I was looking for a solo by Kaki King to showcase, and decided it was impossible to find just one. Her playing is absolutely incredible and she absolutely deserves to be noted as one of the greatest guitarists of the modern age. Her playing is beyond brilliant, and it was very hard for me to narrow down just one.
So, instead, I decided to link to this amazing performance she gives at TED.
Watch the whole thing, because it’s mind-blowingly awesome:
Watch her hands move and the kinds of things she pulls off. Amazing, isn’t it? Her style, technique, emotion… everything is perfect. I would definitely rank her as my favorite of the 21st Century, even above Joe Bonamassa (whom I will be highlighting later in this series).
So… as usual… what suggestions do you have? Anyone similar to Kaki King?
I submit double-bassist Renaud Garcia-Fons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZNKLUHeJtg
I can see she’s really skillful but the music doesn’t do much for me. Weird how that works, to me -- I’m used to equating skill and “I like this” -- but come to think of it there are other musicians that affect me similarly (Al Di Meola) and I just don’t listen to them, so … the skillful musicians I like are the ones whose music I like. I felt the same way about Paul Simon for a long time: he’s really good at what he does but I don’t like what he does.
Actually, it’s really weird to realize I just said that I don’t like music regardless of the skill that went into it. So does that mean that if someone told me that Beethoven just whipped the 9th out one afternoon, that I still think it’s great? I think so. There are many artforms where I respect the difficulty almost as much as the result. Maybe that doesn’t apply to music for me.
Great! Thanks for this, I didn’t know her.
Perhaps in a similar vein (double hand tapping, rhythmic work, depth of emotion), I submit John Butler’s “Ocean”. There are many great live versions of it, and I’m sure each has their own favourite… Here’s a studio version:
Hmmm… it didn’t embed in preview. Sorry.