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Wednesday, January 10, 2007
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From funk to what? This age old question really has many answers but this time the answer will take a convoluted route to flat-picking guitar with a start in Cuba and a stop along the Left Coast. How do we do this you ask? Well, your humble narrator was in the mood for a little Garcia/Grisman tune called Arabia last week. After a little research I found out where the most familiar riff from the song comes from. So, this is where we'll start.
"Hasta Siempre" or, roughly translated "Until Always" is a song that was written about former revolutionary Che Guevara who was executed in Bolivia in 1967. Although I would have to say that the lyrics are a little much, I do like the tune and of course the opening riff which happens to be the riff that sparked the investigation.
This leads us to "Arabia", a tune written by David Grisman and performed in the spring/summer of 1991 by David and Jerry Garcia. Also released on the DVD Grateful Dawg (review here), this version comes from the Goldcoast Concert Bowl in Squaw Valley, CA. You should be able to pick out the Cuban riff, one of my favorite songs to doodle around with on the guitar.
From here we slide on into a little flat-picking guitar by one of the best : Tony Rice. Originally from Danville, VA, Tony moved to California where him and his brothers were introduced to bluegrass by their father. In the early 70's he moved back to kentucky and met the aforementioned David Grisman and began playing with the David Grisman Quintet. Around the end of the 70's he struck out to pursue his own endeavers forming the Tony Rice Unit. (Full Bio) This is where we'll pick up a few tunes.
(L)Tony Rice, (R)Rice and David Grisman
The first selection is "Me and My Guitar" recorded live at the Birchmere in Alexandria, VA, January 5, 1989. This comes from the album of the same name released in 1986. Next you'll here Common Ground performed at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, CA off of the Backwaters album. Pretty solid band here featuring Fred Carpenter on violin, John Reischman on mandolin and Todd Phillips on Bass. Next comes Manzanita from an "all-star" jam at the Wolftrap Bluegrass Festival dated 8.4.96. Features Tony, Jerry Douglas on Dobro, Bela Fleck on banjo, Sam Bush on mandolin and Victor Wooten on bass. In case you were wondering what a "manzanita" is, it's a tree.
Returning to the Birchmere show is "Little Sadie" a traditional tune that was also played on Grisman, Garcia and Rice's release "The Pizza Tapes" which is the source of the final Rice tune today "So What". Yes, this would be Miles Davis' So What. Bluegrass musicians doing jazz? How about bluegrass in France:
As a final treat and in honor of today (and last week's theme) I have included a performance of You're the One by the Steve Kimock Band from Wisconsin, 4.18.02.