William's Song a Day Blog - est. September 2007

From: Okeh – 40989 ; Year: 1928; Genre: Classical/Jazz I noticed that recently I have chosen artists in the " E " category three times over the last four days either by accident of subconsciously, so I thought that I would just go ahead and pick one more "E."  Anyway, I saw I have to date only chosen two from the late-great guitar virtuoso Eddie Lang, so here's another one. This rendition of the standard by Sergei Rachmaninoff is quite amazing to hear; only he and his guitar are present on this recording, which was a real novelty at the time as the guitar was not really treated as a lead instrument to be spotlighted. Lang and a few others were the real pioneers of making guitar music a highlight of mainstream; basically everyone from Django Reinhardt all the way down to Les Paul, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani along with the other great guitar virtuosos that dazzle and shred to this day can be traced back to Eddie Lang. He is definitel...

From: Jazz Guitar Virtuoso ; Year: 1990 (1932) ; Genre: Jazz I had some other songs in mind for today's pick, but most of the morning I've been having early Jazz guitar music running through my mind and thought I'd pick one of that ilk instead. It still amazes me to think that Eddie Lang was playing guitar this way all the way back 80 to 90 years ago, years before guitar greats like even the Gypsy Jazz guitar master Django Reinhardt. I guess he earned the title "father of the modern guitar" that some have bestowed on him. Anyway, this is definitely a virtuoso piece that goes all over the place from jazz to pop hit parade to even classical. I would loved to have heard him during the time of overdriven amplifiers playing with the likes of today's guitar greats. Hear Pickin' My Way on YouTube. My song pick a year ago today: Sergei Rachmaninoff - Op. 27 - Symphony No. 2 My song pick two years ago today: AC/DC - Big Balls My song pick three...

1092 Eddie Lang - Eddie's Twister Probably most today don't even know of this master guitarist let alone his influence and contribution to music as a whole in his abbreviated life. Eddie Lang, who also played under the pseudonym Blind Willie Dunn, was one of the first to popularize the guitar in Jazz as a lead instrument; after him many guitarists followed. Sadly, in 1933 he died at the age of 30 of a hemorrhage. With musicians like him who died young and were truly on the cutting edge musically it would have been amazing to hear his creations that he would have made later in his life. I wish he would have lived long enough play alongside the likes of Django Reinhardt, Oscar Alemán, or even Les Paul, now that would have been awesome. Here is a video with a recording of the song on YouTube. My song pick a year ago today: The Goo Goo Dolls - Black Balloon My song pick two years ago today: Ozzy Osbourne - Bark at the Moon +