one of his primary sources of inspiration on Guitar Harvest. But guitarist/ composer Jorge Morel is not only a source of inspiration, he’s also a source of a fair amount of Russell’s repertoire, having written several pieces specifically for Russell to play. There are many talented classical guitarists in the post—Segovia world, but it is a measure of Russell’s musical gifts that Morel, who is no slouch on the fingerboard himself, would write so often and so enthusiastically for his colleague. Here, David plays the third movement from Morel’s “Sonata” for guitar.
More about Guitar Harvest, Vol. 1
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