Topic: Julian Bream, RIP

[eric]

I honestly haven't spent much time listening to Julian Bream, but after reading this obit, I plan to.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/arts/music/julian-bream-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

[Stuart]

"Mr. Bream was fussy about sound, preferring to record late at night in an empty chapel near his home. He said, however, that modern recording techniques could not match the sound he heard on the old shellac discs of his childhood, played on a windup gramophone with a large horn and thorn needles.

'What do I think of digital recording?' he once mused at a cocktail party in New York. 'Well, it’s all right. But those old thorn needles, now, that was a sound.'"

He knew the good stuff, that's for sure.

He was a major talent, to say the least. He will be missed. Rest In Peace, Julian.

[Parlor Picker]

I once heard that he would never put his right hand into a pocket for fear of breaking a fingernail!

[harvey]

I am a big fan of Julian I saw him play a handful of times, I grew up in London and was learning classical guitar at school and my teacher used to take us on field trips. I had not seen him since I was a teenager so probably 40 years ago.

I never got to meet him, he came across to me as quite cantankerous, but had a charm and wit of his own. I would have liked to have known him

His first interest in guitar was Django Reinhardt and here is a rare clip of him playing some Django style jazz



However he was a maestro on classical guitar, the man could sight read the most complex pieces of Bach, there's me 40 years later struggling through a few bars of tablature on the most basic of blues. 

I find the below youtube series fascinating he is giving master classes. I think anyone with an interest in guitar would find this really interesting. They show to me what I Was saying about his personality and what was said above by about his "fussiness" over the sound but more than that his virtuosity is without doubt. His poor students !



RIP