Pioneering Guitarist Lonnie Mack Dead at 74
Source: Guitar World
Guitarist and vocalist Lonnie Mack, known as one of rock’s first true guitar heroes—and a major influence on Stevie Ray Vaughan—died Thursday, April 21, of natural causes at Centennial Medical Center near his home in Smithville, Tennessee. He was 74.
His early instrumental recordings—including "Wham!" and "Memphis"—influenced many of rock's greatest players, including Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Duane Allman, Keith Richards and Jimmy Page.
Guitar World said, “Mack attacked the strings with fast, aggressive single-string phrasing and a seamless rhythm style that significantly raised the guitar virtuoso bar and foreshadowed the arena-sized tones of guitar heroes to come.” The Chicago Tribune wrote, “With the wiggle of a whammy bar and a blinding run of notes up and down the neck of his classic Gibson Flying V, Lonnie Mack launched the modern guitar era.”
Drawing from influences as diverse as rhythm and blues, country, gospel and rockabilly, Mack’s guitar work continues to be revered by generation after generation of musicians. He recorded a number of singles and a total of 11 albums for labels including Fraternity, Elektra, Alligator, Epic and Capitol.
Read more: http://www.guitarworld.com/artist-news/pioneering-guitarist-lonnie-mack-dead-74/29020
Another music great died yesterday without as much fanfare as he deserved.
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Last edited Sat Apr 23, 2016, 04:56 AM - Edit history (14)
But I don't see many here celebrating him. Apparently one has to play electric guitar.
Not by my standards. I like rock okay, but no electric guitar can match this, no matter how loud it is played:
Note: the volume of the music is not in any way a measure of greatness. Amplification does not make it better. In fact, it makes it worse. What can one hear when ones eardrums are damaged?
Meanwhile there is a whole universe of music around one that doesn't include electrical amplification and eardrum bursting volume.
That is the measure of music, when louder does not mean better.
Like the sublime end to Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro which I have heard three times in live performances. No loud electric guitars and drums can replace this:
Tutti contenti, "all are happy!" The end to a marvelous piece of music without electric guitars, which have their place as long as all music does not insist on them. (BTW, the production designer on this production should have taken out back and shot. It's a fucking 18th century narrative. Only an idiot would put such period costumes in such a set. And I have no more use for those who place this opera in anything like a modern setting. It is what it is BECAUSE it is placed in the late 18th century.)
Mostly, I despise rock music with some notable exceptions. The musical horizon is far broader, and far older.
Don't get me started about Medieval music and a certain 12th century polymath of the time, one the greatest composers ever: Hildegard Von Bingen
She was also a mathematician, a physician, a scientist, and an Abess. As I said, a polymath.
In all the history of music, there is a huge universe, a small part of which is loud electric guitars, which seem to be more about loud than music.
Note: several edits. Sorry. Just had to get this off my chest.
My best to you all.
The Segovia one is a solo. In the other one, there are 5 guitars, and the rest of the orchestra isn't playing much.
Take a look at this - probably the most well-known guitar concerto ever written:
Notice how that any time the soloist is playing, the rest of the orchestra is playing very quietly, and whenever there is even a medium string swell, the guitar is nearly inaudible? And that's with a medium-sized orchestra. Imagine trying to blend a guitar into a Wagner sized orchestra going full tilt. Like I said, the guitar lends itself to solo and chamber music, but in large ensembles, a lot of care needs to be taken in the arrangement for the guitar to stand out.
Even in the jazz and popular music world, the electric guitar came about because the guitar, while a popular instrument, had trouble with keeping up in volume with larger bands that included loud instruments like saxaphones, drums, banjos, and assorted brass.
Thanks for the clips - classical guitar transcriptions of Bach is among my favorite music ever, especially played by a master like Segovia.
(also, obviously there were microphones - otherwise the performances wouldn't have been recorded
)
However my personal experience counters any such argument that the public knows about classical music, or about music in general. After all, a vast proportion of folks think that one who had demonstrably no taste whatsoever was the "King of Rock and Roll". Nope, that wasn't Pat Boone, although the description would apply to him, too. There are many who might be called the kings (or queens) of rock and roll. None of them in my universe would be named Elvis Presley, whose taste was universally sleazy and oily, and whose music was equally so.
That is when music took a nose dive.
I blame Ed Sullivan.
BTW, I like Steve Reich, some of his anyway.
I heard parts of it throughout my musical explorations, but the Met did the whole thing on one of their Saturday matinee broadcasts. Ghandi and MLK Jr. It was jaw dropping experience, as good music ought to be.
I wish you the best. And keep on exploring.
Check out my Benny Goodman clip, upthread. "Sing, Sing, Sing." Fucking Gene Krupa on drums. Recorded in 1938 at Carnegie Hall. One of the greatest live recordings ever. Brought the house down.
My best to you.
Music! What an astounding adventure when one treads off the path.
