African Guitar

John W. Duarte (1919-2004) was educated at the Manchester University Faculty of Technology. He worked as a professional chemist until 1969, then abandoned chemistry in favor of full-time dedication to music, after having been persuaded by Len Williams, father of John Williams. His only formal musical education consisted in jazz guitar lessons with Terence Terry Usher, the rest he learned by self-instruction. He also worked professionally as a player of the trumpet and double bass, and regularly worked as a jazz musician, among others with Coleman Hawkins and Django Reinhardt.

Brian Cullman grew up in New York City with a radio glued to his ear and a passport tight in his fist. Over the years, that radio has gotten larger as the world has grown smaller, and he has been a frequent explorer of the world’s hidden musics, from Iran to Senegal, from Morocco to Trinidad, before coming home to his new album The Opposite of Time. There’s a long and tangled history behind the album that belies the ease and naturalness of the music, one that takes in years of bumping into and working with some of the most interesting musicians of the late twentieth and early twenty first century.

Their second Handy Award winner includes slide guitar, Piedmont finger-picking, and wonderful harmonica. The duo of acoustic guitarist John Cephas and harpist Phil Wiggins enjoyed a partnership spanning several decades, during which time they emerged among contemporary music's most visible exponents of the Piedmont blues tradition. Both were born in Washington, D.C., although Wiggins was a quarter century younger than his partner; they met at a jam session in 1977, and both performed as regular members of Wilbert "Big Chief" Ellis' Barrelhouse Rockers for a time prior to Ellis' death.

The 1996 recording of this powerful singer from Mali is both her most fully produced recording to date, but in a strange twist also one of her most grounded, essentially "folk" albums as well. The core African band is mostly voices, with kamalngoni (a thick stringed lute), guitars, flute, and percussion in more or less traditional settings for these powerful and persuasive original songs about the social order and the place of women in the culture…

Initially Luedji intended to continue along the path of her parents' political work and graduated in Law. But she also studied music at the Federal University of Bahia, and ultimately its lure proved too strong. She moved to São Paulo where in 2016 she released the single “Um Corpo No Mundo” (body in the world). YouTube popularity ensured an album would follow, and in 2017 this provided her with a further hit in the Axé (pronounced ashé) styled “Banho De Folhas” (bath of leaves). With its distinctive African guitar motive, courtesy of guitarist François Muleka, it became popular among DJs, and at last count has received four official remixes.

As the Country Blues began to be recorded, in the mid-1920s, it soon became apparent that the music was being played and appreciated not only by African-American musicians and audiences, but by white musicians and audiences as well. Many of these white musicians played with and learned from black musicians, for even in the Jim Crow Era there was always a good deal of musical interaction and exchange. So it is that the term “Hillbilly Blues” can be used to describe the music made by white musicians of that era in the Country Blues style.

Featuring thirteen essays covering different traditions, styles, and instruments, this study is written by influential players, teachers and guitar historians. Its coverage allows the guitarist to learn the analogies and differences between traditions and styles. The genres range from baroque, classical, country, blues and rock to flamenco, African and Celtic.