Acoustic Magazine Issue 49 n2m4

ACOUSTIC ISSUE 49 JANUARY 2011

36

KAKI KING

Like skinning a cat, there’s more than one way to play an acoustic as Kaki explains.

ALSO ACOUSTIC 14 This month:

Joe Satriani

RETUNE YOUR EARS 20 Listen to

30 3 Daft Monkeys

something new.

The trio from Cornwall are destined for big things. We find out why.

43 Fran Healy

The Travis frontman talks to Acoustic about his new solo album.

47 Chrissie Hynde and JP Jones

We talk to The Pretenders singer and JP about their new project

32 Ramon Goose

The UK bluesman tells us why he’s exploring world music

25 Michael Chapman

The Yorkshire folk legend talks to us about his prolific career.

UK LUTHIER CORNER

80 UK Luthier Kevin Aram

If Julian Bream plays your guitars you know you’re doing something right.

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Guitar Techniques

Gear Reviews

CHECK OUT THIS MONTHS

Acoustic keeps you up to date with whats hot and whats not in our gear reviews section.

TECHNIQUES SECTION

With 13 pages of different level specific techniques, whether you’re a novice or an expert our columns have something for everyone. Acoustic Techniques

Acoustic Techniques

Biography

RAY GAMBLE Ukulele

Ray Gamble started his musical career on piano, but later in life fell in love with the humble ukulele. His regular column in Acoustic is designed to help the competent acoustic guitarist ‘migrate’ to the ukulele.

Tom Bowling

Myth-busting With Lin Flanagan

Techniques Skill Level This is suitable for beginners

A famous sea song by a sadly forgotten composer. Splice the main brace!

Bossa Nova: The Old Beat

Biography Lin Flanagan is one of the foremost pedagogues in the UK. Aside from his work in education, he has performed in various settings including solo classical guitar, smallgroup jazz, folk, blues and rock. www.linflanagan.eu

Skill Level: Intermediate

Charles Dibdin may not be much ed these days, but during his life he enjoyed great popularity as a composer of “musical entertainments” and popular songs. At the time of the Napoleonic Wars his patriotic sea songs were greatly appreciated – “Tom Bowling”, one of his most beautiful melodies – belongs to this genre. As you scan through the tune you will notice that it is entirely diatonic – no awkward sharps, flats and chromatic chords – its beauty lies in its simplicity. When you prepare the piece, therefore, do focus on achieving a legato, cantabile line. When I made this arrangement I was particularly pleased with bar 10. Here the melody, which is slightly syncopated, is harmonised in sixths and thirds – not difficult to play and very effective. In the

LIN FLANAGAN

52 Peerless PD-85E

With a name like Peerless you are setting yourself on a high pedestal. How well seated is this guitar on that lofty throne?

RGT Guitar Tutor Skill level: Suitable for all penultimate bar a couple of discords move the music along into the final cadence. Budding composers might appreciate making the comparison between bar one and bar thirteen. Note pitches are identical but the addition of dotted rhythm patterns in bar thirteen brings variety. If you have the opportunity of hearing the song you will enjoy the word painting that Dibdin employs. The rising melodic idea of the penultimate bar emphasises Tom Bowling’s demise as his “soul is gone aloft”. I pitched the arrangement in the key of “D” so that I could make use of the low C# in the harmonisation. Choice of key is so important on the ukulele with its relatively narrow range. If you perform this song with vocalists, make sure they’re happy with top F#’s!

Welcome to this new column, the successor to ‘Thinker’s Corner’. Over the next 12 articles we’re going to look at some of the many myths that exist within the music world, and, as the column title suggests, bust them right open and help you to see things from an accurate perspective. Some of our topics for discussion will be historical, some will be practical and some will be philosophical. I want to begin this column by busting the myth that the acoustic music that we know as ‘bossa nova’ is so named because it translates as ‘new beat’. In the process of doing so, we’re also going to look at what bossa nova is, and also what it isn’t. So, if you’re sitting comfortably, it’s story time. Bossa nova evolved in Rio de Janeiro in the late 1950s. Until this time Brazil had been an utterly destitute nation, even more so than it is now. When Kubitschek became president in 1956, he introduced new policies and ideas (including the creation of a new capital city, Brasilia) that permitted the rise of a new middle class. Of course,

Tom Bowling

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trying to figure out or copy solos, the repertoire. After the high academia melodies and chord progressions etc. of bebop and cool jazz there was an João Gilberto was one of those audience waiting for something that youngsters who used to hang around they could listen to without needing the Copacabana record stores. a PhD in jazz theory. Getz and Byrd’s Influenced by the music that he was album, Jazz Samba, sent the USA hearing, in his apartment he began absolutely Latin crazy. They quite to develop his own distinctive style simply couldn’t get enough of it, and of performance to accompany the hence a lot of musicians who were less equally distinctive pieces that he was skilled in the Latin style jumped onto composing. His songs were quiet, the bandwagon with embarrassing intimate, introvert and used extended musical consequences. Incidentally, chords that had been gleaned from his Getz and Byrd’s influential album took limited access to North American jazz only three hours to record. Now there’ s recordings. However, he also used the an abject lesson in true musicianship old rhythms of the samba dance. He for those who think that it takes 12 called his new style ‘bossa nova’, and months in a recording studio to come he envisaged it as being the next new up with something worthy! craze. This, dear reader, is what bossa Notice that Getz and Byrd called nova was intended to translate as: new their album Jazz Samba, not ‘Jazz Bossa craze/trend/fad/wave – not ‘new beat’ . Nova’. This is important. They knew While Gilberto was responsible for that they were not playing bossa nova. the performance style of the bossa They took the bossa nova repertoire, nova music, it was Antonio Carlos removed some of the bossa nova the wealth of this middle class was Jobim who came to compose the performance style and added North largely still impoverished by European better and most popular songs within American jazz to it, thereby creating and North American standards. They the genre (eg ‘How Insensitive’ and a new style of Latin jazz. However, were wealthy only by Latin American ‘The Girl From Ipanema’). Jobim was much of the USA, including many standards. already a recognisable figure in the jazz musicians, did not realise this. As Those who financially benefited Brazilian music scene when he and a result, almost all Latin jazz or jazz from the economic reforms were Gilberto began their short association samba at this time was erroneously mostly based in the Copacabana together. Jobim composed both alone labelled ‘bossa nova’. This included district of Rio de Janeiro. Here, some and in collaboration with others, but a subsequent Getz album, Big Band of the younger generation spent largely in the bossa nova style that Bossa Nova, which by the nature of the a large part of their time in record Gilberto had presented to him. large amount of instruments involved shops, often just to listen to free So, how did this musical style come was far removed from Gilberto’s ethos music over the stores’ tannoy systems. to take the West by storm? Well, in for the genre.We have to blame record The most popular recordings were the late 1950s and early 1960s the US company executives for that ‘oversight’ rare imports of North American jazz . State Department organised tours by So, bossa nova was certainly not a musicians and singers, such as Dick cultural representatives, such as jazz new beat, and was never intended to Farney and Frank Sinatra. As most of musicians, to Latin American countries be translated as such. It is an intimate, the young Brazilians, even those who in order to promote the wonders of the reflective, performance mood of music were comparatively wealthy, could USA. The guitarist Charlie Byrd was one that used old samba rhythms and not afford to buy many recordings, of the musicians who took part in these jazzy chords. When somebody asks their access to imported music was tours. Having been exposed to the you to play a bossa nova rhythm they rather limited. Don’t forget, until fairly bossa nova music that was prevalent are either ill-informed or they mean a recently, when music tutor book in Rio at the time, Byrd returned samba rhythm in an understated and publishing and the World Wide Web home with a suitcase packed full of intimate manner. In my experience it’s went into overdrive, as musicians our recordings. He played these to his usually the former. Thanks for listening. main educational sources for decades friend, the tenor saxophonist Stan Getz, were recordings. Guitarists traditionally with the intention of subsequently Lin Flanagan used to play along to records while recording their own interpretations of

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104 Gordon Giltrap

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Another classic from Gordon’s back-catalogue.

106 Pierre Bensusan Learn part of a piece from Pierre’s new album.

110 Chris Gibbons Exploring exotic timings to improve your playing.

114 Simon Mayor A relatively simple Irish tune to get your mandolin singing.

118 Ray Burley The importance of sight reading.

Special Features

56 Faith FMTB Trembesi Mercury Parlour

Is this Faith instrument something you could or should hope for?

60 Aria AF Tenor N

Aria always appear to be able to fill a niche where there is a demand for an instrument. Will they fulfil the demand here?

64 Martinez Classical Guitars MCG-70C and MCG-150S Can these two classical guitars marry American design and aesthetics with Chinese manufacturing?

68 Laka VUC80EA and VUT90

The ukulele market is flooded, but can Laka paddle their way to the front? Sam Wise finds out.

72 Kustom Sienna 65 and Sienna 16

In of price per square foot, the chunky Sienna 65 is a bargain, but how does it stack up to its smaller brethren?

76 LR Baggs M1 Active

Huw Price tests an active offering from LR Baggs

80 UK Luthier Kevin Aram 84 Patrick Godin

We find out the facts behind the success of the Canadian manufacturer.

Y ! DA CK TO TO ER D S RD E O IT M LI

If Julian Bream plays your guitars you know you’re doing something right.

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90 History Of Guitar

Paul Brett concludes his series with an overview and an eye to the future.

94 Sons of Seasick Steve

Hobo blues is all the rage at the moment. We look at some choice acts following in the bearded one’s wake.

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