[Controversial] Why is there not any great US guitarists?

Phil

Sammo Miltich
Greg Ruby
Adrian Holovaty

scot

Red has posed a question I have pondered in my own mind for quite a long time - why don't we have more famous players on our continent? Why didn't this kind of guitar playing take off here? When I started out in 1993, I was certain that eventually we'd have some dominant players from this continent - because N America is truly the land of the guitar. But by and large it doesn't seem to have happened - why?

Well, there actually are many excellent players in North America who might not be well-known outside their home areas - a few who come to mind are Jesse Barksdale in Toronto, Dave Biller in Austin, **** in San Francisco. These guys are all superb players in their own unique ways, and all of them play in their own style. Dave Biller is a monster in a multitude of styles. Paul Mehling is the epitome of a mature, developed guitarist. He could play as fast as anyone anywhere, but that's not his personality and it's not what he does musically. Paul's certainly more about art than technique. That's true of many excellent guitarists here, where with many younger players in Europe, it's "technique first". Most of the best players on this continent are middle-aged men, not kids. Just because a guitarist does not play a gazillion notes all the time does not mean he's a lesser player.

Plus, what comes here from Europe always gets changed to suit our own unique national personality, which I don't see any need to apologize for. Rugby morphed into football, cricket into baseball, motocross into supercross, etc - and we did not end up without rugby or cricket; instead we now have more sports. A better question might be: "Why hasn't a unique GJ style developed in the USA as it has in Germany, in France and in the low countries?"

It is going to happen - it is happening now, but these things take time and I think it'll be a while yet before anyone recognizes it as such. And there will surely be plenty of people who don't like it.

dennis

redblues wrote:

I tried to put something tangible in there, who could book the Atellier Charonne, Denis couldn't, Alfonso could, Diknu could, Oli could, Adrien could.

And I agree @pas it is a lousy criteria, but if the best this discussion can come up with is Alfonso and Denis, it's a lousy category. Where are the kids from e.g. Alberta or Juneau or San Fran?

@anton I love Pazzo, don't get me wrong, where is the raw talent?

ya I suck, but ironically, I've played in all the paris (professionally in other words for money) places back in 2006 with Ritary Gaguenetti... But I don't go to Paris anymore, I just go straight to Samois

I have also been offered charonne to play with a violinist but like i said never go to paris

Michael Bauer

Pink Gary, I love Mick Taylor and his playing, but to posit that he was better than Peter Green is...well, believe what you want, I'll stick with B.B King's view of it.

And Red, I was with Denis and Olli for nearly a week last summer and could hear them side by side. Denis is better...at this point...and in my view. You believe what you want, since obviously, you asked a rigged question to begin with.

This whole thing has become silly.

jscook777

Post deleted.

Passacaglia

jkaz wrote:

Anthony...the kid at DiJ was named Max. He was quite good and was closer to 16. Good kid, great player, and will be an amazing player if he sticks with it.

Great kid. Mind blowing player. HIs pop was there to drop him off and pick him up, and you could see the pride in his eyes. Will be nice to see his life in this music unfold.

Something else not brought up - and I can only speak to the community here, and only secondhand reports of the culture in Paris - but I am constantly astonished at how warm and open this community is. At Django in June I was standing 3' away from some of the world's finest artists in this music, and played with over 100 musicians of many levels; but the one sustaining thing I've experienced in all this, is a strong sense of comradeship. To be able to get some notes (and so much more) from a gifted artist and teacher like Denis, to talk aesthetics generally with someone like Stephane Wrembel, to be able to visit Capone's hang and listen to Alfonso slay the demons, to have friends in many cities simply by virtue of loving and playing this music...well, I feel fortunate. I've never seen anything like it, and I've lived many lives. None of them match this experience.

I don't know if the same sense exists overseas. I understand Paris can have a bit of a cutthroat nature to it, a kind of gauntlet thrown down respecting one's ability to play. That's cool, too, with me. But I would hope there also exists community, based simply on the virtue of loving music.

Oh, and on an unrelated note, this thread sucks, basically. I wonder why?

Bob Holo

Red,

Django was a jazz guitarist. Jazz is the genre... and there are a lot of great jazz guitarists from all over the world.

Bones

Thinking about it a little bit more, I think that there has been SOMEWHAT of a resurgence in interest in GJ in the states but as I said, it is certainly not widespread. That small uptick in interest really has only taken place in the (max) last 10 years or so.

I think it's important to remember that while there are many talented guitarists in the US/Canada who play jazz guitar and could probably do a great job of GJ if they wanted to, to really embrace the style (rhythm, free-hand picking, acoustic guitar) takes a commitment that someone casually interested would not do.

I know that the Stochelos and Birelis of the world started this style as very young children and committed thousands of hours to honing their skills. Of course, there are some who can start late and still get to a high level but it still takes major commitment. There is the proverbial 10,000 hours thing that is really impossible to get around, natural talent or not.

I think that there will be more GJ guitarists out of the states in the future but it will take time and there won't be a huge number of them since there is not widespread interest.

PS- Yeah Dennis, I wish I had 1/4 of your skills.

hanear21

I agree, I think it mostly just comes down to lack of interest. Likewise, there are probably very few southern rock guitarists coming out of Europe :P

Passacaglia

Hey Bones - have you happened to have read The Talent Code? (guessing you have - the 10,000 hour thing)? I love that book, got the recommendation from Adrian Holovaty (Thanks, Adrian!), really important stuff. If you did read it, how'd you like it?