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<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nBy Jeff Tamarkin<\/b><\/p>\n
Earl Klugh has worked in many formats in more than four decades, playing in duos, trios, even with orchestras, but he always returns to the solo album. Alone with his acoustic guitar is how the jazz master feels he can best express himself. \u201cThere\u2019s a definite focus on the instrument itself,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve adapted my playing so that I play bass, chords and melody, in that order. I enjoy a challenge, and it\u2019s a real challenge when you play contrapuntal stuff. But I\u2019m one of those players who wants to\u00a0hear the whole guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n
Klugh showcases his solo skills on his latest effort, HandPicked<\/i>, save for appearances from three high-profile guests: Bill Frisell, Vince Gill and Jake Shimabukuro. Klugh takes on material as diverse as the Beatles\u2019 \u201cIf I Fell,\u201d Thelonious Monk\u2019s \u201c\u2019Round Midnight,\u201d and Vince Guaraldi\u2019s \u201cCast Your Fate to the Wind,\u201d as well as four of his own new compositions. Klugh brings his distinctive clear-as-a-bell tone, dynamic touch and keen sense of arrangement to each number, still fine-tuning the holistic approach that he traces back to his teens, when he got his start accompanying jazz pros like saxophonist Yusef Lateef and guitarist George Benson. \u201cI love the emotions music evokes, and the stories it tells,\u201d says Klugh, 60. \u201cNo matter the genre or style, I can always find something to enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Klugh has since recorded more than 30 albums, including 23 Top 10s\u2014with five landing in the top spot on Billboard\u2019s Jazz Album chart. He\u2019s also earned 12 Grammy nominations, and a win for 1979\u2019s platinum-selling breakout album One on One<\/i> with Bob James. The Detroit native is always busy on the road, including special events such as when Eric Clapton taps him\u2014as he has three times so far\u2014for his Crossroads Guitar Festival, or when Klugh takes on hosting duties each November for the popular Weekend of Jazz event on South Carolina\u2019s Kiawah Island.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Feel like a one-man band playing solo?<\/b><\/p>\n
That\u2019s exactly it. I started doing that after I graduated high school, while I was playing in lounges and clubs around Detroit. During my earlier years I got a Bill Evans album, and that really opened my eyes. I said, \u201cHe\u2019s doing pretty much the same thing I\u2019m doing except on piano.\u201d I had a chance before he died to have a conversation with him.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
How do you transpose to guitar? <\/b><\/p>\n
In my mind I visualize it as left hand and right hand. Of course it\u2019s really not that, but it\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to do. It\u2019s interesting to me because there are not that many notes there at all. I only have a six-note instrument, but when I started listening to Bill Evans, he wasn\u2019t playing much more than six notes at any given time\u2014probably less. If you understand the harmony of the song, it will sound like more\u2014you\u2019ll have a bass note or two, high notes, and you can create a lot more than you think. After I got into that mode, it took me several years before I felt comfortable with what I was doing. Sometimes it gets a little complicated.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
How do you arrange cover songs?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
I never know going in how I\u2019m going to play it. I just try to remember how the original recorded song went, how they broke it down. Sometimes I\u2019ll follow that path, and sometimes I\u2019ll change it completely. There are some songs I really enjoy, and want to come up with interesting arrangements. So I start with the actual tune and start modifying it. Then I figure out whether it\u2019s going to be a standard delivery of a piece or if I\u2019m going to take liberties in the melody. Some songs I strip down all the way, like \u201cCast Your Fate to the Wind.\u201d But it works by itself because the melody is so gorgeous. To me, it\u2019s more challenging to do an arrangement of someone else\u2019s song.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Why play nylon-string acoustic guitars?<\/b><\/p>\n
I always liked the sound of the classical guitar. I know it sounds silly now but years ago the first guitar music I ever heard was on Bonanza<\/i>\u2014not the theme music but the Spanish guitar. I looked at that and said, \u201cThis is something different.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Chet Atkins was your main influence.<\/b><\/p>\n
When I first heard Chet\u2019s records it was eye-opening. Chet was an artist who was very versatile, and an amazing player. He was really fun to watch and learn from. I must have bought a dozen Chet Atkins albums over the summer one year, and I\u2019d stay in the house and practice. I was only a fair student in school so I figured I\u2019d better find something to excel at. When I met Chet he was amazed that I was playing a nylon-string guitar exclusively\u2014but he encouraged me in that direction. He said, \u201cThat\u2019s your instrument.\u201d And he was right. Chet was always guarded about what he would say, but when we\u2019d get together, I always learned something from him.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What\u2019d you learn from George Benson?<\/b><\/p>\n
We were on the road for real. We had a drum kit in the back seat, an electric bass, a keyboard and guitars\u2014all in the car. We were playing small but nice places. It was a whole different era back then\u2014I\u2019m talking about the early 1970s. I learned a lot during those years, mainly things outside of music. After 1973, I left George\u2019s band and started playing with [pianist] George Shearing. His guitar player fell out, and I showed up with my nylon-string. George [who was blind] was listening to me and said, \u201cEarl, what is that you\u2019re playing?\u201d I said, \u201cIt\u2019s a guitar.\u201d He said, \u201cWhat kind of guitar?\u201d I said, \u201cIt\u2019s a classical guitar.\u201d He said, \u201cOh, really. Well, keep playing.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
How\u2019d you develop your own style?<\/b><\/p>\n
I started really dissecting the guitar, trying to emulate Bill Evans with my bass notes and my clusters. Over time you get very comfortable and try to find different ways to play the same thing, and that is sometimes a lesson by itself. I\u2019d play a song and say, \u201cThat sounds good. Now let me play it another way. Now let me play it in this key.\u201d I would spend hour after hour doing that. You have to be pretty devoted. I think I found my sound by the time I did my [1978\u2019s] Finger Paintings<\/i>, and then [1979\u2019s] Heart String <\/i>was the one that really took off. I started making a career for myself.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
How did One on One<\/i> come about?<\/b><\/p>\n
I was opening for Bob James for about three weeks, and after a couple of nights we got done early and were hanging out. Bob had the idea of playing some songs together. That\u2019s how it happened. He was playing some of my songs and I was playing some of his.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Which album is special to you?<\/b><\/p>\n
I did an album some years ago with the London Philharmonic [Sounds and Visions<\/i>, 1993]\u2014just trio and guitar. That was something that I\u2019d always wanted to do. I don\u2019t know what I was thinking except that I wanted to do something that was far away from what I had been doing.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tell us about the Crossroads Festivals.<\/b><\/p>\n
I go all the way back with Eric to the\u00a0mid-\u201980s. I had my band in Japan and we were checking in at the hotel, and this guy was looking at me and says, \u201cAre you\u00a0Earl Klugh?\u201d I said, \u201cYeah, and I know you\u2019re Eric Clapton.\u201d He came to our shows several times, and we had a chance to sit in a few times.\u00a0He\u2019s a great guy.<\/p>\n
What do fans not know?<\/b><\/p>\n
Oh, boy. After I was with George Benson, I got a call from Chick Corea, and played in Chick\u2019s band for about six months.\u00a0Most people don\u2019t know this. That was a whole other box of cookies. I had my nylon-string guitar with a very bad pickup\u2014there weren\u2019t any good pickups\u2014and I was dealing with feedback. But touring with Chick was a good experience\u2014one of those things that happens in your lifetime\u00a0you never expect.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Who do you want to collaborate with?<\/b><\/p>\n
Just about anybody who\u2019s fun and great. What I\u2019m really looking for now is a way to find new avenues, to put different genres together. I don\u2019t go off the edge and say I\u2019m going to play Indian music for the rest of my life, but I want to work with musicians I enjoy and have listened to over the years.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
EARL KLUGH Going it alone with an inventive take on the music he loves\u00a0 By Jeff Tamarkin Earl Klugh has worked in many formats in more than four decades, playing in duos, trios, even with orchestras, but he always returns to the solo album. Alone with his acoustic guitar is how the jazz master feels […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3805],"tags":[7402,7403],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12291,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12289\/revisions\/12291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}