PHOTOS BY ARJEN VELDT / GARYLUCAS.COM
Eclectic guitarist Gary Lucas has roamed the world gaining influences for his music. He is shown here in Amsterdam.
Strummin’ around
the worldGary Lucas is a well-traveled, eclectic
guitarist who will perform and teach here
"I like to travel. I'm a nomad, a gypsy, a wandering Jew," guitarist Gary Lucas admits.
Even hailing from one of the music capitals of the world in New York City, Lucas says it "still get a little stultifying, so, as one of my friends once said of me, it's 'play the guitar, see the world.' "
Gary Lucas
>> 7 p.m. tomorrow, "Tales of a Wandering Minstrel" guest lecture, Krauss Hall Yukiyoshi Room, University of Hawaii at Manoa, free to public. Call 956-8246 for info.>> 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, "Acoustic Guitar Techniques" workshop, Krauss Hall 009, UH-Manoa, $30 fee and bring own guitar. Call 956-8400 for registration.
>> 8 p.m. Friday, solo acoustic guitar concert at The Doris Duke Theatre, Honolulu Academy of Arts, $20 general and $15 for seniors, students, UH faculty and staff, and Academy members. Call 956-6878 for tickets.
The well-traveled and eclectic musician will finally make a stop here, and by the end of this week, Lucas will have made himself known to Honolulu audiences through a public lecture, guitar workshop and concert at the Honolulu Academy of Arts theater.
The man will have a lot to offer. Lucas has always been one of these well-versed guitarists who've worked on the fringe of popular music -- and you can't get more fringe (but critically regarded) when you make your name as one of the young sidemen in the final lineup of the singular Captain Beefheart's Magic Band. That hybrid of Mississippi Delta blues and angular and quixotic rock music that the good Captain was noted for up to the band's demise in 1984 can still be heard in Lucas' basic approach to the guitar. It's one that he describes as having "an off-the-cuff, improv attitude."
Even when it comes to playing Chinese music. "The Edge of Heaven: Gary Lucas Plays Mid-Century Chinese Pop" may not exactly endear Lucas to strict-minded ethnomusicologists, but, no matter -- Lucas says his cross-cultural CD has gotten "fantastic reviews in China, Hong Kong and Macao.
"It's just me attempting to play Chinese pop music in this folky, bluesy Americana way. I'm not trying to recreate archaic styles in an accurate manner." It was the post-war songs of popular vocalists from Shanghai, Bai Kwong and Chow Hsuan, that first captured the imagination of a then 22-year-old Lucas, who moved to Taipei in the mid-'70s to join his father's import business, as well as to play music.
"This CD was made for music lovers," he said. "It's the music of 1930s-'40s pre-communist China," a beguiling mixture of native folk and the popular music of the U.S. at the time, which meant swing, intimate cabaret blues and Broadway show tunes.
PHOTOS BY ARJEN VELDT / GARYLUCAS.COM
Eclectic guitarist Gary Lucas has roamed the world gaining influences for his music. He is shown here in Amsterdam.
"I didn't do this out of political or historical necessity -- in fact, the more research I did, the more I realized how mongrelized this music was. Most of the players on those original records were non-Asian. The Shanghai in the '30s was a very cosmopolitan place, filled with immigrants, and most of the studio orchestra musicians of that time were European Jews, which further strengthens my contention that this was not a 'pure' music." Lucas plans to play a bulk of the instrumental versions off of "Edge of Heaven" at his weekend concert, as well as other material spanning his multi-decade career.
Even though Lucas' name may not be a familiar one to most, if you're a fan of the late and lamented Jeff Buckley, or Joan Osborne, you've heard his music. "Jeff Buckley was the finest, foremost young musician I've ever collaborated with," he said, "and I'm utterly proud of the work I did with him. He originally came to a tribute concert for (his late father) Tim Buckley and heard me playing during rehearsal. He told me 'I know you from Captain Beefheart and I want to work with you,' which blew my mind.
"Even though he was really shy in private life, he was this funny mixture of humility and arrogance." Lucas gave him the music for songs that would become "Grace" and "Mojo Pin."
"The criteria for a good song is a good instrumental," Lucas said. "I gave Jeff the music as an intact piece, and his perfect lyrics and melody fit liked a glove. It's so sad that he died so young (through a drowning accident). I was going to do more work with him, now there's no chance. What a waste -- he was so unique and nobody since Jeff can hold a candle to him."
Lucas also supplied the music to Joan Osborne's "Spider Web," a hit single off her best-selling 1994 album "Relish." "I've been sending her mp3 tracks while she's on the road with The Grateful Dead. She'll get off road later this month, and depending on her schedule and priorities, I'll be working with her again.
"I think she's one of the best of our time, but because of the fickle tastes of audiences nowadays, her last studio album didn't do too well. But she's the goods, she's got it," Lucas said. "I like to work with people who can do it. I'm proud of my own stuff, too. I should be better known for my own work, but it's tough, having your music put out on indie labels that go out of business. But my talent will out."
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