Secrets of master guitarists, revealed in conversation.
Guitar Talk offers interviews with many of the most creative
guitarists of our time. This new book presents these conversations,
between Joel Harrison and Nels Cline, Pat Metheny, Fred Frith, Bill
Frisell, Julian Lage, Elliott Sharp, Michael Gregory Jackson, Ben
Monder, Anthony Pirog, Henry Kaiser, Mike and Leni Stern, Vernon Reid,
Mary Halvorson, Nguyên Le, Rez Abbasi, Ava Mendoza, Liberty Ellman,
Brandon Ross, Wayne Krantz, Dave Fiuczynski, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Miles
Okazaki, Sheryl Bailey, Rafiq Bhatia, and Ralph Towner--twenty-seven
great guitarists in all.
An enormous range of approaches and sounds exist in the modern guitar.
The instrument can howl, scrape, scratch, scream, sing, pluck, and
soothe. What stands out in this book is not so much the instrument
itself, rather the wonderful and idiosyncratic personalities of these
bold souls, their sometimes wild, often zigzagging, and ultimately
profound journeys toward beauty, meaning, and excellence in their work.
We find out that jazz icon Bill Frisell won a high school band contest
playing R&B tunes, beating out future members of Earth Wind and Fire. We
learn which of Nels Cline's compositions he wishes to have played at his
funeral. Michael Gregory Jackson recounts painful episodes of racism as
he stretched between the chasm of avant jazz, rock, and blues in the
1980s. Many more revelations, amusements, and philosophies abound.
