Fantasias for Guitar and Banjo | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | ||||
Studio album by | ||||
Released | August 1963 | |||
Recorded | 1963 | |||
Genre | Folk, American Primitivism | |||
Length | 42:23 | |||
Label | Vanguard | |||
Sandy Bull chronology | ||||
|
Fantasias for Guitar and Banjo is the debut album of the folk guitarist Sandy Bull, released in 1963 through Vanguard Records.
Bull recorded the album accompanied by Billy Higgins, a session jazz drummer who had previously appeared on early Ornette Coleman records. [1] Together they recorded three original pieces as well as interpretations of Carmina Burana Fantasy and Non nobis Domine.
The highlight of Fantasias for Guitar and Banjo is usually considered to be its opener "Blend", a lengthy improvisational piece. [2] According to Bull, the ideas behind the piece originated from his admiration of Folkways Records, which documented ethnic music from across the world. He also claimed to being particularly inspired from hearing Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan in New York City. [3] "Blend" has been viewed as a "virtual travelogue of styles done in a then revolutionary modal tuning". [4] The tuning is in the key of B. [5]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Matthew Greenwald of AllMusic describes Fantasias for Guitar and Banjo as an "incredible debut" and lauds it for being well ahead of its time. [4] Writing in Crawdaddy in December 1966, Sandy Pearlman recognized the album as a work that presaged pop music's move toward raga rock. Pearlman said that, with Fantasias, Bull "became a leading innovator in the assimilation of Indian influences into a Western musical context". [6]
Author Kevin Fellezs views the album as a prime example of an "underacknowledged early fusion-world recording that remains musically compelling today". [1]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Blend" | Bull | 22:00 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Carmina Burana Fantasy" | Orff | 4:34 |
2. | "Non nobis Domine" | Byrd | 1:39 |
3. | "Little Maggie" | Bull | 4:09 |
4. | "Gospel Tune" | Bull | 10:01 |
James Roger McGuinn is an American musician. He is best known for being the frontman and leader of the Byrds. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work with the Byrds.
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. An acclaimed virtuoso, he is an innovative and technically proficient pioneer and ambassador of the banjo, bringing the instrument from its bluegrass roots to jazz, classical, rock and various world music genres. He is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. Fleck has won 14 Grammy Awards and been nominated 33 times.
Jazz fusion is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and keyboards that were popular in rock and roll started to be used by jazz musicians, particularly those who had grown up listening to rock and roll.
Mahavishnu Orchestra were a jazz fusion band formed in New York City in 1971, led by English guitarist John McLaughlin. The group underwent several line-up changes throughout its history across two stints from 1971 to 1976 and 1984 to 1987. With its first line-up consisting of musicians Billy Cobham, Jan Hammer, Jerry Goodman and Rick Laird, the band received its initial acclaims for its complex, intense music consisting of a blend of Indian classical music, jazz and psychedelic rock, and their dynamic live performances between 1971 and 1973.
Psychedelic folk is a loosely defined form of psychedelia that originated in the 1960s. It retains the largely acoustic instrumentation of folk, but adds musical elements common to psychedelic music.
Raga rock is rock or pop music with a pronounced Indian influence, either in its construction, its timbre, or its use of Indian musical instruments, such as the sitar and tabla. In addition, rock music from the 1960s and 1970s that incorporates South Asian musical influences and instruments, along with Western ideas of the Indian subcontinent, is often regarded as raga rock.
Alexander "Sandy" Bull was an American folk musician and composer. Bull was an accomplished player of many stringed instruments, including guitar, pedal steel guitar, banjo, and oud. His early work blends non-western instruments with 1960s folk revival, and has been cited as important in the development of psychedelic music.
We Five was a 1960s folk rock musical group based in San Francisco, California. Their best-known hit was their 1965 remake of Ian & Sylvia's "You Were on My Mind", which reached No. 1 on the Cashbox chart, #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The original group split after recording their second album in 1967, but a re-formed band produced three more albums between 1968 and 1977.
Fuzön literal English pronunciation: "fusion") is a pop rock band from Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan formed in 2001. The name was derived from fusion, as the former vocalist Shafqat Amanat Ali describes the band as a fusion of Hindustani classical and modern soft rock music blended with the Sufi Style of singing.
Psychedelic music is a wide range of popular music styles and genres influenced by 1960s psychedelia, a subculture of people who used psychedelic drugs such as LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, mescaline and DMT to experience visual and auditory hallucinations, synesthesia and altered states of consciousness. Psychedelic music may also aim to enhance the experience of using these drugs.
Punk jazz is a music genre that describes the amalgamation of elements of the jazz tradition with the instrumentation or conceptual heritage of punk rock. John Zorn's band Naked City, James Chance and the Contortions, Lounge Lizards, Universal Congress Of, Laughing Clowns, Midori are notable examples of punk jazz artists.
Duster is an album by vibraphonist Gary Burton that was recorded in 1967 and released by RCA.
"Bluebird" is a song recorded by the American rock group Buffalo Springfield. It was written and produced by Stephen Stills, with co-production by Ahmet Ertegun. In June 1967, Atco Records released it as a single to follow-up their hit "For What It's Worth" (1966).
Inventions is the second studio album by the folk guitarist Sandy Bull. It was released in 1965 on Vanguard Records.
Demolition Derby is the fourth album by folk guitarist Sandy Bull, released in 1972 through Vanguard Records. Songwriter Patti Smith, who was a known admirer of Bull's work, said "Even at its most 'cosmic,' Demolition Derby is still sleazy... juicy... American. Yeah it's a real cool record."
Re-Inventions: Best of the Vanguard Years is a greatest hits compilation of folk guitarist Sandy Bull, released in 1999 through Vanguard Records. It comprises pieces from three of his albums: Fantasias for Guitar and Banjo, Inventions and Demolition Derby.
Still Valentine's Day 1969 is a live album by American folk guitarist Sandy Bull, released in 2006 through Water Records.
Vanguard Visionaries is a greatest hits compilation of folk guitarist Sandy Bull, released in 2007 through Vanguard Records. It comprises pieces from his first four albums.
Anywhere is the first full-length studio album by American psychedelic rock/folk project Anywhere. Limited edition vinyl was released by ATP Recordings on April 21, 2012 exclusively for Record Store Day, while widespread CD and LP releases followed on June 4 in UK and July 24 in United States.
Metallic B.O. is a compilation album by American band the Long Ryders, released in 1989. It was assembled after the Long Ryders disbanded in 1987 by their fan club as an authorized C90 audio cassette release. It contains previously unreleased live recordings and studio outtakes, interspersed with snippets of radio dialogue and music between the actual tracks. The 89 minute tape was subsequently edited down to 75 minutes for CD reissue by Overground Records in 1990, and later by Prima Records in 2000.