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Posts: 3454
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
RE: yet another RIP post... (in reply to TonyGonzales84)
quote:
ORIGINAL: TonyGonzales84
Thanks for the word, Piwin. He was such a great musician, not "just" a classical guitarist (coming from the jazz world -- bringing back a respect for rhythm, etc), but a great lutenist, an early music powerhouse (his consort), the patronage and addition to the classical repertoire by commissioning what are now standard pieces, collaborating with other greats (John Williams), his patronage of great luthierie (Jose Romanillos), etc...
Bream played a few Hausers. One was stolen from him. The last of them was lent to him by Rose Augustine. Hermann Hauser I intended it for Segovia in 1940. For years Segovia had an apartment at the Augustines' house in New York City, where he stayed while in the USA. The guitar stayed there after Segovia's passing. I think it belonged to Bream after Mrs. Augustine passed away. He also played instruments by Bouchet and Hernandez y Aguado, among others.
Gary Southwell and Brian Cohen have each made a few bench copies of the 1940 Hauser, in collaboration with Bream.
The instruments he played in the "Guitarra--the guitar in Spain" series were all made by Romanillos, including a vihuela, a Renaissance 4-course (?), and a Romantic 5-course. All these were strung in double courses. He also played his famous Romanillos #501.
I think it was in the "My Life in Music" video that Bream said, "Jose Romanillos made me a marvelous guitar, the best I ever had..." Bream had two other modern instruments by Romanillos. The first that he had was used in the debut of the Villa-Lobos concerto. Romanillos was in the audience. The other was made after #501, but sold subsequently by Bream.
#501 was not Romanillos's 501st guitar. It was the first of the 500 design series, based on a 1930-something Hauser that belonged to the well known Brazilian Sergio Abreu.
Posts: 3470
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
RE: yet another RIP post... (in reply to BarkellWH)
A couple of excerpts from an interview given by Julian Bream follow below and reveal his thoughts on the guitar and the lute.
On the guitar:
"I enjoy having a large audience, but I don’t do anything special to attract them. In the selection of repertoire, for example. I play what I like and hope that others will enjoy it — but if they don’t, it doesn’t worry me much. I’m really playing for myself and inviting or allowing others to listen. That’s the kind of instrument the guitar is.”
On those who attend lute concerts:
“Real nuts and scholars, lovers of Elizabethan music, those who like quaint period pieces, and those who are dragged along by somebody.” On those who are "dragged along by somebody," he continued, “I want to convert them. I want to shout: ‘Don’t you think this is marvelous?’ The great secret of Elizabethan music is that it is meant to be enjoyed. . . . The Elizabethans wanted fun from their music.”
As one who had the good fortune to attend a Julian Bream guitar concert in 1972 in Phoenix, Arizona, I want to thank him for "inviting/allowing" me to listen.
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
RE: yet another RIP post... (in reply to BarkellWH)
quote:
“I want to convert them. I want to shout: ‘Don’t you think this is marvelous?’ The great secret of Elizabethan music is that it is meant to be enjoyed. . . . The Elizabethans wanted fun from their music.”
It certainly is fun as he played it! In an interview with Sean Rafferty on BBC in 2013, Bream said:
"The pleasure that you get from giving pleasure has always been a very important item on my agenda."
Posts: 1809
Joined: Nov. 8 2010
From: London (living in the Bay Area)
RE: yet another RIP post... (in reply to BarkellWH)
I love Bream’s guitar-playing, and obviously he was one of the giants.
But in addition, for me personally, he was the greatest lutenist ever recorded, and screw all the purists. There’s so much life and variety in his playing that I never tire of it.
Gary Southwell and Brian Cohen have each made a few bench copies of the 1940 Hauser, in collaboration with Bream.
Brian Cohen made eight guitars for Bream, as well as doing repairs and restoration work. There's a very interesting interview in which he describes Julian's astonishing sensitivity to the fine details of a guitar's construction and their effect on the pulsación.
The link to the article is below, but here's the main part:
"I learned a lot from Bream in the sense that he had vast experience of playing all sorts of guitars,"[...] "Most guitarists are completely unaware. They just play the guitar, and if the frets don't buzz that's alright. But Bream is way beyond that. He's the only person I've known who could play a guitar and he wouldn't look at it, but he'd say, 'You've got two bars on the right of the bridge haven't you, Brian?' [referring to the instrument's internal construction]. He could feel it through his fingers, which I've never known anybody else do."
With the orginal Hauser guitar, Bream wanted Cohen to make minute adjustments to the action (ie the height of the strings above the frets). "It's a huge job," says Cohen. "I had to take all the frets out, remove the fingerboard, just skim a bit off the fingerboard and then re-fret it. I did this about eight times. There was one time when we adjusted the bridge saddle by 1,000th of an inch. I was getting a bit tired of this to be honest, so I thought to save myself time I'll just make it a 2,000th or one-and-a-half thousandth. Bream must have played the guitar for about 10 minutes and he said, 'You know Brian, I think you've gone one and a half here, this isn't the 1,000th I asked for.' And of course he was right." And this without even measuring it with the digital micrometer that the demanding Bream carried around with him.
Turns out that about two weeks ago, on Oct 21, the Amazing James Randi, magician extraordinaire and a famous destroyer of paranormal claims, died at 92.
He was the original "skeptical inquirer" along with Issac Asimov and Carl Sagan. I still have a bunch of their organization's magazines.
"Though he remained a dyed-in-the-wool rationalist to the last, Mr. Randi did have a contingency plan for the hereafter, as he told New Times in 2009. “I want to be cremated,” he said. “And I want my ashes blown in Uri Geller’s eyes."
Posts: 3454
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
RE: yet another RIP post... (in reply to kitarist)
Randi was indeed Amazing.
I loved one of the TV episodes with Uri Geller, the notorious telekinetic spoon bender. Randi had figured out that Geller worked by bending spoons in advance. During his "performance" Geller distracted the audience, then switched in a bent spoon, or a sequence of increasingly bent ones.
The TV producers forced Geller to use their spoons, and kept him from getting hold of any ahead of time.
When Geller failed to "bend" any spoons at all, he started to sweat profusely, while Randi ridiculed him.
RIP Georges Pernoud. Man that takes me back. For decades his show was Friday night primetime television in France. A documentary show on anything and everything related to the sea. Not that there was much else to watch. It was either that or soccer or bad dubs of American movies.
A friend of mine saw him perform last year in Almería and sent me some short video captures as the show was happening and then posted to FB some backstage selfies of himself with the master. I commented on how youthful Corea looked, far younger than his years. He was highly respected by the flamenco community there.
Really bummed about this. I’ve been listening to a lot of chick lately.Have his latest CD in my car. I agree he seemed fine last year at the Grammy awards when he played his Armando’s Rumba piece. Maybe it was all the Scientology keeping him youthful
RE: yet another RIP post... (in reply to kitarist)
Chick Corea left these parting words:
“I want to thank all of those along my journey who have helped keep the music fires burning bright. It is my hope that those who have an inkling to play, write, perform or otherwise, do so. If not for yourself then for the rest of us. It’s not only that the world needs more artists, it’s also just a lot of fun.
And to my amazing musician friends who have been like family to me as long as I’ve known you: It has been a blessing and an honor learning from and playing with all of you. My mission has always been to bring the joy of creating anywhere I could, and to have done so with all the artists that I admire so dearly—this has been the richness of my life.”
RIP indeed. I had the good fortune to attend a Chick Corea concert in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1986. The Malaysians loved it, as did we Westerners in the audience.
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
RE: yet another RIP post... (in reply to BarkellWH)
Heard the news on (BBC) Radio 4 last night, and they played one of his Childrens Songs on (BBC) Radio 3 this morning. Just now in the kitchen Radio 4 was talking to Julian Joseph and played another track. I only heard of Chick Corea because of his playing on PDL's Zyryab, but I listened to some of his other music too. RIP
I had the pleasure of chatting with him a couple years ago in Jerez. A very welcoming and humble guy, one of the few with whom I didn't feel like an outsider.
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