This week we feature jazz guitarist Lenny Breau.

I have taken much care and attention at putting this column together, as this was a guitar player close to my heart. Needless to say, Lenny Breau was one of the all-time guitar greats. He was not only a superb jazz player, but he also had mastered most other styles on the electric guitar and even developed some new ones. His country picking was phenomenal, his jazz lines were technically brilliant, and his solo guitar playing (both in country and jazz styles) was truly remarkable.

I had been told that when Lenny was a kid, he heard some guitar duos and thought it was only one guitarist playing. So, he figured out a way to play the melody on the top strings, comp chords on the middle strings, and do bass on the bottom strings... all at the same time. What came out was incredible and had never been heard on the guitar before. That, in combination with his unique use of harmonics and his inborn musical genius made him a one of a kind. I had several of his early albums while still a budding young guitarist in Canada and I learned several tunes (as best I could) myself. Freight Train and The Claw were two of my favorites back then.

I got to meet and hear Lenny play only once, in the early eighties in Los Angeles. We had mutual friends in Canada at that time, so we had some stories to share. His life was tragically cut short and I regret now that I didn't make it a point to hear him more often.

Several guitarists that I know still play in the style of Lenny Breau. My friend, guitarist Ted Greene knew Lenny fairly well back in those days and has helped keep his style of playing alive. Also, Phil deGruy with his 17 string guitar studied with Lenny, and has made some wonderful recordings in that style. Following is our column on him. In addition, I have learned about a Canadian Guitarist named Rick Washbrook who has done a Tribute to Lenny Breau CD. You can find it at http://www.washbrook.com/

Lastly, Randy Bachman, (famous for his work in the Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive) has has launched a record label called Guitarchives. He says of his label:

"GUITARCHIVES is a record label dedicated to the preservation of great guitar music. It is our purpose to seek out music that has either been lost in the shuffle of commerciality or scattered throughout the world. Our goal is to present this music in the best way possible.

Our first project is a series of CD releases from the legendary Lenny Breau. Lenny was a great guitar innovator and influenced everyone who heard him play. His unique approach to the instrument was an amalgamation of many guitar styles played with the harmonic sensibility of jazz pianist Bill Evans. Guitarists around the world soon referred to his distinctive playing as "The Lenny Breau Style". He influenced many guitarists, but was equaled by none. We have gathered hundreds of hours of Lenny's playing from a multitude of sources and will be including them in our release schedule." See it at http://www.guitarchives.com/

BREAU, LENNY (MusicNet Bio)

Lenny Breau was born in Auburn, Maine, on August 1941. He died in California in 1984. Lenny's innovative guitar style was the first to combine melody playing with simultaneous chordal accompaniment. (Other guitarists such as Barney Kessel, accompanied their solos chordally but not as much simultaneously). To accomplish this, Lenny played exclusively with five fingers in the right hand, using a thumb pick. He would pick the melody with his third and fourth fingers and simultaneously or contrapuntally play a three-note voicing with the thumb and first and second fingers.

Lenny Breau, who lived most of his life in Canada, was discovered by top country guitarist Chet Atkins in Winnipeg. He was headlined as one of great jazz guitar find of the sixties. Certainly from the evidence of his recordings on the RCA label, he was a most versatile and individual jazz stylist on the guitar. Lenny started playing the guitar at the age of seven and by the time he was twelve he was able to join his parents touring group (country singers Hal Lone Pine and Betty Cody) as a member of the band. He first became interested in jazz at seventeen. Lenny listened to, and was influenced by, most of the leading guitar innovators of the fifties such as Barney Kessel, Johnny Smith and Tal Farlow. However, the particular style of guitar playing he developed can be closely linked to the finger style of Chet Atkins and, in a musical sense, the piano approach of Bill Evans. When Chet Atkins heard Breau in Winnipeg he immediately recognized the young player's huge talent and signed him to record for RCA Victor.

After the success of this first record Breau spent some time in Los Angeles. Here he played at drummer Shelley Manne's jazz club, "Shelly's Manne Hole", as well as several other dates. In the later years Lenny lived in semi-retirement in Killaloe, Ontario, Canada, very rarely giving public performances. Although, with the persuasion of Chet Atkins and others, he did spend some time in Nashville teaching and occasionally playing in the clubs. In 1989, in Los Angeles, his life was tragically ended at the hand of an unknown assassin.

Other websites with info on Lenny Breau:

The Lenny Breau Home Page

Dave Gould's Guitar Pages

The Legendary Lenny Breau Now Website

...with a fine article on Lenny by Brawner Smoot

Sound Clips can be found at Guitarchives homepage

More Sound Clips at CDNow

SideNotes: I would urge everyone to check out and support small independent labels like Guitarchives, (http://www.guitarchives.com/) as they are doing us a very valuable service by collecting and keeping alive those rare and priceless guitar recordings that might otherwise become lost or unavailable.

Doc Dosco is a jazz guitarist, composer and audio consultant living in Los Angeles, CA. His website is located at http://www.docdosco.com, where you can find more information on the 'What's Hot in Jazz Guitar' columns, audio clips of Doc's playing, and many additional features. Doc plays Heritage guitars and endorses the new Pignose Valve Tube Amps -- great for jazz (and anything else!)