Nylon
and Steel
Genre-bending
guitarists bridge the gap between classical and steel-string fingerstyle
The
world of the steel-string fingerstylist seems to be light years away from that
of the classical guitarist, and yet more and more classical players are teaming
up with steel-string soloists on stage and in the studio. Last year, three
celebrated classical players collaborated with steel-string guitarists to record
trailblazing CDs that are passionate, beautiful, and delightfully beyond
category. Cuban-born guitarist Manuel Barrueco joined forces with famed rock
guitarists Al Di Meola, Steve Morse, and Andy Summers to record their
compositions on Nylon and Steel. Classical artist David Tanenbaum and
steel-stringer Peppino D’Agostino met at a festival in Germany and went back
home to California to conceive and record a collection of classical arrangements
and original pieces entitled Classic/Steel. And finally, the
ever-unorthodox Ben Verdery, head of the guitar program at Yale University,
crossed boundaries once again to record duets with Celtic soloist extraordinaire
William Coulter for an independently released CD called Songs of Our
Ancestors.
This
burst of innovative spirit did not, of course, spring forth out of thin air.
Earlier generations of classical guitarists also strove to cross boundaries and
develop new musical palettes. Spanish guitarist AndrŽs Segovia challenged the
narrow assumptions of his contemporaries with a series of works written for him
by Joaquin Turina, Federico Moreno-Torroba, and Manuel Ponce in the 1920s. And
beginning in the 1950s, Julian Bream commissioned an amazing group of
compositions by such leading modernists as Benjamin Britten and Hans Werner-Henze.
The
steel-string tradition has a shorter but well-established history of innovation.
John Fahey showed the way in the 1960s with his compositions based on American
roots music. The subsequent success of 12-string king Leo Kottke and
groundbreaking Windham Hill artists like Alex de Grassi and Michael Hedges
established an unquenchable thirst among steel-string guitarists for ever more
daring and experimental outings.
Rocking
the Boat
Classical
master Manuel Barrueco has what can only be described as a classically pristine
background. Raised in Cuba and Florida and educated at the Peabody Conservatory
of Music, he studied the classical repertoire exclusively. After a series of
highly acclaimed, meticulous, and passionate recordings of the standard
repertoire, he developed an interest in combining classical guitar with other
styles and released a set of mostly jazz repertoire, Sometime Ago, in
1994 and a collection of Beatles arrangements, Manuel Barrueco Plays
Lennon/McCartney, in 1995.
The
original idea for his latest experiment, Nylon and Steel, grew out of a
Guitar Summit tour in 1995Đ96 that featured Barrueco as well as Steve Morse of
Deep Purple and the Dixie Dregs, Jorma Kaukonen of the Jefferson Airplane and
Hot Tuna, and jazz guitarists Kenny Burrell and Stanley Jordan. Barrueco says,
“I was originally petrified that I would bore the nonclassical fans who came
to hear the rock and jazz guitarists. Later I found that Steve Morse was afraid
he would have trouble with classical fans who had come to see me. We were
delighted by how open-minded the audiences were.”
Barrueco
decided he wanted to play original duo compositions by Di Meola, Morse, and
Summers and was thrilled when each of them agreed to play and write for the
project. Barrueco performs three original tracks with Di Meola, followed by five
pieces pitting Barrueco’s cool classical strings against Morse’s powerful,
often distorted rock edges. “Wolvesville” is an improvisation on Etude No. 1
by Heitor Villa-Lobos. “If you listen to my channel, you hear a classical
piece, and if you listen to Steven’s, it’s a hard-rock improvisation,”
says Barrueco. He performs three pieces with Summers, two of which were written
by Summers, and the 11 duets are bookended by two Barrueco solos.
“The
Nylon and Steel recording allowed me to step into other worlds a little
bit,” says Barrueco. “There were times when I thought it would be hard to
keep up with these amazing players. Al is known for his blazing speed and
technique, and I thought the first time we jammed that an ambulance should be
waiting for me outside! But once we settled in, I marveled at how they helped me
stretch as a player to places I had never been.”
Barrueco’s
parts for the recording were written out in advance, but he added things like
string bends, slides, and counterpoint on the fly. He is proud to report that
some people who listen to the recording have trouble figuring out who is playing
what part. “Classical musicians learn to be stylistically flexible,” he
explains, “and this is enormously helpful. I treat the compositions of Di
Meola, Morse, and Summers with the same respect I bring to every composer. It
always boils down to what works best for any piece of music. I treat each piece
differently.”
California
Combo
Classical
guitarist David Tanenbaum cherishes the partnership he’s entered into with
steel-string fingerpicker Peppino D’Agostino. Tanenbaum grew up playing piano
and cello in a family of professional musicians. His father is a composer on the
faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, and his mother is a piano teacher. At
age ten he rebelled, started playing guitar, and joined a rock band. A Segovia
recital enticed him back into the world of classical music, where he has become
known for his advocacy of contemporary music.
Despite
his rock ‘n’ roll beginnings, Tanenbaum had little knowledge of contemporary
steel-string guitarists until he met late fretboard tapper Michael Hedges, who
asked for advice before making his first Windham Hill record, Breakfast in
the Fields. “The music was amazing,” Tanenbaum recalls. “All I could
say was, ÔGo make that recording!’”
He
first performed with D’Agostino at the Schorndorfer Gitarrentage Festival in
Germany, which features guitarists of all styles. Although they had never met
(despite the fact that they both live in the San Francisco Bay Area), they were
asked to perform together and immediately formed a musical bond. “We were
brought together by a suggestion from 6,000 miles away,” says Tanenbaum.
“The concert was a success, and a friendship was born.”
D’Agostino’s
music is distinguished by rich compositional gifts, technical prowess, and a
lyrical artistry. Few musicians are as eager as he is to challenge the limits of
their instrument. He learned to play guitar in his native Italy by ear,
listening to records over and over and driving his mother crazy. “Learning by
ear helped me develop a musicality you cannot learn through books or videos,”
he says, “but when Marcel Dadi and Stefan Grossman started publishing
tablature, it saved so much time! I thought it was wonderful.”
He
learned to read standard notation and began playing some classical pieces after
falling in love with a recording of John Williams playing Barrios with “heart,
technique, and finesse.” But the idea of going public with his classical
playing was intimidating. “There are a lot of acoustic [steel-string] players
who concentrate on their own repertoire,” he explains. “They are fantastic
writers and performers, but they are not open to reading the music of others.
Playing classical guitar expanded my horizons.”
Tanenbaum
and D’Agostino both love a wide spectrum of styles and decided to include
Baroque music, contemporary world music, and several D’Agostino originals on Classic/Steel.
Tanenbaum was fascinated by the way the sonic differences between the
steel-string and the nylon-string clarified the counterpoint in Baroque music.
D’Agostino’s playing of this material is beautiful and amazingly reminiscent
of the Baroque harpsichord.
Both
artists developed new ways of working for this CD. On his previous recordings,
D’Agostino created performances with musicians who improvised their parts in
the studio, while Tanenbaum has always worked from incredibly intricate
classical scores. On Classic/Steel, D’Agostino meticulously wrote
everything down and Tanenbaum improvised and even composed some of his own parts
in the arrangements. “A lot of classical players are not skilled at
improvising,” says D’Agostino. “David is a master at reading but can also
improvise. He is able to jump from place to place easily. And for me, this is
the first time I have written everything down in the classical manner. This
project confirmed my belief that if you really pay attention to how you arrange
things, you can achieve something beautiful.”
No
Boundaries
Ben
Verdery and William Coulter met in 1984, when Coulter attended a Verdery recital
at the University of California at Santa Cruz and fell in love with his music.
They spoke afterward and found that they had common ideas about arranging,
improvising, and the guitar. Ten years later, Coulter invited Verdery to be a
guest performer on a recording he was making, Celtic Crossing, and the
interaction left them both wanting more.
The
collaboration wasn’t much of a stretch for Verdery, whose 1992 recording Some
Towns and Cities featured Leo Kottke on steel-string guitar. Verdery does
not see clear divisions between popular, classical, ethnic, and jazz music and
is just as likely to cover Jimi Hendrix or Prince in concert as Bach or Lou
Harrison.
Although
Coulter has made a name for himself over the past 20 years performing and
recording Celtic and American Shaker music on steel-string guitar in open
tunings, he, too, was primed for the Songs for Our Ancestors project,
having trained first as a classical guitarist. “Bill is an accomplished
classical guitarist, who went D A D G A D,” Verdery quips. The challenge for
Coulter was creating arrangements for guitars only; most of his previous
recordings feature guitar and other traditional instruments, such as fiddle and
flute.
The
material on Songs for Our Ancestors comes from Ireland, Africa, Tibet,
and the United States. When it came to choosing tunes for the recording,
“trad” instrumentals were the obvious place to start. “Both Ben and I love
traditional melodies from many places,” says Coulter. “The traditional Irish
slip jig ÔDrops of Brandy’ and the traditional Shaker melody ÔHow Great Is
the Pleasure’ are tunes that I have known for a while. Also on the record are
tunes that come from Ben’s interest in world music, as far-reaching as a
Tibetan chant and an African mbira tune.”
Improvisation,
composition, and reading come naturally to both musicians. Their parts for the
duets were developed through improvisations, which inspired the ideas that led
to the final arrangements. “Bill and I are not improvisers in the sense that
we can play blistering solos over chord changes,” Verdery explains, “but we
allow flourishes and nuances to occur that might not have occurred in rehearsal.
The intro to ÔFrieze Britches’ was completely improvised, and that was really
fun to do.
Their
work together was made easy by a common background and a shared sense of humor.
“Our playing techniques and concepts of sound are similar,” says Verdery,
“and we have very sympathetic work styles. We both cry when the guitars go out
of tune and then debate whether we should smash them. We make rude sounds in the
recording sessions. And we both do 60 takes when we need only three!” n