Distinctive Musicians III - Guitarists

OK - I have some ACTUAL useable RPG content boiling through my brain so I'm going to stop obsessing over musicians after this post (probably).   There are way too many fantastic musicians to really do this topic justice in a little pot like this, but here are a few of the folks I think are truly over the top:

Charlie Hunter (GARAGE A TROIS, SUPERBLUE, VARIOUS MUSICIANS)

Charlie Hunter plays an eight string and does basslines and guitar lead simultaneously.  He's insanely talented.  The thing below is really a wonderful example; though both the bassline and guitar work is sparse, every note is in the right place at the right time, and I find the whole incredibly relaxing - the word that comes to mind, if you could shear it of the pretentious overtones it's become associated with, is cool.  Hunter's playing isn't always this mellow - some of his work with Bobby Previte is pretty tense - but it's hard to mistake him for anyone else.  There's a playfulness there that I only ever see in the most technically accomplished musicians - guys like Hunter, Les Claypool, or Buckethead - where they are like "now I'm going to do some silly shit and it's still gonna be amazing."  This one doesn't have too much silly shit, but it makes me untense my shoulders when I didn't even realize how tight I was holding them - it just empties the body of stress in some weird alchemy.

Fine Corinthian Leather, by the way, is purely an advertising gimmick.  Ricardo Montalban called the leather used for the upholstery this in a commercial for the 1975 Chrysler Cordoba.  But if anything sounds like fine Corinthian leather should, this is it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBGvMic-ZDE

Adrian Belew (KING CRIMSON, TALKING HEADS, FRANK ZAPPA, DAVID BOWIE)

I really do not understand why Belew isn't more well known, he is so creative and plays with such joy.  

Everyone, EVERYONE on this track is fucking incredible.  Bill Bruford is a legendary drummer, Robert Fripp (the other guitar on this) could easily be featured separately on this list as well, but Adrian Belew plays lead on this and when Belew plays lead, he makes sounds with a guitar that are hard to believe aren't the sky cracking in two.  Lyrically, I think this is about as perfect a description of obsession as I have ever heard.

I do remember one thing.  It took hours and hours, and by the time I was done with it, I was so involved, I didn't know what to think.

I carried it around with me for days and days...playing little games...like, not looking it for a whole day.  And then, looking at it.  To see if I still liked it.

I DID!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc6huqPzerY

Robert Fripp (KING CRIMSON, BRIAN ENO, BLONDIE)

The other guy playing guitar on the track above is every bit as unique.  Fripp is a true innovator, cut from the same cloth as Les Paul, who first brought electricity to guitar.  His innovations are too numerous to list, really, but Frippertronics (the introduction of tape loops to his playing, which he started in the late 1970's) and New Standard Tuning deserve special mentions. Here's a lovely quote from him that I think captures his overall approach to the instrument, which, though it can sound incredibly complex, is at its roots an exercise in intentionality and simplicity:

"With a note of music, one strikes the fundamental, and, in addition to the root note, other notes are generated: these are the harmonic series.... As one fundamental note contains within it other notes in the octave, two fundamentals produce a remarkable array of harmonics, and the number of possible combinations between all the notes increases phenomenally. With a triad, affairs stand a good chance of getting severely out of hand."

There are so many things he's done - Fracture is an amazing piece of music, the guitar solo in Baby's On Fire from Here Come the Warm Jets is mesmerizing, his work on the album above with Adrian Belew - all of it is good.  I nearly chose an early piece where he's using Frippertronics, but ultimately decided on Discipline - the thematic counterpart to Indiscipline, above, and from the same album.  If Belew shines on Indiscipline, then the cerebral, beautiful stasis of Discipline is pure Fripp.  Also, King Crimson is probably the roots of math rock.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en5YRCvppIA

Buckethead (PRAXIS, GUNS AND ROSES)

Buckethead is a once-in-a-generation Mozart level genius at his chosen art.  I listed bands he's been with above, but he is most prolific doing solo work.  Look at this thing - the number of albums he has put out per year since 2010.  In 2015 he put out an album every three or four days.

The thing I like about Buckethead's playing is that it isn't pure shredding for its own sake - he knows how to lay back when he should (listen to Wake the Dead or Whitewash, for example), and even on this track, which is a tour de force of his talent, he takes the time to develop thematic melodies that really push the whole thing to the next level.  I think what I'm trying to say is that he plays with feeling, something I think is missing from some of the other shredders or incredible technical players.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNXwYo-w1HE

James Calvin Wilsey (The Avengers, Chris Isaak)

The King of Slow.  Chris Isaak got the credit for Wicked Game but for my money it is those first two notes from Wilsey and his lead playing that make the song.  Just perfect, haunting, beautiful, the lead floats above the tune like a lonely ghost drifting over the desert. Dude puts his soul out there when he plays like that.  We only got one solo album from this guy, below is the first track from it.  He's already gone, and that sucks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9haU5gu-Ccg

OK, that is that for now then!  Next up - A return to the World With No Extras - I think!