More Cool Links

I've gotten a lot of responses from last week's posting on "Obscure Guitar Links", so I thought I'd add some more (again, so busy, devoted readers of my humble blog won't have to search on their own). The world is full of great musicians that aren't "famous", and (need I say?) full of famous musicians that are not so great. The internet is a great place to find and listen to the good ones, and also read about their approach to the instrument. Here are some more favorites for players and non-players alike:

• I briefly mentioned Jazz Guitar Life at the end of my last post. Since then I've had a chance to look more deeply. It is chock-full of good interviews with great players, lessons, and much, more. Lyle Robinson, JGL's proprietor, also blogs about guitar — Jazz Guitar Life Blog. As a plus, the layout on both pages is very well done and professional. Enjoy.

• I just discovered Adrian Legg on youtube yesterday. In this first video, he does something on the guitar that I've never seen anyone do before, playing melody and accompaniment while simultaneously tuning the strings up and down. You've got to hear this, it's only 22 seconds long:


While I'm on the subject of Adrian Legg, I was blown away by this one. Fans of Tommy Emmanuel, Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed type playing will love this guy.

Adrian Legg's "Cajun Interlude".

• A student turned me on to Brazilian guitarist, Naudo a few weeks ago. This guy, improvising on the fly, is as pure a guitar player as I've ever heard. He seems to play the guitar with the approach of a piano player. Keep in mind as you listen, all of his videos are recorded live. Here are some of my favorites:

Earth, Wind & Fire's "September". This is such a great song. He's got a lot of moving parts going on here at once.

This one cracks me up every time I hear it. Classical guitar meets disco! Yet somehow he makes it work: Naudo playing Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive".

Naudo can rock too: Toto's "Africa".

• Andy McKee may not be so obscure anymore, but still a lot of you may have never heard him. This one is great: "Drifting"

This one too: "Art of Motion"

• Luis Bonfa is hardly an obscure guitar player, but I had never heard the first of the two songs on this video. His original "The Ski Song" is followed by his most famous composition "Manha de Carnival" or "A Day in the Life of a Fool" (by its English title), and also called "Orfeo Negro" or "Black Orpheus" to further confuse things . I read somewhere that this is one of the most played songs in the world. I've heard a lot of versions and played it many times myself, but I had never heard the composer play it. What a virtuoso, here playing along with Caterina Valente:

"The Ski Song/Manha de Carnival"

It's a lot of fun for me to research these — my kinda' livin'. Send me your comments and your favorites.