Leo Kottke
Leo Kottke
Leo Kottkeis an acoustic guitarist. He is known for a fingerpicking style that draws on blues, jazz, and folk music, and for syncopated, polyphonic melodies. He overcame a series of personal obstacles, including partial loss of hearing and a nearly career-ending bout with tendon damage in his right hand to emerge as a widely recognized master of his instrument. He currently resides in the Minneapolis area with his family...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionGuitarist
Date of Birth11 September 1945
CityAthens, GA
CountryUnited States of America
I think if you are writing an instrumental you are dealing with more of an aesthetic in a sense but a lyric is more of a putting yourself on the line and a much more expensive exercise.
The first music I was exposed to was Stravinsky and I loved it but I don't remember it.
I have always thought of myself as a performer first and way down the line as a recording artist.
I am evidence that you don't have to sell a lot of records or succeed in the usual way to have a big audience and a job.
I think that open tunings are a trap really because it's really hard not to sound like an open tuning when your using one and that gets old as well as what you learn in one open tuning is going to stay there.
It is not a mystical thing, however, it is obvious and practical and I think that what the performer does is to try to get to that point with every choice you make from the phrasing in a tune to the choice of tunes.
It's true that the more you put in the more you get out and that has to be there I think, If you aren't really hooked on your instrument this job would be a hell on earth but if you are, it's the best.
All bad jazz sounds like Woody Woodpecker.
When a record company looks at me I'm very hard to market, I don't really fit anywhere, It's hard to get me on the air, and I'm hard to demography, but! because of that I'm not subject to trends like you pointed out.
I had been playing single note instruments and I wanted to hear a guitar played as a piano.
The principle element in a performance is risk, and if you're losing interest then by scaring yourself to death the audience will feel it and boy it'll wake them up.