A friend recently asked me if I had heard about the Guitar Marathon (92nd Street and Y in New York in January). I kind of remembered reading about it, "Strings, neck and resonator...the basic elements of a guitar..." I realize that most sane human beings don’t think about guitars all the time, unlike myself, but I thought it might be interesting to describe a few differences for those interested few:


Flamenco Blanca--a traditional Flamenco guitar built with old German spruce on top and cypress sides. It has six strings. Flamenco guitars are more articulate and have a more percussive tone than a classical guitar, and the energy you put into playing the strings comes out louder and more staccato. The sound is bright and percussive…Frederique

Negra Flamenco--made of Brazilian rosewood sides and old German spruce top, the Negra is not only darker, but also a more modern Flamenco guitar. Spanish guitarist Paco de Lucia popularized the Negra. It has a richer tone and a bark or ‘growl’ when played. sound: dark, full sound...Las Dos



Both of my Flamenco guitars were built by Keith Vizcarra… for any guitar-inclined soul, you probably already know about this man. Allow me to digress…He’s a custom guitar craftsman, building guitars for flamenco artist Chuscales from Antequera, Spain, to jazz guitarist Bruce Dunlap. Vizcarra has repaired guitars for Frank Zappa and Joe Pass. His custom Flamenco, classical, and nylon string guitars have been made for Oscar Castro-Neves, Calvin Hazen, Ottmar Liebert, Erik Darling…the list goes on. Recently he crafted a left handed fretless acoustic bass guitar for Paul Socolov, who plays with David Burn and Herbie Mann….

Egyptian Oud--a short-necked Arabic lute, an instrument dating back to 1500 BC. It’s bowl-shaped body has no frets. The upper end, the headstock, is pitched backwards 90 degrees. My oud has four courses of strings, double strung with a single string for the lowest course, a base note ‘g’. The oud is still played professionally today in Armenia and Egypt. The sound: oriental timbres

Turkish saz--originated in Central Asia where Turks lived before their westward migration. This tear-drop shaped instrument produces unique microtones called Perde in Arabic music, due to it’s tied frets that are movable. I’ve got a baglama with three courses of six paired strings. The body is usually made of a single piece of mulberry. The sound: metallic and buzzing…Awakening

I view acoustic and electric guitars as completely different instruments, with different techniques….as organ and piano are different. I used to view electric as more aggressive and angry (check out the solo on Jeanetta on Ananda) but the flamenco techniques can emote great anger and sorrow…

Nylon Midi-synth--an acoustic nylon-string guitar, played with an electronic box. The one I play comes off the rack from Godin in Quebec, and it allows me to optomize the sound potential without compromising the acoustic sound and feel.

The guitar is so much more than a tool or an instrument. It's like knitting sounds of the past and present together…we find connections. For example: Eddie Duran played a 1938 ES100 arch-top guitar when performing with Benny Goodman. In the early 60s, Paul Smith’s widow had passed this guitar onto Eddie after Paul’s sudden death in an accident. Benny loved the way Eddie played, and he ‘dug the way the axe looked and sounded’. I recently found this guitar in a random music shop. It’s sound is mellow and very reflective. It brings me back to the mid 70s in North Beach where Eddie used to let me sit in with his group at Red Chimney and Petas…life is a circle.

Upon expulsion of the Moors and Jews from Spain in 1492, the Gypsies escaped conformity through a nomadic life. They would come into town, sell a few things and perform Flamenco for the curious Spaniards…and then move on.

Last evening I saw Ensayo, a performance by Yaelisa & Caminos, with Jason McGuire’s [”El Rubio”] virtuoso guitar playing at Yerba Buena. Perhaps the Gypsies have stopped moving from city to city, but their music certainly has not. Far from lighthearted, this performance was a journey of the spirit…a message of a struggle for excellence and perhaps of life over death. The Caminos dancers, in black, moved between larger than life size projections of the young dancers in rehearsal…reaching, striving, repeating. It was incredibly theatrical, and I couldn’t help but wonder how the Gypsies performances for the Spaniards had differed…a mere five centuries earlier. I believe I’d heard that the first half of last night’s performance was written post 911…

I’ve been studying flamenco guitar under Jason McGuire for some time now, and his performance was impeccable…I’m a huge fan of course-)). Flamenco rhythm is rare in that the more you study, the more you realize its complexity and subtlety. Jason’s taught me how to be more expressive with my technique. When Jason is performing, his interaction with the other performers thrives...it’s in fact very improvisational. On their site Yaelisa & Caminos state, “the art of Flamenco is an expression of life, a communication on the deepest and most profound level.”

With that, I’m off to play my Vizcarra negra for a bit…haven’t practiced enough this week.

I find myself bound in a paradox between the need for pervasive security and the desire to reach out. We are all one. All human beings want the same thing; to be loved and to avoid pain. Legendary Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore once stated, "Music fills the infinite between two souls." We are divided by difference, which shackles, forcing us to lose sight of humanity as whole.

This week I came across a message written by the Dali Lama responding to Monday’s news of retaliation in Afghanistan. He states, “today the human soul asks the question: What can I do to preserve the beauty and the wonder of our world and to eliminate the anger and hatred--and the disparity that inevitably causes it--in that part of the world which I touch?”

The Dali Lama has known more suffering and loss than most…tirelessly advocating peace in the face of threatening extinction of his country and culture…and yet, he remains compassionate AND happy. A lesson indeed. At this point, I believe ‘isolationist’ may finally become outdated. The US may well be forced into greater cross-cultural awareness. On my floors are Turkish and Persian aboriginal rugs; a saz from turkey, an Egyptian oud, a Tibetan rug…this is only the beginning. We must reach out. Sovereign nations must hold hands.

One man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter, and this forces the issue. And yet, freedom has no fences on country boarders, but concerns humanity as a whole. Much, perhaps most of the IRA’s funding comes from sympathetic Irish Catholics, many in the US. China chimes in that America should help deal with ‘terrorists’ in Tibet and Taiwan, and strangely, this is improving US relations with China and Iran.

“If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another,” continues the Dali Lama. “If you wish to know that you are safe, cause [others] to know that they are safe. If you wish to better understand seemingly incomprehensible things, help another to better understand. If you wish to heal your own sadness or anger, seek to heal the sadness or anger of another….My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.”

Whether it is Basque or Irish or Al Quade, violence is simply something that we all have a right to live without. John Lennon envisioned a world with “no countries” and therefore “nothing to kill or die for”….how Imagine made Clear Chanel Comm’s [nation’s largest radio network] list of “potentially inappropriate” songs is beyond me…but Lennon’s idea certainly allows one to ponder the larger issue of life! May music aid the healing.

It was Chico Hamilton’s 80th birthday this past weekend. His influence is immeasurable. He was an honorable talent scout and creative genius. I was thrilled to play with him in the late 70s. His Quintet, which I think started with Jim Hall on guitar, Buddy Collette on reeds, Carson Smith on bass and cellist Fred Katz, was one of the most important West Coast bands in the 50s and 60s. He brought Gabo Szabo and Charles Lloyd in. He moved from hard bop into fusion and avant-garde, he was always moving forward…Arthur Blythe, Eric Person, Larry Coryell….the list goes on.

Chico was very open and unassuming. No attitude. He had a little penthouse near the UN, and there would be young musicians, street guys of his generation, diplomats….no social barriers. He is one of the most open people, to new artistic ideas, and new people and viewpoints I have ever met. I am quite sure that this is his secret of youth. Funny, at that time I was learning so much, but the one thing that has remained imbedded in my memory was his influence on stage…. everybody FELT GREAT, band and audience, when he played. His amazing gift!

I admire musicians who lead by learning from fresh, younger musicians…like Ellington and Miles were superb at cultivating….and I now search for combinations of talent with that same spirit in mind. Chico was also a master of this tradition, and I was fortunate enough to participate. I think I heard that he and his wife saw the WTC go down, and were very upset by it….we need music more than ever now! Peace be with us all.