If you like Lenny Breau style jazz guitar, you won’t want to miss a solo show from Winnipeg musician Keith Price, who plays the Owl Acoustic Lounge, Feb. 8.
“ I’m a huge Lenny Breau fan, not that I’d ever compare myself to him,” Price said of Breau, the “boy wonder” who gained renown in the 1950’s and 1960’s for his intricately picked jazz style guitar playing.
“I can’t do what he did. I can play some of his stuff, but his hardest stuff I can’t do,” Price said, shivering through a “horrendous” Winnipeg winter before hitting the road for a quick tour out west.
“ I’m very much influenced by Breau, when I was 15 and was learning how to play jazz I heard Lenny Breau. But I don’t want anyone coming expecting to hear Lenny Breau,” he said.
He has been playing as a part of a program in Winnipeg which hires musicians to play for patients in the hospitals. Price, who was last here with his band the Keith Price Trio will be playing a solo set in Lethbridge. It will include many of his Breau influenced originals on acoustic guitar as well as jazz revamped covers of a variety of popular songs ranging from Neil Young, the Weakerthans, Radiohead and Bob Dylan.
“It’s going to be different not having a band,” he said adding he will also be bringing a looping effects box to loop and play offer different guitar parts.
His new solo CD is an 11 track effort including originals and covers.
“There’s no looping on the album,” he said.
He is also working on several other projects including re-interpreting the soundtrack to the spaghetti western, “ the Good, the Bad and the Ugly”with a Miles Davis influenced eight piece jazz/ funk band.
“ It’s got two drummers and two bass players, so it’s going to be heavy,” he said adding they are going to play a couple of shows in Winnipeg with the project playing over a screening of the film with the sound and subtitles turned off.
“It’s the opposite of what I’m doing with the solo show,” he said.
“ I last played Lethbridge abut a year ago at the Slice. But Flying Fox and the Hunter-Gatherers who are also from Winnipeg, told us how much they enjoyed the Owl Acoustic Lounge, so I thought it would be perfect for what I’m doing, ” he said.
The Feb. 8 show at the Owl Acoustic Lounge begins at approximately 9 p.m. There is no cover.
