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Craig, Who was first???


KB Gunn

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Vicki Henfan or Kaki King? They both have an identical style. I don't think Vicki has a unique playing style. She sounds like she is a copycat. Or maybe it is kaki who is the copy cat. (Kakicat? Copykak?)

 

 

(For those who don't know what we're talking about, check out Vicki's performances in the Frankfurt Musik Messe video coverage in the Theater.)

 

I first met Vicki in New York sometime in the 80s after AES...I forget exactly when...she was working in a studio, and this was long enough ago that she gave me a cassette of the music she'd been working on (I'm not even sure CD burners were available back then at a reasonable price). She was working with an engineer named Sharon Stone (not that Sharon Stone!), and they were the first people to turn me on to the trick of recording real cymbals along with a drum machine to make the sound more convincing. I never saw her after that, but at Frankfurt I'd keep seeing her name listed for various performances, and wondered if it was the same person. This year at the Messe, a bunch of people said "You have got to see this guitarist" and yes, it was the same Vicki Genfan.

 

If you do some googling, Vicki was doing this type of thing before Kaki King; Vicki's first album came out in 2000 or 2001, at least a couple years before Kaki King made her debut.

 

But does it really matter? I mean, Emmett Chapman was tapping before either one of them, and both of them owe a musical debt to Michael Hedges...but I've never seen any guitarist put it together in the same way that Vicki does, and each tune she did was somewhat different. I still have footage of one more performance of hers, maybe I'll post that as well.

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As I said in the post above: "(For those who don't know what we're talking about, check out Vicki's performances in the Frankfurt Musik Messe video coverage in the Theater.)"

 

Messemerizing, yes, for a minute or two, but boooorrrrrrring. Where's the melody? I wouldn't go away humming either of those tunes.

 

And, no, I can't play like that myself, but neither do I want to. It's hardly what I'd call "re-inventing" the guitar.

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No, Preston Reed was first. Or, at least one of the earliest. Kaki King has been open about the influence he had on her style.

 

GP held their annual guitar event at Thunderbird Music in Tampa 5-6 years ago, and I was was in the area, so I dropped in. One performance was an acoustic guitar "summit" with a number of excellent players - Preston Reed was among them. I had never seen ANYONE playing like that before.

 

js

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No, Preston Reed was first. Or, at least one of the earliest. Kaki King has been open about the influence he had on her style.


GP held their annual guitar event at Thunderbird Music in Tampa 5-6 years ago, and I was was in the area, so I dropped in. One performance was an acoustic guitar "summit" with a number of excellent players - Preston Reed was among them. I had never seen ANYONE playing like that before.


js

 

 

Thanks, js1,

 

I just did a search on youtube and found this and other links to Preston Reed.

 

 

 

He seems to have a more polished performance of this style of playing. Thanks for the info.

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Let me throw out some names....

 

William Ackerman, Leo Kottke... Lawrence Juber... MICHAEL HEDGES (rip), Stanley Jordan...

 

Although really, you know where that impetus came from, IMO? Watch Ritchie Havens at Woodstock and note the rhythm:

 

[ulr]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk0sBEbqU5M[/url]

 

.. I can imagine a young Michael Hedges growing up in a house hearing that a lot, and one day getting those rhythms going *with* the percussion on the guitar...

 

 

/ it's a shame that, unlike then, the focus of pop culture is totally away from the current war

// that was a wiser, more artistically aware generation

/// funny how it's easy to capture the attention of that many people with the artist is genuinely into what he's doing....

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Stanley Jordan is known for a distinctive and unique style of tapping on a six string electric, playing bass, chording and lead parts simultaneously. His guitar is set for standard tuning. He does not use the body of an acoustic guitar to produce percussive elements as do the others we are talking about. He is one of my favorite guitarists off all time. I sat 10 feet from him in concert in Albany, NY about 8 years ago. He was amazing.

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Stanley Jordan is known for a distinctive and unique style of tapping on a six string electric, playing bass, chording and lead parts simultaneously. His guitar is set for standard tuning. He does not use the body of an acoustic guitar to produce percussive elements as do the others we are talking about. He is one of my favorite guitarists off all time. I sat 10 feet from him in concert in Albany, NY about 8 years ago. He was amazing.

 

Yep, to say the least. :eek: I love watching him "overhand tap" out intricate lead parts on one guitar, while simultaneously chording pretty complex rhythm parts on another. Whew... There's some great Stanley Jordan clips on YouTube, btw.

 

As you pointed out, his is quite a different style than the artists you originally posted about and he has always strictly played electric instruments any of the times that I've been fortunate enough to see him throughout the years. I've personally never seen him play an acoustic guitar live, FWTW.

 

Regardless, I just knew that someone would eventually mention his name in this thread! :)

 

 

Rick

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SHis guitar is set for standard tuning.

 

 

Actually, it's not a standard tuning - he's tuned to all fourths. EADGCF. Or at least he used

to...

 

My point in bringing up Stanley Jordan is that he was the first person I was aware of who was doing both polyrhythmic things between his two hands to give the illusion of piano-style rhythms, and the way he did some flowing scale runs is also the way a lot of these post-Hedges guys do "harp"-like arpeggio figures.

 

/ played tuned to fourths for a year when I started out

// made sense at the time...

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