Lenny Breau

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Lenny Breau
Lenny Breau.jpg
Background information
Birth name Leonard Harold Breau
Born August 5, 1941
Auburn, Maine, U.S.
Died August 12, 1984 (aged 43)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genres Jazz, country
Occupation(s) Musician, songwriter
Instruments Guitar
Years active 1956�1984
Labels RCA, Sound Hole, Adelphi, Genes, Tudor
Website www.lennybreau.com
Leonard Harold Breau (August 5, 1941 � August 12, 1984) was an American guitarist
and music educator. Breau blended many styles of music, including jazz, country,
classical, and flamenco. Inspired by country guitarists like Chet Atkins, Breau
used fingerstyle techniques not often used in jazz guitar. By using a seven-string
guitar and approaching the guitar like a piano, he opened up possibilities for the
instrument.

Contents
1 Biography
1.1 Canadian country
1.2 Turning to jazz
2 Posthumous honors
3 Technique and guitars
4 Discography
5 As sideman
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Biography
Canadian country
Breau was born August 5, 1941, in Auburn, Maine, but moved with his family to
Moncton, New Brunswick in 1948.[1] His francophone parents, Harold Breau and Betty
Cody, were professional country and western musicians who performed and recorded
from the mid-1930s until the mid-1970s. From the mid to late 1940s they played
summer engagements in southern New Brunswick, advertising their performances by
playing free programs on radio station CKCW Moncton. Lenny began playing guitar at
the age of eight. When he was twelve, he started a small band with friends, and by
the age of fourteen he was the lead guitarist for his parents' band, billed as
"Lone Pine Junior", playing Merle Travis and Chet Atkins instrumentals and
occasionally singing.[2] He made his first professional recordings in Westbrook,
Maine at Event Records with Al Hawkes at the age of 15 while working as a studio
musician.[3] Many of these recordings were released posthumously on the album Boy
Wonder.

The Breau family moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1957, and their new band performed
around the city and province as the CKY Caravan. Their shows were radio broadcast
live on Winnipeg's CKY on Saturday mornings from remote locations.[3][4]

Turning to jazz
Around 1959 Breau left his parents' country band after his father slapped him in
the face for incorporating jazz improvisation into his playing with the group.[5]
He sought out local jazz musicians, performing at Winnipeg venues Rando Manor and
the Stage Door. He met pianist Bob Erlendson, who began teaching him more of the
foundations of jazz. In 1962, Breau left for Toronto and created the jazz group
Three with singer and actor Don Francks, and Eon Henstridge on acoustic bass.[3][4]

Three performed in Toronto, Ottawa, and New York City. Their music was featured in
the 1962 National Film Board documentary Toronto Jazz. They recorded a live album
at the Village Vanguard in New York City and appeared on the Jackie Gleason and
Joey Bishop television shows.[3] Returning to Winnipeg, Breau became a session
guitarist, recording for CBC Radio and CBC Television, and contributed to CBC-TV's
Teenbeat, Music Hop, and his own The Lenny Breau Show.[4]

In 1963 and 1964, Breau appeared at David Ingram's Fourth Dimension at 2000 Pembina
Highway in Fort Garry, a suburb of Winnipeg.[3] Every Sunday night was a party open
to all. Another regular at the club on Sunday nights was Neil Young and his band
with Vancouver CKNW's Rick Honey as his drummer.

In 1967, recordings of Breau's playing from The Lenny Breau Show found their way to
Chet Atkins. The ensuing friendship resulted in Breau's first two albums, Guitar
Sounds from Lenny Breau and The Velvet Touch of Lenny Breau � Live! on RCA.[6][7]

He lived in various Canadian cities until returning to the United States in 1976.
For several years he moved between Maine, Nashville, Stockton, California, and New
York City, eventually settling in Los Angeles in 1983.[3] These years he spent
performing, teaching, and writing for Guitar Player magazine.[8] A few more solo
albums were issued during his lifetime, in addition to albums recorded with fiddler
Buddy Spicher and pedal steel guitarist Buddy Emmons.

Breau had problems with drugs beginning in the 1960s which he managed to control
during the last years of his life.[3] On August 12, 1984, his body was found in a
swimming pool at his apartment complex in Los Angeles, California.[9][10] The
coroner reported that Breau had been strangled. Breau's wife, Jewel, was the chief
suspect, but she was not charged.[3] He is interred in an unmarked grave at Forest
Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.[11]

Posthumous honors
Many live and "lost" recordings have been issued since Breau's death, and most of
his previously released albums have also been reissued. Due to efforts by Randy
Bachman of Guitarchives, Paul Kohler of Art of Life Records, Tim Tamashiro of CBC
radio and others, a new generation of listeners has access to his music.[12]

A documentary entitled The Genius of Lenny Breau was produced in 1999 by Breau's
daughter, Emily Hughes. This Gemini Award-winning film includes interviews with
Chet Atkins, Ted Greene, Pat Metheny, George Benson, Leonard Cohen, and Bachman, as
well as family members. George Benson said, "He dazzled me with his extraordinary
guitar playing... I wish the world had the opportunity to experience his
artistry."[13] The biography One Long Tune: The Life and Music of Lenny Breau by
Ron Forbes-Roberts was published in 2006 containing interviews with nearly 200
people and a comprehensive discography.

CBC Radio presented a documentary on Lenny Breau entitled On the Trail of Lenny
Breau (the title is in reference to Breau's parents' song "On the Trail of the
Lonesome Pine"). It was first broadcast on September 13, 2009 as part of a regular
weekly program called Inside the Music. It was narrated by Breau's son, Chet.[14]
The one-hour feature was produced in Montreal by John Klepko.[15]

Breau was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1997.[16]

Technique and guitars

Lenny Breau's seven-string electric guitar
Breau's fully matured technique was a combination of Chet Atkins's and Merle
Travis's fingerpicking and Sabicas-influenced flamenco, highlighted by right-hand
independence and flurries of artificial harmonics. His harmonic sensibilities were
a combination of his country roots, classical music, modal music, Indian, and jazz,
particularly the work of pianist Bill Evans.[12] Breau often adapted Evans's
compositions, such as "Funny Man", for guitar. Breau said in relation to this, "I
approach the guitar like a piano. I've reached a point where I transcend the
instrument. A lot of the stuff I play on the seven-string guitar is supposed to be
technically impossible, but I spent over twenty years figuring it out. I play the
guitar like a piano, there's always two things going on at once. I'm thinking
melody, but I'm also thinking of a background. I play the accompaniment on the low
strings."

He had two custom seven-string guitars made, one classical and one electric. At the
time, no company made a string that could be tuned to the high A on his classical
guitar. Breau used fishing line of the correct gauge[8] until the La Bella company
began making a string for him. The electric guitar was made by Kirk Sand, also with
the first string being a high A.[17]

Discography
Guitar Sounds from Lenny Breau (RCA Victor, 1969)
The Velvet Touch of Lenny Breau � Live! (RCA Victor, 1969)
Five O'Clock Bells (Adelphi, 1979)
Mo' Breau (Adelphi, 1981)
Lenny Breau (Direct Disk Labs, 1979)
The Legendary Lenny Breau... Now! (Sound Hole, 1979)
Standard Brands with Chet Atkins (RCA, 1981)
When Lightn' Strikes (Tudor, 1982)
Source: [18]

Posthumous

Quietude (Electric Muse, 1985)

Last Sessions (Adelphi, 1988)
Live at Bourbon St. with Dave Young (Guitarchives, 1995)
Live at Donte's (String Jazz, 2000)
Pickin' Cotten with Richard Cotten (Guitarchives, 2001)
The Hallmark Sessions (Art of Life, 2003)
The Complete Living Room Tapes (Art of Life, 2003)
At the Purple Onion with Don Francks and Eon Henstridge (Art of Life, 2004)
Swingin' on a Seven String (Art of Life, 2005)
LA Bootleg 1984 (Linus Entertainment, 2014)