Blue Wind

Led Boots

In these videos, you’ll see masters of 7-string harmony in action.

Stompin’ at the Savoy

Night and Day

Moon Glow

Rodrigo Concierto De Aranjuez

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Fantasía para un Gentilhombre

Narciso Yepes is a ten string demon. In my uneducated opinion, he is a consummate musician of the highest order. When he plays, you can hear his amazing and absolute control over the music and his instrument in terms of technique, expression and the the wide tonal palette at his disposal. His playing is austere, sober and dignified, never lapsing into self-indulgent sentimentality or sensuousness, never giving more or less feeling than is necessary to convey the emotional content of the piece.

My favourite video is the first, where Yepes plays Recuerdos de la Alhambra, a piece by Tarrega that I loved immediately when I first heard my good friend Hunter play it more than 10 years ago. I’ve also included Romance, a piece that became popular in the 1950s.

Recuerdos de la Alhambra

Chaconne by J.S. Bach

Prelude – Lute Suite No.1 BWV 996 in E Minor by J.S. Bach

Romance

Greasy Granny

I wonder what’s the story behind the name of the tune.

Rosenberg Trio, Bireli Lagrene, Escoude – Out Of Nowhere

Summertime

Super up-tempo and energetic version of the Gershwin classic. Also check out Lagrene (guitarist) and Lockwood (violinist) trading fours.

Rose Room – Stochelo Rosenberg

Nuages

I’m back, finally, after my blog disappeared for 5 days due to a server migration at routhost and living like a nomad for 3 months.

Let me present one of my favourite 80s metal bands – Loudness. I especially like “Rock & Roll Gypsy”.

LET IT GO / ROCK’N ROLL GYPSY / LIKE HELL

A new movie about Lemmy of Motorhead fame will be out in 2009. More details here.

In Bangkok now. Will be away from tomorrow till 1 June on a 10 day Vipassana Meditation course at Dhamma Kamala. Unfortunately, will have to miss Sonny Rollins performing at the Esplanade on 28 May 08. Fortunately, YS is also in Bangkok so I get to stay with him for free for one night.

Other belated records:

– Bought a jazz semi-hollow guitar which I was very happy with: a Cort Joe Beck model. – Did a 3-day Vipassana meditation course at Camp Christine in late April. – Finished reading Karen Armstrong’s Muhammad and have started on Philip Zimbardo’s “The Lucifer Effect“. – Watched “Hustle and Flow” on DVD during the last day of Feb and first day of Mar 08 . My favourite movie ever. Complex movie about the lowest of the low (a male pimp who prostitutes his partners) being redeemed with the love of a woman, dream, struggles, creativity. One of the main themes in the story is about how a man needs woman who believes in them, supports and shares their dreams. The lead character is a very unsavoury guy and there are scenes of exploitation that would make you hate the lead character but in the end the movie still makes you like the guy enough. It’s really an interestingly ambiguous movie. – Attended the Singapore International Guitar Festival last year and saw my friend CC get third prize in the competition. The following quote (from a musician colleague) is taken totally out of context but it still applies to my friend’s showing at the Guitar Festival. Performance is 65% of what you play at home. – Last year’s reservist saw me sleeping in the back of truck with more than twenty soldiers. – A cancelled trip to Phuket and Beijing. – Got my new Honda Jazz off-peak car last Fri, on 16 May 08. – Downloaded Jimmy Bruno’s Maplewood Avenue. The best album I’ve heard this year. I don’t normally like all the songs in an album or sit through an entire album. But in this case, it was easy to do both. I highly recommend it. Buy it here. See also an awesome video of Jimmy Bruno playing with Joe Beck here. – Finally checked out the Modern Jazz Quarter after reading about them from Kenneth Wood’s blog (if I don’t recall wrongly) one or two years ago. I’m glad I did cos I love MJQ. Also listened to Mike Stern’s “Who Let the Dogs Out” at the Esplanade Library recently. Love it. Modern electric swing!