INTRO INSTRUMENTAL INQUISITION!
Guitar instrumentals have supplied some of music’s most evocative moments. Jason Sidwell asks top guitarists for their take on this iconic movement. This month, we welcome one of the great modern jazz innovators.
GT What is it about guitar instrumentals :that appeals to you?
BF: It's a lot to do with the whole way of thinking about the instrument. For me, the guitar is my voice, and it depends on the circumstances that I find myself in. I’m really influenced by the sound of a singer. A lot of the music I play is a song that I might associate with someone singing it. What I’m hearing in my head and what motivates me so often is the sound of the human voice and that has so much to do with the sound I make. Guitar instrumentals go all the way back to when I was a kid, when I was listening to surf music, all that these bands were playing were guitars and that’s kind of the beginning of my fascination for the instrument. I was born in 1951, you just look at the music that was happening in the 50s, 60s and the 70s and line it up with my age, those periods are kind of extraordinary. When I was 11 years old, I was listening to surf music and then a couple of years later The Beatles, Wes Montgomery and it just kept expanding out.
GT: What can an instrumental provide a listener that a vocal song can't?
BF: It puts you into an abstract area where your imagination can take over a little bit more. With music, the opposite is always true. Many times when I’m playing an instrumental, I might be thinking about the words or I’m thinking about the sound of a voice but then also it can enter in this completely abstract and unexplainable place where music can take you. If you take the words away, it’s not telling you what to think. When I put the titles on my songs, I don’t like to be super specific about what it is. I like the idea that the listener can make up their own story with what there is. Whatever I’m hearing in my head is not what the listener hears. I love the idea that everyone on the planet is going to hear it differently, and can make their own story.
GT: Are there any tendencies that you either embrace or avoid?
BF: Every time I play, I’m reaching for something. That’s the thing about music, you can never reach what you’re hoping for. Anyone that says they got all the way there, they’re not being totally true. You can always take it further than where you’ve gotten to so that’s part of the deal. There’s something out there that I’m hoping for that I try to get; I get as close as I can and then try again. I’ve been happy with a lot of my recordings, but you never feel like you’re finished, it’s more like you have a certain amount of time and you do the best you can in that frame.
