Are there any particular guitar solos you’re obsessed with lately?
Here’s one I can’t stop listening to: Jim Hall’s solo on Sonny Rollins’ 1964 recording of “God Bless the Child.”
This may seem like a weird statement, given how much self-indulgent wanking infests this site, but I have a love/hate relationship with guitar solos. (Or more like a hate relationship leavened by occasional stirrings of love.) That’s especially true with singer/songwriter tracks. A good song drags you into its emotional world, and so often it strikes me as emotionally jarring to suspend the drama for a fretwork display. It can be like an ill-timed intermission in a great movie, as if you were watching Citizen Kane or Grand Illusion, and they paused the film two-thirds of the way through to bring out a juggling monkey.
That’s one reason I love this solo so much. Hall just plays beautifully all the way through. He’s like the Loch Ness Monster, undulating continuously just beneath the surface and gently lifting his head above the waterline when his moment comes.
Another is the sheer bravery with which Hall employs silence. Talk about pregnant pauses! It would be fascinating to transcribe only the rhythms of the solo, not even the pitches. The asymmetrical phrases. The late entries. It’s so suspenseful. So poignant. So unpredictable. So frickin’ brilliant.
He’s such a genius, I almost feel guilty Photoshopping in a joke guitar.
Equally amazing is liquid blend of chords and melodies. For many players, that’s a binary distinction: Either you’re soloing, or you’re comping. This is just…music.
But the thing that amazes me most of all, I think, is Hall’s mastery of register. Baroque music scholars sometimes refer to a technique known as “compound melody,” best exemplified in the music of — who else? — J.S. Bach. Compound melodies are melodic lines that imply multi-voice counterpoint, even when they’re strictly single notes. A tune might center in one register, then leap high or low, establishing a beachhead in another register before returning to the original one. It then bounces back and forth between the regions, almost as if two tunes were being played simultaneously on adjacent channels, with the listener flicking back and forth between them.
I’m not sure I’ve explained that coherently. But Hall does it.
Jim Hall’s students (including Bill Frisell, whose playing this track so vividly anticipates) report that he kept a sign inside his guitar case that read “Make musical sense.” For many of us, soloing is about practice, practice, practice, and then when the moment comes, we turn off part of our analytical mind and hope that our instincts and muscle memory huck up something acceptable. But I get the sense that Hall, in pursuit of “musical sense,” never turns off his analytical mind. That’s not to say his approach is cold or scientific—he wears his heart on his sleeve here! But he’s always intelligent and thoughtful.
It’s said that improvisation is spontaneous composition. Sure, sometimes. But it’s rarely this spontaneous, or this composerly.
Gotta listen one more time—BRB.
Yeah, it’s still amazing. 🙂
So what are your current guitar solo obsessions? Any style. Any skill level. Anything that makes you feel intense things.
This is beautiful! What Hall is doing, and many do not, is listening. Listening to everything, not just himself. He plays a little and it takes him places, and he follows. He’s not playing a bunch of rehearsed licks, even though some may be in his playing. He’s composing as he goes. 🙂
Solos I like? I’ve heard you do some very nice mini-compositions as solos too. 🙂 One of my favorite all time solos is the one you did in “Ya No Me Importa Nada” by Erica Garcia. I’ve listened to that one over and over. It makes perfect musical sense.
Oh, shucks. Jim Hall, I ain’t.
But I love Erica’s Amorama album. Naturally, it came out RIGHT when the whole Argentine economy crashed, and it pretty much sank without a trace. Dang, there was so much talent on that record: Justin, Victor, and Roger from Beck’s band…Gustavo Santaolalla, a couple of years before he won two Best Score Oscars…Beck’s dad wrote the string charts. And Erica is such a total badass, a fine singer, a killer guitarist, and a great writer.
Lets also not forget she looks pretty hawt too!
Yeah, there’s that.
Two Guitar solos really haunt Me,..First up…Steve Lukather on Toto’s “I wont hold you back down”. It’s truyly amazing not only the choice of notes but, the tone and emotion he exudes in the small break alotted for the solo. Just am absolutely in love and sucked in by that crying,emotional lead break. Next up…Jeff Beck’s “Where were you” on his album “Guitar Shop”. It’s just pure tone heaven…outside of the rev/delay…theres no tricks…pure emotion. It’s a once in a life statement created by a true genius. Michael Schenkers “Desert Song” deserves honorable mention…sorry I rambled on…but I cant resist saying how much these guitar solo’s have seduced and haunted Me throughout My musical journey…Peace…
Oh man, that Jeff Beck solo! More than 20 years ago, I got to co-write the Guitar Player cover story on the Jeff/Stevie Ray tour, interviewing both guys, right after Guitar Shop came out. I saw the show three or four times, and Jeff’s performances were some of the most electrifying I’ve ever witnessed. That tune in particular. He’s not one of those players who “makes it look easy”—it’s more like he’s summoning every molecule of available energy to achieve those “impossible” high notes. He positively pulsated. It’s like watching a no-net tightrope act. Will he make it this time? (Spoiler alert: He usually does.)
I also put Michael Landau in that class…wich leads Me to ask why no one has interviewed him…not much is really known other than the scant information you find on his website…if you or anyone could interview him..I think it would be a great service to the guitar community…this guy has inspired Me for the last 30 years or so…
I also find most guitar solos obnoxious… rarely do they add value to a song. The sound of self indulgence!
One of the first that did grab me though was on Wall of Voodoo’s cover of Ring of Fire. A strange mix of jarring and atmospheric, grabbed my attention and demanded to be listened to!
I also love the solo on Iggy Pop’s I wanna be your dog and the Kinks You Really Got Me (certainly don’t buy into the rumour that Pagey played it. Far too irrational in its execution). Nice and raw, kick you in the face solos. Also like the phasey solo on The Velvet Undergrounds What Goes On (have to steal that idea someday)!
Yeah, but do you buy the rumor that Pagey played the “Sympathy for the Devil” solo? 😉
This year I got a chance to ask Marianne Faithfull — who was frickin’ there — about it. She sighed and said, “I just knew you were going to ask me something idiotic like that.”
Ooh that’s a tough question to answer with any certainty! The Keith Richards/Chuck Berry video (where Chuck repeatedly scolds Keith for not pre-bending) makes me think it’s possible he didn’t play the solo on Sympathy. Not sure it sounds like Page either though? The rhythm guitar tone on Stray Cat blues sounds slightly similar(ish) to me so I wouldn’t be shocked either way?
Has Marianne’s comment changed your mind at all?
On a side note, I wonder whether Page’s silence is due solely to discretion or because it probably causes him to be accredited with far more than he actually did (although I gather he did play on a vast amount of successful records)?
Marc Moreland was awesome, all the way around- WOV is vastly underrated, IMO.
I’m glad somebody beat me to “What Goes On”- that triple-tracked, beautiful mess is where it’s at for me.
I feel like total brown noser WAY too often around here, but the solo on Tom Waits’ “Black Wings” gives me goosebumps, even after a bajillion listens.
Total agreement on WoV. Great, great band in their classic period. And tVU’s “What Goes On” has been getting a lot of play around here, yes.
For some reason Mick Green’s solo on Ecstasy by Johnny Kidd and the Pirates has always stuck with me. Maybe its because at the time most solos on pop records in the UK were real simple single note lines and Mick played all kinds of arpeggiated chords, double stops and bends. Apparently their record is a cover of a Ben E. King song, which I only just found out and have never heard.
Wowee! I have never heard that! I love it! It starts out so normal, that gets more and more…not normal. He sounds like Ribot near the end. Thanks so much for sharing!
Lookit — the song is by Doc Pomus and Phil Spector. Did anyone hear that NPR interview with the guy who wrote the Doc Pomus book? What a fascinating character Pomus was!
You’re in the UK, right? Johnny Kidd and the Pirates are criminally unknown in the States, where we tend to think bad-ass British rock-and-roll guitar playing starting with “Satisfaction” and “You’ve Really Got Me.” But man, this is real ultra-violent stuff!
Very cool! Mick Green was a major influence on Wilko Johnson of Dr. Feelgood fame, from the raw tele tone to the chordal stabs…compare this to ‘Down by the Jetty’ off the Feelgood’s album of the same name.
As for my solo obsessions, just about anything off Mickey Baker’s ‘Wildest Guitar’ album will suffice; it’s all instrumental, but the way he transitions from the heads to the solo and back is a master class in arrangement, whilst still rocking with amazing swagger and loony grin. Pretty epic.
For rock’n’roll guitar my money’s with Ron Asheton on the Stooges ‘Funhouse’ lp; ‘Loose’ indeed! Brilliantly simple, tough and a perfect answer to Iggy’s vocal assault.
Mick Green is amazing. I saw The Pirates in the 70’s when they had their resurrection and put out the LP Out of Their Skulls. I saw them at the Cellar Door in DC I believe, a tiny place. I also have a radio live show of them from good old WHFS radio of that show. Mick Green was out really hot that night it was a real treasure of a show for me they had the whole audience up and dancing (in a very limited space) no mean feat for that place and it’s regulars.
My all time fave solo is Robert Fripp on Eno’s “Blank Frank” tho’ there is hardly a bad Fripp solo at least before KIng Crimson went to hell in it’s later years.
That is some fantastic amount of control and thought. I guess I fall into the category of ignorant bliss as far as solos go.I have been stuck on the intro to Sweet Jane forever , Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner just as good as a live recording can get.Go back to the mid 70s and you will find Uli Jon Roth starting the whole classical guitar influences into hard rock (beginning of shredding) The Sails Of Charon is one of my favs. I also have this thing for Jimmy Pages solo in Fool in the Rain,think it is fantastic.
We think alike. I listened to about 20 versions of “Sweet Jane” the day Lou died. I considered a post, but I didn’t really have much to add. But I agree that the Hunter/Wagner team was amazing. (I’ve also heard a rumor that they performed a lot of the guitar parts on Aerosmith’s second album.) Did you know that Steve also concocted the brilliant “Solsbury Hill” acoustic guitar part?
I heard Uli demoing some Pigtronix pedals at NAMM the year before last. He was playing mostly clean, and it was a real interesting glimpse into his style. There are extreme Hendrix influences, and he can play in a very loose, liquid fashion. Very musical.
This has been for me a week of reflecting on Lou Reed. Rock & Roll Animal with Hunter/Wagner is perhaps my least favorite Lou Reed album. I realize this is probably an unpopular viewpoint and I don’t mean to be insulting in my rant. But those slick and stylishly pumped-up 70s guitar solos had no business stomping over Lou’s song writing. In my opinion they’re just inappropriate and not representational of the aesthetic behind that music.
On the other hand “I Heard Her Call My Name” (from White Light/White Heat) features guitar solos I worship, and about as far away from Jim Hall as you can get while remaining on the same planet. (“…and then my mind split open”)
I don’t care if some soloing is condemned as “self-indulgent”; sometimes its great to experience self-indulgence. Two sides of Quicksilver’s Happy Trails – yes please. Thurston and Lee jamming out for 20 minutes on the end of sonic youth’s “The Diamond Sea” – gorgeous.
I never got to meet Lou. He was famous for being…prickly, to put it mildly. Though my pal Robbie Burger played with him for years and loved him. I never interviewed him — I think because he demanded a cover story or nothing. But I did get to interview Sterling Morrison a couple of years before he died. He seemed to have an encyclopedic memory about the various Velvet Underground sessions, and he provided many details about the gear he and Lou used. I couldn’t find the story online anywhere, but here’s a screenshot of the issue. Maybe someone out there has a copy, and can scan/post?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yik4tc1vccko5zc/Sterling%20Morrison.rar
I loved Sails of Charon ,Myself…Uli’s great…Im a huge Michael Schenker fan. All of Michael’s guitar solo’s are soulful and Iconic. If you forget for a moment he’s a rock guitarist…listen to his incredible licks…right from blues..His legato style is smooth…His tone was/is always incredible…His melodic style was always amazing too…I always liked him over other guys like Malmsteen. Whose music always seemed to bored Me…
Hunter and Wagner were on some Alice Cooper albums and Hunter played the opening solo on Aerosmiths Train Kept a Rollin’ too. And NicPic I been a mid ranged focused freak since the 70s when I first heard Micheal Schencker got to love the slow break in the middle of Let It Roll , heck got to love any and all songs that start with feedback !
I have a hard time thinking about traditional solos I care much about. I am, however, borderline obsessed with Ira Kaplan’s brief, “out”, but effective solo on “From a Motel 6”: https://youtu.be/apTwaiAyyPI at about 1:59 Of longer form stuff, Ira is probably one of my favorite soloists, but it’s probably because the solos advance the songs so well.
Solo planning flowchart:
1. Does it “advance the song?” A. Yes. B. No.
If A: Consider a brief solo.
If B: Move along.
For giggles, I saw Steve Vai a few weeks ago. Ah, I think he may have a different aesthetic going on. Something like:
Have I played too many notes in this song yet?
A) Yes. Play more!
B) No. To date we have not encountered this situation so there is no plan.
The Jim Hall video has been blocked but I know the tune anyway. I had a room mate that was a Jim Hall fanatic so I learned to appreciate his genius. Beyond that the Hello Kitty Strat works for almost anyone I can think of (except maybe Dick Cheney he deserves a wooden stake photoshopped thru his heart since it can’t happen soon enough in real life). Photoshopping is a wonderful thing that was one of those purely unintended consequences.
I have that issue of Guitar Player somewhere at home. I purchased it, of all places, in Mexico City Airport. It’s one of a few I can remember, not because of the story you request, but because of an excellent Mike Keneally article on 70’s riffs. I’ll try to find it and scan the pages you need.
As for a solo, just to be different, I’ve always thought this song has one which fits very well and builds on it. A prog Spanish group from the 70’s called Topo (Mole). Solo starts at 2:12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXpQVUS46tE
good song…thanks!…
A huge one for me is “Big Log” by Robert Plant, with Robbie Blunt on guitar throughout, if I’m not mistaken. This is one I can sing in my sleep and it fits perfectly with the mood. Very restrained through the song and lets out some extremely tasty licks as it fades out. 🙂
My vote for contender for baddassest solo maybe ever is “Cold Water”, from Tom Waits’ Mule Variations- that, for me, is Ribot at the top of his game. This one is good too:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vdKSuBi7HZQ
I really dig Jim Campilongo’s solo on “Cat Under a Car”, too.
For me, most solos are kinda pointless, but a great solo is a thing of rare beauty.
Poison Ivy’s solo on New Kind of Kick is pretty crazy!
I’m pretty sure that one is actually Kid Congo Powers!
So it is! I just found this (I’ve always wondered how it was done)..
“And the guitar solo in that is one of my greatest moments – its actually a duo between me and Ivy. And its me playing the guitar and Ivy was switching switches like on and off faster and slower so its sounds like its going backwards and slowing down and up – and its one of the wildest sounds. I’ve never been able to recreate it, nor have I heard anyone else recreate it – this kind of magical sound.”
Such a great sound!
Hello everybody, here’s a link to my dropbox folder, where a copy of the story requested by Joe about Sterling Morrison and VU resides. It’s a .rar file containing 3 .jpg, one for each page I scanned: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yik4tc1vccko5zc/Sterling%20Morrison.rar
Hope it works, it’s the first time I use dropbox.
Wow. Thanks, the dropbox thing worked fine. However I wish the article had been a little bit more uh, moresome. Oh well.
Reading the intro I realized that Sterling Morrison died before he achieved induction into the R&R Hall of Fame… what a petty and vacuous institution.
Thanks!
Robert Fripp on Eno’s Baby’s On Fire
Robert Fripp on Bowie’s Scary Monsters album.
It’s No Game, Scary Monsters, Up The Hill Backwards, Teenage Wildlife…
Andy Summers on Driven To Tears
Adrian Belew on Talking Heads The Great Curve from Remain In Light
Marquee Moon.
Great song indeed…though I think in terms of thrilling solos from TV, you can’t beat the version of “Little Johnny Jewel” from _The Blow-Up_:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dEv6XU1Dsw
Richard Lloyd’s soloing on “Elevation” seems under-appreciated to me. It’s designed quite beautifully and unexpectedly. A true enhancement.
I’ll gladly second a lot of Robert Fripp’s work, especially his solos on other people’s work (Bowie, Eno…a recent barn-burner on a Grinderman tune).
What you guys said. 🙂
Well, since nobody has mentioned Neil Young’s solo on “Cinnamon Girl” yet…
Oh man — maybe my fave ever! Total genius. Talk about “advancing the song!”
I’ll mention the great Andy Cohen of Bottomless Pit (and before that, Silkworm, a band close to my heart–the Crazy Horse for 90s indie-rock people, I think). One example, from mid-90s SKWM:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n9lM2uDa9Q
Pretty much every album Andy’s on has one or two solo extravaganza songs, and they work really well. Among a whole bunch of high-quality songs/solos, this one stands out.
My all time favorite lead – Jeff beck on Roger Waters “What God Wants pt 3”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkXuLu4STLI
Solo starts at about 1:45…
There’s just something there that I can’t even describe emotionally or rationally…
Neil Young’s “Over and Over” from “Ragged Glory”. This one got stuck in my head more than his other better known songs. I can’t believe it’s been 23 years since it came out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8QodEGQpCY
That’s beautiful and transcendent. Thanks so much for turning me on to it – exactly the kind of thing I’ve want to play for quite a while. And for quite a while to come I’ll bet.
In a different vain, I’m particularly fond of James Honeyman Scott’s solo on the Pretenders song “Kid”.
My introduction to Robben Ford was during the Live Aid telecast when Miles came on. Who’s that guitar player? Didn’t find out for decades.
Caught that Stevie Ray and Jeff Beck show in Miami. Been nuts about Beck forever – his cover of Day in the Life is amazing. But had seen SRV in the early 80s (shortly after his turn on Bowie’s album) and he sounded terrible – shrill. But in Miami he was great. Played Third Stone from the Sun I remember. My favorite Hendrix moment is when he covered Johnny B. Goode in Berkley and he gets to the solo break and unleashes that long bending up note that catches some octave feedback like a surfboard on a wave and hangs a measure before he brings it back to earth. Sometimes its just a moment.
Yeah, “Kid” is such a perfect example of the composed solo. Johnny Marr told me he always used to play that as a warmup
That’s cool. I heard Slash does as well. And me. Only one of us has resisted the trap of having his own Artist guitar. 😉
Yeah, man. Once you get one of those, it’s over.
To me the guitar solo (any instrument solo really) is to song what the car chase is to movies…You don’t HAVE to have one in your movie/song…but they are really cool!!!
LOL — I like that way if looking at it.
Joe,
You are so totally right; there’s nothing worse than a beautiful melody, vocal etc suddenly interrupted by a dancing monkey appearing on stage strutting to someone else’s melody or no melody at all – I HATE THAT! Unfortunately some of the most popular latter day rock and blues guitarists are just like that.
I really love this piece, it is beautiful, just below the surface but adding to the music and an integral part of the melody and tune and yet so beautiful on its own. A lot of musicians, especially lead guitarists should take note.
It probably says a lot about the way guitarists learn their skills today, I remember a guitar teacher saying to me, ” all you need is to know the pentatonic scales and you can play a lead with any rock or blues song”. What about rhythm and melody, I said? You”ll figure it out, he said. Also, many modern day lead guitarists have no idea how to integrate silence in their leads! :ban:
I am very influenced by horn players from the big band to the Euro rock players of the 70’s like Mel Collins and Andy Mackay. There is a lot to be said for single note lead lines making each note count and sing it’s little heart out. Unfortunately horn players get short shrift these days and most guitarists seem to have missed them as an influence to their detriment IMHO.
Jim Hall is responsible for one of my all-time favorite solos – on “I Hear a Rhapsody” with the inestimable Bill Evans, on their duo album Undercurrent. On an album full to bursting with great playing, this one stands out to me — the tone, touch, and emotion are PERFECT. I reckon I’ve heard that song a couple of hundred times, and it never fails to amaze me.
Duane Allman’s solo on Stormy Monday from Live at the Fillmore is approximately perfect. As were many other things he did, but this 24 bars especially. Worth listening to the intro and vocal for the (also perfect) fills but for the time challenged the main event starts at 3.35. Shall I list the things that are perfect? – the tone; the touch; the timing; the tension and release; the dynamics…. (it’s really quite good) (and I know that some of the licks are taken from T-Bone and Bobby Bland, but – what a construction!) This ear-wormed its way into my 16 year old brain in 1972 and has remained embedded there ever since.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gDhR1R3S0s
Just heard a song and remembered something . The solo in Time is just big and powerful got to love David Gilmour and some big echoy reverb. It is also the first solo I ever learned to play back in the land before time!
Anything by Richard Thompson, but particularly If Love Whispers Your Name off of Dream Attic for the same reasons Bob Boylan mentions on All Songs Considered. The solo is a wrenching rollercoaster than ends far before you’re ready for it. I believe the recorded version came from one of the 3 nights he played at the Great American Music Hall – saw two of shows, and was blown away.
https://www.npr.org/2010/08/24/129380869/new-mix-robert-plant-richard-thompson-and-more
RT is pretty consistent, nevertheless here’s a pretty bitchen example with Elvis Costello.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJKnk09YuQU
Jim Hall has passed
Yeah, I read that Peter. What a sad, sad coincidence.
Here's the one I am obsessed with Joe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUwIDafNTTc
It's not the speed that I admire, but the fretboard mastery, the dexterity with which George gets into trouble and snaps right out of it in unexpected ways, he's like a beast that feeds on what drives it underneath, and still, you can hear the progression of the composition fluently and majestically. What do you think? Cheers
Rory Gallagher, In Your Town. Absolutely blistering slide. I got hooked on Rory after hearing Empire State Express and haven’t. Looked back. What a great body of work!
Goin’ to My Hometown made me go and buy a mandolin and learn it…
I should apologize for not commenting on Jim Hall. What fluidity. The chord changes are simply beautiful. Another door has opened. Thanks.
Yes, it’s great Jim Hall’s solo…
As for me, my favourite, that I listened more, than 100 times is Kenny Burrell’s here, starting from 1:58
https://youtu.be/rKN8IUzaXoI
BTW – incredible…
Those alcohol/drug guys heard music from inside, God bless his soul
https://youtu.be/KB-TzQHGArE
Diggin’ your site… a lot of great tones I learn from here! I will add some the notes and solos, that I adore.. possibly it will be interesting for some readers like me, too…
Jim Hall was really transcendental, sounding in a silence, all of his recordings with Paul Desmond and Rollins in 60’s. “God bless the child” solo is possibly the best, such a transcendental beginning… I haven’t mentioned real cool thing, before I have seen it on your site… I heard some odd cool “gain” on “Glad To Be Unhappy” with Paul Desmond. This gain eats the tone, it’s like subtle avant-garde…very cool
I’ ve recollected Grant Green… Some of his stuff was incredible for me. Not just soulful, but transcendental too. “Singing notes” Solo from “Idle Moments” i will never forget. Like “Fading” note on 2:40… Bar from 3:47 starts from one speaking note… Such a subtle start! I don’t know… it was great. He doesn’t play each note but rather “means”…it’s great art
https://youtu.be/JMiLAxMnoqE
Also i cut fragment from “Am I Blue”… Love it too much. Each note “speaks”…
https://youtu.be/BrwvDQf7htw
About Kenny Burrell I also have tones beloved from my youth, such a pity I don’t have enough money to buy original vinyls, Lol. He’s absolutely killer here in his tone in beginning 1964 “Soul call” track. It’s sounds transcendental for me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkDE46EfuXk
And from “Guitar Forms” with Gil Evans – “Last Night, when we were young”. Such an deep emptiness in a classical guiar from 2:18 here… As well as his solo, so simple and great. Listening to your songs on old acoustic guitars on your youtube channel, I hear are such an deep overtones, it’s the state of art, I am sure you can understand me… From 2:53 to 3:12 it’s so deep and subtle. It’s hard to forget
https://youtu.be/bJl-EBy_2uw
I recollected one of Santana recordings..they are all so different, possibly when he was inspired or not, or using a drugs, lol, i don’t know. In this “Europa” recording from 1:28 tone is absolutely shining. Still can’t believe, he plays guitar…:) It’s the best of his tones i’ve ever heard, and best tones ever…
https://youtu.be/5J09_Gsx2P8
Mike Bloomfield in “Really” track… from 0:55 it’s like heaven’s gate opening, God bless his soul…Rarely heard such an “open” music
https://youtu.be/55tjlXHxyVo
Danny Kirwan here from 1:28 … it’s so cool sounding in “bootleg” lo-fi. Such a crying guitar, clear and simple
https://youtu.be/MXFKD1VVX2E
Zvuki Mu, as for me has cool stuff, Alexey Bortnichuk is legendary guitar player here in Russia, I glad to be his friend, he is something like teacher. But he lives in village now. His tone sometimes is something like spiritual for me… starting from 4:25 at the end of the song. It’s all 1980-s recordings. He’s a talented person but not so well-known in our times…
https://youtu.be/6Ca3HAvsz60
He sounds trancedental here too, as for me
https://youtu.be/jXm3NFvEulg
as well as his guitar playing in this tune
https://youtu.be/mAIbgr95Oxk
I made promo of his 80’s and 90’s work.
https://youtu.be/Fyae1KsOJ60
It’s russian guitar soul, like master of Konservnaya Banka LOL – enjoyed a lot your “fiction” site and was very funny to see russian words “konservnaya banka” you’ve got a great sense of humor!
Robert Quine’s favorite track is Bluffer from 1984… such an “open” lo-fi atmosphere
Diggin’ Tonefield, adding some of my beloved tones…It’s a real pleasure to find something, that I feel so close to my soul and my mind. Almost nobody here in Russia interests in “spiritual” tones, but only shredding and something like that, and your work and site is really so inspiring!
P.S. Wes Mongomery’s solos… it’s impossible to not to add. Not only for his “octaves”
Still can’t believe, that’s a human made such a spontaneous line like in “Born to Be Blue”. It’s live from 1962 with Miles’ rhytm section with Wyn Kelly.
https://youtu.be/pMIX3CvyfRE
And this solo with Wynton too…unbelieveable spontaneous story from 3:00…on 4:40 … it’s like Chopin’s Prelude for guitar.
https://youtu.be/xvf7DWerPy4