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May 2000 |
Dear friends,
This is our second newsletter, and the most significant news this time is my CD called PILGRIMAGE, just released in the early part of April. What a lot of work! But finally here it is. It was just about a year ago that I did the first recording sessions, and I guess by some standards that's not bad, or at least normal. For me, this is my first solo album, so in the process there have been a lot of firsts. And though it took "only" a year to produce, in a way it's been more like twenty years coming.
Two years ago I was doing a concert in Boulder Creek, part of the Friends of the Library cultural series, and backstage Martha Pruitt, one of the auxiliary folks who put on these events, said "You must have some recordings that you can offer, right?" Well, the answer was no, and it did seem a little foolish. She said "Well, you'd better hurry up and do it while you still can. Your children will want to listen to your playing later on." At that time I was just getting ready to be 50 years old, so the innuendo was clear enough-life is short- and I promised her I would get it together. I had a couple of false starts with some studio scheduling, and it was the next year, same time, same place, same series that I had to tell her no, no recording yet, but at least I had a plan. Well, now, another year later I've got the CD, so good-It's about time.
I started playing folky guitar when I was about 14, Peter, Paul, and Mary licks, Dylan, and so on. Then I drifted off into classical keyboard stuff for a decade or so, and finally started doing classical guitar in serious when I was 24 years old, which is almost 27 years ago, now. At first all I did was Bach and original compositions, which, looking back was a pretty protienous musical diet, but lacking in vitamins and roughage. There eventually came a time when I sounded all too predictable, at least to myself, and I decided that I needed to go back and learn about really playing the guitar. Being a stubbornly self taught kind of guy I had a hard time being consistent with teachers, but then I finally met and had a few lessons with Larry Ferrara from San Francisco, who gave me some very sound instruction in fundamentals of technique. Of course then all I had to do was practice 4 hours a day for ten years or so, and I did, learning quite a bit of the more standard repertoire, basically just paying my dues.
In all of that meantime I was a fledgling guitar maker, a guitar teacher, a landscaper, a new wave/ punk rock bass player, a car mechanic, and a dad-4 times, and finally back again to guitar maker. First I worked alone, then I taught in the prison system, then set up a shop in Mexico and now another shop back here in California -and all this time playing guitar, learning new stuff, playing the old stuff, doing concerts and playing casuals - weddings, cafes, receptions etc. This has been my basic program for keeping my chops from falling apart under the pressure of a very busy life. As time wears on there is so little time for practice, but with at least a little bit every day, usually in the morning before getting the kids off to school, and I can keep going. After years of playing a fairly standard repertoire, my interest has wandered farther afield from Euro-music, and into a intuitive mix of guitar works coming from the sounds of other-culture musical traditions. It's probably no coincidence that there are a lot of contemporary musicians interested in these "global" influences, but for me it's just where my aural wanderings have taken me. This peculiar mix of music probably really stems from the fact that after my foray onto guitar literature I haven't yet returned to composing, but there are still a lot of sounds in my head that I'm not hearing in the world, and there remains a musical restlessness that still wants to work itself out.
For this recording I wound up working with Joe Weed at Highland Studios. The surprise thing was that Joe and I were in junior high together for a short time back in Campbell CA, and although he doesn't remember, I do remember-he was a smart kid with glasses who played violin in the 7th grade orchestra, while I was playing the tuba. (Yep, tuba was my first instrument.) The peculiar thing I felt when I got together with Joe the first time, after 40 years, was oh-my-God-he hasn't changed-and neither have I. Joe is a fine musician himself, and an excellent engineer, and he has a beautiful studio on top of these California coastal mountains. This combined to make it inspiring to try to do good work.
I lied about this being my first solo recording. In about 1986 I did a full length reel-to-reel recording for planned release at least on cassette. I made 6 copies, and that was that. At this point I have no idea how it really sounded, but what stopped me in my tracks at the time was the graphics. That sounds silly, but that was it. As a musician I was more or less comfortable with the recording challenge, but the "jacket" got put off and procrastinated until the music on the recording sounded dated and obsolete to me, and I let the whole thing fade away. This time, once the recording was actually done I was very aware that I would have to overcome this "defect of character" and pull the graphic thing together, and with the calm and enthusiastic support of Larry Darnell we took it on- yet another first. At one point, in ruminating over possible ideas I was at dinner in Costa Brava restaurant in Santa Cruz, where there are these amazing bigger than life line drawings of musicians on the wall there, done by Mattie Leeds, a very well known and respected artist from this area. I used to play guitar in that restaurant and I would stare sat those drawings and I would never tire of the quirky expressions of those drawn musicians, and the right-on-target character of each of the instrumentalists. These personalities had come right out of Mattie's imagination, so I called him out of the phone book and he agreed to do a line drawing for my CD, but he couldn't do it until after he finished preparing for a show that he had to put up in 10 days at Gumps in San Francisco. OK, I was happy, and I could wait, but a day later he called and said, "on second thought why don't you come up now and we'll see what happens." So I went to his place expecting to sit for a charcoal drawing, but instead of paper he was sketching on these giant clay pots. Mattie's pots are famous, and they are stunning. I sat and played guitar for about 3 hours and he sketched on a couple of 5 foot urns that he had previously turned. He makes it look easy. I actually had to leave town that day, so I was soon gone but he said he could get it done, maybe with a day to spare to photograph it, so I could see how it came out, and maybe use it on the CD. I left town for 10 days, and everything went on automatic as far as I was concerned, and the next news I had was Mattie inviting me to the opening of the show at Gumps. So on Tuesday night, just arriving home, I went up to San Francisco, Union Square, and there, right inside the front door of Gumps was the Kenny Pot, with this reception of art buyers, critics, press etc. going on all around it-a menage straight out of central casting. And there was Mattie, strange and intense in his laconic style that totally belies his talent, "exaggeratedly understated, as it were", and judging from the kind of comments that the public was making, I assume that the pot ended up selling for its asking price of $8,000.00. That was the only time I saw it in person.
The title PILGRIMAGE is about life's journey. Sounds tacky when I just come out and say it, huh? I guess if it was that easy I wouldn't have to make the CD. It's about a kind of insatiable (and sometimes burdensome) curiosity about what's next, what is around the next bend, how much beauty and intrigue can life hold. The selection of pieces is simple-things that I like, that make me feel right. I am fortunate to have stumbled onto the guitar as a worthy theme for a full life of activity, and love. On listening back to the recording there are moments that almost meet my vision, and there are moments that I cringe, wishing I'd had the stamina to go just a little farther, to refine and do a better job. But as Larry said to me at one point, "Sooner or later you have to sew the patient back up." Finally what I do really like about this album is its intention. It brings things full circle, as a very real reminder of what all this guitar making is all about. Each piece of music, like each guitar that I make, is a world of its own, a microcosm that viewed from the inside reflects the whole world around it. Life is like that. We do the same things over and over, maybe thinking we're going somewhere, rehearsing for something important. More likely, at best we are getting little by little closer to realizing, and recognizing, and accepting, and enjoying being exactly where we already are.
Nice. Ok. So, uh, what's next?
Kenny Hill
May 1, 2000
P.S. There must be some other news I'm overlooking, but I'll say "that's it" for now. I do want to thank Larry Darnell and Mattie Leeds for taking the project so well to heart. You can get a copy of Pilgrimage directly from the web site, and it's popping up in guitar stores and music stores around the country.
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