Customer Reviews

Handful of Riffs

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Eddie Lang was the greatest jazz guitarist prior to Django Reinhart(many feel Woody Allen's movie "Sweet & Lowdown" was a mock bio on him, being played by Sean Penn!), and in this CD compilation one gets a good idea of Lang's talents, this CD features him mostly playing as a sideman, however Lang's solos are always great. If you want his solos and his groups as a leader buy "Pioneers Of The Jazz Gritar"

This CD got a great sample of the guitar virtuoso Eddie Lang, I heard one of the tracks of this CD on the radio and I fell in love with it. I assure you that you won't be disapponted, and if you think that only black people were the best jazz musicians at that time, this CD will tell you that also there were white virtuosos that could speak to your soul with their music.
Best track: Add a little wiggle.

this is my first eddie lang album and i must say that he is one of the best guitarists that ever lived. this album is chock full of great tunes you'll find yourself humming to before you even remember the name of the song. if i could describe it in five words those words would be "you should buy this album"

It's incredible to see what Eddie Lang can do with the simplest arrangements and the unique sound of his guitar. One would think that a plectrum guitarist playing alone or with a bare minimum accompaniment has little chance to be interesting unless he fills all the space with complex chord solos, but this album is the proof that it isn't so. I don't know how he does, but somehow he manages to create such powerful feelings, and still it looks like he is just having fun and not doing anything particular.

This album possesses a warmth and an elegance that just can't be found anywhere else, and that above all seem completely extraneous to our modern times. I should warn you: the need for that warmth and elegance can become almost physical, and from time to time you may find yourself wanting to listen to this cd, with a feeling very similar to the craving for sugar.

A very good collection of early guitarist Eddie Lang's work. The standouts are the tracks with Lonnie Johnson; it makes one wish there were more in this anthology. The music, of course, sounds quite dated (it is the late 20's/early 30's, after all), but works as a time capsule of what jazz sounded like before the Swing Era. The tracks give a good cross section of artists that Lang performed with (King Oliver, Hoagy Carmichael, et al).

Eddie Lang was a consummate artist with a genial personality, which uncommon disposition made him one of the most sought-after guitar players in the late twenties/early thirties. This compilation brings together eleven solo recordings, three duets with Lonnie Johnson, the two Gin Bottle Four sides with King Oliver, and five of the six sides recorded by a studio group under his own name.

His playing was by no means confined to jazz pieces, as witness his transposition of Rachmaninoff's Prelude Opus 3, No 2. It sparkled with variety, and his technique was superb; just compare the cleanness of his fingering with the extraneous noises produced by the much-acclaimed Segovia! His collaborations with Lonnie Johnson produced minor masterpieces, and the Oliver sides with Lang's hypnotic single-string accompaniment to the great cornetist, and Hoagy Carmichael's scat vocals, deserve to be better known.

The band sides generate a tremendous drive and show just what the best musicians could achieve in the recording studios, given their head. Ironically, the last two were recorded on the eve of the Great Depression, after which sadly the ability to record sides like these was curtailed.