A Gypsy’s Bed
A Tribute To Lenny
Breau by guitarist Rick Washbrook
CD One
Songs
There Is No Greater Love; Autumn Leaves; Cannonball Rag; Summertime; Manha De Carnival, “Black Orpheus”; Childhood Memories; Am I Blue/Baby Face; Gypsy Gala; Harmlessly; On A Clear Day; Texas Breau; The Days Of Wine And Roses; The Shadow Of Your Smile; A Gypsy’s Bed and Love Story. Total 15 Tunes/Songs
CD Two
Songs
West Coast; Pamela’s Space; Blues Evolution; Mercy, Mercy, Mercy; How Can I Forget; Long In The Tooth; Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain; Good Lord Sent Me A Woman; Chattanooga Shoe Shine Boy; Other Places; Keepsake; Yesterday; Here’s That Rainy Day and Davos Platz. Total 14 Tunes/Songs
On CD One, each tune averages 5 minutes ranging from 3 to 8 minutes each, and on CD Two, the last tune lasts 10.42 minutes; total time on this second CD is 72 minutes.
The accompanying booklet is full of interesting lines on how the Washbrook project evolved. The inspiration and spadework over a score of months to January this year in producing this tribute to Lenny Breau has brought a just, and well-earned reward.
“I have to reach other people and bring an awareness of Lenny’s musical genius to their lives” Rick Washbrook. Washbrook was born in California, and as a teenager, he moved with his family to live in Canada.
The album, compiled to archival extent by the use of five various types of guitar, embodying creativity and versatility, has been achieved by a lifetime’s experience on how one acquires the status of becoming a master guitarist.
Known as one of the most innovative solo guitarists in the jazz idiom, Lenny Breau, who began playing country music, worked in the main, in Canada, and became recognised for his exciting skills in the execution of octave harmonies. He was born in Auburn, Maine, in August 1941 and died in 1984 in Los Angeles, USA.
A baker’s dozen of the tunes are credited to Rick, all of which are endless, intricate, some are dual, lots of double fingering which must be difficult to achieve, all wonderful didgeridoo, flamenco, walking double bass lines, and in-between horn sounds.
I detected but only three quotes, Delia Gone, I Wonder Who Is Kissing Her Now and Oh How I Miss You Tonight so as I claim not to be knowledgeable on the guitar, I’ll leave it to potential buyers to make up their own minds and interpretations of individual tunes, save for me, to mention Gypsy Gate as this tune reminded me when living in Nantes in the late 40s, that I first became interested in jazz, listening to the music of Django Reinhardt and the Hot Club de France, Love Story which will remind one of the film – Love Story, and lastly, the title tune, A Gypsy’s Bed which in July 1999, started off this Rick Washbrook CD project.
This double album is for - and a girl in the mood – it’s wonderful.
Ian King
Kings Jazz Review
Friday 17 August 2001
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