Dear friends,
Music, arguable the most sublime form of art, is going through some truly horrible times. Not only did MTV pretty much kill real pop/rock music, but the new forms of pretend music (rap, techno, “screaming” metal and all the rest of the “auditory prolefeed” you hear on the radio) seem to suggest that real music is dead. And if we only look at commercial, high money, “music” it is true – it’s almost exclusively worthless crap whose main effect is to lower the standards of what we call “music” to a truly unfathomable low and make money for all the non-musician parasites which profit from it.
And yet.
And yet there are still some extremely good composers and interpreters out there, they are just harder to find and they sure don’t make big money. In fact, there is still a lot of real talent left on our suffering planet, just not on the radio or the idiot box. But on the Internet there a a lot of true gems (scattered all over an ocean of cheap vulgarity).
A few weeks ago I wanted to check who else besides myself plays what I consider the best electric guitar ever made, the Godin LGX-SA and, by pure chance, I bumped into this video which absolutely transfixed me:
The video is pretty bad, and the sound is decent at best. But, my God, what a beautiful melody and what a superb interpretation! I had never heard of this guy, turns out he is an Armenian born in Lebanon who know lives in Canada: Levon Ichkhanian (see his website here, and his bio here and his YouTube channel is here). I can honestly say that his interpretation of what appears to be a traditional Armenian song (Ov Sirun Sirun) touched me so much that I had tears in my eyes.
Not since I heard Philip Catherine playing “Homecomings” in 1980 (I was 17!) was a so moved by a guitar piece (in fact, after hearing Catherine play, I dropped hard rock (mostly Led Zeppelin) completely and turned to Jazz guitar as I knew that my idea of what a guitar can express was changed forever). Philip Catherine remains my absolutely favorite guitarist, but I have to say that Ichkhanian is not far behind. I purchased his two CDs on Amazon and I was not disappointed to put it mildly and I highly recommend them. You can also download most of his compositions from this YouTube playlist. It’s well worth it!
For one thing, the sound is much better. Here is the same composition as the live version above, recorded in the studio:
I still prefer the live version, but this one is almost as superb, no?
I said I like and play Jazz, but I also have to immediately add that I only like Jazz with has a real, powerful and gripping melody. I have no interest for Bebop or any other style of music in which harmonies are only a pretext for improvisation and the showing off of technical skills. Furthermore, I do believe that to be “real music” it has to include improvisation and I believe that to be a real musician you absolutely have to be able to improvise (if you don’t, then you don’t really know your instrument and you are severely limited in what you can express). So that is a rare combo, at least nowadays, improvised music WITH a real powerful and gripping melody.
Ichkhanian offers exactly that and I have to say that I hope that he will write and record a lot more music. In fact, I have some hope that maybe one day, thanks to the Internet, I could have him as a teacher, as I love not only HOW he plays but also WHAT he plays! (if somebody in Toronto can help me get in touch with him, I would be most grateful; the folks managing his website were not helpful, to put it mildly…).
Ichkhanian also plays acoustic, and very well. See for yourself:
I play more acoustic than electric (my favorite style is acoustic guitars duos, with improvisations of course!), but I love to listen to both instruments (Godin makes some superb nylon string acoustic guitars, like this one, too!). And now that guitars can be plugged into a synthesizers (like a Roland GR-55) the possibilities are infinite. While Andres Segovia once famously said “there is no such thing as an electric guitar”, I categorically disagree. Acoustic nylon, acoustic metal and electric guitars are all guitars, they just allow you to express very different emotions, that’s all (and I never like Segovia anyway…). Composers like Ichkhanian make full use of this amazing instrument.
So there still is very beautiful music out there, and since I can’t give you all a physical Nativity present, I can only offer what is dearest to my heart: music. Today it was Ichkhanian. Next time, probably someone very different, but also someone whose music I love.
So that is what I want to place under the (virtual) Christmas Tree of our small Saker Community: the music I love, in the hope that it will also conquer your hearts and give you as much joy as it gives me!
Hugs and cheers
The Saker
PS: if any Armenian reads this, I would love to find out more about this composition (Siroun), especially the other interpretations of this beautiful composition.
Nice. Thank you.
“seem to suggest that real music is dead. And if we only look at commercial, high money, “music” it is true – it’s almost exclusively worthless crap whose main effect is to lower the standards of what we call “music””
Nietzsche reportedly said “Only sick music makes money today”.
John
He really said that?
Wow! That is kind of unfair I think. In Nietzsche’s time there were some absolutely phenomenal composers (my favorite ones would be Scriabin, Richard Strauss, Wagner, Chopin and many others).
Now in the 20th century, the list grows suddenly dramatically shorter, and I wonder what Nietzsche would have said listening to horrors like Cage, Gershwin or Boulez…
Kind regards!
The Saker
Thank you Saker. The acoustic was superb! If you like listen to contemporary piano check this french composer Yann Tiersen.
Dear Oscar
I listen to a lot of piano, mostly Bach, Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Chopin, Debussy, Ravel, Satie, but also Chick Corea or Oscar Peterson. I never even heard of “Yann Tiersen” but rest assured I will immediately go to a Russian torrent site and get all his works (FYI: full discography here: https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4419035).
Thank you!!
The Saker
You are welcome! Yes his piano playing kind of reminds me Satie somehow but I m not expert. T
Saker,
As another guitar player, you might appreciate my perspective of another possibility for guitar music.
I study and play Classical style guitar but love most any style if played well and try to adapt Classical technique to whatever modern music I try to play. Fernando Sor was a musical genius of the Classical guitar in the 18th century. I study and play him a lot. He advocated facility with 3rd’s 6th’s and 10th’s as a prerequisite to complete mastery of the instrument. His studies and offerings most always include these harmonic structures and I find they add depth and beauty to most any music.
Melodic structures can be in themselves quite beautiful and appealing. I would love to see someone like
Levon Ichkhanian add these harmonic structures to their melodies. Chording adds a lot to any style but the pure simple harmonic beauty of 3, 6 and 10 is a possibility that I would like to see exploited more.
This is in no way a criticism but suggestion for further enhancement and evolution of the most sublime of artistic endeavors.
John
Dear John
I began guitar with 5 yeas of Classical music, but I now realize that my teacher was not good. First, he advertised his teaching as “Classical & Flamenco” even though his technique was 100% classical while flamenco technique is radically different. It took me no time to figure out that my teacher was no Paco de Lucia. I ditched classical for hard rock (I was young and dumb!). Also, his insistence that I play with a small foot-stool really pissed me off (I hate them!). Finally, he clearly wanted to give the guitar an aura of “respectability” which I think the guitar neither deserves nor needs (I see the guitar as the ultimate *popular* instrument, not as a product of conservatories: guitars musts weep, cry, scream, seduce and generally “tear your guts out” – not try to provide any Mozart-like esthetic respectability).
Later in my life, I discovered some absolutely breathtakingly beautiful classical guitar, like John Williams and Julian bream playing “pavane pour une infante defunte”. I also liked Yepes playing Bach until I discovered this album: https://www.amazon.com/Goldberg-Variations-Kurt-Rodarmer/dp/B0000029M2 which absolutely blew me away (Bach is my favorite composer of all times)
But my true love became Agustin Barrios and Villa Lobos. Alas, by then I was too far gone into Jazz to have any time (or desire, really) to return to classical guitar. Why?
Mainly because I found contemporary classical guitar quite stale. Who are the best composers of Classical guitar music today? All those I listened to did all sorts of weird stuff with their guitars (just about as melody-less as Bebop!), but never composed a masterpiece like “La Cathedral” of Barrios (which made Segovia rage in envy the day he heard Barrios play it for him).
I also still love Flamenco, but same problem: I am too old to learn the real flamenco techniques from scratch (I play both acoustic and electric with a pick anyway!).
If you know of contemporary classical guitar music composers who are truly worth discovering, please post their names in the comments section, as I would love to be proven wrong. Also, this is not an issue unique to classical guitar. I generally don’t really appreciate classical music, I much prefer either Baroque or Romantic music. I don’t know of any contemporary Baroque or Romantic music composers anyway, so that does not help.
And this is why I love “melody-centered Jazz” (for lack of a better expression). This kind of Jazz (which is more based on Manouche guitar, or old European music (Celtic!) or Brazilian music rather than on US Blues or Bebop) is still alive and doing great nowadays and I am confident that a new generation of composers and interpreters is already ready to take over from giants like Catherine, Beck or McLaughlin.
Likewise, none of the above is meant as a criticism, rather as an explanation of why I did not mention classical guitar and why I generally prefer other styles. But, of course, to each his/her own and, as we say in Russian “personal tastes should not be debated” :-)
Kind regards
The Saker
Thank you for another great piece!!!
Here’s my contribution, unless you had already listened to this incredible musician!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IkGQHBW5pw
Very beautiful, thank you!!
I never wanted to even try the tapping techniques, but I have no problem with them.
I will say that for me the absolute best sound on a guitar is a pick, then fingers used in the “normal” attack of the note and tapping I like the least, simply because of the sound. But, of course, that is totally subjective and tapping-guitarist can play things the rest of us can’t.
Thank you also for making me discover Makukin whom I did not know. I will also download his music next :-)
And since I want to return you the favor, listen to this (I think Indonesian) guitarist:
https://youtu.be/0mqamCJ8opQ
Isn’t he also quite good in his own style?
Kind regards
The Saker
Awesome artist, reminds me of Santana.
Music doesn’t have burden of language barrier like poetry does.
May I respectfully submit troubadour Estas Tonne? A former Ukrainian, now citizen of the word
As far as I know, Tonne is a Latvian Jew, but maybe I am wrong. As for his music, well, personally, I really don’t like it. It centers of a lot of effects/repetitions and not really melodies. But that is my strictly personal opinion and it is 110% subjective. I know that Tonne has a big following and maybe I missed some of his best music, I can’t say more than that.
Kind regards
The Saker
Vlatko Stefanovski and Miroslav Tadić; “Jovano Jovanke” Live in Zagreb, ’07
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyFwwIHw6nw
You might enjoy this duet, Saker. Comparable to the best of Paco, John and Al. Feat. extended flamenco introduction from Miroslav, and solo from Stefan before Miroslav “takes over”, finally seguing together perfectly into that sweetest of melodies. In 7/8 time.