| Guitar Heroes Page |
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| In the summer of '01 I had the pleasure of fulfilling a dream I had been keeping in my head for the previous 7 years. I got to go see Fapy play a concert, hangout with him at his house and talk about music, have a couple lessons, and play a few tunes with the man. Some people out there reading this may think that I'm a bit obsessed, so I'll explain. When I first heard Fapy, or any gypsy guitarists other than Django, I was a disgruntled jazz guitar student at Loyola University in New Orleans. I was so very frustrated with the quality of music instruction, and how the students treated performing as a competition. Most of all, however, I was a Django devotee and the guitar intructor, could not relate technically or musically. There was no way that I was going to waste my time learning improper technique and end up sounding like a robot, so I dropped out after 2 years. I decided that I would teach myself . It was also at that time that I met Tony Green. Tony let my copy a bunch of the Hot Club Records cds. The one that caught my attention the most was "Fleur de Lavende" by Fapy. Well, to make a long story short, I became a big fan of Fapy and daydreamed of being able to see him play. |
| I always believed that if visualize what you want, you manifest the reality of it. I got my wish! He turned out to be a very cool guy. He told me some very personal and funny stories as if I had known him for years. He is also very modest. I heard him play things that blew my mind! Not only does he play guitar, but he can play harp, mandolin, clarinet, cello, violin, piano, and the Portuguese guitarra, etc. All with great skill! |
| The lesson was very enlightening. He pinpointed my weaknesses like a radar and was very helpful in correcting them. He is very honest! He will tell you that you are a lousy guitarist and need to practice if he thinks so. That is something that I really appreciate. It is a waste of time to have a lesson with someone who tells you what you want to hear, just to please you. Basically the experience confirmed to me what I always thought,.....that he's a real badass guitar player who has his playing under control. He has totally negated competition from playing and focused on the fact that it's about the music, not notes per second. However, try playing some of his solos and you'll see how fast he is actually playing! His tone and sense of melody cover up the speed. People generally lose tone when they play that fast. But not Fapy. |
| Fapy Lafertin |
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| Bireli Lagrene..........need I say more? |
| Without a doubt, one of the best guitarists in the world is Bireli Lagrene. I finally met him in Houston during a very hot April International Fest concert series that spotlighted France. (A thousand blessings upon the person who booked Bireli.) I've listened to Bireli for years and have always been amazed by the ideas he comes up with, but seeing him live was astonishing. He had been drinking beers from 6:00a.m. and at 1:00p.m. got on stage (without touching his guitar beforehand for a warm-up) and counted off to "Coquette".. What happened afterwards was a trip to the moon and back! I don't want to go into vivid details, but lets just say that at that moment it seemed as though he opened up a whole new universe of musical ideas. Some say he's a Martian, others believe that he is Django reincarnated. Whatever the case may be, he's a very cool dude and an overall genius. He speaks Italian, German, Spanish, English (without an accent), and of course French. He started playing jazz when he was 7!...........Wake up parents! Get your kids away from the television and hand them an instrument.. |
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| Joe Pass |
| I remember the first time that I ever heard Joe Pass.....it was the day I decided that I wanted to play jazz guitar. It was on a compilation cd set that I bought on a whim. The first track was "Django" from Joe's album "For Django". That track did something to me. I had heard Django before that, and was already a fan, but had never considered dedicating my focus on jazz guitar. Somehow, Joe conveyed a speedy groove with total ease and fluidity that made me think "Hey, I can play that." Of course I found out that it was not so easy. It was just the way he did it that made it seem effortless. However, I loved that track so much that I picked out that solo note for note and didn't even know the changes to the song. Needless to say, it was the hardest solo I ever learned. |