Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    

I suddenly remember a record I engineered way back in, gosh, must have been
82 or 83. Greg Anton and Steve Kimmock were involved, Dan Healy was mixer (I
was the studio guy).  John was there, but as I recall he wasn't playing -
perhaps he was producing?? Anybody have any idea what this might have been?
How funny I don't remember more than this little snapshot of recollection.
  

    
Heart of Gold Band?
  

    
aka Ghosts?
  

    
Wildebeest?
  

    
Very doubtful I will recognize the name if I see it, unfortunately. Must've
been  something John was producing, eh? Did he do much of this?
  

    

oh,  hey,  David Freiberg?

thanks for putting Pride of Man deep into my brain at an 
impressionable age.  Really.  
  

    
You be most welcome.  Watch out for that wrathful God, though.
  

    

heh.   wrathful God,  check.
  

    
Right.   What's a cubit?


David, I only got to hear John play late in his career with Nick, and since
it was essentially a blues gig, I know I didn't see anything like the full
scope of his style.    Can you describe the hallmarks of his playing, who's
influences you heard in his playing, and who playing today do you think
you hear John's influences in.
  

    
Sorry I've taken this long ... I've had trouble with your question ..
putting John's playing style into words is a daunting request.  I
didn't see that many of John's gigs after Copperhead. I can't imagine
that he'd really change his style much, no matter whom he was playing
with.  Lower volume, *maybe*.  When I saw him play with Pam Tillis and
Jarrett Washington, I was rather amazed to hear his "style" fit in with
this music, which was more jazz like than anything.

Obviously, he was influenced by Link Wray, as he often stated, though
I have a hard time hearing anything but John, himself, when I listen to
his playing. Guess I'm not much of an analyst. I don't really hear
anyone else like him today .. though maybe I don't listen to enough
rock music these days to give a qualified opinion.
  

    
What were the hallmarks of his style?  The plastic thumb pick and sharpened
plastic fingerpick, the vibrato...
  

    
the two Standels, the Twin, the horns, but we've been there.
  

    
The thing that keeps coming to my mind is, "like ringin' a bell."
Just that his sound was so much a clarion, in terms of projection as well as
the resonance of it.
  

    
One thing that always struck me about John's playing - versus other lead
guitar players - is that he almost never fell back into a rhythm pattern.
Throughout an entire song he was constantly sprinkling notes, phrases, 
snatches of other songs into the general soundstream.   His original training
was, at his parents request, classical (Evelyn, his mother, was a classical
pianist), so he had a solid musical base to draw upon.

His notes were particularly clear - I would imagine because of the fingerpicks - 
and he liked the high notes, so there was this constant tinkling of harmonies
going on behind the vocals.   About the only times he reliably just strummed
was during another player's solo time.   Even during solos, if he knew and
played with the other guys a lot (Melton, Merl Saunders, Hunter, etc) he'd
complement their solos quietly, but audibly, at times.

During the last 10 years of his career, the time I was watching him play 
live mostly, volume didn't seem to be his major goal.  I saw him
mainly in small and medium sized venues, where he played without the huge
amp stack and the horns, usually with a just a couple of amps.  As he 
explains in the video, he liked tubes on the bottom and solid state on the 
top.   He would fill the place, but not overwhelm it.  

   
  

    
As Nick notes in the film, "he was a whammy-bar player", and "he loved that
goddam Bigsby tailpiece".   He really did love it, but he had a collection
of electronic gizmos as well.   Even in the Saloon - a little hole-in-
the-wall bar in North Beach where I saw him a lot - he'd have three or four
pedals lined up in front of him providing various effects.   He didn't use
them a lot, but used them very effectively depending on the song.
  

    
Did I read somewhere along the line that John insisted that he was not a
blues player, which he thought set him apart from most of his contemporaries?
  

    
Yes, he did love that goddam Bigsby tailpiece - and since as soon as
he used it - it would throw his strings out of tune.  After that, he
would need it to tune each note so it would be used all the time on
every note.

John wasn't a blues player.  He said that his hands weren't very
strong and didn't bend the strings very much.  When he played rhythm
he'd usually use the top three strings.  He was a great musician - he
knew his way around that fretboard!!!
  

    
At www.johncipollina.com there are a number of MP3 clips and a few
video clips free for the download.  Only one of the audio clips is
from QMS, and there's a smattering of blues clips with Nick if you
want to hear John play blues.
  

    



Mill Valley, CA, August 24, 2004:

Oikopleura Productions announces its new DVD project entitled "Recoil,
John Cipollina in Music and in Memory." This is a 4 DVD box set that
includes:

Electric Guitarslinger - the original one hour video released in 2001

Extended interviews with John Cipollina's musical collaborators, family and
friends

A selection of live performances from the '70s and '80s featuring many of the
bands that John played with


Produced by Antonia Cipollina
Associate Producer: Steve Keyser
Executive Producer: Peter Kobor
Director and Videographer: Jesse Block & Jim Draper

We are finalizing the contents of this project and will announce a detailed
index soon. The DVD box set will be available before the end of the year.


http://www.oikopleura.com
  

    
Fabulous!