Noon also features guest performers, such as Phish drummer Jon Fishman, cellist Zoë Keating, and pedal street guitarist Brett Lanier. It was put together in multiple ways, including face-to-face studio work, file swapping, sheet music exchanges, and in one case, Gordon shipping a boombox pre-loaded with recordings for Kottke to review in a novel attempt to combat inertia. The process was more extended than usual, stretching out over several years and into the COVID-19 pandemic. Noon builds on the collaborative framework they established on 2002’s Clone and 2005's Sixty Six Steps. They recently collaborated on Noon, their third release and Kottke’s first album in 15 years. But singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mike Gordon, best known as a founding member of Phish, has served as a catalyst for Kottke to record and release new work.
His enthusiam for studio work has waned in the last two decades, choosing instead to focus on live performances. Kottke was once a prolific recording artist that sometimes released two albums a year during the ‘60s and ‘70s. When Kottke plays live, he transports audiences far beyond day-to-day concerns and into deeply personal narratives that alternate between the profound and hilarious. The renowned, influential acoustic guitarist possesses a boundless muse that resonates across 55 years of virtuoso recordings and performances, as well as during his witty, idiosyncratic stage banter. Storytelling runs deep through Leo Kottke’s veins. Of course, you have to have a good drummer, a good bassist. When I initially wrote it out, my son was 14 and playing in the "School Of Rock All Stars." And as a doting dad, I just wanted him to look cool on stage when he pulled it off. A similar harmonic vibe.)īut, be that as it may, this solo jumped out at all of us who heard it for the first time and my point in posting it was to demystify it for forum users who might be interested in playing the correct notes. (For some reason, my mind just took me to Hendrix's solo for Manic Depression in 1967. You might even argue that the E twanging before the guitar solo begins was another Asturias reference But definitely new as applied here, circa 1966. The intro to Asturias is really very well trod ground. I wouldn't be surprised if Coltrane couldn't refer the roots of Giant Steps back to something he heard. But, this was very innovative in 1966, even if the motifs aren't derived out of thin air. I'm not really familiar with McGuinn's comments about his sources for this solo, but I can loosely hear Coltrane in the first 4 notes and the overlapping diatonic 2nds certainly are a loose parallel to Asturias. It's amazing how eclectic Roger's interests still are, even these days when he's returning to his folk music roots. As I said in a previous thread, McGuinn takes the intro to Albeniz's "Asturias" (transcribed for guitar by Segovia) as a springboard for his acoustic version of EMH. Before he plays the introduction on acoustic at his shows, he always mentions Andres Segovia as well as Coltrane. McGuinn has been very open about the influence of John Coltrane's "sheets of sound" on the EMH solo. We can all make up our own version of this, but we have to listen to ourselves objectively and decide if we're really doing it justice or just playing another version of what WE do.įolkie wrote:I love the solo, but I wouldn't call it totally original in conception. On the one hand, I can understand guitarists not wanting to copy this solo note for note, but the other hand, taking time to really learn what he's done will possibly give you some new tools to use. Roger's first four notes are such a departure! And the next few measures expand on his totally original concept. This solo, as many great solos do, goes beyond chops. But after that.well, it seems like I just can't keep from making it up, if you know what I mean. It just goes to show that McGuinn has prodigious chops, despite what a few snobs out there have said.Īnd I don't have the patience! I mean I'll steal as much as I can absorb from other guitar players, particularly McGuinn. If you feel comfortable embellishing the solo, more power to you. But, honestly, I've never had the requisite technique to even approach the song. I have no desire to learn the EMH solo note for note, if that's what you were suggesting.