Retro Chicken

Paco de Lucia is probably the world’s most famous Flamenco guitarist. A composer and solo artist in his own right, de Lucia became a household name with a series of performances and recordings he did with fusion greats John McLaughlin and Al Di Meola. A guitar geek’s fantasy-come-true, this trio spewed out the fastest, most chops-intensive guitar music ever recorded.

I found this video clip of Paco’s solo spot from a concert done with the trio – classic and dazzling as usual.

Keeping in sync with my current obsession with everything King Crimson, I found this memory posted by Adrian Belew on his blog about one of his last meetings with Frank Zappa. Adrian Belew, who joined King Crimson in the early eighties, was in Zappa’s band in the seventies.

Adrian Belew is also featured in this short documentary about Zappa’s music (probably filmed in the late seventies). In the interview, Zappa is caustic, angry, irreverent, pretentious, petulant, and wonderfully Zappa – just what you would expect.

Aside from his work with King Crimson, Robert Fripp also has a solo career that has spawned some interesting collaborations with an eclectic host of characters, including pop legend David Bowie. Bowie’s ultra-hip single “Fashion,” with accompanying oh-so-eighties video, features wild Fripp interjections (the slick guitar lines are not Fripp, the wild noise and dissonance are).

Like I said in an earlier post, King Crimson has been around since the sixties and has been through a billion changes in the lineup. The incarnation in this video (for the classic and awesome “21st Century Schizoid Man”) features Greg Lake on vocals and bass. Greg Lake went on to super-stardom in the seventies as the “L” in ELP (Emerson, Lake and Palmer) and then as a part of Asia in the eighties (remember them – “Heat of the Moment” – with the dude from Yes on guitar). The vocals are run through a fuzz box, hence the cool sound.

Also dig the hippies.

There is nothing cooler then King Crimson. Always the special project of founding member and guitar legend Robert Fripp, King Crimson bridged the gap between the insane, supreme musicianship, and pop (how they ever found a mainstream audience is just proof that masses of cool people do exists – you just have to know where to find them).

King Crimson went through a number of different incarnations over the years – the one I was introduced to was the 80’s version featuring Fripp, experimental guitar wizard Adrian Belew, Tony Levin (on Stick and bass), and Bill Bruford (drums).

Check them out – Adrian Belew did a lot of work with the Talking Heads, and the influence on his vocals is obvious. But that is where the comparison ends (aside from his pink suit), the odd sounds, complex time signatures and dissonance are classic Crimson.

I went to college (the New England Conservatory) with Dave Fiuczynski and he was easily the best guitar player there. This was back in the late 80’s, he had his band – the Screaming Headless Torsos – and a host of crazy guitars with cool gadgets (like mini-guitars with bicycle gears to dampen the strings, etc), among other things.

I was wondering, “What happened to Fuze” recently, and apparently he is now huge. According to his website, he put out an album with John Medeski (also at NEC in the late 80’s) that not only revolutionized the jazz-fusion scene, but was voted one of the most influential albums of the last 30 years by guitar player magazine. Not bad.

Fuze is an amazing player - a master at pretty much every style - with killer chops, great taste, funky grooves, and wild microtonal leads.

Steve Morse is easily one of the most amazing and versatile guitar players ever. This is the Gina Lola Breakdown - a country twanged burner - and Steve shows off his complete mastery with unpretentious ease. Unfortunately the sound quality of this clip isn’t the greatest - you need to crank it to really hear it properly.

As incomprehensible as it may sound, Steve Morse is now touring with Deep Purple - how incongruous.