Showing posts with label Richard Osborn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Richard Osborn. Show all posts
August 20, 2016
March 19, 2016
April 7, 2013
A Robbie Basho Tribute Concert and Documentary Film Benefit
Berkeley Arts presents
When: May 8, 2013 8PM
Where: Berkeley Arts, 2133 University Ave. Berkeley, CA
Cost: $10-20 Suggested donation
Details
Berkeley Arts presents a concert in tribute to the late guitarist and Berkeley resident Robbie Basho. The event is also a benefit to raise funds to complete the first ever documentary film about Basho - titled Voice Of The Eagle: The Enigma Of Robbie Basho - currently in the works by London-based filmmaker Liam Barker.
The lineup includes several Bay Area performers whose work has been inspired in some way by Robbie Basho's music, including two guitarists who personally knew Basho: fingerstyle guitarist Rich Osborn and renown improvisor Henry Kaiser.
The concert will include short sets by:
Henry Kaiser
Rich Osborn
Bill Orcutt
Chuck Johnson
Danny Paul Grody
Aaron Sheppard
Andrew Weathers
We think this will be an historic event, and a fitting tribute to Basho's legacy - in the same spirit as the John Fahey memorial concerts that took place at the Freight And Salvage in 2002.
About Robbie Basho
Robbie Basho (1940 - 1986) was a Berkeley-based composer, guitarist, and vocalist and one of the foremost proponents of steel string acoustic guitar as a solo concert instrument. Along with John Fahey and Leo Kottke, Basho was part of the triumvirate of pioneering guitarists on the Berkeley-based Takoma label in the 1960s. Basho went on to record for Windham Hill, and was an important influence on the label’s founder, guitarist William Ackerman. His innovative guitar compositions incorporated American folk, European, and Eastern influences, and he is credited for developing the improvisational “American raga” style.
About the Film
Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho is a journey into the heart of an artist's lifelong struggle - designed to illuminate and satiate existing fans while serving as a perfect starting point for the uninitiated. Self-funded entirely to date by director Liam Barker, Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho features interviews with Basho's former students, contemporaries and few close friends; interspersed with abstract employment of archive footage and photography of the natural phenomena and localities that informed Basho's work. Basho claimed to paint America with music; the film will attempt to transfigure Robbie Basho with sound and images.
Principal photography began on Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho in October 2012, with the filmmakers shooting (and intermittently battling superstorms) in Vermont, Massachusetts, Maryland, Colorado and California. A Kickstarter campaign is set to launch in spring 2013 to enable the film's continuing production and subsequent post-production costs.
Liam Barker - Writer, Director, Producer, Editor
Justinas Vabuolas - Director of Photography
Robbie Basho Film.com
A Robbie Basho Tribute Concert and Documentary Film Benefit
Where: Berkeley Arts, 2133 University Ave. Berkeley, CA
Cost: $10-20 Suggested donation
Details
Berkeley Arts presents a concert in tribute to the late guitarist and Berkeley resident Robbie Basho. The event is also a benefit to raise funds to complete the first ever documentary film about Basho - titled Voice Of The Eagle: The Enigma Of Robbie Basho - currently in the works by London-based filmmaker Liam Barker.
The lineup includes several Bay Area performers whose work has been inspired in some way by Robbie Basho's music, including two guitarists who personally knew Basho: fingerstyle guitarist Rich Osborn and renown improvisor Henry Kaiser.
The concert will include short sets by:
Henry Kaiser
Rich Osborn
Bill Orcutt
Chuck Johnson
Danny Paul Grody
Aaron Sheppard
Andrew Weathers
We think this will be an historic event, and a fitting tribute to Basho's legacy - in the same spirit as the John Fahey memorial concerts that took place at the Freight And Salvage in 2002.
About Robbie Basho
Robbie Basho (1940 - 1986) was a Berkeley-based composer, guitarist, and vocalist and one of the foremost proponents of steel string acoustic guitar as a solo concert instrument. Along with John Fahey and Leo Kottke, Basho was part of the triumvirate of pioneering guitarists on the Berkeley-based Takoma label in the 1960s. Basho went on to record for Windham Hill, and was an important influence on the label’s founder, guitarist William Ackerman. His innovative guitar compositions incorporated American folk, European, and Eastern influences, and he is credited for developing the improvisational “American raga” style.
About the Film
Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho is a journey into the heart of an artist's lifelong struggle - designed to illuminate and satiate existing fans while serving as a perfect starting point for the uninitiated. Self-funded entirely to date by director Liam Barker, Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho features interviews with Basho's former students, contemporaries and few close friends; interspersed with abstract employment of archive footage and photography of the natural phenomena and localities that informed Basho's work. Basho claimed to paint America with music; the film will attempt to transfigure Robbie Basho with sound and images.
Principal photography began on Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho in October 2012, with the filmmakers shooting (and intermittently battling superstorms) in Vermont, Massachusetts, Maryland, Colorado and California. A Kickstarter campaign is set to launch in spring 2013 to enable the film's continuing production and subsequent post-production costs.
Liam Barker - Writer, Director, Producer, Editor
Justinas Vabuolas - Director of Photography
Robbie Basho Film.com
August 5, 2012
Richard Osborn “Giving Voice: Guitar Explorations”
- a review by Andrew Stranglen
Before writing this review, I was prefaced with the idea that it might be a challenge to come up with something satisfactory, and that appeared to be true especially after reading David Leicht's review at Work and Worry.
Now that you've read the Work and Worry review you don't really need this, but here goes, I'm ok with it and I hope it satisfies:
I couldn't agree more!, This was the first thing I noticed on listening to this collection for the first time. A self-styled "Free-Raga" player, Richard Osborn uses open tunings and a great sense of space and timing to expose the sonic vastness held within his guitar.
On his website it is explained that Richard Osborn studied under and performed with Mr. Robbie (Basho) Robinson in the early 1970's. Some time after, he suffered an injury to his left hand that kept him from playing guitar (at least publicly) for some 20 years! It was around 1995 that he found enough strength had returned to his fretting hand to "rebuild his technique and approach". I can certainly sympathize with this kind of a setback, having myself had an operation to relocate my left Ulnar nerve a few years ago, I'm still not where I was with my own guitar technique back in 2000-2005 before the nerve got pinched. So I know what it is to rebuild one's technique and approach. I'm still at it . . .
OMG,
ACK! the Genre listing says NEW AGE, but 'Giving Voice - Guitar Explorations' won't make you think of mushroom hallucinations or alien encounters. It falls more into the genre of just plain "Primitive Guitar", or "Guitar Soli". With Raga-based improvisational techniques, Richard lets his tunes set their own course, and nothing is rushed.
I like this album a lot and find it to be a relaxing, soothing, undemanding-to-the-listener meditative experience. It's a nice antidote to the urban-hubbub of our all too busy lives.
The Basho influence is noticeable, but never pretentious, which cannot even be said about some of Basho's own oeuvre, C'mon, ya gotta' admit Robbie does go over the top at least a few times. Perhaps this is because Richard is taking more advantage of the spaces between notes than did Basho. Richard's timing, pause, and recapitulation seems more pensive, as if he's letting the guitar make it's own improvisational decisions. But we know this is all happening between his ears and hands, Richard’s left-hand injury has obviously not made a dent in his relationship with his guitar. Often using lower strings moreso than the upper triad or dyad, Richard masterfully wends his way on this collection of 'guitar excursions' through various soundscapes evocative of places rarely seen or not-yet-visited, Badlands and Grand Vistas both internal and external.
I'm thinking take 1/2 Basho(unspiced raga variety) with 1/4 John Fahey and 1/8th Glenn Jones, 1/8th Michael Gulezian, and maybe you're getting close to describing Osborn's sweet collection of tunes. The longer raga-esque pieces (4 are over 7 minutes long) betray longer time in development yet retain a sense of spontaneity and freshness, while the shorter pieces seem generally more improvisational. There are a few track to track seamless transitions on this album none the least of which occurs when playing the album on repeat, you can hardly tell the ending from the beginning. This is a good thing. The intro and the outro connected such that the outro serves as 'intro' to the intro. I hope that made sense. Anyhow, of all the various claimants to Bashodom, or 'Bash-O'-ismic influence, Richard Osborn's guitar sensibilities hit maybe the closest of them all. -Andrew Stranglen
You can purchase it at CDBaby
Richard Osborn's blog
Visit Richard Osborn's site
Before writing this review, I was prefaced with the idea that it might be a challenge to come up with something satisfactory, and that appeared to be true especially after reading David Leicht's review at Work and Worry.
Now that you've read the Work and Worry review you don't really need this, but here goes, I'm ok with it and I hope it satisfies:
“…an amazingly patient, spacious, and quietly emotive style.”
- Acoustic Guitar Magazine
I couldn't agree more!, This was the first thing I noticed on listening to this collection for the first time. A self-styled "Free-Raga" player, Richard Osborn uses open tunings and a great sense of space and timing to expose the sonic vastness held within his guitar.
On his website it is explained that Richard Osborn studied under and performed with Mr. Robbie (Basho) Robinson in the early 1970's. Some time after, he suffered an injury to his left hand that kept him from playing guitar (at least publicly) for some 20 years! It was around 1995 that he found enough strength had returned to his fretting hand to "rebuild his technique and approach". I can certainly sympathize with this kind of a setback, having myself had an operation to relocate my left Ulnar nerve a few years ago, I'm still not where I was with my own guitar technique back in 2000-2005 before the nerve got pinched. So I know what it is to rebuild one's technique and approach. I'm still at it . . .
OMG,
ACK! the Genre listing says NEW AGE, but 'Giving Voice - Guitar Explorations' won't make you think of mushroom hallucinations or alien encounters. It falls more into the genre of just plain "Primitive Guitar", or "Guitar Soli". With Raga-based improvisational techniques, Richard lets his tunes set their own course, and nothing is rushed.
I like this album a lot and find it to be a relaxing, soothing, undemanding-to-the-listener meditative experience. It's a nice antidote to the urban-hubbub of our all too busy lives.
The Basho influence is noticeable, but never pretentious, which cannot even be said about some of Basho's own oeuvre, C'mon, ya gotta' admit Robbie does go over the top at least a few times. Perhaps this is because Richard is taking more advantage of the spaces between notes than did Basho. Richard's timing, pause, and recapitulation seems more pensive, as if he's letting the guitar make it's own improvisational decisions. But we know this is all happening between his ears and hands, Richard’s left-hand injury has obviously not made a dent in his relationship with his guitar. Often using lower strings moreso than the upper triad or dyad, Richard masterfully wends his way on this collection of 'guitar excursions' through various soundscapes evocative of places rarely seen or not-yet-visited, Badlands and Grand Vistas both internal and external.
I'm thinking take 1/2 Basho(unspiced raga variety) with 1/4 John Fahey and 1/8th Glenn Jones, 1/8th Michael Gulezian, and maybe you're getting close to describing Osborn's sweet collection of tunes. The longer raga-esque pieces (4 are over 7 minutes long) betray longer time in development yet retain a sense of spontaneity and freshness, while the shorter pieces seem generally more improvisational. There are a few track to track seamless transitions on this album none the least of which occurs when playing the album on repeat, you can hardly tell the ending from the beginning. This is a good thing. The intro and the outro connected such that the outro serves as 'intro' to the intro. I hope that made sense. Anyhow, of all the various claimants to Bashodom, or 'Bash-O'-ismic influence, Richard Osborn's guitar sensibilities hit maybe the closest of them all. -Andrew Stranglen
You can purchase it at CDBaby
Richard Osborn's blog
Visit Richard Osborn's site
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