The WELL: inkwell.vue.121: Hal Royaltey: John Cipollina, Electric Guitarslinger, with Special Guest David Freiberg

#145: Jon Lebkowsky (jonl) Thu 26 Aug 04 15:43

Thu, 26 Aug 2004 15:43:00 PDT

#144: David Gans (tnf) Tue 24 Aug 04 10:32

Tue, 24 Aug 2004 10:32:00 PDT

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 [Read entire topic]

#143: Hal Royaltey (hal) Fri 12 Oct 01 17:08

Fri, 12 Oct 2001 17:08:00 PDT

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. [Read entire topic]

#142: David Freiberg (freemountain) Wed 19 Sep 01 15:27

Wed, 19 Sep 2001 15:27:00 PDT

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!!! [Read entire topic]

#141: David Gans (tnf) Wed 19 Sep 01 13:48

Wed, 19 Sep 2001 13:48:00 PDT

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? [Read entire topic]

#140: Hal Royaltey (hal) Wed 19 Sep 01 13:48

Wed, 19 Sep 2001 13:48:00 PDT

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. [Read entire topic]

#139: Hal Royaltey (hal) Wed 19 Sep 01 13:44

Wed, 19 Sep 2001 13:44:00 PDT

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. [Read entire topic]

#138: blather storm (lolly) Wed 19 Sep 01 13:39

Wed, 19 Sep 2001 13:39:00 PDT

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. [Read entire topic]

#137: David Freiberg (freemountain) Wed 19 Sep 01 13:11

Wed, 19 Sep 2001 13:11:00 PDT

the two Standels, the Twin, the horns, but we've been there. [Read entire topic]

#136: David Gans (tnf) Wed 19 Sep 01 11:27

Wed, 19 Sep 2001 11:27:00 PDT

What were the hallmarks of his style? The plastic thumb pick and sharpened plastic fingerpick, the vibrato... [Read entire topic]