Guitarist.com » Best

Marek Pasieczny: The Dusk Falls Silently

JPD — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 20:43:09 +0000

Great guitar playing. Here’s a guy who loves the sound of a guitar:

Leo Brouwer: Un Dia de Noviembre – Tatyana Ryzhkova

JPD — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 22:08:17 +0000

Now this is a guitar video….

Luiz Bonfa: Sambolero – Carlos Barbosa-Lima

JPD — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 05:18:11 +0000

Carlos Barbosa-Lima playing Luiz Bonfa’s Sambolero.

Sanz: Canarios – on Baroque Guitar

JPD — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 23:13:09 +0000

Played by Regina Albanez. This is a great favorite among classical guitarists. Many of them make it sound pretty good on a classical guitar (check Bream and Williams), but just listen to the charm of the piece played on the instrument it was written for, the baroque guitar.

Nikita Koshkin: Prelude and Fugue in B minor – Asya Selyutina

JPD — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 09:33:43 +0000

Koshkin’s cycle of preludes and fugues continues to emerge…

Nikita Koshkin – Prelude and Fugue in A major

JPD — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 01:28:52 +0000

Nikita Koshkin and Asya Selyutina again. Beautiful stuff. This is what we need. Kudos to filmmaker Roman Gurochkin, too.

Yamashita – Song of Compostela

JPD — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 04:42:34 +0000

This is how good it can be.

Vicente Amigo – Bolero de Vicente

JPD — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 01:16:13 +0000

Flamenco guitarist Vicente Amigo.

Seasick Steve

JPD — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 05:10:46 +0000

There’s a great guitar lesson here for any guitar player. In this beautiful example of “less is more,” Seasick Steve delivers the Hank Williams classic I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.

After that there’s a short documentary film the gives a glimpse into the life of this ex-hobo who suddenly, at the age of 65, with his three-string guitar, hit the big time.

“Hobos are people who move around looking for work, tramps are people who move around but don’t look for work, and bums are people who don’t move and don’t work. I’ve been all three.”

Hear that lonesome whippoorwill
He sounds too blue to fly
The midnight train is whining low
I’m so lonesome I could cry

I’ve never seen a night so long
When time goes crawling by
The moon just went behind the clouds
To hide its face and cry

Did you ever see a robin weep
When leaves began to die?
That means he’s lost the will to live
I’m so lonesome I could cry

The silence of a falling star
Lights up a purple sky
And as I wonder where you are
I’m so lonesome I could cry

Kazuhito Yamashita

JPD — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 08:54:30 +0000

The great classical guitarist Kazuhito Yamashita playing La Boda de Luis Alonso.

Somewhere in Madrid

JPD — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 09:40:19 +0000

Igor Presnyakov – Tip Top

JPD — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 06:07:08 +0000

One of our favorite YouTube stars!

Baroque Guitar and Theorbo

JPD — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 10:15:08 +0000

Alessandro Piccinini
Ciaccona in Partite Variate

Anna Kowalska – baroque guitar
Anton Birula – theorbo

www.luteduo.com

Amanda Cook

JPD — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 08:12:19 +0000

Piraí Vaca: Niel Gow’s Lament

JPD — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:34:51 +0000

Stephanie Jackson

JPD — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 23:27:02 +0000

We could use a few more pieces and players like this. If only I were king….

Edit, Jan 8: I’ve listened to this many times since I posted it a few days ago and it doesn’t get old. This could be a hit. I think Stephanie should try to get Sungha Jung to cover it! This piece could go a long way.

Roberto Aussel

JPD — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:43:04 +0000

What a great sound and style. Is there anyone since Bream who brings this much to the guitar?

John Williams & Richard Harvey – Enfield Dances

JPD — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:23:48 +0000

A coupla guys having a very fine time.

Hamnataing

JPD — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:18:30 +0000

How sweet is this!

Roland Dyens, Songe Capricorne

JPD — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:07:13 +0000

Nataly Makovskaya again, filmed by Roman Gurochkin.

Peo Kindgren, Weiss, 7-String Baritone Guitar

JPD — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:48:58 +0000

Per-Olov Kindgren is the classical guitar star of YouTube. Here’s a good example of why he is so popular!

Sor on Gut Strings

JPD — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:48:38 +0000

Rob MacKillop here is playing Sor on gut strings, with no nails, on a Panormo (copy) guitar, with the guitar resting on a table in front of him. Rob says:

“These pages will document my attempt to perform the music of Fernando Sor with the techniques and interpretive practices outlined in his musical scores and tutors.”

Beautifully done!

Sor Op31 No18 Lesson in Bm from Rob MacKillop on Vimeo.

Old Gals, Too

JPD — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:09:00 +0000

Here’s my favorite old-timer on YouTube. Her name is Lorna Jack. I found her while I was participating in an online stock market forum, of all things. Somehow the topic veered onto music and one of the participants mentioned that his 84-year-old mother was on YouTube playing piano. I checked it out, not expecting much, and found something very beautiful:

Paco de Lucia: Soleares

JPD — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:22:00 +0000

This is probably my favorite video of Paco de Lucia. I think it is from a time just before he played with Al Di Meola on the Elegant Gypsy album. This clip shows his utter command of traditional, straight-ahead flamenco, versus the jazzy explorations for which he later became well-known.

If You Like Segovia…

JPD — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 22:55:00 +0000

…I bet you’ll like Ray Reussner:

Berta Rojas plays Agustín Barrios

JPD — Wed, 27 May 2009 08:33:00 +0000

If there’s a more beautiful classical guitar video on YouTube, I haven’t seen it. The music is Julia Florida by Agustín Barrios. The guitarist is Berta Rojas. She is from Paraguay. So was Barrios (1885-1944). And so are the people in this video.

Remembering Victor Borge

JPD — Sat, 16 May 2009 16:25:00 +0000

One of my favorite memories of my guitar-playing days was the time I played for Victor Borge. I was playing a Sunday brunch at a hotel in Los Gatos, CA. Mr. Borge had performed nearby the night before and had spent the night at the hotel.

His entrance into the dining room was a lesson in stagecraft. He came in through the french doors and just stood there a moment and looked around. Then he simply raised an eyebrow and caused half the room to start laughing. It doesn’t sound like much in the retelling, but it was very impressive in the moment.

He took a seat at a table near me. I’d been playing for quite a while and was due for a break. So I wondered what would be a good piece to finish with. I wanted something sophisticated, but short. Something a little different, but familiar. Something from the piano. Something charming.

Aha. It occurred to me. Debussy’s Maid with the Flaxen Hair. Perfect.

So I played it. When I finished, he gave me a nice smile and a nod. Then I put my guitar away and sat with him and we chatted for a minute, but I remember only one thing he said. It was about the Debussy. He said, lightly and with a smile, “You got the harmony right. That’s important!” It sounded just the way you’d imagine.

It’s not much of a story. There’s no punch line. But the meeting left me with an enduring, happy memory. And maybe that’s the point: In the end, when you’re dead and gone, what’s left is the way you are remembered. What’s left is the way others feel when they remember you.

America the Beautiful – Stuart Weber

JPD — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 03:23:00 +0000

America the Beautiful arranged for classical guitar solo. I’m not sure who the arranger is. (Is Stuart the arranger? Please leave a comment if you know.)

This could be a hit..

Someone to Watch: Tatyana Ryzhkova

JPD — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 08:56:00 +0000

Fretkillr, The All-American YouTube Guitar Player

JPD — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:20:00 +0000

I don’t know who this guy is. He never shows his face. He plays steel-string, 12-string, country, blues, oldies, Broadway, flat-picking, finger-picking, Scottish fiddle tunes and I don’t know what else. He’s got over a hundred videos up on YouTube and many of them are gems. I think he must be some kind of ringer, an old pro who’s played with everyone, but there’s no way to tell for sure. Maybe he’s sitting in San Quentin waiting for a train. But he’s someone most Americans would recognize immediately as “a real guitar player.” I think he’s great.

Kevin Gallagher – Classical Guitarist

JPD — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 20:29:00 +0000

Here’s Kevin playing John Dowland’s Mistress (or Mrs.) Winter’s Jump:

I’ve been a Kevin Gallagher fan since meeting him on his GFA tour back in ’94. (My god, has it really been 14 years?!) I was bopping around YouTube this morning and noticed that Kevin’s been developing an online presence — YouTube, Myspace, and his own website, guitar69.com. He’s a thoughtful, creative guitarist — well worth a visit!

Look, Ma — No Pick!

JPD — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:43:00 +0000

I guess I was 15 years old when I heard Jose Feliciano play Malaguena in concert. I hoped that I could learn to play it, so I bought his majestic Alive Alive-O!double-album and began to analyze what I heard. After a week or so knocking myself out, I began to wonder if he was using a pick on the pyrotechnic scale passages. Did he have it palmed? Did he have a pick-holder attached to the face of the guitar? With velcro? I was ready to believe anything.

But now, 40 years later, I see: