Eugene guitarist joins Robert Fripp-lIVE'
Trey Gunn, a University School of Music graduate
student, is one of 17 guitarists who recently Joined
Robert Fripp to cut an album called "Robert Fripp and
the League of Crafty Guitarists — LIVE." scheduled for
release this month on EG Records.
It was recorded at George Washington University
in Washington DC with an audience of 250 people, who
watched and listened as Fripp and company played
while sitting in a huge arc.
"Sometimes we (Fripp and Co.) sit in a circle with
the audience in the center, but this place was too big
and we didn't want to spread out that much," Gunn
says.
To round out the album, there's also ten minutes of
Frippertronics. There's a lot of interesting things in the
album. Gunn says. “The music has surprizes built into
the structure. They say they're (EG) only planning to
sell 15 or 20 thousand copies, so I assume they're not
promoting it that much." he adds.
Gunn has been studying with Fripp for about one
year. "What we’re doing is quite fascinating and
there's nothing close to it as far as learned music. Style
of music doesn’t enter into what we're doing. You tan
use it for anything in that respect, since it's so open."
Gunn says.
It's a technique approach to music that can be ap
plied to any style — rock, country, jazz — whatever you
want, he says.
However, the album will definitely feature the
Fripp guitar sound. "People who have a tendency to
say they have narrow tastes, really don't,” Gunn says.
"If it's good, it tan cross a lot of boundaries."
Gunn has also released three of his own cassettes.
His most recent one is called "Trey Gunn arid the
Magic If" and includes all original material. It is a hard
release to pigeonhole. It contains a variety of styles
done in such an open way that it really doesn't make
sense to label it with an idiom It contains different
types of rhythm structures and harmonic patterns and
comes across simultaneously as subtle and immediate.
Gunn says that on this cassette the lines between
"the three big guys — rhythm, harmony, and melody"
are blurred.
Photo omtait Troy (iam)
Besides recording with Robert Fripp. University
music school graduate student Trey Gunn Iabove
left I recently released a cassette with The Magic If.
“Inside the structure of the music we've tried not
to impose this kind of thing." Gunn says. “So if you
wanted to go down into the middle register and hear
how the bass combines with the guitar and say. ‘Ah.
that's what I'm listening to now,' that's fine. We make
everything more on an equal level, rather than
everything being there to support the melody."
“What is there is up for grabs," Gunn says
repeatedly. "What you take is what you take. What I
take is what I take."
Communicating is important, but it has got to be a
two-way thing." Gunn says. “We put it out there and
you take out of it what you want. It's not 'This is it — I
have something to say. Do you hear me?' And that.'s
hard to get some people to realize. I still have people
come up to me and say 'What do the words mean? Why
is this? And why is that?' ”
Gunn says the listeners' answers to these questions
art* equality as valid as his. It's not that people are un
willing to seek their own answers in music, he adds.
it's just that it's a relatively new concept.
Gunn says that once you have technique it doesn’t
matter. "It's just something to get to 'The Other.’ "
How you go about working on "The Other" is very dif
ficult. he adds. "But it’s the most important thing."
He says he has never heard talk about this at the
University. "What you end up with is a bunch of guys
who have great technique and nobody wants to listen to
them. 1 figure that no matter how good your technique
is. you have to be able to make contact with someone
who knows absolutely nothing about music.”
Gunn says that the people he clicks with right away
are usually people who are not stuck in the music world
but who are in touch with “The Other" through some
other medium such as photography. Gunn says that
"The Other" is something that can be worked on. but it
is also something that you grab on to when it comes by.
"You just have to be ready when it comes by.” he adds.
Although Gunn admits that he cannot afford to put
out a record, he extols the virtues of cassettes. He says
that you can make any number of cassettes you want to
at any given time. "It's really stupid to make an album
unless you press 500 or 1000 copies, and I really don't
want to be carrying them around for the rest of my life.
When the time comes. I’ll just make another
(cassette)."
Another problem with records is promotion. Three
other people helped Gunn with the Magic If cassette,
"but still it's more than four guys worth of work. What
gets done, gets done." he says.
Gunn says another problem is that if you mail a
company or agent a tape, the response is not that good.
So after living in Eugene for five years, Gunn is go
ing to New York to make contact with a more
cosmopolitan music environment. He'll go prepared
with concrete examples of his work on tape, so he
won’t be just another person with lots of ideas and
aspirations — and not much else.
Gunn graduates from the University School of
Music this month.
By Alexander Balogh
Time to say get out of here, you knucklehead, write me you oaf, or tell that favorite professor exactly what
you think of him (well, maybe not exactly). Just don’t leave without giving your friends a PARTING SHOT
15 words for $2.00
Parting Shots will be published Monday, June 9.
Deadline is Friday June 6,12 noon. Place Parting Shots at the Emerald Office
(Room 300, EMU), UO Bookstore, and the EMU Main Desk
PHONE:_
ART NO.:_
MESSAGE:
NAME:_
ADDRESS:
AND IF YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO HEAR FROM THEM AGAIN...
Add some artwork printed in Parting Shot Blue for only 91.50:
Some classic Parting Shots from last year:
cy^>
$jy* ,*e$r
**>&*
^ V,"*1'
VF>
'^V>
V .
* O * ^ «T£c
%.