LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts/ Lost Grove Arts) - After his recent two-year exercise composing, arranging, perfecting and recording his latest work, "Perpendicular Worlds," guitar virtuoso Toulouse Engelhardt will return once more to the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on Thursday, July 30th, 2009 for another of his always-exciting live performances.
Doors will open at 6:00 PM, with show-time at 8:00. The club is located at 33157 Camino Capistrano, and tickets are $25.00. For dinner reservations, call (949) 496-8930; for information and directions, visit https://thecoachhouse.com. To obtain a special bonus CD single (a $4.99 value) FREE with your admission, purchase your tickets from Lost Grove Arts' secure merchandise page at https://www.lostgrovearts.com. PayPal accepts all major credit cards and more.
One of the world's finest finger-style guitarists, Engelhardt is a renowned master of the six and twelve string acoustic guitar, who has toured nationally with The Byrds, Kenny Loggins, and countless others. This Takoma Records alumnus was the last to join the elite club of guitar innovators that recorded for that label from 1959 to 1976 and included Leo Kottke and the late John Fahey. If you are a fan of acoustic guitar music, you simply must experience the fantastic finger-work of this guitar virtuoso, whose recordings and compositions have been heard on Britain's BBC television and will be featured in the upcoming movie, "Jordan's River," to be released in summer 2009.
Engelhardt will perform as direct support for headlining guitarist Lee Ritenour, well known for his forty year eclectic and storied career, highlighted by a Grammy Award win for his 1986 collaboration with Dave Grusin, "Harlequin." Ritenour has received seventeen Grammy nominations, numerous No 1 spots in guitar polls, and the prestigious "Alumnus of the Year" award from USC. He has recorded over forty albums, with thirty-five chart songs, notably the Top 15 hit "Is It You," which has become a contemporary jazz radio classic. Growing up in L.A. in the '60s, Ritenour received a rich cross-section of exposure to jazz, rock and Brazilian music. One of his first sessions was at age 16 with the Mamas and the Papas, and he accompanied Lena Horne and Tony Bennett when he was 18. In the '90s, Ritenour was a founding member of Fourplay, the most successful band in contemporary jazz, with keyboardist Bob James, bassist Nathan East and drummer Harvey Mason. The first Fourplay album in 1991 spent an unprecedented thirty-three weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's contemporary jazz chart. Adding to this legacy is his latest CD "Smoke 'n' Mirrors," the recently completed Grammy-nominated recording "Amparo" (with Dave Grusin), and his production of the latest CD from Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band, "Act Your Age," which is nominated for three Grammys.
For Toulouse Engelhardt, "Perpendicular Worlds" is the apogee of forty-five years spent mastering the acoustic guitar and "chewing some very mean pine," he told a recent interviewer. This is pulsating instrumental music that captures a different audio journey in the finger-style guitar genre. Engelhardt says his concept in creating the collection was "a mental collision of intersecting lines and themes: the horizontal-latitudinal frets intersecting the vertical-longitudinal strings in a perpendicular collision. The record is divided into two areas," he explains: "inner space, the horizontal; and outer space, the vertical."
The upcoming album, scheduled for late 2009 release, is a tableau of thirteen songs, all performed on the acoustic twelve-string guitar, with the exception of two Spanish guitar works. There are nine Toulouse originals, two traditional spirituals, and a contemporary arrangement by English guitar great, the late Davy Graham. There's also a subtle little gem that Engelhardt cut live on the UCLA campus in 1978. Some of this material will be featured at the Coach House show.
"Perpendicular Worlds" was produced by TEA, the collaboration between producers Phil Bunch and Franck Balloffet, and includes performances by rock-jazz keyboard legend, Brian Auger. "Phil and Franck were meticulous in every detail, pushing me to the edge of my artistic and emotional limits in the studio," Engelhardt confesses. "Working with them was a huge challenge, but in the end the results speak for themselves!"
Not to be outdone, the producers respond, "It was refreshing to record Toulouse, playing live in the studio 'like ringin' a bell,' with no MIDI craziness and plug-in tomfoolery. He's got a unique vision and style which need no studio trickery to bring out. Toulouse's playing is genuine and true to the roots of the best blazing American acoustic guitarists."
Noted record producer Denny Bruce, formerly a Takoma Records co-owner, who also produced and managed Leo Kottke and John Fahey, has written the liner notes for Engelhardt's new compilation.
Los Angeles music journalist and author Harvey Kubernik sums it up: "When you see and experience the guitar artistry of Toulouse Engelhardt, you immediately become aware that the person in front of you has been a working professional since 1973. In 2009 he is now going into sonic places with his fingers on the fretboard where few in the universe visit."
"Guitar genius Toulouse Engelhardt is on the loose again!" - www.latimes.com
"One of my all-time favorite guitarists!" - David Lindley
"The New Guitar God!" - L.A. Weekly
