Classical guitar in prog - Progressive Rock Music Forum

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timothy leary View Drop Down

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Posted: September 19 2013 at 11:09

timothy leary wrote:

Manuel Barrueco........Nylon & Steel

On this album he plays with Al Di Meola, Steve Morse, Andy Summers

octopus-4

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Posted: September 19 2013 at 11:10

I've already mentioned Daniel Bautista, nylon, steel and distorted electric

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Progosopher View Drop Down

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Posted: September 19 2013 at 11:53

timothy leary wrote:

Manuel Barrueco........Nylon & Steel

On this album he plays with Al Di Meola, Steve Morse, Andy Summers

Good call. I have this album and it's great. I also had the pleasure of seeing Manuel and Big Al perform together. It was an exercise in contrasting techniques - Manuel maintained a tight control the entire time (similar to Tony Iomi's but with finger picking) while Al had a looser sweeping style. Both were brilliant.

The world of sound is certainly capable of infinite variety and, were our sense developed, of infinite extensions. -- George Santayana, "The Sense of Beauty"

cstack3

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Posted: September 19 2013 at 16:23

octopus-4 wrote:

Nice! I saw Sr. Segovia live about 1979, he was sublime! And, a bit like Bob Fripp:

a) he sat down during the entire show....

b) he was totally focused upon his music, and....

c) when some mope in the audience started to cough, loudly, during a quiet passage, he shot the guy a poisonous glance!

If you've ever seen Fripp when a flash photo is taken during a song, you'll enjoy that last bit! RIP Andres!

Progosopher View Drop Down

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Posted: September 19 2013 at 18:16

I also saw the late great Segovia around the same time. He was fantastic, but sublime is a good descriptor too. The audience eventually took pity on him and only demanded five encores. One of the greatest musicians of the last 100 years.

The world of sound is certainly capable of infinite variety and, were our sense developed, of infinite extensions. -- George Santayana, "The Sense of Beauty"

schizoidman View Drop Down

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Posted: September 19 2013 at 23:17

I gave this YouTube video its own thread in another forum but can't help thinking that it fits in this thread perfectly!

Steve Howe playing "Mood for a Day"

Hercules

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Posted: September 21 2013 at 06:21

Progosopher wrote:

I recommend Sky, even though the music is not quite so classical in terms of guitar. However, the band featured one John Williams, a protégé of the great Andres Segovia, on electric guitar. Ralph Towner of Oregon fame frequently uses classical techniques. If you like Akkerman, I strongly recommend his album Tabernakle, which features not guitar but lute. Absolutely beautiful and stunning album.

John Williams almost never played electric guitar on Sky's albums, sticking mostly to classical/acoustic guitar. The electric guitarist was Australian maestro Kevin Peek.

Williams was a first class classical player, though.

For me, Gordon Giltrap is not only a brilliant player but also composed sensational progressive music, though this site took a very long time to acknowledge that fact. And of course, Steve Hackett is not regarded simply as one of the best electric guitarists, but he has a reputation as one of the best classical guitarists around.

Finally, for stellar playing, get Friday Night in San Francisco, which features Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia trying to outdo each other for sheer wizardry.

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moshkito

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Posted: September 21 2013 at 12:43

Hi,

If we're talking just Classical Guitar doing its thing, in rock music, for the most part it is just a bit of color over one passage and not the real thing, for my tastes.

The best of the mixes in rock music would be "Carmen" in their 3 albums ... hands down!

Anthony Phillips has a duet with one such player in one of his albums, and he stands up with it really well!

The spanish bands that showed up in the 70's had a lot of it, and sometimes it was good, and sometimes you went ... what? ... but all in all, I would rather have it than not. But in terms of pure rock music mix and let it all hangout, you can't do a whole lot better than Carmen in my book, and everyone else is just trying to stand up to the really good ones.

I'll have to listen to some of those bands again, but the number of them was not small, and many of them were really good in their rock mixes, although you could tell the influences and such in a funny sort of way.

Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
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moshkito

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Posted: September 21 2013 at 12:45

cstack3 wrote:

The concert I saw him on in Madison, he was playing a long piece and a string broke, and he just kept on going, and at the end of 10 minutes he ended it and looked at the audience and asked ... "Did that sound alright?" .... and he got a standing ovation!

I don't think one needs to know a whole lot more about one's ability after that!

Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
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TODDLER

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Posted: September 24 2013 at 20:10

I remember Christopher Parkening being a student of Segovia. Segovia was very impressed with his abilities and took joy in teaching him. I remember watching a T.V. show where students performed audition pieces for Segovia. One student in particular that hailed from Georgia performed a beautiful piece with the most magnificent tone. He made 1 small mistake and Segovia told him to stop. The student asked if he could try again..which meant starting the piece over and Segovia said "No, you can leave now". The student then said..."Can I just try again?" and Segovia again replied.."No". A couple of music teachers sitting in the room with me were laughing at the attitude of Segovia and the reaction of the student. I was only about 17 years of age and felt a little shocked by it all. I certainly didn't expect that to happen.

.. Segovia was a master though and it can't be denied. I also liked Julian Bream.

octopus-4

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Posted: September 25 2013 at 03:41

TODDLER wrote:

I remember Christopher Parkening being a student of Segovia. Segovia was very impressed with his abilities and took joy in teaching him. I remember watching a T.V. show where students performed audition pieces for Segovia. One student in particular that hailed from Georgia performed a beautiful piece with the most magnificent tone. He made 1 small mistake and Segovia told him to stop. The student asked if he could try again..which meant starting the piece over and Segovia said "No, you can leave now". The student then said..."Can I just try again?" and Segovia again replied.."No". A couple of music teachers sitting in the room with me were laughing at the attitude of Segovia and the reaction of the student. I was only about 17 years of age and felt a little shocked by it all. I certainly didn't expect that to happen.

.. Segovia was a master though and it can't be denied. I also liked Julian Bream.

I remember....I've seen the same TV special on the Italian state TV. It could have been around 1980 or even before. I was actually studying classical guitar after some years of acoustic and Segovia was probably the top world's classical guitarist. In these years I was used to go to see concerts of classical guitarists (surely cheaper than rock bands).

Curiosity killed a cat, Schroedinger only half.
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SouthSideoftheSky View Drop Down

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Posted: September 25 2013 at 08:37

stewe wrote:

I always appreciated elements of classical music in prog. Would love to know some more progressive artists, who also have similar classical/nylon guitar parts or pieces in fashion of
- Steve Howe (Leaves of green, Mood for a day)
- Steve Hackett (Horizons, Blood on the Rooftops intro..)
- Alex Lifeson (Broon's Bane, A Farewell to Kings intro)
- Jan Akkerman (Le Clochard) etc.
Any suggestions worth of checking out?

Thank you Stewe for starting this thread. Me too appreciate all of your examples very much, especially the two Steves. I know that both Sky and Gordon Giltrap have been mentioned by others, I would just like to add a couple of specific recommendations from these two that I've reviewed recently:

Gordon Giltrap - Live At Oxford (my review: http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=941501)

Sky - Live In Concert: Bremen, Germany 1980 (DVD) (my review: http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=1043821)

The former I found on emusic.com and the latter is freely available on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzIgJ8fsDnE

... will think if I come up with some more recommendations in the same style.