My meeting with Lenny Breau
I will never forget the first time I heard Lenny Breau's guitar playing. It must have around 1970 back in Sweden and I was 13 years old. Once a month there were a radio show called Claes Dalhgren: Jazz From New York. It was broadcast 1:00 Am in the morning and I was listening with the radio under my pillow so my parents would not hear. I was supposed sleep because it was school the next day. This particular show two guitarists were presented: George Barnes and Lenny Breau. George Barnes playing was great and impressive. Then Lenny Breau came on playing "A Taste of Honey" from the Velvet Touch of Lenny Breau. I could not believe what I was hearing. It sounded like if there where two guitarist playing simultaneously and the harmonics that sounded like a harp was electrifying. I was speechless, I wanted to play just like that. The album were nowhere to be found in Sweden. Many years later I manage to find the album. I also found Guitar Player magazine that published several articles on Lenny's playing, some written by Lenny himself. I started to get an idea how he was playing.
After finishing my Bachelors degree in 1983 I went to Los Angeles to study at Guitar Institute of Technology, GIT. I think it was in November, 1983, Lenny Breau moved to LA from Nashville. One of his first gigs were a Monday night at Donte's. This became a steady weakly gig for Lenny the following months. I went there very eager to hear my hero live for the first time. Lenny's live playing surpassed everything I had heard on record. He had a certain kind of subtlety that did not capture so easily on record. Often he would start off playing solo so soft that you had to listen very closely to hear what he was playing. Then Lenny would give a out a little more but not too much. Eventually the rhythm section would join in and the melody were presented and soloing followed. You were caught, you just had to listen. I loved everything I heard. In the break I manage to pull myself together and walk up to Lenny asking for a private lesson. He was the nicest guy you could imagine. From then I studied with Lenny almost on a weakly basis until his tragic death in August, 1984.
Lenny Breau had a clinic at GIT on a Thursday morning. He played his Dauphine acoustic guitar and talked with the students about his approach to the guitar. It was great. After the clinic I went with him for lunch. Very little did know that it was the last time I was going to see him alive. The following Monday I came to GIT for class and on the screen above the front entrance I could read " Lenny Breau dead, drowned." A few days later the Los Angeles Times wrote that a crime had taken place and that he was dead before ending up in the water. Lenny was murdered, strangled. I was shocked and so was everybody else who knew him.
For many years it was very quite about Lenny Breau. I am very happy to see that now on the Internet there are a number of resources available to spread the legacy of Lenny Breau. In my links section some of these can be found. There are also many new CD releases of Lenny's playing.
Rick Washbrook: A Gypsy Bed, A Tribute to Lenny Breau
Rick Washbrook is a guitarist who carries on the legacy of Lenny Breau. His CD "A Gypsy Bed" contains of a double CD of solo guitar. It is very bold but Washbrook pulls it trough very nicely.
Washbrook's tribute to Breau stands for its word in the true sense that he truly manage to capture the essence of Lenny's playing. Similar to Breau, Washbrook plays with his fingers and uses a light touch on the strings, that Breau called "feathering." Other typical Breau concepts are the use of simultaneous melody and comping chords and harmonics that create a harp effect.
Lenny liked to switch between different styles of music, sometimes in the same tune. In the same fashion Washbrook uses country, jazz and flamenco styles. An example of country can be heard in "Cannonball Rag," jazz in "Summertime" and flamenco in "Other Places."
Washbrook uses some tunes that Lenny recorded such as "There Is No Greater Love" from The Velvet Touch Of Lenny Breau. Here Washbrook stays pretty close to Lenny's recorded version.
Similar to Breau, Washbrook likes to starts off a tune in rubato fashion using arpeggiated chords and gradually move into tempo. This can be heard in "On a Clear Day."
Washbrook's vocals can be heard to advantage in, for example, his own "Good Lord Sent Me a Woman," that also has a funny lyric. Other tunes of Washbrook include "How Can I Forget," Pamela's Place" and "Blues Evolution."
A Gypsy Bed is a pleasant CD with very good solo guitar playing. Here Washbrook truly has managed to make a tribute to Lenny Breau.
To pursage A Gypsy Bed go to Rick's website listed on the links page