忘記我自己Fingerstyle

和各位本blog讀者（如果有的話）「久別重逢」第一個帖當然齊集我至愛的topics: 音樂、Hana，還有結他；介紹一條令我拿起已完全走音結他來彈的片：

Guitar jazz

After several years of immersing myself in saxophone music, all of a sudden several new releases by jazz guitarists in the 2nd half of the year caught my attention. That included:

• Alex Skolnick Trio - Conundrum: I have been singing praises for this guitarist for years. He is one of the very few guitarist who shines in both metal and jazz. This is his trio's first new release in years though and it certainly didn't disappoint. As usual, he blended jazz with different genre including classical music (Erik Satie's Gymnopedie) and country (Culture Shock) Django Tango obviously pays tribute to the late great Django Reinhardt.
• John Scofields - Combo 66: the last album with him that I listen to was the one from the "supergroup" Hudson, which I moderately enjoyed (not a big fan of the vocals) I think I will stick with the ones with him as leader, like this Combo 66.
• Al Di Meola - Opus: Spotify doesn't have all of his albums. Too bad as I am very interested to hear his interpretation of the Beatles' music, recorded in the legendary Abbey road studio! So I am very surprised that two of his 2018 releases are available. Opus features his signature sound which has elements from Flamenco and other world music. Check out the tracks where he collaborated with keyboardist Kemuel Roig.

結他之死？

最近在FB見到關於玩具反斗城生意不佳可能要關門大吉的新聞，令我想起早一陣子也有關於美國著名樂器連鎖店Guitar Center的傳聞，早幾個月前報紙就有文章探討結他之死，因為十年間電結他年銷量由1.5 mil下降到1mil！昨天Billboard採訪結他「神」Eric Clapton又提及幾家結他廠商生意均走下坡。不過讀過太多XX之死的文章，包括重金屬、爵士樂、唱片（還有某個國家前領導人）我想電結他還是有一定生命力。

3 Minutes to Midnight

昨天才聽了一首我熟悉的Iron Maiden歌曲，來自其精選的Two Minutes to Midnight!今天聽的名字多了「一分鐘」，卻是完全風馬牛不相及的結他手Lawson Rollins的新唱片
Lawson Rollins的風格大致可歸類為New flamenco, 即Jesse Cook及Ottmar Liebert那一類，論技術及創作水平，Rollins和他們都不遑多讓；近年他每有新作，結他雜誌都會訪問，和我一樣十分推薦。

Yes vs Yes

和多數在80年代中正式開始接觸西洋流行及搖滾的樂迷一樣，我第一首聽的Yes樂隊作品是Owner of the Lonely Heart，這也是當年我常聽、討論年輕男女戀愛關係的港台節目的寂寞的心俱樂部的theme music! 主持人之一的倪震出的雜誌取名為Yes，想來也和此曲的Yes樂隊有關，可能他是樂隊fans?（無獨有偶，上次帖關於Yes,也因為去完倪太周慧敏的演唱會！）今次再寫Yes,則和樂隊榮登搖滾名人堂有關：結他雜誌訪問了樂隊其中一位結他手Trevor Rabin，訪問理所當然提到Owner of the lonely heart這首樂隊最hit作品，本來就是Rabin本人的作品，原來打算以另一樂隊名義推出，而Yes主音Jon Anderson加入後，索性就成為改組的新Yes。老實說，在我接觸過原班人馬更早期的真正經典prog rock作品如Close to the Edge及Fragile之後，對Trevor Rabin這個陣容的Yes就看低了一線，該陣容的作品全部都是Owner of the Lonely Heart一類的hit songs，前衞味道盪然無存，難怪Anderson後來又另組ABWH(Anderson Bruford Wakeman and Howe)，再度回歸prog rock，尤記得當年還有荷李活中心還有熱心推介搖滾另類獨立音樂的唱片舖Monitor Records（助聽器）的年代，店主Alan就對我大力推薦ABWH唯一一張新作，我的財力只能買小量CD也購入，初聽不覺如何，卻越聽越欣賞；ABWH的Steve Howe正是Close to the Edge的結他手，有結他友認為他的結他技術不如Rabin精鍊，但音樂才華及創意之高則無人能否定。十年人事幾番新，Jon Anderson退下重組後Yes主音一職，補上的繼有Benoit Davids及Jon Davison, 兩位均唱功一流。除了少量全新作品，現場玩的音樂以Close to the Edge時期為主，那邊廂Jon Anderson捲土重來，和Rabin及Wakeman再組band。基本上兩邊陣營均有Yes名字的使用權，原來低音結他手Chris Squire曾和Anderson有協議，兩者不會爭用Yes名字，不過隨著Squire舊年去世，協議也不再存在。總之今時今日的他們早已昇上神枱，無論那一個名字玩甚麼水平的音樂，似乎也沒所謂吧。

Two Classical Guitars

As I mentioned late last year, I have rekindled my relationship with ShoutCast after many years apart. Audiophile Classical has become my "default" background music channel for my morning routine (and replaced the Music Choice App's "exclusive" Opera channel for reason I am unable to explain) You can't go wrong with their choices. However, sometimes background music does become foreground music and stole your attention away from the routine, like this performance of the Tango Suite.

I tried looking for the above on Spotify and instead I found another collection featuring 2 guitars (yes, it has a few tunes from Piazzolla as well!)
 

悼念融合爵士結他大師Larry Coryell

Larry Coryell在前幾天去世，老實說我對他的熟悉程度遠不如很多其他爵士結他手，他的Spaces一碟倒十分有印象，皆因那是十分精彩的融合爵士，另一張較新以上世紀中引發全美反種族隔離的民權運動的城市Montgomery為名的作品我也相當欣賞。今天聽了他和Flamenco結他大師Paco De Lucia合作的作品（收錄於Castro Marin一碟，原來算是冷門之作）想起五年前曾在紐約唯一一次看過他和兒子合作演出。

RIP Mr. Coryell

Guitars at Yoshi's

It has been a good 2 month-ful of live (guitar) music for me, including 3 at Yoshi's (and the Memorial concert for my friend that I played in) I took my sis to Yoshi's for Mike Stern's concert last December (also featuring Randy Brecker on trumpet and Dennis Chamber on drums) I bet she has never seen such a powerful drummer. One thing I like about him is his moves were not flashy for flashy sake. On the other hand, they just seem natural for the stuff he played. And Mike Stern was vintage Mike Stern with his unmistakable sound on his Tele.

Then I got to see another great drummer on my first visit to Yoshi's on 2016: Simon Phillips, whom I last saw playing with Hiromi. This time he led his own fusion quartet: Protocol, with Danger Danger's Andy Timmons on guitar. Their sound reminded me of Cassiopeia, a legendary Japanese group with guitar/keys/bass/drums that I really enjoy. Their music had rich melodies and also showcase their great skills on their instruments.

And I saw two of my most admired musicians/instrumentalists last night at Yoshi's: Testament's Alex Skolnick on guitar and Stu Hamm on bass, 25 years after seeing them played together in Austin. I became interested in their music even before listening to Hamm and Testament (via the Hong Kong indie music publication 音樂一週, 還記得樂評人戲稱Hamm's Kings of Sleep為昏君！Very creative) For a jazz and metal head like me, it's hard not to like Skol: a guitarist equally excel in the legendary thrash metal band Testament as well as his own jazz trio and world music group! He also wrote well, in magazines, his blogs and his bio. I bet he got some of that from his PhD parents. And I started playing bass around the time Hamm released his ground-breaking Kings of Sleep, with his melodic and harmonically rich original compositions. His bass licks and accompaniment distinguished his music from those who merely "noodles" with their technical chops. From what I read in Skol's bio, they went separate ways after their tour in the early 90s. Skol soon recorded with another bass legend Michael Manring. I was so glad to be at this "reunion" show, which also celebrated Hamm's latest release, the Book of Lies. In addition to new tunes from the album, like the solo bass piece from his suite, they also played quite a few covers: "We will rock you", "Misty Mountain Hop" (with Skol on slide guitar!), "Lucy in the Sky with Diamond" (Hamm played it as a solo piece 6 years ago at Bassplayer Live in Livermore) and "Red house" (with Skol on vocal) The encore piece sounds like a Joe Satriani (Hamm's long time collaborator) tune and Skol showed his "lineage" to the mastro. Now, time for some criticisms: there were way too many covers! When I was a kid, I couldn't stand "Misty Mountain Hop" :P (but it's one of the few tunes that I completely changed my mind after I grew up) Hamm's playing sounded a bit muddy too. And finally, it's a personal thing but I am not a big fan of vocalizing with guitar solo (like what Skol did last night. Coincidentally, Stern also did it in his show! I do know it's a good practice routine for improv)

Looking forward to a great year of live music in 2016!

Some jazz guitar music

I am listening to the track "What Goes Around" from the album "The Mystery of Life" by jazz guitarist Karen Segal and her trio right now. The first time I listen to it was during my drive to SF earlier this morning on the radio. It caught my attention immediately. Why? It sounds very similar to the style of jazz played by Alex Skolnick Trio (In case you don't know. Skolnick is the guitarist of the legendary metal band Testament) including the tones of the guitar, the arrangement and even the "middle-east" modes used! I googled and this is probably the first time anyone linked them together :P I shouldn't be too surprised by her rock tendency though 'coz she mentioned she would be a rock musician if she isn't a jazz musician in her interview from 2009.

Another album I would like to write about is "The Test of Time" by Ken Navarro. (The Cool Jazz countdown podcast played his latest album in the 12/4 episode, BTW) His music is classified as smooth jazz. Gotta admit I was attracted by the album cover that showed him holding a Godin MultiAc Nylon guitar (yeah, no wonder there's this term guitar-porn) Surprisingly (or maybe I shouldn't), the whole album is all acoustic solo guitar music. Better yet, it features several pop cover as well as some standards, including Imagine, Police's Message in a bottle and another Beatles' medley. I have been attempting to play some pop covers these days (mostly on sax) and appreciate the difficulty in making them sound interesting musically. Navarro didn't play much lengthy improvised solo but instead rely on harmonically-rich arrangement.   

Bass music

I heard that some people have the tendency to hum the bass line when trying to sing-a-long and I doubt I'm one of them but I do enjoy bass-centric music a lot. I recommended "The Bridge" by Charnett Moffett and "About Now" by Mark Egan before. The former is a bass solo album. I listened to another today: "Ones All" by Dave Holland. Any non-bass fan should give this a listen: Holland's melodic playing will change your mind. One bass is all you need, but sometimes it's also good to have a saxophone, as in the case of bassist Heiri Kanzig's duet with Chico Freeman named "The Arrival." You would hear the intimacy between two voices, and the listener, which is a very special feeling, especially on the ballads. Last but not least, another album with Dave Holland was his collaboration with flamenco master Pepe Habichuela named "Hands" It started with a producer invited both of them to play in Spain. That's when Dave Holland learned the art of flamenco. And it proves that really talented musicians are capable of mastering multiple styles. It's actually quite rare to hear flamenco music featuring bass (here is a study on this topic by a music school student) I think all instrumental flamenco music lovers will enjoy this work a lot as Dave Holland has added an extra dimension to the style.

Guitar music

I felt that I wrote too much about saxophone music lately. I actually still play my guitar and still love guitar-centric music. Here are a few I listened to recently (some during those July trips)

• Rüdiger Krause: A Guitar Named Carla. Not sure if the guitarist really named one of his guitar Carla (referring to pianist/composer Carla Bley here) but the songs on this album were written by Carla and re-arranged for various instrumentations (solo acoustic or electric guitar, guitar + bass, or guitar/bass/piano.) Carla Bley herself played on the last piece.  
• Andreas Kapsalis and Goran Ivanovic: Blackmail. This was reviewed by an old (2013) guitar magazine that I "gave away" during the trip. Both are (nylon) acoustic guitarists with awesome techniques and it's a treat for all fans of guitar, especially those all enjoy world music. You can find more music of Ivanovic here. He has collaborated with other great guitarists like Fareed Haque as well.
• Nick Colionne: Influences. I first learned about this smooth jazz guitarist from the Epiphone newsletter (so I guess it's always good to be associated with a big brand name) Compared to saxophonists, there aren't as many smooth jazz guitarists out there (other than Norman Brown or George Benson) And Colionne is a versatile one judging by the last blues rock tune (Sting Like a King B) on this album and his videos demo-ing Epiphone Broadway guitar.
• Mark Egan: About Now. Saw the ad from an old jazz magazine about this release by a jazz bass guitarist. If you enjoy fusion and melodic bass playing (as lead and accompaniment) like I do, you must check it out.

25 Unusual Albums for Guitarists

I gotta admit I have been paying less attention to guitar (and this blog) these days after picking up saxophone. So, it's time to post one about guitar: GuitarPlayer presented 25 unusual albums every guitarist needs to hear The editors even took the time to link a YouTube video to every entry. What a good read/listen! Gotta admit I am not too interested in those country albums mentioned even though I understand how important/influential those players are. I dig the blues ones: I actually own the SRV/Albert King album! And glad to hear some early 80s Gary Moore. He seemed to rock harder than his late 80's self (Of course he became all blues after that) The list even included an album without any guitar playing: Weather Report's 8:30 because all of us could learn something from bassist Jaco Pastorius. 

Guitar heroes

I am a big fan of magazines, especially guitar magazines like the Guitar Player. It takes me a long time to finish reading one though. Usually it takes 2-3 years to go from my mailbox to the living room to the bedroom to the bathroom and finally the recycle bin. Just finished reading one issue from 2013 which recommended the instrumental albums "Sound of Innocence" by Kiko Loureiro and "Unfinished Business" by Dean Brown. I enjoyed both a lot as I am a big fan of shredding guitar instrumental (think Vinnie Moore, Joe Satriani) as well as fusion. The funny thing is that I have never heard of Loureiro until this but I'm sure I'll hear more of his work as he just became the new guitarist of Megadeth (replacing Chris Broderick)

I am sure these two guys, Kevin Eubanks and Stanley Jordan, appear in guitar magazines much more often, especially after they collaborated on a new release named "Duets" It's not your "normal" jazz guitar duo album though. They actually took turn to play piano on some of the tracks (with bass and drums) And like the previous releases by Jordan, it included a few pop covers. I enjoy their fresh reinterpretation.

Last but not least, I learned about the new release "Rush" by guitarist Tom Guarna from the "In the Groove, Jazz and Beyond" podcast. And I agree with this review very much that Guarna is in the same league as the "next gen" jazz guitarists that I have seen performing in NYC in the past years like Kurt Rosenwinkel and Gilad Hekselman.

Guitars made with wood from Detroit's abandoned homes

Just read about these guitars from the latest issue of the Acoustic Guitar magazine. And found that the magazine has already posted a video about this last year. It seems that the guitars made with wood that came from Reclaim Detroit, the non-profit that dismantles Detroit's abandoned housing stock for re-use actually sounded pretty good. And you can't beat playing instruments with such history behind it! According to this source, another company/luthier has been working on electric guitars using such wood and priced at ~$2000. It would be a perfect match playing music from Detroit Rock City!

Alex Skolnick's Vinyl Encounter

If you have been following my blogs, you probably know Alex Skolnick is one of my favorite (jazz and metal) guitarist. Just read his recent blog post titled "Vinyl Encounter or other Mr Baker" It's very interesting and I can't believe I did two things before he did:

1) "Discovered" Mickey Baker: Like Skolnick, I wasn't aware of this influential guitar player years after I played. Unlike Skolnick, I learned about him several years ago via a Jazz Guitar Forum, where study groups were formed to learn jazz guitar from Mickey Baker's instructional material. It was a kinda heated topic there: some touted it as one of the best out there while some thought Baker's way was too old-school and took long to get results. 

2) "Rediscovered" vinyl: I agreed with him that small apartments in Manhattan wasn't exactly the best place to be a vinyl collector/turntable lover. I was one when I lived there in 2000. I gave away my turntable in 2001 and didn't got back to listening to vinyl until 2013. There's simply no substitute for vinyl's magic.  

The Van Halen brothers inteviewed

... by none other than Van Halen's vocalist, David Lee Roth! Here is the video:

Very interesting! (Came across this while cleaning up old emails from 2012!) As a rock/metal fan, I certainly have listened to a lot of Van Halen's. However, I have never been a huge fan. So I just found out from the video that Eddie lived in the Netherland until he was 7. Their mom was from Indonesia while their dad was a traveling musician. Mrs. Van Halen was very serious about her sons' education, including Eddie's music training, which started with classical piano. In the video he mentioned he didn't actually read the sheet music but instead memorizing the tune (and fingerings) while his teacher played! Yet he was able to win piano competitions back then. Amazing.

Marty Friedman and his career in Japan

Marty Friedman certainly is NOT a household name here in US, his home country. He's definitely more well-known in Japan, according to the Rolling Stone magazine. He's kinda like the 'Ryan Seacrest of Japan.' Long time metal fans like myself are familiar with his guitar work during his shredding days (with Jason Becker in Cacophony on the Shrapnel label) and as a member of Megadeth. Then he left Megadeth and US and started a new career in Japan as a TV celebrity starring in shows like "Mr. Heavy metal" and "Rock Fujiyama." What a move! The linked article also mentioned his insights on Japanese music from the perspective of a session musician playing there. He thinks the pop music there is more complicated than that in US (more chord changes for example) and pointed out interesting new groups like Babymetal, which put a metal twist on top of a girl group.


Looks like he got quite inspired by his experiences in Japan judging by his new album "Inferno" which features quite a bit of twists and turns rather than straight forward rock.

Guitar diplomacy

40 years after the historic ping-pong (a.k.a. table tennis for American) diplomacy between US and China, John Kerry wrote a new chapter: guitar diplomacy. Check out this article with a video showing John Kerry playing guitar after his big meeting with Chinese officials. The article also included reviews of his playing by some experts, including THE instructional video guru Esteban! I agree that he played at the level of an amateur who were once a competent player. In any case, that's gutsy.

BTW, this is post #700 on this blog!

Epiphone artists interviewed

I received a ton of newsletters in my Inbox everyday. Other than the ones from online stores I shopped from, I also got a few from guitar or effect pedal manufacturer of which contests I entered (and I never won any free equipment :( ) I actually enjoy the ones from guitar maker Epiphone quite a lot. My first guitar was an Epiphone SG Junior (that I still play whenever I am with it) And I did "win" something from them back then: it's a promotion with guitar instruction video (yes, in VHS!) that they gave away gig bag ("official" one with the Epiphone logo!) So you may say I'm partial to the brand. Their newsletters usually feature interviews of musicians who play Epiphone guitar. You might be surprised by the big names (not playing the "big brother" brand Gibson instead!) Jazz/blues master Robben Ford is one of them. Jeff Waters of Canadian thrash metal legend Annihilator is another. The part I found especially interesting was when he talked about running into musicians influenced by him. Personally I have run into a guy who listened to my band before without knowing I was the one in the YouTube clip. And I have also found a cover-version of our song on the internet before! And Robben Ford's interview got me really interested in the 1966 Epiphone Rivera he plays. He actually recorded an entire album, "Bringing it Back Home", with just this guitar, hoping to capture that one sound.

Belle

Talking about the main character from Beauty and the Beast. My daughter used to watch it all the time (of course she has outgrown it already) It's also a tune performed by Gilad Hekselman on the album Disney Jazz Volume 1: Everybody Wants to be a cat.

I came across this album from his discography. I was impressed by his playing when I saw him performed live with Melissa Aldana at the Small's in NYC back in August. BTW, so glad to see the club being recommended by Alex Skolnick (the great metal and jazz guitarist) in his Tweet recently.