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Old 01-07-2018, 02:39 PM
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Larry Pattis Larry Pattis is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Oregon
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Default 1/13/2018 Portland, OR ~ Justin King/Larry Pattis, American Guitar Masters concert...

Date: Saturday, January 13, 2018
Venue: Café Artichoke, Artichoke Music, 2001/2007 SE Powell Blvd, Portland OR 97202 http://artichokemusic.org/calendar/index.html
Billing: “American Guitar Masters presents acoustic guitarists Justin King & Larry Pattis"
Ticket Price: $15.
Tickets on sale at: Artichoke Music, and Brown Paper Tickets: https://011318.brownpapertickets.com/
Door Time: 7:30pm
Show Time: 8:00pm

EPK:
http://flyinginkmedia.com/epk/larry-pattis-EPK.html

Artists Bios (scroll down):
http://americanguitarmasters.com/bios.html

Main AGM page:
http://americanguitarmasters.com/index.html



Quote:
An unexpected pleasure from last night's American Guitar Masters concert with Justin King in Eugene, OR (01/06/2018)...here is a review from Peter Thomas published on Facebook…(thank you, Peter!):

"Eugeneans were treated to a splendid concert of American Fingerstyle Acoustic Guitar music Saturday night when Larry Pattis and Justin KIng shared the stage at Tsunami Bookstore.

The two wisely chose to be on stage at the same time and trade off solos. This gave the sense that the audience was sitting in on a session between friends a feeling reinforced by the easy and humorous banter exchanged between the players. The format also highlighted the dynamic contrasts between the playing of the two guitarists whose styles are complimentary but quite different.

Larry Pattis' exquisitely crafted compositions are lyrical and often elegiac in character. He brings a deep expressiveness to his performances and uses the guitar techniques that are a foundation of the style, hammer on and pull offs, slides, vibrato and note bending for example, as devices to serve the music not as sources of fascination in themselves. His is a subtle virtuoso in that everything he plays is done effortlessly and w/ great precision without attracting attention to itself. It appears almost easy, unless you happen to be a guitarist and know how hard what he is doing actually is to do so smoothly and expressively.

Larry opted for a very natural sound for the guitar, which was run through the house JBL system and was enjoyable to listen to bringing out the instruments beauty and singing voice. Along w/ his rich original works he also paid tribute to the first wave of American acoustic guitar masters w/ a slide piece in the blues style related to such early acoustic players as Skip James and Blind Blake and performed a work by Peter Lang who along w/ John Fahey and Leo Kottke reinvigorated the style beginning in the late sixties.

Justin King's playing in direct contrast to Larry's is much more extroverted and flamboyant. He has a fluid virtuosity combined w/a very nice melodic sense, which together make his pieces both engaging and at times jaw dropping. Both players acknowledged the influence of French master Pierre Bensusan in their work having spent time w/ him in intensive study of his style. You can hear this but I also hear the influence of Alex DeGrassi in the campanella-like over ringing melodies played by having successive notes of a tune plucked on different strings resulting in the notes creating both a melody and a harmony at once. This is a regular feature in Justin's works.

Justin has taken inspiration from the Jimi Hendrix of the acoustic guitar, Michael Hedges, who introduced right hand tapping, chordal hammer ons, and various percussive ways of striking the guitar into this style. A whole group of players like Preston Reed and Andy McKee have been exploring this branch of acoustic guitar for 35 years or so now. Justin has this style down cold and played what he called "hectic" pieces that were real barn burners featuring rapid minimalist tapping figures alternating w/wild chordal strums and drum like guitar whapping that would have done Badji Assad proud. Very entertaining and also highly listenable; not just clever guitar tricks but well composed pieces worth multiple listens. He also played several pieces that did not fall in this category and were wonderful sound paintings filled w/ rich chords and flowing runs.

Justin's guitar sound was enhanced digitally but came out sounding quite natural though very different from Larry's. Part of the joy of a guitar concert comes from the warmth and richness of this marvelous instrument that speaks w/ the life of the wood it is constructed from and projects that into sound that is mesmerizing. Both guitarists this evening gave us this sweet sound through their instruments satisfying a need for beauty we all share.

A very fine and enjoyable evening of excellent guitar music by two players who have dedicated their lives to "music's master fabric, searching timbre forests towards the perfection of the luthier's tune dance."

This show was a benefit for Tsunami Bookstore who are raising money for an extended lease. Please support Tsunami and are other fine independent bookstores an important part of our community."
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Last edited by Larry Pattis; 01-09-2018 at 03:36 PM.
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