Seminal folk guitarist Bert Jansch dies

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Sad news... Scottish folk musician Bert Jansch, a founding member of the band Pentangle and a well-known guitarist in his own right, has died at the age of 67. Jansch, who had cancer, passed away in the early hours of Wednesday morning at a hospice in Hampstead, north London. (More...)

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Sad news: "Würzel", former Motörhead guitarist, reportedly dead at 61

guitarz.blogspot.com:

For today I was planning on doing a small piece about a couple of custom guitars as used by Motörhead. However, it's with a kind of sad irony that another Motörhead-related story has turned up; believe me, I'd much rather be blogging about the guitars.

According to various sources such as the Motörhead online forum and Facebook, former Motörhead guitarist Michael "Würzel" Burston died yesterday (Saturday, July 9).

The guitarist had recently been working on new material with his new band, Leader of Down, who had previously announced the release of their debut single for early 2010.

For more information see here.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Sad News: Gary Moore passes away

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This news, as untimely as it is, comes as a great shock.

As reported in The Irish Times:

Former Thin Lizzy guitarist Gary Moore has died at a Costa del Sol hotel.

The musician was found dead in his room at the luxury Kempinski Resort Hotel in Estepona in the early hours of this morning. A postmortem is due to carried out later today in the nearby city of Malaga.

Moore (58) from Belfast is understood to have been on holiday at the time of his death.

More at: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0206/breaking25.html

I know that Moore was happy to have put his rock years behind him and to have reinvented himself as a blues guitarist, but I'll always have a soft spot for his "Back On The Streets" album. I also loved his work with Thin Lizzy on the "Black Rose" album.

Very sad.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Charles H. Kaman, inventor of the Ovation Guitar dies at age 91

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Charles H. Kaman - aviation pioneer in the development of helicopters and the creator of the Ovation Roundback guitar - has died in Connecticut USA [on Monday January 31].

In the 1940s he split off from Sikorsky Aviation to found his own corporation to design and manufacture helicopter blades. Using the knowledge he had regarding the control of vibrations, he set out in the mid-1960s to create a new type of guitar: using a strong molded one-piece parabolic assembly of sides and back made out of the same fiberglass compound he used on his blades. In-store demonstrations of the earliest Ovation guitars were a sight to behold: the sales rep would put the guitar face-down on the floor and stand on the bowl assembly.

Kaman (sounds like "command") was among the first to use alternative synthetic materials on guitars, paving the way for Steinberger and others. Kaman was 91.

Via Alan Peterson

(See also the New York Times obituary)

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Mick Karn, RIP

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This is sad news. The world has lost one of the most innovative musicians ever, a guy who couldn't read music, claimed to know nothing of musical theory, and yet his playing was fluid and innovative.

Mick Karn, most famously was bassist with 1980s glam/art rock band Japan, lost his battle against cancer yesterday (4 January 2011). His fretless bass playing was so unique in style, so very distinctive that you couldn't mistake it for anyone else.

My favourite of his recordings was "The Waking Hour" by Dalis Car (Mick Karn with vocalist Peter Murphy from Bauhaus and drummer Paul Vincent Lawford) which contains some stunning compositions from Karn plus some phenomenal fretless bass. However, the clip I am showing below is taken from BBC 2's "Old Grey Whistle Test" from when there was a Musician's Union strike (which is a disasterous situation for a music show) and no live music was allowed. Bending the rules slightly, the programme had Angie Bowie reading one of her poems accompanied by Karn improvising on fretless bass (a section of his bassline here would later be used in one of his Dalis Car compositions).

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Captain Beefheart RIP

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This is sad news indeed...

Don Van Vliet, aka 'Captain Beefheart', has died aged 69 from complications from multiple sclerosis.

(I know it's not necessarily directly guitar-related, but look out for the Melobar in the above clip.)

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Tony Peluso, RIP

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Sad news. Tony Peluso has died aged 60 of heart disease. He'll probably be best remembered for that classic solo and outro in The Carpenters' "Goodbye To Love" (above).

Carpenters lead guitarist Tony Peluso dies (Yahoo News)

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Les Paul - Guitarist Extraordinaire

I've only just heard about this, but I'm sure you've all heard about Les Paul's passing by now. This kind of sad news has an uncanny knack of happening whenever I go away for a few days leaving the blog untended.

G L Wilson