Lenny Breau.html



Lenny Breau (August 5, 1941–August 12, 1984) was a Canadian guitarist. He was known for blending many styles of music including: country, classical, flamenco and jazz guitar. Breau, inspired by country guitarists like Chet Atkins, used fingerstyle techniques not often used in jazz guitar.

Biography

Breau was born August 5, 1941, in Auburn, Maine. His francophone parents, Hal "Lone Pine" Breau and Betty Cody (nee Coté), were professional country and western musicians who performed and recorded from the mid 1930's until (in Hal Breau's case) the mid 1970's. Their son began playing guitar at the age of eight, and by the age of fourteen he was the lead guitarist for his parents' band, billed as "Lone Pine Junior", playing Merle Travis and Chet Atkins instrumentals and occasionally singing.^[1] Breau made his first professional recording in Westbrook, Maine at the age of 15, appropriately titled Boy Wonder.

The Breau family moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1957, and their new band travelled and performed around the city and province as the CKY Caravan. Their shows were broadcast live on Winnipeg's CKY on Saturday mornings from various remote locations.^[2] One of their regular listeners was Randy Bachman, who was sixteen years of age at the time. On one occasion Bachman bicycled to a Caravan performance in his West Kildonan neighborhood and ended up meeting Breau. Breau and Bachman soon became friends, and Breau informally began teaching Bachman, who has since described those lessons as "...the beginning of my life as a guitar player."

Around 1959 Lenny Breau left his parents' band and sought out local jazz musicians, performing at Winnipeg venues including "Rando Manor" and the "Stage Door". He met pianist Bob Erlendson, who began teaching him more of the foundations of jazz. In 1962 Breau left for Toronto and soon created the jazz group Three with singer/actor Don Francks and Eon Henstridge on acoustic bass.^[2]

Three performed in Toronto, Ottawa, and New York City. Their music was featured in the 1962 National Film Board documentary Toronto Jazz, and they recorded a live album at the Village Vanguard in New York City and appeared on US network television on the Jackie Gleason and Joey Bishop shows. Returning to Winnipeg, Breau became a regular session guitarist recording for CBC Radio and CBC Television, and contributed to CBC-TV's Teenbeat, Music Hop, and his own Lenny Breau Show.^[2] To many Canadians, Breau's jazz is still an evocative memory of the sound of CBC in the sixties.

Lenny's fully matured technique was a combination of Atkins and Travis fingerpicking and Sabicas-influenced flamenco, highlighted by extraordinary right hand independence and flurries of artificial harmonics. His harmonic sensibilities were a combination of his country roots, classical, modal, Indian, and especially jazz, particularly the work of pianist Bill Evans.

In 1967, recordings of Breau's playing from The Lenny Breau Show had found their way into the hands of Chet Atkins. The ensuing friendship resulted in Lenny's first two LP issues, Guitar Sounds from Lenny Breau and The Velvet Touch of Lenny Breau. Live! on RCA.^[3] He lived in various Canadian cities until 1976 when he returned to the United States. He spent the next several years moving between Nashville, Maine and New York City eventually settling in Los Angeles in the early 1980s. These years were spent performing and teaching. Only a few more solo albums and albums recorded with fiddler Buddy Spicher and pedal steel guitarist Buddy Emmons were issued during his lifetime.

Lenny had continual drug problems from the mid 1960s, which he managed to get under control during the last year of his life. On August 12, 1984 Lenny's body was found in a swimming pool at his apartment complex in Los Angeles, California. The coroner reported that he had been strangled. His wife Jewel Breau was the chief suspect in the case^{citation needed} but she was never charged with his murder and the case is still unsolved.

Many live and "lost" recordings have been issued since Lenny's death. His studio recordings have also been reissued. Thanks to the efforts of Randy Bachman of Guitarchives, Paul Kohler of Art of Life Records and others, a whole new generation of listeners have access to his music.

A documentary entitled The Genius Of Lenny Breau was produced in 1999 by Lenny's daughter Emily Hughes. It includes interviews with Chet Atkins, Ted Greene, Pat Metheny, George Benson, Leonard Cohen, Randy Bachman and Lenny's family members. One Long Tune: The Life and Music of Lenny Breau by Ron Forbes-Roberts (University of North Texas Press 2006) is considered the definitive work on Breau. Nearly 200 people were interviewed for the book which includes a thorough analysis of Breau's music and an extensive comprehensive discography of his recordings.

Discography

Lenny Breau had made numerous appearances and recordings throughout his short life. An extensive discography is available at his official web site.

• Guitar Sounds from Lenny Breau (1968) RCA
• The Velvet Touch of Lenny Breau - Live! (1969) RCA, (1994) One Way
• Minors Aloud: Buddy Emmons with Lenny Breau (1978) Flying Fish Records (2005) Art of Life
• The Legendary Lenny Breau... Now! (1979) Sound Hole
• Lenny Breau (1979) (1979) Direct-Disk Labs, (1985) Adelphi LP (1999) Adelphi-Genes CD (Released as Lenny Breau Trio)
• Five O'Clock Bells (1979) Adelphi Records, (1987) Genes
• Mo' Breau (1981) Adelphi, (1987) Genes
• Standard Brands (1981) RCA (with Chet Atkins)
• When Lightn' Strikes (1984) Tudor Records, (2005) Art of Life (Released as Swingin' on a Seven-String)
• Legacy (1983) Relaxed Rabbit Records (also released as Live at Bourbon St. by Guitarchives in 1995)
• Quietude (1985) Electric Muse (also released as Live at Bourbon St. by Guitarchives in 1995)
• The Living Room Tapes, Vol. 1 (1986) Livingroom Records (with Brad Terry) (1988) Musical Heritage Society Records (1995) DOS Records
• Last Sessions (1988) Genes
• The Living Room Tapes, Vol. 2 (1990) Musical Heritage Society Records (with Brad Terry)
• Cabin Fever (1997) Guitarchives Records
• Chance Meeting (1997) Guitarchives Records (Recorded live at The Sign of the Times in Rumson, NJ on May 21, 1980)
• Boy Wonder (1998) Guitarchives Records
• Live at Donte's (2000) String Jazz (recorded live, May 1969)
• Pickin' Cotten (2001) Guitarchives (with Richard Cotten. Recorded live at the Blue Bird in Nashville September 23 & 24, 1977)
• The Complete Living Room Tapes (2003) Art of LIfe (2 CD set with Brad Terry)
• The Hallmark Sessions (2003) Art of Life (recorded 1961)
• At the Purple Onion (2004) Art of Life (with Don Francks and Eon Henstridge)

Quotations

• "The sound of silence is intense."

• "It's got words to it...but it's more of an instrumental - with lyrics." from the song Five O'Clock Bells.

• "...I approach the guitar like a piano. I've reached a point where I transcend the instrument. A lot of the stuff I play on the 7-string guitar is supposed to be technically impossible, but I spent over twenty years figuring it out. I play the guitar like a piano, there's always two things going on at once. I'm thinking melody, but I'm also thinking of a background. I play the accompaniment on the low strings."

• "What I'm trying to do is make impressions. I think of myself as a colorist, adding different colors and shades by using different techniques and touching the guitar in different ways. I'd like to play sounds you can see if you've got your eyes closed. I'll always be a student, because I think of music as never ending."

References

External links

• lennybreau.com
• Guitarchives
• NEMS Book Early Lenny Breau